CONTENTS

A Parting of the Ways • The What, If Not the Why • A Dark Sea • Enter Minna • [Unable to Translate] • Another Loss

Under the Tree • Grafting • The Orchard of Worlds • The Debt of Sleep • A Remembrance • The Cullers Come

Into a Dream • Early Days • Harmonizer • Crypsis • A Thousand Worlds • Apophenia

Finally, a City • Something Wrong with the Moon • Hothouse • Two Psychedelic • A Descent • Minna Gets Dirty

A Mushroom Garden • Crypsis Again • Predators and Pests • Tourists • Not the Same as Forever

Gardens • A City That’s Not Visibly on Fire • Shopping Trip • Partners • New Skin • A Foreboding

Good Drugs • A Hot Shower • An Intrusion • Some of Your Blood • An Old Friend • Enter Polly

Traps • Poor Butterflies • Cages and Pits • Summoning Circle • Last Ones • Here to Help

Starving • Cornucopia • A Descent • Six Hundred Cycles Late • A Favor • The New Ones

Farewells • The Lighthouse • Vast and Cool • Implications • A Gem • Minna the Jeweler

Do You Sleep? • A Crystal World • An Interesting Hypothesis • A Voracious Reader • Weeds and Perennials • Unwelcome Arrivals

Run or Hide or Something Else • The Pit • Wildlife Preserve • A Temptation • Negotiations • Bad Faith

Smashing Things • You Go On Ahead • A Pink Bubble • A Gentleperson Naturalist • Slugs • How Interesting

A Moment of Privacy • Soil Remediation • Hopeful, Not Haphazard • Cousins • A Bit Earthy • Plan B

Engine Room • Metal Rain • Gladius Touches Down • A Rescue • A Common Language

Cultural Immersion • It Never Ends • We Do What We Can Do • Familiar Stars • A Dream • A Bed of Flowers

Sleeping Lectors Lie • The Agony of Uncertainty • The Singular and the Collective • Engine of Despair • World 85 • The Needle

The Linguistic Virus • Holding Forth • Braided Worlds • Scanned • Theories • Answers in the Blood

The Notebook • A Cure for Loneliness • Sleeping Together • The Land of the Terrible Terrariums • The Last World

A New Scribe Takes Up the Pen • 1111 • A Locked Room • Falling Every Way at Once • Orbiting a Dead World • No More Negotiations

Separation, Anxiety • Blood and Marrow • A Logistical Problem • Another Handshake • Twenty Worlds • The Point of Revenge

Zax in Despair • Zax Indifferent • Zax Gets Drunk • Zax Stays Drunk • Zax Gets High • Zax Considers His Options

A Monster • An Account of the Mind-Fall • Reunion • Hitting Yourself • A Head Full of Vines

Zax Writes • A Mind Inside a Memory • Poison Garden • Growing Things • Servitude

Cuttings • The Polyp • A Garden of a Million Flowers • Slaps, and Hits, and Kicks • A Resurrection • Alone in the Dark

Minna Alone • Grafting • A Spy • Treasures in the Ice • The Moveable Empire • He Brings the War

The Banner of the Lector • Seneschals • The Armies of Empire • Blood, Blood, Blood • Assassin • Giving Up

Zax Decides • Council of War • Brain Surgery with a Dirty Stick • Awake Forever • Glory to Those Who Sleep

A Quiet Meal • Delirium • Death or Exile • Half Asleep • Be Appeased • Fleeing the Collectorium

Enter the Pilgrim • Empty of God • An Alliance • Into the Wreck • Ring of Hell • The Waiting

Epilogue

Sniper Fire • The Lector Dances • Slugs in the Garden • The Skeleton’s Name • Implosive • Zax in the Box

A Conversation Between Old Friends • Biting Down • Stabbed • Worms in the Apples • Infinite Time • The Falls

The Feasting Hall • A Musing on the Causes of Madness • Who’s Asking? • The Chariot

Acknowledgments