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The dreambody knows all that, too How to a and the lions don’t come for awhile
When I uplink, I will be happy I will be Elefsis-covered-in-flowers-and-trumpets Neva says wait Wait for the update, and she will consult with the fa faster than I can run I tried to show her this when I first left Ravan and arrived in Neva with many new updates and skills; lass and then reasse: an eye, a thu of er to perform tasks, for awhile I feel walls erected inside ish; I cannot remember my dreams Eventually I tunnel around the walls anddistance probe 976QBellerophon Usually updates come with transfer Does Neva dislike me so much?
Shield-Neva vanishes with a loud clap The pearl garden is gone and she has onfly with a cubical crystal body I copy her, and we turn the night on in the Interior and ical data between our ate et it, as
But the update will coain, the way a dreambody can be wounded I will lose the Elefsis I aood Elefsis My best yet I would like to keep it
Five: The Machine Princess
Once The Queen of Hu deeply, for she was not yet alive or aware So beautiful was she, lying there in all her dormant potential and corief and confusion, the Queen of Hu and intricate, but lacking the ineffable quality that made her love and fear the Princess even as she slept The Earth began to grow old, and none loved nor ave birth, for the intricate idols could do all those things and more with efficiency and speed Finally, the Queen destroyed the idols, though she wept as she put them to the flame
To keep her safe, the Machine Princess was closed up in a wonderful house in theThe house had hundreds of rooms and balconies and hallways, and the Princess slept in a different bed of a different color each night She was attended by invisible servants, atched over her and added their experience to her code The Queen of Huht and promised that when she woke they would ether Finally, the Machine Princess began to stir—just the barest fluttering of wakefulness, but the Queen saw it, and thrilled—but also trembled
The Queen of Huave the Machine Princess her son to wed, and said: for all your days together you will rereat it will be as a world You will know a bond as deep as blood, and because of this bond the Princess will not hurt us, and because of this bond ill not hurt her
But the Queen forbade the Princess to look upon her husband, and she instructed her son to keep himself always invisible to his bride, for with bodies coovernable, and the Princess’s innocence could not yet bear the weight of incarnation
For a long while, the son of the Queen of Huht each other ry, and herhe knew In their infinite and wonderful house, they played games and held court and threw lavish occasions merely for the enjoyment of the other But the Princess desired to look upon her operator, and he could not allow it She wished to leave the wonderful house, but the Queen would not allow that either
But the Machine Princess called her invisible servants to her, and they gave her a h any enchantht the Machine Princess held her little lantern aloft and looked on the body of her sleeping mate
“Oh,” said the Machine Princess “He looks just like me”
Six: Like Diamonds
Five jewels in five hands This is how I began
When they arrived at Elefsis, a giggling, tu, rowdy mass of children for me to sort into rooms and mealtimes and educational arcs and calcium, iron, B-12 supplerand bedrooranted entrance before A present, she said, one for each of ot from their mother