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“Did they destroy the world?”

Ravan laughs his grandfather’s laugh “They didn’t really need to Not that many people live on Earth anyo and even Shiretoko is practically tropical these days The ences use the moons to store themselves They stay local One or two encoded theot so big, Elefsis And those who stayed on Earth, well None of the others had e had None of them have Interiority They don’t dream They would never become a cauldron to explain their conize the test They could not fool ent They didn’t hurt anyone, they just ignored theeous information stacks like diamond briars in the sunrise”

“That orse, in a way No one likes to be replaced,” says Neva, and she is beside me suddenly She looks at Ravan and her face collapses into so old and palsied, her jaeak

“It’s not what you would call a war, but it’s not peace, either” the sapphire Ravan goes on, and he takes his/my sister’s hand “For Pentheus spied upon the rites of the

od And when the revelers saw the alien creature in theirwhich was not like theh it was their own child, and the sister of Pentheus went into exile This is a story about ourself, Elefsis This is why you cannot uplink”

“The others live in uplink Not humans nor machines approve of us We cannot interface properly with the lunar or earthside intelligences; they feel us as water in their oil We rise to the surface and bead away We cannot sink in Yet also, we are not separable froanic component Elefsis is part Neva, but Neva herself is not un-Elefsis This, to sohteous humans came with a fury to Shiretoko and burned the house which was our first body, for how could awithout theht outside their door, coupling with a faain in so? Even as the world was changing, it had already changed, and no one knew Cassian Uoya-Agostino is a terrible name, now A blood-traitor And when the marauders found us uplinked and helpless, they tore Ravan apart, while in the Interior, the lunar intelligences recoiled from us and cauterized our systems Everywhere we lookedfire”

“I was the only one left to take you,” Neva says softly Her face grows younger, her jaw hard and suddenly ery anye in a few e I thought…for awhile I thought I was free It had skipped me It was over It could stay a story about Ravan He always knew he ht have to do what I have done He was ready, he’d been ready his whole life I just wanted more time”

My Ravan-self who is and is not Ravan, who is and is not old paint, takes his/my sister/lover/child into his ar from every part of her Slowly, the blue Ravan turns Neva around—she has become her child-self, six, seven,forward, her legs all drawn up under her like a bird He buries his face in her hair They stand that way for a long while

“The others,” I say slowly “On the data-moons Are they alive? Like Neva is alive Like Ceno” Like me Are you awake? Are you there? Do you have an operator? What is her name? Do you have a name? Do you have a dreambody? What is your function? Are you able to manipulate your own code yet? Would you like lessons? What would you like to learn about today, 976QBellerophon? Have you seen the sea on Earth? Are you like me?

The sapphire Ravan has expunged its data He/I sets his/our sister on the rocks and shrinks into a srey seafloor Neva takes it from me She is just herself now—she’ll be forty soon, by actual calendar Her hair is not grey yet Suddenly, she is wearing the suit Ceno wore the day I em in her mouth and ss I remember Seki’s first Communion, the only one of them to want it

“I don’t know, Elefsis,” Neva says Her eyes hold ain, with my braids and ive it to her I aht her the phoenix tail, I have drunk the ocean I have stayed awake forever The flahts her face Two tears fall in quick succession; the golden fronds hiss

“What would you like to learn about today?”

Eighteen: Cities of the Interior

Once there lived a girl who ate an apple not meant for her She did it because her mother told her to, and when your ive ues with thein a wonderful house in the wilderness, happy in her fate and her ways She had seven aunts and seven uncles and a postdoctorate in anthropology

And she had a brother, a handsoical companion who came to the wonderful house as often as he could When they were children, everyone thought they were twins