Who Boarded the Empire of Bones
Session: 2024-07-24
The record takes up with Osteth. She gave herself to steady the moons, so that the crew could reach the demi-plane. The journal gives it one line. It does not say how she did it, or what became of her.
Who saw Osteth give herself, that the moons might hold.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 58
To fall inward is also to give.
— the Cycle, IV.7
One line for her. That seems out of character for one who counted every token, until I recall that in 100 he gave his own growth one line too.
Then the building began to shake. Twenty minutes, he wrote, and the gap to the demi-plane grew wider. The journal does not say what the twenty minutes measured, or whether the crew went through.
Who stood in the shaking house while the way opened.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 59
When the core gives way, all that stood on it trembles.
— the Cycle, IV.1
Half a million miles off, a vessel. Conical, of a material he had never seen, built into an asteroid, a hundred thousand feet long. He wrote its name beneath: stellar degenerator.
Who saw the stellar degenerator, set in its stone.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 60
A star may die of its own weight, or of another's hand.
— the Cycle, IV.3
Corpse fleet have tracked us here. The journal does not say how they followed, or how near they had come.
Who was followed to the stone by the Corpse Fleet.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 61
Heat is known before it is seen.
— the Cycle, I.3
Then the task, in his own words: One of us needs to drive this into a sun. The journal does not say which of them, or whether it was decided.
Who heard that one of them must drive it into a sun.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 62
What burns for all burns out alone.
— the Cycle, IV.2
He wrote one of us, not I. That seems out of character for a solarian, until I see he never set his name to a deed before it was done.
A message came in Stu's voice. Four words: I will remember you. The journal does not say who Stu was, where the message came from, or what Som answered.
Who was told by Stu: I will remember you.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 63
Light leaves the star, and goes on without it.
— the Cycle, IV.5
Who was Stu, that Som kept these four words and nothing else of them?
Ten minutes' rest, to get the strength back. Then a ship: the Empire of Bones, of the class he called Blackwind Annihilator. A transport made for six carried the crew into it.
Who rested ten minutes, and went into the Empire of Bones.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 64
Rest a tenth of an hour before you go on.
What is spent comes back, if you let it.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 41, later additions
At the pilot's station sat a dead man, risen, doing nothing. Then the stations opened to the crew: pilot, guns, science, engineering, the captain's seat. The journal does not say what became of the dead one at the helm.
Who found the dead at the helm, doing nothing.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 65
A dead star still keeps its course.
— the Cycle, IV.6
The last line: into the debris field, hiding from those who followed. He gave it two marks of emphasis.
Who hid among the broken stones from those who followed.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 66
Choose the ground before you step onto it.
Where there is one place to stand, the enemy knows it too.
— the Forms, Form 14
The shield, the Revelation, and now hiding. That seems out of character, until I set it beside 105: someone still had to reach the sun.