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[Assistant] Judging by its size, I'd say it's been there for 200 years at least.


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[Assistant] I scowled, brushing off the shards of bark and my bruised pride.


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[Assistant] That coldness, that aloofness that had been there in the wake of Moore's anger and rejection, it had warmed.


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[Assistant] Either from more choosing to sit next to him at dinner last night, a silent offer of forgiveness, or simply needing time to recover from it.


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[Assistant] Even if I could have sworn some kernel of guilt had flickered every time Azrael looked at more.


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[Assistant] What Cassian had thought of it, of his own anger toward Asriel. He'd been all smiles and lewd comments. Glad all was back to normal, for now at least. My cheeks burned as I scaled the boulder he perched on.


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[Assistant] The drop, at least 15 feet to the forest floor below.


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[Assistant] The lake, a sparkling sprawl peeking through the pine trees, including the tree I'd collided with face first. My latest attempt to leap off the boulder and simply sail to the lake.


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[Assistant] I braced my hands on my hips, examining the drop, the trees, the lake beyond. What did I do wrong?


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[Assistant] Asriel, who had been sharpening truth teller, in his lap, flicked his hazel eyes up to me. Aside from the tree.


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[Assistant] The Shadow Singer had a sense of humor, dry and quiet, but alone together.


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[Assistant] It came out far more often than it did amongst our group.


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[Assistant] I spent the past two days either poring over ancient volumes for any hint on repairing the wall to hand over to Amron and Nesta, who continued to silently, invisibly build and mend walls within their minds.


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[Assistant] ...are debating with Rise and the others about how to reply to the volley of letters now being exchanged with the other High Lords regarding where the meeting would take place.


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[Assistant] Lucian had indeed given us an initial location, and several more when those were struck down. But that was to be expected, Lucian had said, as if he'd arranged such things countless times. Ryus had only nodded in agreement and approval. And when I wasn't doing that?


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[Assistant] I was combing through more books. Any and all clotho could find me. All regarding the Ouroboros. How to master it. The mirror was notorious.


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[Assistant] Every known philosopher had ruminated on it. Some had dared to face it and gone mad. Some had approached and run away in terror.


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[Assistant] I could not find in account of anyone who had mastered it.


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[Assistant] Faced what lurked within and walked away with the mirror in their possession.


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[Assistant] Save for the weaver in the wood, who certainly seemed insane enough. Perhaps thanks to the mirror she'd love so dearly.


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[Assistant] Or perhaps whatever evil lurked in her had tainted the mirror too. Some of the philosophers had suggested as much. Though they hadn't known her name. Only that a dark queen had once possessed it. Cherished it.


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[Assistant] Spied on the world with it. And used it to hunt down beautiful young maidens to keep her eternally young.


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[Assistant] I suppose Kier's family owning the Ouroboros for millennia suggested the success rate of walking away was low. It was not heartening.


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[Assistant] Not when all the texts agreed on one thing. There was no way around it. No loophole.


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[Assistant] Facing the terror within, that was the only route to claim it.


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[Assistant] Which meant I perhaps had to consider alternatives. Other ways to entice the bone carver to join us. When I found a moment.


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[Assistant] Azrael sheathed his legendary fighting knife and examined the wings I'd spread wide.


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[Assistant] You're trying to steer with your arms. The muscles are in the wings themselves and in your back. Your arms are unnecessary. They're more for balancing than anything. And even that's mostly a mental comfort. It was more words than I'd ever heard from him. He lifted a brow at my gaping and I shut my mouth. I frowned out the drop ahead. Again, I grumbled, a soft laugh.


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[Assistant] We can find a lower ledge to jump from, if you want. I cringed. You said this was low.


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[Assistant] Azrael leaned back on his hands and waited. Patient. Cool.


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[Assistant] But I felt the bark tear into my palms, the thud of my knees into its rough side.


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[Assistant] You are mortal. He said quietly. You're very hard to break. A pause. That's what I told myself. Hard to break, I said glumly. But it still hurts. Tell that to the tree.


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[Assistant] I have to laugh. I know the drop isn't far, and I know it won't kill me. Can you just... push me?


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[Assistant] Where was that initial leap of utter faith? That initial lurch into motion that had my limbs locking up? No. A simple answer. I still hesitated. Useless. This fear.


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[Assistant] I'd face down the ator, falling through the sky for a thousand feet.


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[Assistant] And the rage at its memory and what it had done with its miserable life. What more like it might do again? Had me gritting my teeth and sprinting off the boulder.


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[Assistant] I snapped my wings out wide, my back protesting as they caught the wind, but my lower half began to drop. My legs a dead weight as my core yielded.


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[Assistant] The infernal tree rose up before me and I swerved hard to the right. Right into another tree. Wings first.


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[Assistant] The sound of bone and sinew on wood. Then earth hit me before the pain did. So did Azrael's soft curse.


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[Assistant] A small noise came out of me, the stinging of my palms registered first, then my knees, then my back.


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[Assistant] Shit, was all I could say as Asriel knelt before me. Y'all right. Just stunned. The world was still reordering itself.


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[Assistant] You banked well, he offered, into another tree. Beware of your surroundings is half a-flying.


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[Assistant] You said that already, I snapped. He had. A dozen times just this morning.


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[Assistant] Azro only sat on his heels and offered me a hand up. My flesh burned as I gripped his fingers. A mortifying number of pine needles and splinters tumbling off of me.


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[Assistant] My back throbbed enough that I lowered my wings, not caring if they dragged in the dirt as Azrael led me toward the lake edge.


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[Assistant] In the blinding sun off the turquoise water, his shadows were gone. His face stark and clear, more human than I had ever seen him.


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[Assistant] There's no chance I'll be able to fly in the legions. Is there? I asked.


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[Assistant] Kneeling beside him as he tended to my skinned palms with expert care and gentleness.


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[Assistant] The sun was brutal against his scars, hiding not one twisted, rippling splotch. Likely not, he said. My chest hollowed out at that, but it doesn't hurt to practice until the last possible moment. You never know when any measure of training may be useful.


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[Assistant] I winced as he fished out a large splinter from my palm, then washed it clean. It was very hard for me to learn how to fly, he said. I didn't dare respond.


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[Assistant] Most Illyrians learn as toddlers, but I, I assume Reisen told you of the particulars of my early childhood. I nodded. He finished the one hand and started on the other. Because I was so old, I had a fear of flying.


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[Assistant] And I did not trust my instincts. It was, uh, an embarrassment to be taught so late. Not just to me, but to all in the war camp once I arrived. But I learned, often going off by myself,


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[Assistant] Cassian, of course, found me first, mocked me, beat me to hell, then offered to train me. But Rise was there the next day. They taught me how to fly.


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[Assistant] He finished my other hand and sat on the shore, stones murmuring as they shifted beneath him.


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[Assistant] I sat beside him, bracing my sore palm space up on my knees, letting my wings sag behind me. Because it was such an effort.


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[Assistant] A few years after the war, Rise brought me back a story.


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[Assistant] It was a gift, a story, for me, he. He went to see Miriam and Drakon in their new home. The visit's so secret, even we hadn't known it was happening until he returned. We knew their people hadn't drowned in the sea, as everyone believed, as they wanted people to believe. You see, when Miriam freed her people from the Queen of the Black Land, she led all of them.


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[Assistant] Nearly 50,000 of them across the desert. All the way to the shores of the Erythrean Sea. Drakon's aerial legion providing cover.


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[Assistant] And unlike us, their army and society allow women to lead, the fight to rule. All of them are gifted with mighty magic of wind and air.


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[Assistant] When they beheld the army charging after them, they knew their own force was too small to face them. So they cleaved the sea itself.


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[Assistant] Made a path through the water all the way through the channel, and ordered the humans to run. They did.


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[Assistant] But Miriam insisted on remaining behind until every last one of her people had crossed. Not one human would she leave behind, not one. They were about halfway through the crossing when the army reached them. The Seraphim were spent, their magic could barely hold the sea passage, and Drakon knew that if they held it any longer,


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[Assistant] That army would make it across and butcher the humans on the other side.


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[Assistant] The seraphim fought off the vanguard on the floor of the sea. It was bloody and brutal and chaotic.


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[Assistant] But a young seraphim cartographer named Nefel saw Miriam go down.


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[Assistant] Nefel's lover was one of Drakon's generals, and it was she who realized Miriam and Nefel were missing.


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[Assistant] Dracan was frantic, but their magic was spent, and no force in the world could hold back the sea as it barreled down, and no one could reach his mate in time. But Nethel did. Nethel, you see, was a cartographer, because she'd been rejected from the Legion's fighting ranks. Her wings were too small.


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[Assistant] The right one somewhat malformed. She was slight. Short enough that she'd be a dangerous gap in the front lines when they fought shield to shield.


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[Assistant] Drakon had let her try out for the Legion as a courtesy to her lover, but Nafel failed.


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[Assistant] She could barely carry the Seraphim shield, and her smaller wings hadn't been strong enough to keep up with the others.


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[Assistant] So she had made herself invaluable as a cartographer during the war.


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[Assistant] Helping Drakon and her lover find the geographical advantages in their battles.


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[Assistant] She became Miriam's dearest friend during those long months as well. And that day on the seafloor, the fell remembered that her friend had been in the back of the line. She returned for her, even as all others fled for the distant shore. She found Miriam skewered on the Queen's spear, bleeding out.


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[Assistant] The seawall started to come down on the opposite shore, hailing the approaching army first, racing toward them. Miriam told Nefel to save herself, but Nefel would not abandon her friend. She picked her up and flew. Azrael's voice was soft with awe. When Ryze spoke to Drakon about it years later, he still didn't have words to describe what happened. It defied all logic, all training. Nefel,


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[Assistant] Who had never been strong enough to hold a seraphim shield. Carried Miriam. Tripled the weight. And more than that, she flew.


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[Assistant] The sea was crashing down upon them, but Nafel flew like the best of Seraphim warriors.


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[Assistant] The seafloor was a labyrinth of jagged rocks too, too narrow for the seraphim to fly through.


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[Assistant] They tried during their escape and crashed into them, but Nathaniel, with her smaller wings, had they been one inch wider, she would not have fit. And more than that, Nathaniel soared through them.


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[Assistant] Miriam dying in her arms as fast and skilled as the greatest of the Seraphim, Nethel, who had been passed over, who had been forgotten. She all raised death itself.


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[Assistant] There's not a foot of room between her and the water on either side of her when she shot up from the seafloor. Not half of that rising up at her feet.


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[Assistant] And yet her two small wingspan, that deformed wing, they did not fail her. Not once. Not for one wing beat. My eyes burned. She made it.


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[Assistant] Suffice to say her lover made Nethel her wife that night. And Miriam, well, she's alive today because of Nethel.


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[Assistant] Azrael picked up a flat white stone and turned it over in his hands. Ryze told me the story of when he returned.


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[Assistant] Since then, we have privately adapted the NFL philosophy with our own armies. I raised a brow. Azrael shrugged. We.


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[Assistant] Rise, Cass and I will occasionally remind each other that we, what we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength.


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[Assistant] Apparently every year in their kingdom, they have the Nafel run to honor her flight. On dry land, but...


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[Assistant] She and her wife crown a new victor every year, commemoration of what happened that day.


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[Assistant] He chucked the stone backing amongst its brethren on the shore, the sound clattering over the water.


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[Assistant] So we'll train Phyra. Until the last possible day.


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[Assistant] Because we never know if just one extra hour will make the difference. I wait as words, a fell story. I rose to my feet and spread my wings. And let's try again.


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[Assistant] I groaned and limped as I, as I limped into our bedroom that night to find Raya sitting at the desk, poring over more books. I warned you that Ezreal's a hard bastard, he said without looking at me.


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[Assistant] He lifted a hand and water gurgled in the adjacent bathing room.


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[Assistant] I grumbled a thank you and trudged toward it, gritting my teeth against the agony in my back, my thighs, my bones. Every part hurt. Since the muscles needed to reform around the wings, I had to carry them too.


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[Assistant] They're scraping along the wood and carpet and wood again. It was the only sound beyond my weary feet.


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[Assistant] I beheld a steaming bath that would require some balancing to get into and whimpered.


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[Assistant] Even removing my clothes would entail using muscles that had nearly given out.


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[Assistant] A chair scraped in the bedroom, followed by cats off feet, then...


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[Assistant] I'm sure you already know this, but you need to actually climb into the bath to get clean. Not stare at it.


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[Assistant] I didn't have the strength to even glare at him, and I managed all of one stumbling, stiff step toward the water when he caught me.


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[Assistant] My clothes vanished, presumably to the laundry downstairs and Rice swept me into his arms, lowering my naked body into the water.


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[Assistant] With the wings, the fit was tight and I groaned from deep in my throat at the glorious heat.


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[Assistant] And didn't bother to do anything other than lean my head against the back of the tub.


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[Assistant] I'll be right back, he said and left the bathroom in the bedroom itself.


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[Assistant] By the time he returned I'd only knew I'd fallen asleep thanks to the hand he put on my shoulder. Oh. He said.


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[Assistant] But lifted me himself. Toweled me off and led me to the bed.


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[Assistant] He lay me down belly first, and I noted the oils and balms he'd set there, the faint odor of rosemary and something I was too tired to notice but smelled lovely, floating to me.


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[Assistant] His hands gleamed as he applied generous amounts to his palms and then his hands were on me.


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[Assistant] My groan was about as undignified as they came as he needed the aching muscles in my back.


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[Assistant] The sore areas draw rather pathetic sounding whimpers, but he rubbed them gently until the tension was a dull ache rather than sharp, blinding pain.


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[Assistant] And then he started out my wings, relief and ecstasy as the muscles eased in those sensitive areas were lovingly, tauntingly grazed over.


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[Assistant] My toes curled and just as he reached the sensitive spot that had my stomach clenching, his hands slipped to my calves. He began a slow progression.


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[Assistant] Higher and higher up my thighs, teasing strokes between them that left me panting through my nose. Rising up until he got to my backside, where his massaging was equally professional and sinful. And then up, up to my lower back, to my wings. His touch turned different.


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[Assistant] Exploring. Broad strokes and featherlight ones. Arches and swirls and direct searing lines. My core heated, turning molten.


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[Assistant] And I bit down on my lip as he lightly scraped a fingernail so, so close to that inner sensitive spot.


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[Assistant] Too bad you're so sore from training. Raya's mused, making idol lazy circles.


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[Assistant] I could only manage a garbled strand of words that were both plea and insult.


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[Assistant] He leaned in his breath warming the space of skin between my wings. Did I ever tell you that you have the dirtiest mouth I've ever heard? I muttered words that only offered more proof of that claim. He chuckled and skimmed the edge of that sensitive spot, right as his other hand slid between my legs.


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[Assistant] Brazenly, I lifted my hips in silent demand.


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[Assistant] But he just circled with a finger, as lazy as the strokes along my wing. He clisped, kissed my spine. How shall I make love to you tonight, Fyra darling?


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[Assistant] I writhe, rubbing against the folds of the blankets beneath me, desperate for any sort of friction as he dangled me over the edge. So impatient.


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[Assistant] He purred, and that finger glided toward me.


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[Assistant] I moaned, the sensation too much, too consuming, with his hand between my legs, and the other stroking closer and closer to that spot on my wing, a predator circling prey.


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[Assistant] Will it ever stop? He mused. More to himself than me as another finger joined the one sliding in and out of me with taunting, indolent strokes. Wanting you. Every hour, every breath. I don't think I could stand a thousand years of this. My hips moved with him, driving him deeper.


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[Assistant] Think of how my protu- productivity will plummet.


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[Assistant] I growled something at him that was likely not very romantic, and he chuckled.


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[Assistant] Slipping out both fingers, I made a little whining noise of protest. Until his mouth replaced where his fingers had been. His hands gripping as my hips to raise me up.


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[Assistant] To lend him better access as he feasted on me.


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[Assistant] I groaned, the sound muffled by the pillow, and he only delved deeper, taunting and teasing with every stroke. The low moan broke from me, my hips rolling.


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[Assistant] Rise's grip on them tightened, holding me still for his ministrations.


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[Assistant] Hmm, was all he said. A rumble of the sound against me. I panted, hands fisting in the sheets.


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[Assistant] His hands drifted from my hips at last, and I again breathed his name in thanks and relief and anticipation of him at last giving me what I wanted.


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[Assistant] But his mouth closed around the bundle of nerves at the apex of my thighs, while his hand...


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[Assistant] He went right to that damn spot at the inner edge of my left wing and stroked lightly.


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[Assistant] My climax tore through me with a hoarse cry, sending me soaring out of my body, and when the shuddering ripples in starlight faded, a bone-weary exhaustion settled over me, permanent and unending, as the mating bond between us. Rise curled into bed behind me, tucking my wings in so he could fold me against him.


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[Assistant] That was a fun experiment. He murmured into my ear.


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[Assistant] I could feel him against my backside, hard and ready, but when I made to reach for him, Ryze's arms only tightened around me. Sleep, Vyra, he told me.


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[Assistant] So I laid a hand on his forearm, savoring the cordage strength beneath and nestled my head back into his chest.


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[Assistant] I wish I had days to spend with you, like this. I managed to say as my eyelids drooped, just me and you. We will. He kissed my hair. We will.


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[Assistant] And that, my friends, was the end of chapter 29.


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[Assistant] Okay, there's a little bit of spice. We're getting back into a little bit of spice. We finally, Sarah was sitting there like, okay, okay, you guys have got enough lore. You know, a lot of lore, a lot of sitting around talking about politics and stuff like that. Okay, here's a little spice. She's, she's tingling a little spice at us right there.


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[Assistant] But we know, oh we all know, even though I haven't read the books, I know there's more to come. I know there's more to come and...


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[Assistant] You know, as an innuendo and as a way of saying there is more future endeavors, uh.


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[Assistant] That was cool though, I like that, you know, the whole lead up to Lucian taking care of Elaine, it kind of like...


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[Assistant] It was kind of those things where at the end of the episode they make it seem like it's going to be a bigger thing right now. And right now it started out as a small thing because it was just like in and out. And it actually led into a whole story with Asriel instead of her trading with her wings.


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[Assistant] So we'll see, we'll see if you, you know, leave a comment. Do you guys think Firewall will be able to strengthen up her wings enough to fly with the legions?


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[Assistant] Or she'll even do a, you know, her own little fight herself, even if it's not with the legions. Let me know in the comments. Make sure to stay beautiful.


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[Assistant] Stay hydrated and we will see you in the next chapter.


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[Assistant] Darn, he's just too stubborn! Let's try and think of another way. We should go.


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[Assistant] How much money do you suppose we dropped out there, Tanooki? Guru! I can't keep this secret much longer!


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[Assistant] Things sure are gonna be different around here, bro. But Gal and I will always be forever connected through Buddyfight.


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[Assistant] Yeah, bro. I think they forget it's broadcasting all over the world.


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[Assistant] All is worth missing. Damn it, after all, an Indian isn't born every minute.


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[Assistant] Yes. Yes, it seems we both made a lot of promises.


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[Assistant] Most evenings of the summer, I could hear music coming from my neighbor's house.


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[Assistant] Obviously, Mr. Gatsby enjoyed having parties, and his parties were always big ones.


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[Assistant] Man and girls filled his huge house in beautiful gardens. They walked around slowly and whispered to each other.


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[Assistant] They drank wine and looked at the stars and swam in Gatsby's big swimming pool.


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[Assistant] The people who came to his parties didn't seem to have any work or study and really any worries.


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[Assistant] Sometimes his guests would arrive in the afternoon and swim in the ocean in front of his house.


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[Assistant] I would often watch his guests swimming and lying in the sun on the hot sand or just riding his two boats.


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[Assistant] On the weekends, Gatsby's driver would take his big open car and carry groups of people to and from the city.


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[Assistant] I saw people coming at all times of the day, sometimes before nine in the morning, and often long after midnight.


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[Assistant] His second car and his second driver would go and meet all the trains coming from New York.


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[Assistant] On Mondays, 10 servants and an extra garden helper would work all day to clean and repair the damage from the weekend's parties. Two times every month, Gatsby would have a really big party.


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[Assistant] The servants would cover the trees with colored lights and a dance floor would be built out in the yard.


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[Assistant] Gatsby hired a big group of musicians to play music for dancing.


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[Assistant] The house was filled with wonderful food and dozens of waiters, and the servants would also build a bar full of every kind of wine and other drink.


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[Assistant] His house was always full of excitement before these parties. I could feel the excitement from my house.


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[Assistant] In the evening, the last swimmers would come in from the beach and start dressing upstairs. Every minute many cars came from New York.


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[Assistant] The halls and rooms filled with girls in bright dresses with the newest, strangest styles of hair.


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[Assistant] Servants would carry drinks through the garden outside, and the air would fill with talk and laughter.


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[Assistant] When night came, the lights in Gadsby's house would all turn on.


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[Assistant] The lights became brighter as the night became darker. The musicians became louder and louder.


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[Assistant] Wine glasses became empty and filled and empty again. And laughter became easier and easier.


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[Assistant] The first night that I went to Gatsby's house, I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.


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[Assistant] A servant wearing a pale blue uniform came to my house one day with a surprising letter from his Mr. Gadsby.


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[Assistant] Gatsby, the letter said, would be very happy if I would come to his party that night.


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[Assistant] The letter said that he had seen me many times and that he wanted to meet me.


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[Assistant] Most of the people at his parties were not invited. They just went there.


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[Assistant] They somehow found Gatsby's house, and once they were there, they were introduced to Gatsby by someone who knew him.


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[Assistant] Sometimes they came to the party and left again without ever having met Gatsby.


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[Assistant] I felt nervous among all these people I didn't know, so I walked around looking for Gatsby.


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[Assistant] I asked many guests where he was, but they all stared at me in such a surprised way that I decided to go and sit at the bar.


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[Assistant] The bar was the only place in the garden where a single man could stand without looking strange. I was at the bar for a long time


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[Assistant] Finally, I saw Jordan Baker come out of the house.


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[Assistant] She was interrupted by two girls wearing yellow dresses.


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[Assistant] They stopped next to me at the bottom of the stairs and yelled up to her.


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[Assistant] They were talking about the golf competition the week before. She had lost in the last game.


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[Assistant] Jordan came down the stairs and put her thin arm in mine. We walked around the garden.


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[Assistant] A servant came out carrying wine and we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow dresses and three men.


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[Assistant] The two girls and Jordan whispered together for a while and I talked with them in.


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[Assistant] Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.


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[Assistant] Excitement flowed through all of us hearing this. Gatsby was certainly a mysterious person.


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[Assistant] I heard, said one of the men, that he was a German spy during the war.


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[Assistant] Everyone whispered about Gadsby, but all of the stories were different and nobody had any facts.


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[Assistant] Dinner was now being served, and Jordan and I went to join her group of friends.


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[Assistant] They were sitting around a table on the far side of the garden.


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[Assistant] They were all respectable people from East Egg, and they did not want to join together with the rest of the guests.


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[Assistant] We got up and she told her friends that we were going to find the host, because I was his neighbor and had never met him.


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[Assistant] We looked at the bar first. It was full of people, but Gadsby was not there.


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[Assistant] We looked in the garden, at the pool and in the dining room, but we could not find him.


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[Assistant] Then we walked upstairs and opened an important looking door. Inside was a huge library.


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[Assistant] A fat middle-aged man wearing large round glasses was sitting on a large table in the library. He was staring at the bookshelves. He looked very drunk.


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[Assistant] When we entered, he turned around and looked at us with excitement. What do you think? He asked. Think about what? I asked. He moved his hands toward the bookshelves. About all the books? I thought they were all fake books.


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[Assistant] And that they were here so that people would think this was a full library. But they're real!


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[Assistant] He pulled down a heavy, serious looking book and opened it.


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[Assistant] They have pages and words and everything. Look, let me show you. He then became more serious. Who brought you to this party? he asked us. A woman I met last night brought me here.


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[Assistant] I was drunk last night and I'm drunk tonight. I think I have been drunk for about a week now.


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[Assistant] I thought if I sat in the library I would stop drinking.


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[Assistant] Jordan asked, I don't know yet. I've only been in the library for about an hour. Did I tell you that the books are real? They're You told us.


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[Assistant] A famous singer sang a song and some actors acted a funny play and wine was served in huge glasses. They were bigger than bowls. By midnight the fun was louder and wilder.


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[Assistant] All over the garden people were laughing and drinking. All the happiness seemed so empty.


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[Assistant] About an hour later, I was still with Jordan Baker.


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[Assistant] We sat at a table where a man who was about my age


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[Assistant] And a girl who laughed all the time were sitting. Now I didn't feel alone and was happy. I had drunk three glasses of wine.


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[Assistant] He said politely, Were you in the army during the war? I think we were in the same unit. Were you in the first division?


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[Assistant] The man and I talked for a while about some of the places we had been in the war I learned that he lived in this neighborhood also


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[Assistant] Because he told me that he had just bought an airplane that could land in the water.


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[Assistant] He told me that he was going to try it in the morning.


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[Assistant] Do you want to fly with me tomorrow, young fellow? he asked. I wanted to go and accepted. I was about to ask his name when Jordan said to me,


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[Assistant] I smiled and turned to my new friend. This party is strange for me. I don't even know the host. I haven't met him yet. I live over there.


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[Assistant] I turned around and pointed my hand toward my house. And this man, Gatsby, sent over his servant with an invitation.


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[Assistant] I thought you knew, young fellow. I'm sorry. I suppose I'm not a very good host.


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[Assistant] He smiled at me. His smiles had a quality of comfort in it.


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[Assistant] It was a smile that you may only see four or five times in life.


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[Assistant] His smile seemed to say that the whole world was good and that you were also good.


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[Assistant] His smile understood you, and it believed you.


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[Assistant] His smile disappeared and I looked at Mr. Gadsby for the first time.


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[Assistant] He was a handsome young man, about thirty years old and dressed very well.


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[Assistant] He spoke very politely, and it was a little funny to me. Most men his age were not so polite.


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[Assistant] He spoke as if he was carefully choosing his words.


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[Assistant] Before I could talk to Gadsby Moore, a helper came over and told him that someone in Chicago was calling him on the telephone.


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[Assistant] Excuse me, I will come back later, he politely said. After he left, I turned to Jordan. I wanted to tell her of my surprise. I had expected Gatsby to be quite different. He was so young. I thought he would be older and fatter. Who is he? I asked Jordan. I don't know.


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[Assistant] There was truly something very strange about Gatsby's past life.


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[Assistant] He was so rich and he bought a huge house on Long Island Sound where they threw parties, certainly expensive ones, every few days.


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[Assistant] Most rich people had rich and famous families but nobody knew anything about Gatsby's family. The band began playing some loud music. I looked up and saw Gatsby.


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[Assistant] He was standing alone at the top of the stairs and looking out at all the people. His eyes looked happy.


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[Assistant] I watched him for a long time, but I could not see anything strange about him.


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[Assistant] He seemed different only because he was not drinking wine like his guests were.


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[Assistant] As the guest became wilder, he became more calm and correct. Gatsby's helper suddenly came up to us. Miss Baker? he said.


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[Assistant] Excuse me, but Mr. Gadsby would like to speak to you alone.


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[Assistant] As I waited for the servants to get my hat, the door of the library opened and Jordan and Gatsby came out together. He was speaking excitedly to her. Jordan came over to me and whispered,


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[Assistant] The party was over, and the last of Gatsby's guests were standing all around him.


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[Assistant] I said good night to him and apologized for not finding him earlier in the evening. No apology needed, he said eagerly.


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[Assistant] And don't forget to come over tomorrow at nine. We're going to fly in the seaplane. His helper came up behind him and said, Philadelphia wants you on the phone, sir. I'll come in a minute. Good night, young fellow. Good night.


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[Assistant] He smiled, and I was glad that I was one of the last to leave. It seemed that Gadsby wanted it all the time.


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[Assistant] Reading what I have written so far again, it seems that the three evenings I have described are all that were interesting to me. This is not true.


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[Assistant] When they happened, these nights seemed very common.


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[Assistant] They were the same as many of the events in my busy summer.


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[Assistant] Later I realized just how important these events were. I spent most of my time this summer working. My days were usually about the same.


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[Assistant] I went to work in early morning and worked until the evening.


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[Assistant] I liked the other workers and always ate lunch with them and talked about work and life.


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[Assistant] After work I usually ate dinner and then I went to the library and studied for an hour or two. I learned a lot about money matters that summer.


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[Assistant] After that, I would usually walk to the train station and get on the fast train back to West Egg.


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[Assistant] I did not see Jordan Baker for about a month.


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[Assistant] In the middle of the summer, I saw her again at the Buchanan's house. We began to see each other often.


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[Assistant] I like to go places with her because she was a famous golf player and I felt important when I was with her.


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[Assistant] Many people knew her name and they began to know my name also. After a while, I began to like her.


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[Assistant] I didn't love her, but I wanted to understand her.


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[Assistant] I knew that her cold, scolding face was just a mask.


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[Assistant] Under the mask she was hiding something, and one day I found what it was. One day we went to a party together in the city.


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[Assistant] When we were there, she left a car that she had borrowed from her friend out in the rain with the windows open.


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[Assistant] Because of her mistake, the inside was destroyed. But I later heard her lie about it.


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[Assistant] When I heard her lie, I remembered the story about her that I could not remember the night that I met her at Daisy's house.


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[Assistant] Many people had said that she cheated in her first big golf game.


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[Assistant] The news about her cheating was almost written in the newspapers.


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[Assistant] In sports and in all of life. So she cheated and lied to get what she wanted.


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[Assistant] Her proud and cold face was hiding all these lies.


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[Assistant] Later I realized that she did not like to talk with clever people.


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[Assistant] She felt safer talking with people who would not ask questions about her actions.


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[Assistant] She liked me, perhaps because I did not care that she lied. Women have many reasons to lie in this world. Their life was hard and unfair. I could not be angry about a woman lying. I felt sorry and then I forgot.


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[Assistant] While at the party, we had a strange conversation about driving a car.


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[Assistant] What if those people are also careless? What will you do if you meet a careless person?


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[Assistant] I looked at her closely and for a moment I thought that I loved her.


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[Assistant] I wanted to tell her, but my mind often stopped me from doing what I want to do.


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[Assistant] Before I could love her, I had to end my relationship with my girlfriend in the Midwest. I had been writing letters to her once a week.


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[Assistant] And I had to stop before moving to a different woman or else I would not feel honest. Being honest is very important to me.


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[Assistant] Hearing a noise overhead, I looked up. The grey ones were winging their way southward. I listened to their talking and wondered what they were saying.


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[Assistant] Looking to the mountains around us, I saw that the mysterious artist who comes at night had paid us a visit. I wondered how he could paint so many different colors in one night. Red, wine, yellow and rust.


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[Assistant] My dogs were trotting along in front of us. I smiled at the way their hindquarters shifted to the right. Little Anne would jump and bounce and try to get old Anne to play, but the solemn old boy just jogged along, heedless of everything.


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[Assistant] You know, Papa said, she doesn't even act like a hound. She is bouncing and playing all the time. Why, she acts more like a little pup than a hound.


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[Assistant] Yes I know, I said, I've noticed that myself. But you know one thing, Papa, she's the smartest dog I've ever seen. Why, some of the things she does are almost unbelievable. Yes I know, said Papa, but still, it's strange, very strange.


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[Assistant] There's only one thing wrong with her, Papa," I said. Yeah? What's that? he asked. You won't believe it, I said, but she's gun-shy.


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[Assistant] Gun-shy? How do you know she's gun-shy, Papa asked?


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[Assistant] I didn't know for a long time, I said, until one day when I was hoeing corn down in the field by the old slew. She and old Dan were digging in the bank after a groundhog. Across the river some fishermen started shooting a gun. It scared little Anne, and she came running to me, shaking all over.


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[Assistant] Oh, Papa said maybe you just thought she was scared. No, I didn't, Papa, I said. It happened again, up at the store one day. Grandpa shot a chicken-hawk. When the gun went off, it scared her half to death.


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[Assistant] No, she's gun-shy all right. Ah, well, Papa said, that doesn't mean anything. A lot of dogs are afraid of guns. I know, I said, but you wouldn't think she would be that way.


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[Assistant] I believe if I had a gun of my own, I could break her of being gun shy.


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[Assistant] Papa looked at me. He said, What your mother says, you won't be getting a gun for some time yet. Yes, I know, I said.


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[Assistant] When we reached the store, we saw the team was already hitched to the buggy and was standing in front of the store. Grandpa had loaded the tent and several boxes of groceries. I had never seen him in such high spirits. He slapped Papa on the back, saying, I'm sure glad you could go with us. It'll do you good to get out once in a while.


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[Assistant] Papa laughed and said, It looked like I had to go or have everyone in the family mad at me. Looking in the buggy I saw my axe.


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[Assistant] I didn't think I ever wanted to see it again, but for some reason it didn't look like I thought it would. There was no blood on it, and it looked harmless enough laying there all clean and bright. Grandpa saw me looking at it. He came over.


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[Assistant] I kept it a few days, he said, just in case the Marshal wanted to ask some questions. Everything seems to be all right now, and we may need a good axe on this hunt.


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[Assistant] Grandpa sensed how I felt about the axe. He waited in silence for my answer.


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[Assistant] The excitement of the hunt was so strong in me even the sight of the axe brought back only a fleeting remembrance of Reuben's accident I said


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[Assistant] Yes, we will need one. Besides, it's a good one, and there's no use in throwing it away.


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[Assistant] Grandpa laughed, reached over and screwed my cap around on my head saying, That's the boy, that's what I wanted you to say. Now you better go to the barn and get some hay and make a bed in the buggy box for your dogs. Oh, Grandpa, I said they can walk. They don't ever get tired, besides they used to walking.


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[Assistant] Grandpa almost shouted, They're not gonna walk? No sir, not if I can help it. You want them to be foot-sawed when we get there?


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[Assistant] Papa chuckled and said, We can't win a gold cup with two saw-footed hounds, can we? Of course not, Grandpa said. Now you go and get that hay, like I said.


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[Assistant] As I turned to go to the barn, I couldn't help but smile. It made me feel good to have my papa and grandpa so concerned about my dogs. I had taken only a few steps when grandpa said, Oh, wait a minute. I stopped and turned around.


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[Assistant] Walking up to me and glancing toward the house as he did, he whispered


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[Assistant] In that empty kraut barrel in the harness room, there's a jug of corn liquor.


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[Assistant] You never can tell when we'll need some medicine.


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[Assistant] I knew my father wouldn't drink any of the liquor, but if Grandpa wanted to take along a whole barrel, it was all right with me.


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[Assistant] Just when I thought we were ready to leave, Grandma came bustling out. Grandpa got nervous. He whispered and asked, Did you hide the jug good? I nodded my head.


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[Assistant] Grandma handed Grandpa a pair of long-handled underwear and a scarf, saying, I knew you'd forget something.


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[Assistant] Nanny, we've got everything, he said. You must think I'm a baby and don't know how to pack a grub box. A baby? Grandma snorted. Why, you're worse than a baby. At least I have a little sense you don't have any at all. An old conger like you out chasing a coon all over the hills.


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[Assistant] At her biting remark I thought Grandpa was going to blow up. He snorted like Daisy, our milk cow, when she had seen a booger. I crawled up in the buggy box with my dogs and hung my feet out.


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[Assistant] Grandma came over and asked me about warm clothes. I told her I had plenty. She kissed me goodbye. And we were on our way.


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[Assistant] There was a time when Ravna thought their tiny ship might fly all the way to the bottom unnoticed.


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[Assistant] Along with everything else, that had changed. At the moment, Out of Band 2 might be the most famous starship known to the net. A million races watched the chase. In the middle beyond, there were vast antenna swarms beaming in their direction and listening to the stories, mostly lies, sent from the ships that pursued the OOB.


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[Assistant] She couldn't hear those lies directly, of course, but the transmissions she received were as clear as if they were on a main trunk.


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[Assistant] Ravana spent part of each day reading the news, trying to find hope, trying to prove to herself that she was doing the right thing. By now, she was pretty sure what was chasing them. No doubt even Fam and Blue Shell would have agreed on that.


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[Assistant] Why they were being chased and what they might find at the end was now the subject of endless speculation on the net.


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[Assistant] Whatever the truth might be was well hidden among the lies.


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[Assistant] Crypto 0, as received by OOB Shipboard Ad Hoc, Language Path Trisquiline, Seondra K Units, from Hans. No references prior to the fall of Relay, no probable source, this is someone being very cautious. Subject, Alliance for the Defense, fraudulent.


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[Assistant] Distribution. Threat of the Blight. War Trackers Interest Group. Homo Sapiens Interest Group. Date 5.80 days since fall of Seondra K. Key phrases. Fool's errand. Unnecessary genocide. Text of message. Earlier I speculated that there had been no destruction at Seondra K. Apologies.


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[Assistant] That was based on a catalog identification error. I agree with the messages. 1-3-1-2-3 as of a few seconds ago. Assuring me that the habitations of Seondra K suffered collisional damage within the last six days.


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[Assistant] So apparently the Alliance for the Defense has taken the military action they claimed earlier. And apparently, they are powerful enough to destroy small civilizations in the middle beyond.


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[Assistant] The question still remains, why? I have already posted arguments showing it unlikely that homo sapiens is especially controllable by the Blight, though they were stupid enough to create that entity. Even the Alliance's own reports admit that less than half of Seondra K's soap fonts were of that race.


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[Assistant] Now a large part of the Alliance fleet is chasing into the bottom of the beyond after a single ship.


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[Assistant] What conceivable damage can the Alliance do to the Blight down there? The Blight is a great threat, perhaps the most novel and threatening in well recorded history. Nevertheless, Alliance behavior appears destructive and pointless. Now that the Alliance has revealed some of its sponsoring organizations, see messages, ID numbers, I think we know its real motives.


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[Assistant] I see connections between the Alliance and the old apprehend hegemony.


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[Assistant] A thousand years ago that group undertook a similar jihad, grabbing real estate left vacant by recent transcendences.


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[Assistant] Stopping the hegemony was an exciting bit of action in that part of the galaxy. I think these people are back, taking advantage of the general panic attending the Blight, which is admittedly a much greater threat. My advice, beware of the Alliance and its claims of heroic efforts.


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[Assistant] Text of message. We have no special inclination toward any of the posters on this thread. Nevertheless, it's remarkable that an entity that has not revealed its location or special interests, namely, Hans, should be smearing the efforts of the Alliance for the Defense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Alliance kept its constituents secret only during that period when its forces were being gathered, when a single stroke of the Perversion's power might destroy it entirely. Since that time, it has been quite open in its efforts. Hence wonders how a single starship could be worth the Alliance's attention.


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[Assistant] As Harmonious Repose was the site of the latest turn of events, we are in a position to give some explanation. The ship in question, the Out of Band 2, is clearly designed for operations at the bottom of the beyond, and is even capable of limited operations within the slow zone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ship presented itself as a special zonographic flight commissioned to study the recent turbulence at the bottom. In fact, this ship's mission is a very different one. In the aftermath of its violent departure, we have pieced together some extraordinary facts. At least one of the ship's crew was human.


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[Assistant] Though they made great efforts to stay out of view, and used Scroedrider traitors as intermediaries, we have recordings. A bio-sequence of one individual was obtained, and it matches the patterns maintained by two out of three of the Homo sapiens archives. It's well known that the third archive on Snirrod Down is in the control of human sympathizers.


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[Assistant] Some might say this deception was founded in fear. After all, these events happened after the destruction of Seondra K. We think otherwise. The ship's initial contact with us occurred before the Seondra K incident.


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[Assistant] We have since made a careful analysis of the repair work our yards performed on this vessel. Ultra drive automation is a deep and complex thing. Even the cleverest of cloaking cannot mask all the memories in it.


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[Assistant] We now know that the out of band 2 was from the relay system, and that it left there after the perversions attack.


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[Assistant] Think what this means. The crew of the Out of Band 2 brought weapons into our habitat, killed several local sofants, and escaped before our musicians, harmonizers, police, were properly notified. We have good reason to wish them ill, yet our misfortune is a small thing compared to the unmasking of this secret mission.


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[Assistant] We hope our facts will wake some people up. In particular, consider what Hans may really be. The perversion is very visible in the high beyond, where it has great power and can speak with its own voice. Down here, it is more likely that deception and covert propaganda will be its tools.


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[Assistant] Think on this when you read postings from unidentified entities, such as hats.


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[Assistant] Ravna gritted her teeth. The hell of it was, the facts in the posting were correct. It was the inferences that were vicious and false, and she couldn't guess if this were some shade of black propaganda, or simply Saint Rendell expressing honest conclusions, though Rendell had never seemed so trusting of the butterflies.


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[Assistant] One thing all the news seemed to agree on, much more than the Alliance fleet was chasing the OOB, the swarm of ultra-drive traces could be seen by anyone within a thousand light years.


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[Assistant] The best guess was that three fleets pursued the OOB. Three.


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[Assistant] The Alliance for the Defense, still loud and boastful even though suspected by some of being opportunistic genocides. Behind them, Sandra Kay, and what was left of Ravenna's motherland.


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[Assistant] In all the universe, perhaps the only folk she could trust. And just behind them, the Silent Fleet. Diverse news posters claimed it was from the high beyond.


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[Assistant] Speculation was drifting in at the rate of 5,000 messages per hour. A million different viewpoints were considering the mystery. Some of those viewpoints were so alien that they made scrote riders and humans look like the same species. At least five participants on this news thread were gaseous inhabitants of stellar coronas.


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[Assistant] There were one or two others that Ravenous suspected were uncataloged races.


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[Assistant] Beings so shy that this might be their first active use of the net ever.


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[Assistant] The OOB's computer was a lot dumber than it had been in the middle beyond. She couldn't ask it to sift through the messages looking for nuance and insight. In fact,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If an incoming message didn't have a trisqualine text, it was often unreadable.


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[Assistant] The ship's translator programs still worked fairly well with the major trade languages, but even there, the translation was slow and full of alternative meanings in Jabberwocky. It was just another sign that they were approaching the bottom of the beyond.


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[Assistant] Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.


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[Assistant] Nevertheless, with proper design, things might have been better. The automation might have degraded gracefully onto the restrictions imposed by their depth. Instead, gear just stopped working. What remained was slow and error-prone. If only the refitting had been completed before the fall of relay. And just how many times have I wished for that?


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[Assistant] She hoped things were as bad aboard the pursuing ships.


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[Assistant] So Ravna used the ship to do light calling on the threats newsgroup. Much of what was left was inane, as from people who see portents in the weather.


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[Assistant] Crypto Zero Syntax 43, as received by OOB Shipboard ad-hoc.


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[Assistant] Language Path, Arbwith, Trade 24, Chergalin, Trisqualin, SJK Units, From, Twirlip of the Mists, perhaps an organization of cloud flyers in a single Jovian system. Very sparse priors before this thread began. Appears to be seriously out of touch. Program recommendation, delete this poster from presentation.


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[Assistant] Subject, the blight's goal at the bottom. Distribution, threat of the blight, great secrets of creation.


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[Assistant] Date, 4.54 days since fall of Sandra K. Key phrases, zone instability and the blight, hexapodia as the key insight. Text of message.


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[Assistant] Apologies first if I am repeating obvious conclusions. My only gateway onto the net is very expensive, and I miss many important postings. I think that anyone following both great secrets of creation and threat of the blight would see an important pattern.


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[Assistant] Since the events reported by Harmonious Repose Information Service, most agree that something important to the perversion exists at the bottom of the beyond in Region


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[Assistant] Could there not be some connection? I urge all to consult their information on the great secrets, or the nearest archive maintained by that group. Events such as this prove, once again, that the universe is all Ron Zell between. Some of the postings were tantalizing.


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[Assistant] Crypto Zero, Syntax 4-3, as received by O.O.B. Shipboard Ad Hoc, Language Path, Wobblings, Bayloresque, Triscolline, Seondra K. Units, From, Cricket Song Under the High Willow.


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[Assistant] Cricket song is a synthetic race created as a jape experiment instrument by the high willow upon its transcendence.


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[Assistant] Cricket song has been on the net for more than 10,000 years. Apparently it is a fanatical studier of paths to transcendence. For 8,000 years it has been the heaviest poster on where are they now and related groups. There is no evidence that any cricket song settlement has itself transcended.


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[Assistant] Cricket song is sufficiently peculiar that there is a large news group for speculation concerning the race itself.


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[Assistant] Consensus is that Cricket Song was designed by Hi Willow, as a probe, back into the beyond. That the race is somehow incapable of attempting its own transcendence.


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[Assistant] Key phrases. I'm becoming transcendent. Text of message.


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[Assistant] Contrary to other postings, there are a number of reasons why a power might install artifacts at the bottom of the beyond. The Absalor's message on this thread cites some. Some powers have documented curiosity about the slow zone and even more about the unthinking depths.


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[Assistant] In rare cases, expeditions have been dispatched, though any return from the depths would occur long after the dispatching power lost interest in all local questions. However, none of these motives are likely here. To those who are familiar with fast burn transcendence, it is clear that the Blight is a creature seeking stasis.


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[Assistant] Its interest in the bottom is very sudden. Provoked, we think, by the revelations at harmonious repose. There is something at the bottom that is critical to the perversion's welfare.


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[Assistant] Consider the notion of ablative dissonance. See the Where Are They Now group archive.


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[Assistant] No one knows what set up procedures the humans of Stramli Realm were using. The fast burn may itself have had transcendent intelligence. What if it became dissatisfied with the direction of the Chandring? In that case, it might try to hide the jump off birthing gel.


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[Assistant] The bottom would not be a place where the algorithm itself could normally execute, but avatars might still be created from it and briefly run.


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[Assistant] Up to a point, Ravana could almost make sense of it. Ablative dissonance was a commonplace of applied theology. But then, like one of those dreams where the secret of life is about to be revealed, the posting just drifted into nonsense.


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[Assistant] There were postings that were neither asinine nor obscure. As usual, Sandor at the zoo had a lot of things dead right.


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[Assistant] Crypto Zero, as received by O.O.B. Shipboard, Ad Hoc, Language Path, Trisqualine, Sandra K. Units from Sandor Arbitration Intelligence at the Zoo, a known military corporation of the high beyond. If this is a masquerade, somebody is living dangerously.


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[Assistant] In case you don't know, Sandor Intelligence has a number of different net feeds. We can collect messages on paths that have no intermediate nodes in common. Thus, we can detect and correct tampering done en route. There remain the lies and misunderstandings that were present to begin with, but that's something that makes the intelligence business interesting.


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[Assistant] The blight has been our top priority since its instantiation a year ago. This is not just because of the blight's obvious strength, the destruction and the deicides it has committed. We fear that all this is the lesser part of the threat. There have been perversions almost as powerful in the recorded past.


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[Assistant] Thus, studying the Blight has been a matter of life and death for us, even though we are powerful and widely distributed.


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[Assistant] We've reached a number of conclusions. Some of these may be obvious to you. Others may sound like flagrant speculation. All take on new coloring, with the events reported from Harmonious Repose.


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[Assistant] Almost from the beginning, the Blight has been searching for something.


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[Assistant] This search has extended far beyond its aggressive physical expansion. Its automatic agents have tried to penetrate virtually every node in the top of the beyond. The high network is in shambles, reduced to protocols scarcely more efficient than those known below.


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[Assistant] At the same time, the Blight has physically stolen several archives. We have evidence of very large fleets searching for off-net archives at the top and in the low transcend. At least three powers have been murdered in this rampage.


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[Assistant] And now, suddenly, this assault has ended. The Blight's physical expansion continues with no end in sight, but it no longer searches the high beyond. As near as we can tell, the change occurred about two thousand seconds before the escape of the human vessel from harmonious repose.


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[Assistant] Less than six hours later, we saw the beginnings of the silent fleet that so many are now speculating about. That fleet is indeed the creature of the blight.


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[Assistant] In other times, the destruction of Sandra Kay and the motives of the Alliance for the Defense would all be important issues, and our organization might have interest in doing business with those affected.


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[Assistant] But all that is dwarfed by the fact of this fleet and the ship it pursues, and we disagree with the analysis from Harmonious Repose. It is obvious to us that the Blight did not know of the Out of Band 2 until its discovery at Harmonious Repose.


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[Assistant] That ship is not a tool of the blight, but it contains or is bound for something of enormous importance to the blight. And what might that be?


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[Assistant] Here we begin frank speculation, and since we are speculating, we'll use those powerful pseudo laws, the principles of mediocrity and minimal assumption.


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[Assistant] If the Blight has the potential for taking over all the top in a permanent stability, then why has this not happened before? Our guess is that the Blight has been instantiated before, with such dire consequence that the event marks the beginning of recorded time, but it has its own peculiar natural enemy.


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[Assistant] The order of events even suggests a particular scenario, one familiar from network security. Once upon a time, very long ago, there was another instance of the Blight. A successful defense was mounted and all known copies of the Blight's recipe were destroyed. Of course, on a wide net, one can never be sure that all copies of a badness are gone.


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[Assistant] No doubt, the defense was distributed in enormous numbers, but even if a harboring archive were reached by such a distribution, there might be no effect if the blight were not currently active there.


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[Assistant] The luckless humans of Stromly Realm chanced on such an archive. No doubt a ruin long off the net. They instantiated the Blight, and incidentally, perhaps a little later, the defense program. Somehow, that Blight's enemy escaped destruction, and the Blight has been searching for it ever since. In all the wrong places.


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[Assistant] In its weakness, the new instance of the defense retreated to depths no power would think of penetrating, whence it could never return without outside help. Speculation on top of speculation. We can't guess the nature of this defense, except that its retreat is a discouraging sign.


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[Assistant] And now even that sacrifice has gone for naught, since the blight has seen through the deception.


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[Assistant] The Blight's fleet is clearly an ad hoc thing, hastily thrown together from forces that happen to be closest to the discovery.


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[Assistant] Without such haste, the quarry might have been lost to it. Thus, the chase equipment is probably ill suited to the depths, and its performance will degrade as the descent progresses. However, we estimate that it will remain stronger than any force that can reach the scene in the near future.


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[Assistant] We may learn more after the blight reaches the out of band 2's destination. If it destroys that destination immediately, we'll know that something truly dangerous to the blight existed there, and may exist elsewhere at least in recipe form. If it does not, then perhaps the blight was looking for something that will make it even more dangerous than before.


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[Assistant] Ravna sat back, stared at the display for some time.


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[Assistant] But now even their predictions were just different flavors of doom, and all so damn cool they were, so analytical.


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[Assistant] She knew that Sandor was poly-specific with branch offices scattered through the high beyond, but they were no power. If the perversion could knock over Relay and kill Old One, then all of Sandor's resources wouldn't help it if the enemy decided to gobble them up.


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[Assistant] Their analysis had the tone of the pilot of a crashing ship.


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[Assistant] Intent on understanding the danger, not taking time out for terror. Oh fam I wish I could talk to you like before.


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[Assistant] She curled gently in on herself the way you can in zero G. The sobs came softly, but without hope. They had not exchanged a hundred words in the last five days. They lived as if with guns at each other's heads, and that was the literal truth. She had made it so.


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[Assistant] When she and he and the Scroed Riders had been together, at least the danger had been a shared burden. Now they were split apart and their enemies were slowly gaining on them.


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[Assistant] What good could Fam's Godshatter be against a thousand enemy ships and the blight behind them?


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[Assistant] She floated for a timeless while, the sobs fading into despairing silence, and again she wondered if what she'd done could possibly be right. She had threatened fams life to protect blue shell and green stalk in their kind. In doing so,


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[Assistant] The question toyed with her every day, and every day she tried to see some way out. She wiped her face silently. She didn't doubt what Fam had discovered.


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[Assistant] There were some smug posters on the net who argued that something as vast as the Blight was simply a tragic disaster and not an evil.


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[Assistant] Evil, they argued, could only have meaning on smaller scales, in the hurt that one sofa does to another. Before R.I.P.


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[Assistant] The argument had seemed a frivolous playing with words.


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[Assistant] Now she saw that it was meaningful. And dead wrong.


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[Assistant] The Blight had created the Riders, a marvelous and peaceful race. Their presence on a billion worlds had been a good.


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[Assistant] And she knew the poison that was there, even though they were good people. And she knew she'd glimpsed evil on the transcendent scale.


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[Assistant] She had gotten Blue Shell and Greenstalk into this mission. They had not asked for it. They were friends and allies, and she would not harm them because of what they could become.


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[Assistant] Maybe it was the latest news items. Maybe it was confronting the same impossibilities for the nth time.


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[Assistant] Ravna gradually straightened, looking at those last messages. So, she believed Fam about the scrollrider threat.


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[Assistant] She also believed these two were only enemies in potential.


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[Assistant] She had thrown away everything to save them and their kind. Maybe it was a mistake, but take what advantage there is in it. If they are to be saved because you think they are allies, then treat them as allies. Treat them as the friends they are. We are all pawns together. Ravna pushed gently toward her cabin's doorway. The scrolled rider's cabin was just behind the command deck.


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[Assistant] Since the debacle at RIP, the two had not left it.


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[Assistant] She knew he was doing his best to protect himself. Yet there was nothing unusual. What will he think of my visiting them? She announced herself.


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[Assistant] After a moment, Blue Shell appeared. His scrode was wiped clean of cosmetic stripes and the room behind him was a jumble.


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[Assistant] He waved her in with quick jerks of his fronds. My lady. Blue shell. She nodded at him.


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[Assistant] Half the time she cursed herself for trusting the writers. The other half she was mortally embarrassed for having left them alone. Uh, how is Greenstalk?


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[Assistant] Surprisingly, Blue Shell's fronds snapped together in a smile.


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[Assistant] You guessed? This is the first day with her new scrote. I will show you if you'd like.


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[Assistant] He threaded around equipment that was scattered in a lattice across the room. It was similar to the shop equipment Fab had used to build his powered armor.


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[Assistant] And if Fam had seen it, he might have lost all self control. I've worked on it every minute since Fam locked us in here.


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[Assistant] He rustled something at her, and after a moment she replied,


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[Assistant] The Scroodling is very limited, no mobility, no redundant power supplies.


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[Assistant] I copied it off a lesser Scroedrider design, a simple thing designed by Dirokimes. It's not meant for more than sitting in one place, facing in one direction, but it provides her with short term memory support and attention focusers. She is back with me.


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[Assistant] He fussed around her, some fronds caressing her, as others pointing to the gadget he had built for her. She herself was not badly injured. Sometimes I wonder, whatever Fam says, maybe at the last second he could not kill her.


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[Assistant] Since I have added on this scrodling, she has practiced the calisthenics of memory, repeating what the surgeon or I say to her. With the scrodling, she can hold onto a new memory for almost 500 seconds. That's usually long enough for her natural mind to commit a thought to long-term memory.


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[Assistant] Ravna drifted close. There were some new creases in Greenstalk's fronds. Those would be scars healing.


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[Assistant] Her visual surfaces followed Ravna's approach. The writer knew she was here. Her whole posture was friendly. Can she talk Trisk, Blue Show? Do you have a voter hooked up? What? Buzz.


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[Assistant] He was forgetful, or nervous, Ravner couldn't tell which. Yes, yes, just give me a minute. There was no need before, no one wanted to talk to us.


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[Assistant] He fiddled with something on the homemade scrote. After a moment...


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[Assistant] Out of Greenstock's sight, Blue Shell flicked a long tendril. A gesture. Say yes. Yes, I understand you, Greenstock.


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[Assistant] See, came Blue Shell's voter voice, I am brightly cheerful. Even now Greenstalk is committing this conversation to long-term memory. It goes slowly for now, but I am improving the scrodling. I'm sure her slowness is mainly emotional shock.


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[Assistant] He continued to brush at Greenstalk's fronds, but she didn't say anything more. Ravna wondered just how brightly cheerful he could be.


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[Assistant] But Blue Shell didn't take offense. He seemed grateful for the change of topic, preferring the gloom at a distance.


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[Assistant] Yes, we certainly are famous now. Three fleets chasing us down, my lady. They don't seem to be gaining very fast.


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[Assistant] Frond shrug. Sir Fam has turned out to be a competent ship's master. I'm afraid things will change as we descend.


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[Assistant] So bit by bit the others will gain, at least those who truly understand their own ships.


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[Assistant] By then it will be too late. Look, even if he doesn't trust


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[Assistant] Even though he believes the worst of writers, there must still be a way.


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[Assistant] And it came to her that sometimes you don't have to change the way people think or even whom they may hate.


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[Assistant] Pham wants to get to the bottom to recover this countermeasure. He thinks you may be from the Blight. And after the same thing. But up to a point...


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[Assistant] Up to a point he can cooperate. Postpone the showdown he imagines till perhaps it won't matter.


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[Assistant] Even as she started to say it, Blue Shell was already shouting back at her, I'm not of the Blight! Greenstalk is not! The Rider Race is not!


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[Assistant] He swept around his mate, rolled across the ceiling till his fronds rattled right before Ravana's face.


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[Assistant] The scream reached a threshold, just below pain, then broke into choppy trisqualine.


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[Assistant] Blue shell was already back by the wall, reaching to adjust her new scrote. Greenstalk's fronds brushed him away, and her voter voice continued, I was horror-struck, blue shell. I was horror-struck, struck by a horror, and it would not stop.


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[Assistant] She was silent for a moment. Blue shell stood frozen.


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[Assistant] I remember everything up till the last five minutes, and everything fam says is true, dear love. Loyal as you are, and I have seen that loyalty now for two hundred years, you would be turned in an instant, just as I was.


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[Assistant] Now that the dam broke, her words came quickly, mostly making sense. The horrors she could remember were graven deep when she was finally coming out of ghastly shock.


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[Assistant] Greenstalk hesitated. Her fronds rattled and she began again. Horror struck. Horror struck.


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[Assistant] After a moment, it was like suddenly new memories in the scrolled blue shell, new memories, new attitudes, but thousands of years deep, and not mine.


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[Assistant] Not theirs, for they were owned too. We were things, our intelligence in service to another's goal, dead and alive to see our death.


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[Assistant] You humans speak of violation. You could never know. Long pause.


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[Assistant] That's not quite right. At the top of the beyond, within the blight itself.


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[Assistant] The shuttering did not subside, but her gestures were no longer aimless.


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[Assistant] The frauds were saying something in her own language and brushing gently against blue shell.


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[Assistant] Or life. Blue Shell was hearing worse.


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[Assistant] Ravna pushed a little closer, near enough to run her hand off the side of Greenstalk's fronds.


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[Assistant] Fam says it's the greater scrodes that are the cause. Sabotage hidden billions of years deep.


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[Assistant] Yes, it is mainly the Scrodes. The great gift we writers love so.


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[Assistant] It is a design for control, but I fear we were remade for it too.


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[Assistant] When they touched my scrote I was converted instantly. Instantly everything I cared for was meaningless. We are like smart bombs, scattered by the trillions through space that everyone thinks is safe.


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[Assistant] We will be used sparingly. We are the Blight's hidden weapon, especially in the low beyond.


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[Assistant] Blue shell twitched, and his voice came out jerkily.


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[Assistant] And everything Pham claims is correct. No, Blue Shell, not everything.


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[Assistant] Ravna, remember that last chilling standoff with Fam Nguyen.


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[Assistant] He has the facts, but he weighs them wrong. As long as your scrodes are not perverted, you are the same folk that I trusted to fly me to the bottom.


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[Assistant] Blue shell angled his look away from her. An angry shrug. Greenstalk's voice came instead.


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[Assistant] As long as the scrote has not been perverted. But look how easy it was done. How sudden I became the blights.


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[Assistant] Yes, but could it happen except by direct touch?


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[Assistant] Could you be changed by reading the net news?


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[Assistant] She meant the question as ghastly sarcasm, but poor Greenstalk took it seriously.


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[Assistant] Not by a news item, nor by standard protocol messages, but accepting a transmission targeted on scrolled utilities might do it.


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[Assistant] Then we are safe here. You, because you no longer ride a greater stroad. Blue shell, because, because I was never touched. But how can you know that?


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[Assistant] His anger was still there deep within shame. But now it was a hopeless anger directed at something very far away.


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[Assistant] No, dear love, you have not been touched. I would know. Yes, but why should Ravna believe you? Everything could be a lie, thought Ravna.


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[Assistant] But I believe Greenstock. I believe we four are the only ones in all the beyond who can hurt the Blight. If only Fam could see it. And that brought her back to... You say we will start losing our lead?


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[Assistant] Blue shell waved an affirmative. As soon as we are a little lower, they should have us in a matter of weeks.


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[Assistant] And then it won't matter who was perverted and who was not. I think we should have a little chat with Fam Nguyen. Godshatter and all.


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[Assistant] Beforehand, Ravna couldn't imagine how the confrontation would turn out. Just possibly if he lost all touch with reality.


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[Assistant] More likely there would be rage and argument and threats, and they would be back to square one. Instead,


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[Assistant] It was almost like the old fam from before harmonious repose. He let them enter the command deck.


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[Assistant] Most were ultra-trace displays, the closest thing to a picture of the enemies that were closing on the OOB. His calm expression broke for just an instant.


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[Assistant] And the fam that loved her seemed to stare out desperate. And you really believe all this Rav? How?


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[Assistant] Without all of us working together, we'll never make it to Tines' world. Blue, shall I accept your offer? Subject to cautious safeguards, we work together. Till I can safely dispose of you.


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[Assistant] Ravna could feel the unsaid words behind his blandness. Showdown deferred.


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[Assistant] It had been in the longed grass. Had seen it before, and even fed it once.


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[Assistant] Boreal was no help. Next morning, I got up. And I did not. The first day after the death.


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[Assistant] Journey home, written by Tagor. The time that my journey takes is long, and the way of it long. I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light.


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[Assistant] And proceed my voyage through the wildernesses of the world and leaving my track on many a star and planet.


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[Assistant] And that training is the most intricate, which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.


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[Assistant] The traveler has to knock at every alien door to compass zone.


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[Assistant] And one has to wander through all of the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.


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[Assistant] My eyes straightened far and wide before I shut them and said hear out thou. The question and the cry, oh where?


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[Assistant] Man into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance I am.


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[Assistant] I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna take the shot.


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[Assistant] So I went on to university and even applied for a job. But I knew I wanted to work with blades, with swords.


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[Assistant] Carrots were cheap, so maybe I should have made a carrot and chicken wing stew or something like that, with another side dish. I'll keep trying.


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[Assistant] It's like peeling an onion, one layer at a time. Don't be tense, get rid of your ego, but stay in touch with the true strength inside you. It's never the blade that's wrong, it's your technique. You're not doing this for your own sake, but for the sake of the sword.


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[Assistant] Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall. The game with Saxon Hall was supposed to be a very big deal around Pency. It was the last game of the year, and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pency didn't win.


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[Assistant] I remember around 3 o'clock that afternoon, I was standing way the hell up on top of Thompson Hill, right next to this crazy cannon that was in the Revolutionary War and all.


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[Assistant] You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You couldn't see the grandstand too hot.


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[Assistant] But you could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific, on the pansy side, because practically the whole school except me was there, and scrawny and faggy on the sexing hall side, because the visiting team hardly ever brought many people with them.


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[Assistant] There were never many girls at all at the football games. Only seniors were allowed to bring girls with them. It was a terrible school, no matter how you looked at it.


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[Assistant] I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while. Even if only they are scratching their arms, or blowing their noses, or even just giggling or something.


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[Assistant] Old Selma Thurmer, she was the headmaster's daughter, showed up at the games quite often, but she wasn't exactly the type that drove you mad with desire. She was a pretty nice girl though.


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[Assistant] I sat next to her once in a bus and we sort of struck up a conversation.


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[Assistant] I liked her. She had a big nose and her nails were all beaten down and bleedy looking.


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[Assistant] And she had on those damn forces that point all over the place. But you felt sort of sorry for her.


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[Assistant] What I liked about her, she didn't give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slop he was.


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[Assistant] I was the goddamn manager of the fencing team, very big deal.


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[Assistant] We'd gone into New York that morning for this fancy meet with Mike Burney's school. Only we didn't have the meet. I left all the files and equipment and stuff on the goddamn subway. It wasn't all my fault.


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[Assistant] I had to keep getting up and look at this map, so with no where to get off.


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[Assistant] So we got back to Pency around 2.30 instead of around dinner time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train. It was pretty funny, in a way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other reason I wasn't down at the game was because I was on my way to say goodbye to old Spencer, my history teacher. He had a grip.


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[Assistant] I forgot to tell you about that. They kicked me out.


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[Assistant] I wasn't supposed to come back after Christmas vacation unaccounted I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself, especially around midterms, when my parents came up for a conference with old surmer.


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[Assistant] They give guys the X quite frequently at Pency. It has a very good academic rating, Pency. It really does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can also understand how it feels to have all those dreams suddenly destroyed by someone like that.


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[Assistant] No, he went up alone. We arranged to meet later. I never saw him alive again.


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[Assistant] Well I guess what I mean is is it all like TV or film illusion or are you actually doing these tricks?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have a clip now, I understand this is a clip of you doing an actual magic trick. This is not TV magic, this is actual magic that you did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but I don't think you're ever gonna live down discount requiem.


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[Assistant] And every night at 11 on What's Next, you can rely on us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And every night at 11 on What's Next, you can rely on us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because being ready for tomorrow is what matters most.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And every night at 11 on What's Next, you can rely on us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because being ready for tomorrow is what matters most.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hollered down and told Reuben I didn't wanna kill the ghost coon. He hollered back, are you crazy? I told him I wasn't crazy, I just didn't wanna kill him. I climbed down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing, I told him. I just don't have the heart to kill the coon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I told him there were plenty more. Why kill him? He had lived here a long time, and more than one hunter had listened to the voices of his hounds bawling on his trail. Rainy said, He's chicken-liver, that's what it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ruben glared at me. I'm going up and run that coon out, he said. If you stop your dogs, I'm gonna beat you half to death. Do it anyway, Ruben, Rainey said. I've a good mind, too, said Ruben.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just as Ruben started to climb the tree, old Dan growled. He was staring into the darkness. Something was coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's that? I asked. I don't know, Ruben said. Don't sound like anything I ever heard. It's ghosts, Rainy said. Let's get away from here.