“Anxious of how this madness, as End Waking called it, might affect you and yours?”
She nodded, averting her eyes. “I am fucking terrified, Ioan. What am I to do in the face of such enormity?”
Ey blinked, taken aback. This was not how ey’d imagined the conversation would go. Ey’d pictured her providing some glib explanation for what was happening and perhaps outlining the steps that she and her close cocladists were taking to control the situation. Ey was expecting her to steer em towards confidence in her, and hopefully even to soothe eir fears about May through doing so.
-This wasn’t the True name ey remembered. Were these her own cracks showing?
+This wasn’t the True Name ey remembered. Were these her own cracks showing?
Ey prowled through memories of the conversations ey’d had with her over the years — several, during those first few years after launch, then the rapid decrease after the publication of the History — and tallied up each against the next.
“You’ve changed quite a bit, True Name,” ey said. “I don’t know what you’re supposed to do, that’s out of my league. All I can say is that you’ve changed. It looks like it takes you a lot of effort to keep the confidence that used to be so integral to your personality.”
Ey watched as she bridled, subsided, and nodded. “I am not what I was.”
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@She bowed again and stepped from the sim, leaving em to sit on the couch and finish eir tea, mulling over the differences between changing and forgetting. Without forgetting, all True Name had, all they all had, was the ability to change, and all they could do was hope that this would be enough to keep them all sane.