– 14 –

It is seven hundred years earlier.

Thon-Gul X has sent off the last of his scissors-swarm. He brushes off his hands. They are covered in small cuts.

He goes out to address his people.

He says, “I tell you this. Soon the Earth will trouble me no longer. Soon the Earth will stop its looking-upwards, its staring-outwards. Soon it will drown in blades, and Hans shall give up his life, and his humans and cling wrap and magic wolves and winter — robots, heroes, dreams, hopes, and hungers — they will trouble us no more.”

The citizens seethe. Politely, they applaud. Then they go home. They sit.

They wait for their warlord Thon-Gul to call on them again.

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