Fourteen

In a coastal park, Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw support the bullet-riddled Zakalwe as he insists on visiting the preserved hulk of the battleship Staberinde. Disturbed by its conversion into a public monument, he refuses medical treatment, demanding instead to see Livueta Zakalwe.

They take public transport toward Couraz. On the train, Zakalwe, feverish and exhausted, recounts his childhood at a grand estate, the assassination attempt the children foiled, Darckense’s wounding and the bone splinter near his heart, and the civil war that split the former playmates. He describes the siege involving the Staberinde, the breakout, and the atrocity that made the Chairmaker’s name.

Arriving at Couraz’s hospital city, Sma secures access to Livueta. Livueta faces them coolly, refusing private conversation and admonishing Sma for bringing Zakalwe. As Zakalwe breaks down, Livueta forbids Sma to call him “Cheradenine,” stating that her brother died soon after receiving the chair made from Darckense’s bones.

Livueta reveals the truth: the man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe is actually Elethiomel, commander of the Staberinde and the Chairmaker who destroyed their family. At that moment Zakalwe suffers a catastrophic aneurysm. Skaffen-Amtiskaw anesthetizes him, opens his skull, cauterizes vessels, and repairs the torn tissue while maintaining his vital functions.

As the drone operates, Sma, reeling from the revelation, confronts the collapse of the identity she believed. Livueta departs, leaving Sma with the shattering truth and Zakalwe’s precarious survival in the machine’s hands.