Contents
Chapter 65: Of Gods and Engines
Overview
Hadrian wanders the Garden and encounters Suzuha and Ren, who reveal that Kharn Sagara keeps Brethren and ancient Mericanii superweapons—engines capable of devouring stars. The discovery raises the stakes around Vorgossos. Yume ends the conversation, while Suzuha asserts their power and Hadrian warns the Empire will destroy Kharn’s works.
Summary
Released from talks with Knight-Tribune Smythe, Hadrian wanders the Garden beneath the Cielcin worldship, reflecting on the place’s kinship to Kharn’s Garden on Vorgossos. At a dark pool, he encounters Suzuha and her brother Ren.
Questioned about the Brethren, Suzuha recounts Kharn’s history: the Mericanii built computers that eventually built and remade people, created homunculi, and forged terrible engines for the Foundation War—devices that could devour stars, set worlds aflame, freeze space, and unmake matter. Kharn has kept these Brethren and their weapons chained.
Hadrian concludes Vorgossos served as a machine-built military base. He presses on the implications, warning that the Empire’s discovery of Kharn, the Brethren, and their arsenal means they will not be left alone and that Vorgossos will be destroyed.
Yume arrives to retrieve the children. Suzuha rejects Hadrian’s warning, boasting that Kharn will feed imperial legions to the Brethren. As Yume escorts them away, Hadrian counters that the Sollans defeated the daimons once and will again, then is left alone by the pool.
Who Appears
- Hadrian MarloweProtagonist; wanders the Garden, questions Suzuha, infers Kharn’s arsenal, and warns of Vorgossos’s likely destruction.
- SuzuhaKharn’s clone-daughter; explains Brethren and Mericanii weapons, asserts Kharn’s strength, resists Hadrian’s warning.
- RenSuzuha’s clone-brother; accompanies her, adds details about ‘guardian angels,’ and departs when Yume arrives.
- YumeKharn’s golem; interrupts the conversation, summons Suzuha and Ren, and ends Hadrian’s inquiry.