Contents
Chapter 1: Sunrise
Overview
Carolyn returns to Garrison Oaks after a killing, where the librarians gather under David’s command to search for the vanished Father. Margaret is exhumed and revived but cannot locate him among the dead; futures reveal nothing. Nobununga is coming, heightening stakes, and David sends Carolyn to harvest an innocent heart.
Summary
Before dawn, Carolyn, barefoot and covered in Detective Miner’s blood, declines a ride from a concerned old man and retrieves her robe in the woods. She heads for Garrison Oaks, reflecting on the seventh moon and hiding the obsidian knife she used to kill Miner.
A flashback recounts Father rescuing Carolyn and other surviving American children after their parents’ deaths, making them Pelapi librarians and assigning twelve catalogs. Carolyn’s brief pastoral apprenticeship with the deer Isha ends when David, acting on Father’s command, kills Isha and her fawn to force Carolyn back to harsher studies.
In the present, Carolyn spies on David, Michael, and Jennifer at the bronze bull clearing and then reveals herself. David asserts dominance by striking her and orders them to dismantle Margaret’s cairn. Jennifer, the new master of healing, restores Margaret’s corpse to function, while Carolyn quietly studies her methods and gifts Jennifer mouthwash to ease the taste of rot.
At sunset, Margaret rises. David convenes the circle: Margaret cannot find Father among the dead; Rachel and Alicia report no sign of him in any possible or actual futures; Peter mentions Father’s work on “regression completeness” without concrete answers. Michael adds that the Forest God sleeps and announces an impending visit from Nobununga.
David prepares offerings and a tracking attempt with Peter and Richard’s totems, displaying brutality by gifting Margaret a severed head. He then orders Carolyn back into America to secure an “innocent heart” to honor Nobununga, while the others remain nearby awaiting the visitor and further signs of Father.
Who Appears
- CarolynLibrarian of languages; returns blood-soaked after killing Detective Miner; navigates David’s control and is tasked to find an innocent heart.
- DavidWar/murder catalog; domineering leader in Father’s absence; abuses others, distrusts the bull, orders a human sacrifice.
- JenniferHealer and master of her catalog; resurrects Margaret; struggles with revulsion; grateful for mouthwash; questions searching for Father.
- MichaelBeasts catalog; awkward human speech; reports Forest God sleeps and Nobununga approaches; cowed by David.
- MargaretDeath catalog; exhumed and revived; cannot find Father among the dead; doted on by David.
- RachelSeer with ghost children; finds no possible futures containing Father; fearful of David.
- AliciaBearer of the black candle; sees no trace of Father through the heat death of space.
- PeterTwin scholar; mathematics/engineering; mentions Father’s ‘regression completeness’; prepares tracking totems.
- RichardTwin; assists Peter gathering totems for a tracking attempt; supports timing estimate.
- EmilyDream-messenger; summoned the librarians to the bull before sundown.
- FatherAncient master of the Library; vanished; subject of the search; feared and revered.
- NobunungaEmperor of the forests; approaching to investigate Father’s absence; expected guest requiring an offering.
- Detective MinerRecently murdered by Carolyn with an obsidian knife; his blood stains her dress.
- YamadaSevered head of a Japanese courtier; pleads for his daughters; used to entertain Margaret.