Chapter 7: Into the AbyssIt came to pass that the ancestral memories of all queens who had come before, would instill in each colony’s queen a deep yearning to seek out the solace of others like her, and unite the people once again under the sheltering branches of the Great Tree. To this end, the queen’s crafts-workers learned to build ships that would sail upon the clouds. And the bravest among the queen’s people would mount these vessels and set out from the safety of the colony’s island home in hopes of finding her sisters.
—Selected passages from The Book of the Origin by Bella Aurelius Nobilis, Modern Language Translation
* * * *
“My child,” came a voice that was both near and distant, intimate and foreign—in a moment that Lina was both there, then here.
Lina thrashed upon the bed
