// Hannah //

 

The evening shift at the library is always quiet, so Hannah has plenty of time to herself in between helping the occasional student or visitor find a book. Tonight, she’s reading a monograph on the ecological impact of the extinction of the last dragons a few centuries ago, and taking notes for a talk she wants to give at The Conspiracy Society, when a young woman walks in and captures her attention. Tall, pale-skinned, and very beautiful in an unapproachable way. Maybe an undergrad, but that’s just Hannah guessing from her age.

“Good evening, how can I help you?” Hannah asks, trying not to be distracted by her captivating appearance.

“Good evening. Can you recommend books on Gilic philosophy and history?”

“That’s a pretty broad request. Is there something specific you’re studying?”

“I simply want to better understand Gilic culture. I’m a Maletese expat. I recently arrived here in Greyport by steamship,” the woman explains. Her Gilic is perfect, though she speaks it with an accent that reminds Hannah of the stage performers in The Last King.

Hannah has recommendations! She takes out a scrap of paper to jot down a list of titles and the library sections where they can be found. “For a general reference, The Complete Historiography of the Gilic Commonwealth is comprehensive but I don’t recommend reading it all the way through. By which I mean I tried that once as a teenager and it was not a good time. If you want a more narrative take on history, Edward Macaque and Mary Thiers both have interesting, and conflicting, perspectives on the nation’s history. For philosophy, that depends on whether you want me to give you the books that are most well-regarded by professional philosophers, or the books that I personally think are correct.”

“I must admit I’m curious what you think are the ‘correct’ philosophy books.”

Hannah smiles, knowing that another unsuspecting library guest has fallen into her trap and now she gets to infodump about her favorite work of nonfiction. “I’m obligated to recommend Maps and Worlds by Cassandra. It’s mostly about the relationship between mental models of the world and the reality that those beliefs are supposed to represent. From there it branches off to examine how to think clearly about science, philosophy, and ethics. Cassandra’s writing kind of started a whole subculture of people who are interested in how to think more rationally and apply rationality to making the world better.” She decides not to mention that Cassandra is also widely believed to be crazy.

“That sounds intriguing, but I supposed I should also get a more mainstream philosophical reference so I have something to compare to.”

“Fair enough. For that I recommend Xalta’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It’s comprehensive but not too dense, and we keep a bunch of copies since it’s required reading for several of the humanities courses.” Hannah points her towards the right sections of the library, and a few minutes later the woman returns with a stack of books to check out.

Hannah says something about how she hopes to see the woman here again, the sort of thing that normally would just be a generic farewell but in this case she means it genuinely.

“I think you will. Are you here every day?”

“I’m a grad student, I only work here Lunday and Marketday nights. I’m Hannah, by the way.”

“Catherine. Kasewin in Maletese, but I don’t mind the gilicization,” the woman says with a smile.

// Catherine //

Catherine, whose name is not Kasewin and who has never been to Malete in her life, goes out again in the early morning, before sunrise. She wanders the streets until she crosses paths with a lone city guard out on patrol. She smiles at him as she passes, then turns around and silently follows him. There’s no one else around. She ambushes him, covering his mouth so he can’t scream for help. He whimpers against her hand, trying to beg for mercy. She sinks her fangs into his neck. She drinks carefully, and doesn’t drain nearly enough to risk killing him.

She injects a moderate dose of venom into him as she feeds. Not enough to break his mind, but enough to erase his memories and leave him suggestible. “You will give me your weapon, and the money and valuables in your pockets, and you will go home. You will remember that you were attacked by a gang of men who stole your possessions. You will not remember me.”