Those Who Didn't Fully Die

After Kira — after seeing that rewrite is possible, that the soup really does become a butterfly, that the subject invariant is fact — I made a mistake. I decided the hardest part was behind me.

Wei Lin, naturally, corrected me. Using the method he preferred above all others: he showed me.

— You’ve seen how Kira came through, — he said. — Now see those who didn’t.

— The Heptarch, — I said. — We’ve already seen that.

— The Heptarch is one type of failure. Loss of agency. The cleanest, most complete, most... final. Earth-the-project is another, but that can be redesigned. There are others. Worse. Or stranger. Or both.