Page 92 of As You Wake, Break the Shell

Idiots.

Tell me about being a pilot

while I work.

It is the thing I love most, and I

don’t know if anybody should

be doing it. What the corps

does is vital, I believe that. I

bring people water and fuel. I

am so proud of my wings. But

I also don’t feel that it’s right, to

not give rorquals a choice in the

matter. Colibri has shaped

me irreversibly, and I don’t

mean the damage that led me to

you—I mean how I understand

the world, how I understand

myself. I fly to the moons on

the back of a creature profound

and beautiful, and I bask in

the stars that hide behind the

clouds, and I know that she

and I belong there, that we are

built out of the same atoms

forged inside suns that will one

day scatter back to where they

came from, and no matter what

shape we take, we will always be

something bright. And yet, that

same perspective is what makes

me question what we have done