Page 93 of As You Wake, Break the Shell

to her species.

Do you know we don’t

understand how they fly? Sails of

flesh catching solar wind, sure,

but it doesn’t account for their

true speed, the speed we deny

them. We think they play with

magnetic fields, somehow. We

think. We custom-bred their

bodies, we sewed hardware into

our brains, we built a bridge

between two unrelated biologies,

and yet we still don’t know. We

settlers, we do this with so many

things. We think the universe is

ours to manipulate, whether we

understand it or not. Take first,

ask later. But I never would’ve

come to this thinking if I hadn’t

gone out there with her. I never

would’ve had cause to question if I

hadn’t first believed. It’s a paradox.

And it fucks me right up.

Show me how to help with

your plants.

They are the thing I love most,

and they carry ghosts within

them. Echoes and shades of the

same world that shot us out like

spores. This one—this is a desert