Shades in Shadow by N.K. Jemisin

Author:N.K. Jemisin [Jemisin, N.K.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780356506890
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2015-07-27T23:00:00+00:00

The Maelstrom pays a visit. The world doesn’t end. Alas. Sieh does end, though; stupid, ridiculous Sieh. Took him long enough.

Glee gives him a name.

Perhaps being immortal…is not wholly pointless.

* * *

Much, much later, the god whose name no one else will ever know stands atop the Pier of Sky, which now is little more than a shard of rubble jutting out from the world’s most magnificent grave cairn. It’s not very stable, but he’ll be all right. He’s a god. That’s…all right, too. Not terrible, at least. Could be better.

He knows the manifestation of his other, former self the way he knows his own skin. (When he has skin.) It’s strange, and always will be, to see a face that so reflects his own, though of course his is the inferior copy. For countless aeons they communicated with each other only through messages written on fogged mirrors and the like. (Toward the end, the only thing he ever wrote was, “How much longer?” And Nahadoth would answer, “Not long now.”) They stand in silence awhile, looking at each other for the second time.

“You’ve found yourself,” Nahadoth says.

“Mmm-hmm. Even got a name now.” Two, actually, one of them bestowed upon him by his fellow godlings. He hates it: Beloved. But at least he has the other name. It is precious. With it, everything is easier to endure.

Nahadoth nods. “I’m glad to see you well.”

“And I you.” He gazes at the god as hungrily as he gazes at the night sky—not that there’s a real difference. He can never get enough of such terrible beauty. But there are courtesies to be exchanged, commiserations. “So. About Sieh.”

“He is dead.” The words are careless, and the god’s voice is inflectionless. It is a lie. Nahadoth’s head tilts up, toward the mirror of the starry sky. “I think.”

“You think?”

“There is…something.” The god’s eyes have narrowed, as though he is squinting across an unimaginable distance in an effort to see something he can barely make out. “A suspicion, on the other side of nothingness.”

Sieh was a horrible father and a wretched friend and a barely competent employee, completely unworthy of being missed or mourned. But. “What do you suspect?”

That luminous head shakes. “I will not discuss it. The most minute possibilities are affected by observation.” As if to emphasize this, Nahadoth then pins him with a glance. “What are your intentions now?”

How amusing to see the living embodiment of darkness and chaos change the subject. But this conversation with Nahadoth is interesting enough that Nahadoth’s shadow decides to play along. “Now? I intend to live, as Yeine bade me.”

As if speaking her name summons her, there is a flicker and Yeine appears, too. For the god whose name is a precious, secret thing, this makes him happier than he will ever let either of them see.

“About time,” she says. She’s smiling.

He shrugs. The shrug is another lie. He’s gotten it honestly. “Well, I’m not very good at having parents. You can’t expect me to listen to everything you say.

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