two-thirds of the way up one side of the bridge, perched just above the edge, was the source of the intense, purple-blue light: a smal, briliant sun.
Turning around again, cupping my hand over the blue sun, I studied the opposite horizon. The wal on that side was too far away to see. But I guessed that both sides of the great ribbon were flanked by wals. Definitely not a planet.
My hopes fel to zero. My situation had not improved in any way.
I was not home. I was very far from any home. I had been deposited on one of the great, ring-shaped weapons that had so entranced and divided my Forerunner captors.
I was marooned on a Halo.
TWO
HOW I WISH I could recover the true shape of that young human I was! Naïve, crude, unlettered, not very clever. I fear that over the last hundred thousand years, much of that has rubbed away. My
voice and base of knowledge has changed—I have no body to guide me—and so I might seem, in this story, as I tel it now, more sophisticated, weighted down by far too much knowledge.
I was not sophisticated—not in the least. My impression of myself in those days is of anger, confusion, unchecked curiosity—
but no purpose, no focused ambition.
Riser had given me focus and courage, and now, he was gone.
When I was born, the supreme Lifeshaper came to Erde-Tyrene to touch me with her wil. Erde-Tyrene was her world, her protectorate and preserve, and humans were special to her. I remember she was beautiful beyond measure, unlike my mother, who was lovely, but fairly ordinary as women go.
My family farmed for a while outside of the main human city of Marontik. After my father died in a knife fight with a water baron’s thugs, and our crops failed, we moved into the city, where my sisters and I took up menial tasks for modest pay. For a time, my sisters also served as Prayer Maidens in the temple of the Lifeshaper. They lived away from Mother and me, in a makeshift temple near the Moon Gate, in the western section of the Old City.
. . .
But I see your eyes glazing over. A Reclaimer who lacks patience! Watching you yawn makes me wish I stil had jaws and lungs and could yawn with you. You know nothing of Marontik, so I wil not bore you further with those details.
Why are you so interested in the Didact? Is he proving to be a difficulty to humans once again? Astonishing. I wil not tel you about the Didact, not yet. I wil tel this in my own way. This is the way my mind works, now. If I stil have a mind.
I am moving on.
After the Librarian (I was only an infant when I saw her) the next Forerunner I encountered was a young Manipular named Bornstelar Makes Eternal Lasting. I set out to trick him. It was the worst mistake of my young life.
Back before I met Riser, I was a rude, rough boy, always getting into trouble and stealing. I liked fighting and didn’t mind receiving into trouble and stealing. I liked fighting and didn’t mind receiving smal wounds and bruises. Others feared me. Then I started having dreams that a Forerunner would come to visit me. I made my dream-self attack and bite him and then rob him of the things he carried—treasure that I could sel in the market. I dreamed I would use this treasure to bring my sisters back from the temple to live with us.
In the real world, I robbed other humans instead.
But then one of the chamanune came to our house and inquired after me. Despite their size, chamanush were respected and we rarely attacked them. I had never robbed one because I heard stories that they banded together to punish those who hurt them.
They slipped in, whispering in the night, like marauding monkeys, and took vengeance. They were smal but smart and fierce and mostly came and went as they pleased. This one was friendly enough. He said his name was Riser and he had seen someone like me in a dream: a rough, young hamanush who needed his guidance.
In my mother’s crude hovel, he took me aside and said he would give me good work if I didn’t cause
Turning around again, cupping my hand over the blue sun, I studied the opposite horizon. The wal on that side was too far away to see. But I guessed that both sides of the great ribbon were flanked by wals. Definitely not a planet.
My hopes fel to zero. My situation had not improved in any way.
I was not home. I was very far from any home. I had been deposited on one of the great, ring-shaped weapons that had so entranced and divided my Forerunner captors.
I was marooned on a Halo.
TWO
HOW I WISH I could recover the true shape of that young human I was! Naïve, crude, unlettered, not very clever. I fear that over the last hundred thousand years, much of that has rubbed away. My
voice and base of knowledge has changed—I have no body to guide me—and so I might seem, in this story, as I tel it now, more sophisticated, weighted down by far too much knowledge.
I was not sophisticated—not in the least. My impression of myself in those days is of anger, confusion, unchecked curiosity—
but no purpose, no focused ambition.
Riser had given me focus and courage, and now, he was gone.
When I was born, the supreme Lifeshaper came to Erde-Tyrene to touch me with her wil. Erde-Tyrene was her world, her protectorate and preserve, and humans were special to her. I remember she was beautiful beyond measure, unlike my mother, who was lovely, but fairly ordinary as women go.
My family farmed for a while outside of the main human city of Marontik. After my father died in a knife fight with a water baron’s thugs, and our crops failed, we moved into the city, where my sisters and I took up menial tasks for modest pay. For a time, my sisters also served as Prayer Maidens in the temple of the Lifeshaper. They lived away from Mother and me, in a makeshift temple near the Moon Gate, in the western section of the Old City.
. . .
But I see your eyes glazing over. A Reclaimer who lacks patience! Watching you yawn makes me wish I stil had jaws and lungs and could yawn with you. You know nothing of Marontik, so I wil not bore you further with those details.
Why are you so interested in the Didact? Is he proving to be a difficulty to humans once again? Astonishing. I wil not tel you about the Didact, not yet. I wil tel this in my own way. This is the way my mind works, now. If I stil have a mind.
I am moving on.
After the Librarian (I was only an infant when I saw her) the next Forerunner I encountered was a young Manipular named Bornstelar Makes Eternal Lasting. I set out to trick him. It was the worst mistake of my young life.
Back before I met Riser, I was a rude, rough boy, always getting into trouble and stealing. I liked fighting and didn’t mind receiving into trouble and stealing. I liked fighting and didn’t mind receiving smal wounds and bruises. Others feared me. Then I started having dreams that a Forerunner would come to visit me. I made my dream-self attack and bite him and then rob him of the things he carried—treasure that I could sel in the market. I dreamed I would use this treasure to bring my sisters back from the temple to live with us.
In the real world, I robbed other humans instead.
But then one of the chamanune came to our house and inquired after me. Despite their size, chamanush were respected and we rarely attacked them. I had never robbed one because I heard stories that they banded together to punish those who hurt them.
They slipped in, whispering in the night, like marauding monkeys, and took vengeance. They were smal but smart and fierce and mostly came and went as they pleased. This one was friendly enough. He said his name was Riser and he had seen someone like me in a dream: a rough, young hamanush who needed his guidance.
In my mother’s crude hovel, he took me aside and said he would give me good work if I didn’t cause
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