Thirty-Five

A new Carryx librarian addresses the human survivors, outlining their status as a subject species and their new roles within the Carryx hierarchy. Dafyd is elevated to a position of authority as the intermediary between humans and the Carryx, tasked with managing his people and ensuring discipline. The chapter ends with Dafyd privately revealing to his companions his covert intention to learn the Carryx's weaknesses and ultimately destroy them.

The new librarian delivers a formal address to the human survivors, explaining their transformed circumstances. The Carryx have preserved humanity's homeworld and culture rather than destroying it, incorporating humans into the vast Carryx moiety system as a subject species. Individual humans will be separated and assigned to various duties based on their utility to the Carryx. The librarian announces that Dafyd has been selected as the human liaison, responsible for all communication between the human moiety and the Carryx. Humans who approach the librarian directly without Dafyd will be killed. When Dafyd questions why the previous librarian was killed, he learns it was executed by the Carryx because it had been saved by an animal—an unbearable shame in their hierarchy. After the librarian departs, Dafyd sits with the remaining survivors: Campar, Tonner Freis, Jessyn, Jellit, Rickar, and others. He reflects on the losses—Else, Synnia, Nöl, and others who died in the failed rebellion. As warships rise from the ziggurats, Dafyd experiences a moment of clarity and acceptance of their situation. He begins to reveal his thinking to the group: understanding that the Carryx have different axioms and blind spots, and that their people could become "grit in the gears" of the Carryx system. When Rickar challenges him on his newfound authority, Dafyd commits to a long-term strategy of learning everything about the Carryx and destroying them, framing it as his personal war.