7:18 am, October 3, 2055

Jack stared down at her limp form. Part of his brain was working furiously trying to think of what had happened, what was going on. The rest of his brain was calm and detached.

He had met Connie on the train five years ago. She had been reading an old paperback book. He knew the author, and loved the old paperbacks himself, so he worked up the courage to introduce himself. They got into a discussion about favorite authors, and ended up talking about dinner recipes. It wasn’t until their second date that they talked about Nanocules, and whether things were better now or not.

I fear the rest of our journey through the tunnels will bore you, and so I shall carefully edit out that which remains incidental. Suffice it to say that there were a great many adventures had with me and my pilgrim as we wandered; a few poems of note, though none deserving of praise.

We spoke little, though it became quite clear that we both understood that the other was searching for the Encinidine. Did we ever truly decide to work together? Perhaps not. All I knew was that somewhere in these tunnels lay the next step on the path. The purportedly knowledgeable Sparker had said so.

Down I slid, for how long I do not know. It was a descent most familiar for me, a descent most familiar to all, I am sure.

We have all fallen. Whether through fortune or failure, a steady descent surrounded by guiding sides of metal or wood, that gently nudge us to the left or to the right, in hopes the landing is much softer.

We never look up when we fall. We cannot bear to note how far we have slid, how impossible it will be to return to where we were. Only down, to prepare ourselves for the moment when the fall ceases, for it must cease some day.

“I cannot fathom,” muttered Sir Juhrooz, as he turned the paper this way and that, “what the purpose of this procedure actually is.”

“Oftentimes,” Mr. Porist carefully positioned his sheers around his earlobe, “the purpose is the procedure.”

My Doppewassl friend stared at the paper for a moment more, before slowly nodding. “For seven days and six nights, I and my fellow trainees caught a drop of water as it slid down a pane of glass. We would then let the drop fall from our fingertips onto the top of the pane, and catch it again and again. We did not know what this was supposed to teach us, and even now I still do not know. Perhaps it taught me nothing, or perhaps I learned something more than mere knowledge. I sometimes remember how it felt, each drop landing on my finger, then falling again after I crooked my knuckle. I remember noting whether I caught the drop earlier or later, I remember trying to flex my finger in different ways to make the drop fall faster or slower, I remember counting how many times I had caught the drop, and forgetting the number after so many times. Sometimes I wonder if our master was trying to teach us the same.”

November 29, 2028

In reaction to rampant globalization and free trade policies, the Universal Workers Rights Act, or UWRA, is released by the new International Union Movement. The Movement’s aim is to utilize social media to unionize the global workforce. “If companies can move across the world,” the preamble of the UWRA states, “then it is only just that the workers of the world are given the same opportunities. We are human the whole world over, and deserve the same basic human rights, no matter which country we were born in.”

You walk forward, or back, you’ll get to where you’re going. Might take days, or weeks, or hours, or seconds, you’ll be where you are, and that’s where you’ll be.

It is at this point, the moment that my merry band plunged deeper into this ominous and portentous domain — a place laden with tales of ominous forbearance and caustic airs — that I must pause to talk of time.

“Well then,” Mx. Image shuffled about, looking to and fro. “We are, indeed, in the Sibilants, yes? And yet I have heard countless tales of its nature. Indeed, entering the Sibilants is as easy as opening the door, but leaving again, well…”

“There is no escape,” Sir Juhrooz nodded. “Bound about by sinew and custom, once you have entered the Sibilants, it is here that you will die.”

“Stuff and nonsense,” I assured my companions. “Why, there are at least seven poems regarding the Sibilants in the Guild’s libraries, and how could those poems exist if their creators had not left again? I myself have met several people in the course of my life who have detailed the internals of this macabre domicile, and I am certain I didn’t meet them here. One might as well say that Gnatted Hollow truly is invisible. True, there way out may not be as obvious as the way in, but I am certain some method exists. We must simply find it.”

I hope you have never seen the Sibilants. I hope you have never lived in nor traveled past the Sibilants and its darkened halls and empty rooms. I have no doubt that there are those who love living among the bones of the long dead, but I cannot imagine what kind of beings they might be. They are certainly not of my ilk.

I, for my part, had never set foot behind the ivory doors that lead to the hollow bones of the Underheel, and so I was quite excited, perhaps even eager, to walk the horrid hallways of the Sibilants and meet the dark denizens therein. Foolish? Perhaps. Reckless? Most certainly.

July 9, 2027

Nanocules become capable of administering major gene therapy. Nanocules are injected that scan and record the patient’s entire genome. The Banks then instruct the Nanocules how to painstakingly reconstruct the patient’s genes, removing minor flaws and genetic risks. The process is anonymous, non-invasive, and takes one month to perform.

Nicknamed ‘scrubbing,’ the process is prohibitively expensive, except for the richest.

October 1, 2027

Gene therapy prices drop to the point where the majority of Nanocule users can afford the process. The Banks begin tailoring various medications to specific patients with the information gleaned from their genes. The effectiveness of these tailored cures increases drastically, while side effects all but vanish.

So we returned to the Grand Junction, reveling all the while. The Dworgs were delivered to the local authorities without delay once the Galaship had docked once more. They marched in single file with their stone faces held high, their twig-beards clattering as they walked. They were met by a contingent of the Anointed Bulwark along with a veritable garment-rack of shackles, irons, chains, and cuffs.

At the front of the vanguard was the chiseled nose of my dear Captain de’Laisey.