Carpenter makes a deal to get Hayward home in one piece. Paige puts forward a proposition to the Children of the Woundtree. Carson attempts a risky negotiation.[2]
| ATTENTION: SPOILERS AHEAD! Beyond this point, major plot spoilers are expected. Continue at your own risk. |
Description[]
The Peninsulan Army[]
A Sergeant yells the briefing to his men. He tells them that they are pursuing the Children of the Woundtree following the attack in Glottage. Private Tainsley is elated by the news, repeating the words that Val told him. The Sergeant tells him to stop.
The Wreckage of The Britomart[]
The plane smoulders on the river. The safety message continues to play. Carpenter wakes up, gasping in pain. She calls out, and hears Hayward respond. She struggles with the seatbelt, before tumbling to the new floor of the upside-down plane. She makes her way towards Hayward, who is trapped in his seat. She asks if he’s dying anymore now then he was before, and he replies that he is’t. Carpenter’s hurt too, something is embedded in her side. She refuses to take a look. No one else survived. Cross is next to Hayward, and he still holds his champagne glass. Carpenter observes this before beginning a prayer to the Cairn Maiden on Cross’ behalf. Hayward admires the sentiment. He asks Carpenter if she will say it over him. She, once again, refuses to answer his question. She won’t let him die. She had failed at every test in life, she refuses to fail in getting him back to Paige. She manages to free Hayward from his seat, and his grunts in pain.
They hear the sounds of cars approaching. Hayward asks how good search-and-rescue is out here. Carpenter replies that it’s not this good. They hear Sister Cull calling out distantly to the Trawler-man. They are annoyed and vaguely amused, but not surprised. Carpenter comes up with a plan. She tells Hayward to stay hidden, and that once they’re gone he should make for the Grace and get Paige and the others to safety. The implication is that she won’t go with him. Hayward refuses, grabbing for Carpenter and telling her that it’s bullshit. Carpenter promises to catch up to him. She repeats that they will visit the Burnished Mirror and get a haircut together. Hayward tells her to be reasonable. She replies that she never has been. He responds that he can’t walk. She promises to get him a car.
She crawls to a hole in the cabin and meets the water. She curses out the Trawler-man. This is her final offering to him, and if he delivers he can do what he likes to her. And then she plunges into the water.
Outside, Sister Cull and her disciples are searching the ruins of the plane. She says that the Trawler-man always provides, and Carpenter arrives in time to tell her that he does. Cull gasps, swinging her rifle around and aiming it at Cull. Carpenter greets her. Cull tells her that she died. Carpenter, amused, tells her she’s died at least twice at this point. She lists some of the events that she has survived to get here. She concludes that the Trawler-man doesn’t seem to want her dead. She wonders if she’s being kept alive for some historic ending, something that matters more than the Wither Mark. She makes an offering to Cull - she can take her in and she’ll come quietly, so that Faulkner can find out what the Trawler-man is keeping her alive for; in return Hayward will get safe passage and a vehicle. Or she can try and kill her now, and they can find out what happens next. Cull tells her she’s bluffing, she can barely stand. Carpenter reminds her it’s not her strength she’d be reckoning with. Cull remarks that the Trawler-man would accept her body like any other. Carpenter tells her to go ahead.
As Carpenter stands, we hear the whispers of the Cairn Maiden. It grows louder. Carpenter walks forward, asking if Faulkner has told Cull how much the Trawler-man loves Carpenter. She goes through the series’ events she has experienced. She asks if Faulkner has told her how death follows her, and yet has not yet claimed her. Cull is immensely frightened, all of a sudden, and her rifle falls from her hands. The whispers fade. Carpenter picks up the rifle and hands it back to Cull. She pleads with her.
Hayward winces in pain. He is loaded into the driver’s seat. Carpenter tells him to drive fast and not look back. He tells her that they’ll wait for her. That a promise is a promise. After he pulls away, she quietly agrees with him. Cull tells her disciples to cuff her. Carpenter groans in pain as they do so.
In her truck, Cull tries to hail Sibling Rane at the Grand Aquifer. We can hear Carpenter being led to the truck in pain in the background. No one responds to Cull. Cull is shaken by this, and starts the engine of the vehicle.
Vote At The Grace[]
GGR plays an obituary to James Hayward. They have released security footage, which contradicts official reports. They call him a former police officer, who was expelled with disgrace after his role in a religious atrocity occurring in the North-Western territory. Paige turns off the radio. She is crying. She lifts a pair of secateurs and cuts off a thorn from her skin. She comments that her god is starving. She is pleased at this revelation.
In the canteen, rumours about the incident are spreading. Moss spots Paige and announces her arrival, causing the hubbub to end. Paige addresses her people, telling them about the attack in Glottage. She denies that any of this was their doing, reminding her people that it is a lie. She tells them that the Legislatures have always known their location. That they are coming for them. She says that they were never going to win. Their enemy has the power as long as they have the ability to shape history. Paige tells everyone about her experience in the Polluted Lands with the Maiden. When a god cannot feed it rages, and then it dies. She tells them that she doesn’t need a nation. She just needs one nook where their light doesn’t fall, somewhere that is hers and hers alone. A home that they cannot repossess. That is impossible here. She proposes that they head out in the Polluted Lands, before the government arrives. A final pilgrimage. Moss is unsure, believing it is madness. Elgin supports Paige’s proposal. Paige tells everyone that she is asking them to give up their faith as well as their comfort. She says that if she cannot get rid of the tree in herself, then she will eventually have to leave them too. She proposes a vote. Dan also supports Paige. He says that if their god loves them, then it will let them go in time. If it can’t then they’ll be happily rid of it. Applause rings out through the Grace. They give out pens and paper.
Elgin and Paige count the votes. It is 338 votes in favour, and 148 against. They are leaving. Elgin reminds her that they’ll leave a memorial here for their friends - for Hayward, Carpenter, and Shrue. They’ll leave some supplies behind and instructions on how to follow because their fight isn’t over. They will start packing - no prayer stamps, no branded products, no personal gods. Anyone staying behind gets an equal share of supplies. Elgin points out that they could really use them. But she eventually relents. They go to share the news.
Carson's House[]
Carson pulls up in his car. He is speaking to Greg, one of the Grindinglord’s people, on the phone. He speaks about the political situation and of the upcoming attack on the Woundtree’s people. He is planning to sign the Parish of Tide and Flesh over to the Grindinglord’s people. He tells them that part of the Trawler-man’s mythology is confusing - the two faces. He proposes that they come up with separate mascots. He tells them that he plans to hand in his notice today, take a few months off before starting with the Grindinglord’s people. He hangs up and gets out of the vehicle. We can hear a garden sprinkler.
When Carson enters his house, he drops off his keys but hears a voice. He calls out to Hawthorne, expecting them to be here. We hear Shrue’s broadcast playing. Carson stops in his tracks, seeing Val sat at his desk. She breathes hard. Carson closes the door behind him, at her instruction. Carson is nervous at first, but then tells her the message she was supposed to receive. He moves onto his next lie when that doesn’t work. He resorts to fake flattery. He says he can bend the rules for her and make her a god. Val is not taken with the idea. Carson grabs himself a can of Tranquili-Tea Seven. He says that his assistant is working late, and that neither of them want her hurt. Val says that he already sent everyone home. Carson chuckles, figuring it out quickly. He tells her that he is not responsible for what happened to her, he says she has a right to be angry. He says he can have an enquiry for that and hold people accountable. He calls himself her first true apostle. Val tells him that she is not a god. Carson takes on a fatherly approach. This doesn’t work either. He tells her that she can get better, Val says that she’s not going to get better, and neither is he or anyone else. She says it’s too late for them to escape the world that he’s built. That he’s won. Carson takes a moment, before reminding her that he is just one guy. He is not the government, he is just a civil servant.
All at once, he realises his words aren’t working. He pours his drink. He repeats something his predecessor once told him. He asks her if she’s the best answer they’ve got. She says that something like her could never be their answer. Carson laughs and tells her to get it over with. Val asks what he thinks she’s going to do. He tells her that she’ll do the same thing she always does. He tells her to stop wasting his time. He says that she really is a god - she’s not really a saint or a person, she’s just like them. They threaten and hurt them when it amuses them, and then they make them die. He says that they also have to listen to her.
He says Shrue was right, they should have never created her. He calls her “A god that lectures you while it eats you.” He wonders if they could see all gods faces, then they’d know they’re all hateful.
Val tells Carson to take a seat. He does so. She asks him what he wanted to be as a child. She says she wanted to be a ballerina. She’d heard that they retire young. She would dance onstage and dazzle everyone. Then, she would retire and spend the rest of her life reading in a hammock in some wooden cabin. She begged her mother for lessons. She never had it in her. Carson, for the first time, is honest. He says he wanted to be a milkman. Val doesn’t mock him. He remembers a milkman in his village in the moorlands. That he knew everyone, and everyone loved him. He could always find something to say. Carson wanted to be liked by people as much as he was, and was always scared that they wouldn’t. Val tells him that he was a milkman. She gives him a happy and fulfilling life. He didn’t die alone, he died with grace. When he died, his kindness outlived him. Carson experiences it, he believes it. He offers Val a small kindness - telling her that she was a dancer and had the life she wanted and deserved. She sits with him, her hand squeezing his as he dies. And she thanks him.
Trivia[]
- As a child, Val wanted to be a ballerina.
- Growing up, Carson wanted to be a milkman.