Web novel

Matter Of Sovereignty

Name: Matter Of Sovereignty
Author: dunder

by dunder

Free to read at the source

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About

"What do we do?" Six people. One island. Zero options. That was Naomi's question on the first morning after the crash, and Arthur Wright gave her the only answer he had. A list. Four items. Sequenced by urgency. Not because he was the hero. Not because he was the leader. Because his brain, faced with a problem it couldn't panic its way out of, stopped panicking and started counting — and the count said they had maybe three days before the cold finished what the crash started. He was wrong about one thing. The island wasn't going to let them die. "You gave up sleep? " "It wasn't useful anymore." "Arthur. Sleep is — that's not — you can't just trade sleep." "I already did." He builds a civilization on black sand and living stone. He creates five children who inherit his power, his relics, and his remarkable talent for not saying the one thing that needed saying. He forges an empire. He makes four Trades — four things surrendered and crystallized into objects his children will carry long after he's gone. His rest. His sight. His empathy. His humanity. Each one leaves a mark on his skin that doesn't fade. Each one leaves a different kind of mark on the people around him. "Father." Primus, age seventeen, spine straight, the weight of being first in every line of his face. "What do you actually want from us?" A pause. "For you to be ready." "Ready for what?" "Everything." Three thousand years later, in the outer dark of the Solari System, a boy sits alone with something bitter dissolving on his tongue. "This is a terrible idea," he says, to no one in particular. He swallows it anyway. He's been laughing at the wrong moments his whole life. It runs in the family. Matter of Sovereignty is the story of what it costs to build something that lasts.