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Gwydion is why he thought for a second that Math wouldn’t catch him and Gilfaethwy. Goewin was bound to tell the king what had happened to her when he got back from war.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Perhaps he’s like one of those compulsive liars who seem to want to be caught?

    Apprentice
    There’s something to that. But it’s more. He’s missing the moral element to his character. He’s like a poet who sees everything in his work as a technical, rather than a human, problem.
    Isn’t it interesting how we’re being turned into animals that are higher and higher up the food chain? What eats wolves? Not many creatures, whereas deer and boar are staple foods for forest dwellers. Not even humans hunt wolves for food.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    So what have we learned so far about the person who’s programmed this world?

    Apprentice
    He’s created a realm which is highly sophisticated, much more evolved than we might have expected.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Yes, that is a puzzle. And we know that it’s generative, that it creates stories beyond its own scope, with the children we’ve made here in the forest.

    Apprentice
    Who knows what kind of narrative those children could generate?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Absolutely. There’s something else I can’t quite put my finger on, but which is much clearer in this third punishment. It’s a world which is…

    Apprentice
    Dog eat dog? Or, rather, wolf eat pig? Do you mean predatory?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    It’s not quite that, but it’s close. It’s something to do with how this programme treats the body.

    Apprentice
    That’d be the magic aspect of things. The way wizards take bodies and do what they want with them.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Do you think the Mastermind is a wizard?

    Apprentice
    Well, yes, in a technical sense, in that he makes the rules of the game and we have to abide by them.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    But I still can’t get those three missing crew members out of my mind. The two men and a woman.

    Apprentice
    Like the three absent children. Sorry, I don’t know what made me say that. The third one, the wolf cub, isn’t even born yet.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    I still believe that the story of what happened to the crew is locked in here. Might as well continue with our year of being wolves.

    Apprentice
    Yessir! I wouldn’t have believed that it was possible to have a keener olfactory sense than a pig, but I’m getting news of fresh meat down near the river. Do you smell what I’m smelling?
    Care to run with me for a while?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    I do. I think we’re about to have a feast.

    Apprentice
    Come on, she-wolf. Hurry up and let’s go! The crows are already there.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Your eyes, with the dark circles around the light irises are terrifying.

    Apprentice
    Come on, slowcoach!

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Those eyes. For a moment, I saw something watching me through them. Something that has no concern at all for my welfare. It took a long, deep look, as if it were calmly trying to work me out.

    Apprentice
    Ah, there’s the corpse!

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Before it destroys me.
    The male wolf’s faster than me and when I catch up, he’s in a frenzy of eating. Hey! Leave some for me!

    Apprentice
    A fawn. I plunge in my jowls and wear the blood like light on my face.

    *

    Synapse Log 4 Feb 2210, 18:50

    Apprentice
    I’m beginning to like Campion. He’s smarter than he looks. Though I don’t know what he’s on about half the time. Clever of him to take the female roles. He’s been respectful. After that rape when I was Goewin, I don’t think I could have been the passive one in all that incest and bestiality. He’s not to know what happened to me on Mars surface. I’ve had to work hard to hide it in the Joint Thought Channel, but I’m pretty sure that he hasn’t a clue. A repeat of that would destroy me. I