A Memory Called Empire

Chapter 14 opens with epigraphs from a script for Nineteen Alloy, a soap opera about war, and a local graphic novel produced in Lsel Station. Mahit doesn’t want to break rules, but ultimately decides to use the updated imago. Twelve Azalea agrees to find a neuroscientist who can be trusted with the insertion process. The next day, Mahit and Three Seagrass go to the Ministry of Science for their meeting with Ten Pearl. Despite expecting to be detained by the Sunlit, Mahit and Three Seagrass meet with him easily. After a few questions, Ten Pearl admits he all but killed Yskandr, justifying the death by echoing One Lightning’s claim of immoral technology. Mahit threatens him with legal action, but he remains unafraid, even when she mentions Nineteen Adze. He confirms she was complicit in Yskandr’s death. When Mahit accuses him of trying to kill her with the poisonous flower, he reacts strongly, denying involvement.

At a restaurant following the meeting, Mahit and Three Seagrass eat even as Mahit worries she’ll face another assassination attempt. She discusses the City’s AI system, suggesting its malfunctioning might be intentional, as revenge for Ten Pearl’s murder of Yskandr.

Chapter 15 opens with dispatches from flight control warning an imperial warship that it has entered controlled airspace and Darj Tarats’s list of inquiries made to Lsel Station’s imago database. Mahit and Three Seagrass move through the city, as they plan to meet Twelve Azalea at the main transport hub for the City. Tracked by the Mist, the security force for the Judiciary, Twelve Azalea hides in the hub. Three Seagrass sees him, and Mahit blocks him from view of the Mist. The trio race to a train, managing to evade capture, and head out of the main city to one of the outer boroughs.

The trio departs the train at Belltown 6, a densely packed collection of gray buildings, where they will meet Five Portico, Twelve Azalea’s trusted neuroscientist. They enter Five Portico’s building, which lacks many technological features. Five Portico has a prosthetic lens that telescopes in and out when she sees Mahit. Three Seagrass tries to follow protocol and introduce Five Portico to Mahit, but Five Portico interrupts her, as she already knows the trio. She asks what Mahit wants to do if the imago operation starts to fail. When Three Seagrass responds that a fully functioning ambassador should be her goal, Five Portico insists on hearing from Mahit herself. Mahit wants to live, but only if she retains her mind. When Five Portico asks for payment, Mahit panics, realizing she hadn’t thought of money. She instead offers her faulty imago, provided that Five Portico doesn’t share it with the Ministry of Science.

Chapter 16 opens with the City’s curfew warning and a message from the Teixcalaanli warship Ascension’s Red Harvest, requesting a new ambassador. Mahit calls out to Yskandr, to no avail. Five Portico injects her with anesthesia, and she drifts out of consciousness. The chapter switches to Yskandr’s perspective, as his imago comes to life in Mahit’s body during and after the surgery. He remembers Darj Tarats as a young man, himself being asked to be an ambassador, talking to Nineteen Adze about Emperor Six Direction, his own request for an imago device, and his task to protect Lsel Station from the Empire. Mahit comes to, feeling something at the base of her head before drifting back into sedation. She feels Yskandr’s love for the Emperor and his disgust at the idea of cloning him to produce Eight Antidote. She awakes again, and this time, feels Yskandr, the pain of his death. Mahit fights to live and feels Five Portico inject her with medicine again.

The narrator compares a mind to a “star-chart in reverse” (352)—combining biology and memory, pinpointed to a “single moving point of consciousness” (352). Dekakel Onchu and Darj Tarats discuss an alien threat, with Onchu sharing her fears. Tarats already knows, having pieced together gossip and information from pilots’ reports for almost two decades. As Onchu excuses him of using Lsel Station as bait, he explains the Empire has the power and will to face the alien threat. By making Lsel Station important, he believes the Empire will face other threats for them and hopefully be destroyed in the process.

Chapter 17 opens with epigraphs detailing Eleven Conifer’s death and Dekakel Onchu’s reports of imperial ships in Lsel Station space. Mahit recovers from surgery and speaks to the new imago device’s version of Yskandr. Although she remembers the previous Yskandr and his memories, she thinks he won’t return. She asks the updated Yskandr if he can decode her message. He instructs Mahit to gather paper and a pencil, and together, they translate the encrypted text. Darj Tarats’s message instructs him to avoid annexation by warning the Empire of an alien threat at specific coordinates. Yskandr tells Mahit to eat the paper and inform Emperor Six Direction.

As Mahit tells Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea about the message, Five Portico enters with a group of people who blanch at Three Seagrass’s presence. They call her a spy, and appear to be planning a revolutionary act. As Mahit defends Three Seagrass, Yskandr comments on her actions and words. Five Portico advises the trio to leave as soon as possible, considering One Lightning has soldiers patrolling the streets. She asks to speak to Mahit privately and agrees the previous imago device was sabotaged.

Three Seagrass calls a car from the Ministry of Information to pick the trio up. They walk to the train station to call from there, frightened by scenes of potential violence on the way. Planning to tell her superiors that they were surveilling anti-imperialist activists, she calls via her cloudhook and a black car arrives, spiriting the trio away toward the center of the City.