This Is How You Lose the Time War

Red navigates through many strands, mechanically completing her objectives. From Beijing to the Amazon Basin, Red executes her duties to keep Commandant off her back. She knows there is a shadow following her everywhere. She doesn’t sleep much anymore but thinks often of Blue and her letters, which she has committed to memory. She worries that Commandant has found out about the letters or that Blue found her last letter repulsive.

Red’s latest mission involves burning two astronauts alive on their launch pad and it makes her cry, so she runs to another strand and hides in a lake. Canada geese land on the water near her and one rests its head on Red’s shoulder, leaving behind two feathers on which Blue has written a note. Blue shares that she is now married to a man and the Garden is slowly working to braid a new thread. She confesses her love of words and wants Red to know these things about her. A great horned owl attacks the goose a little further away, and the seeker takes the heart from the carcass and eats it.