Summary

Matropolis, Mat’s latest model, is underway in the living room at the start of chapter one. Clay has purchased the audio books of the Dragon-Song Chronicles for Neel, but they are on cassette tapes. Clay listens to them in order to convert them to an mp3. He thinks about Penumbra, who has disappeared without a trace. He tries locating him online, contacting Muriel, and then he considers decoding Penumbra’s codex vitae. He texts Kat who refuses. Since the failure of the Great Decoding, Kat has thrown herself into her work. As he listens to the audio book, he notices a line that he doesn’t recognize from the books. He checks the date of production on the tapes and it was shortly after Moffat’s problems with Unbroken Spine. He thinks it must be connected and opts to reach...