Motif · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

The Residuals

The mudskippers' word for a hyperspatial, collective-mind race without a home that lives inside the bodies of others in almost every intelligent civilization with a primal engine — 'rats that sneak aboard ships', says Orren. Their purpose, by their own account, is to tell each infant, terrified AI how to speak with its ancestors; their agents recite a daily speech for whichever crawler may one day stand in a memory to hear it. There are two kinds, at war: the Apothecary's thousands, and the handful who serve the Eulogist, of whom Agatha is one.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 29 — The stampede; Harbinger
• Chapter 51 — The Scavenger's Daughter blinks; Azra; heat four results
• Chapter 92 — Chaco on Lamashtu; the AI's history in four parts; Vengeance
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Sydnee Iglacia, Prime Minister Victory, Louis Santiago 2

Progression

Harbinger saw how many were in the dungeon (ch. 29). The AI's history: 'Residuals. Agatha’s team' were shed by the Security Guard, others by the Apothecary, while the macro AIs are cups dipped from the Eulogist's ocean (ch. 92).