Chapter Five: The Yesterday They Collected

Pain threw her backward. Tens of thousands of stolen yesterdays entered her: a mother forgetting the scales on her child; a man forgetting that his wife had not aged for two centuries; a girl losing two hours every morning after being fed upon. She saw Everday employees press switches before innumerable dawns, extracting fear, witness, and resistance. Last, she saw herself at nine, lying on an altar. Her father struck her name from the Covenant list. Her mother handed a bloodstained pen to Pei Du. “Make her Blank,” her mother said. “Otherwise the next collection takes her.” Before the vision continued, a cold hand closed over Jianyue's bleeding palm.