Chapter One: The New Repository

`date: 2014-08-18` His fingers hovered over the keys. Reason offered a dozen warnings: unknown data source, unknown rules, a possible immersive fraud aimed specifically at him. But reason spoke quietly, while his mother's invitation to dinner still seemed to touch his ear. He changed `deceased` to `alive`. Save: nothing. Commit: still nothing. `Local reality generated. Awaiting push.` One last step. Looking at `git push`, Shen Zhou remembered his mother leading him through Locust Shade Lane when he was seven. Every act, she had said, was a stone thrown into a river. You saw the splash, not the fish struck beneath the surface. Perhaps it was a true memory. Perhaps grief had written wisdom into the mouth of the dead.