Chapter 02

What Was Counted

11 May 2026·12 min

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What Was Counted — img_top — The book was open to the same page again.

There were rules to the listing — a count, an order, a sigil. None of them, Hoyeon would learn, applied to him.

The order was supposed to be fixed. Bael was first because Bael had always been first; Buer was tenth because the index, set in Solomon's hand, declared it so. The order had not changed in three centuries. Two of the older monks would, if pressed, recite both the canonical sequence and the order of likely encroachment, which is a different list and was once maintained by an English bishop.

The Drift

But the order did change. Slowly, the way coastlines change. The boy was the first to notice because he was new at it, and new readers see things that old readers have stopped seeing.

What Was Counted — img_mid — Seventy-one names. The seventy-second waited.

"Did Marbas used to be fifth," he asked.

His grandfather, who did not look up from his rice, said, "Marbas is fifth."

"Marbas is fifth now," said the boy. "Was Marbas fifth last year."

His grandfather did look up then.

What Was Counted — img_bottom — He learned to lie before he learned which name to lie about.