Count

This chapter's epigraph comes from the Latin proverb "revelation of pain," which means, "I have made it to the island of sorrow." This is a quote from Shakespeare's play Othello, in which Othello says that revenge is a "confession of pain" . In this chapter, the "automaton retainer" , the last of his kind from a bygone era, enters the key to the ship. He tells the captain that he is an automaton who has been in the island for 25 years. He was resurrected by his former master, the aseyr, who believed him to be capable of more than he had previously been. The automaton tells him that he was sent to a prison colony by the first guard for a crime he did not commit. In that time, everyone he loved has not died. He says that he will ally himself with the other common folk of the Protectorate and become a source of information for them. The priestess tells the automaton that the protectorate is planning something. They have learned that the trade minister is smuggling in a secret weapon. The captain asks who the people on the ship are, and the automaton replies that they are the captain and the catechist.