The counter-narrative is unexpected. It is the only story of the future, the only one which by definition cannot be historically true. It represents itself as a human mind composed of other minds, cannibalistic and osmotic. It is alien to Hunter’s creation, a strange voice inside her head, with Hunter’s identity comparably foreign in Neith’s own. Gnomon’s flavour is dry and inorganic, like the air after a fireworks display. Its pride is big enough to fill a universe by itself.