How It All Goes Down
Overheard
- Our narrator overhears (chapter title alert!) a conversation between a man and a woman. Their conversation gives us a little background and worldbuilding.
(1) Our narrator's name is Wanderer, but she might choose a new name for herself. (2) The man is a Healer and the woman is a Seeker. He's nice and gentle. She's a little shrill and scary. - When the Healer and Seeker quit their bickering, Wanderer does a little introspection, thinking about all her past lives on different planets. In case she does want a new name, we have a suggestion for her: Shirley MacLaine.
- She also worries about that voice she heard. What if her new human host is so strong that it takes her over instead of the other way around?
- Wanderer probes around some more, looking for more memories, more clues. She finds some—a desire to find someone named Sharon—but she also encounters blank spots, "as if this brain had been damaged" (2.75)
- Before she can investigate further, the female voice, the Seeker, notices she's awake and speaks to her.
(3) It seems there was a war between whatever our narrator and these people are and the human race. The humans lost, "outnumbered […] a million to one" (2.46). Yeah, those are bad odds.