Hello, listeners. Be advised that this show is an immersive audio experience. It may seem like sounds are coming from the sides or behind you. Listener discretion is advised, as this content is intended for adult audiences only.

Cucode presents Birds of Empire, created by Jason Liu.

The Great Unraveling.

She saw him bent slightly over a fire when she saw him for the first time. He looked then much like he did on the last night that they were together,

but this moment was the beginning of the in-between, the part that so many say is the best,

the first of the middle, the start of the rest of it. Her hair was long and

tangled like elk vines, and she had a habit of cocking her head side long so the curtain of her locks would give her

cover to peek from beneath. Her weight back in her hips. Sometimes she'd stand sentry

until the corner of one eye felt tight, at which point she'd relax and shift and remember herself.

Push the vines away, blink her eyes. It was during a spate of such blinking that he came into her life.

The segmented nature of the scene made it feel like there were many of him.

Blink, stand, blink, turn, blink, back, blink, hands.

As he stood, shadow seemed to rush with purpose to shade his face into perfect form.

Beautiful. His skin was damp, the deep color of deafer. She had an arrowhead in her hand

for reasons she could never place and drag the tip of her thumb over it, releasing a prick of blood.

He would remember the face she was making as one of someone that wished to be elsewhere.

Yet, she wanted only to be there.

I want only to be here, she thought, as they talked about things that surrounded them, hoping they would never run out.

Green Palm was going through much hardship and change.

The shaman kept the people from hitting bottom by reminding them of the old

tales in reviving the old gods into their hearts. It was during the first festival of Yalu

the River God that she and he became them. And it was them that passed hours upon the banks,

...