You are listening to a Clarkshould magazine podcast with your host and narrator Kate Baker.

Greetings, Clarksional Citizens.

My house of this podcast finds you well as we stumble into November.

Issue 230.

I want to thank each and every one of you who has dropped me an email over at Kate at Clarksholdmagine.com.

I want to thank each and every one of you who

have bought a subscription or checked a few bucks away via a donation or through patreon.com

for slash clarksworld. There are a bunch of ways that you can help support us, bring you these

fabulous stories, the nonfiction, the podcast, the art. A lot of work goes into each and every issue

every single month, and we simply cannot do it without you. So thank you if you've made any sort

of monetary contribution. Our first story for the month is titled The Stone Played at Tengen.

It is by R. H. Wesley. R. H. Wesley is expected of fiction author with a background in philosophy.

His short fiction has been nominated for an Aurora Award.

He works as a programmer and spends the rest of his time playing board games and camping.

He lives in Toronto with his wife, cat, and dog.

And I implore you, please go back to listen to a world of milk and promises.

Now, I hope you that you can sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

The moon was full that night in the summer of May G29, when 360 new stars appeared in the sky,

glowing even brighter than the Capitol's newly installed electric lamps. They formed a 19-by-19 grid.

My wife, Suru, and I were out getting some air "'so that she might breathe better before she tried to sleep.

"'She stretched out her arm, disturbingly slender,

"'to measure the constellation against her hand.

...