A Murder of Crows

Very little I'm writing will survive translation; least of all the idea of I. I did not use it in the first book. I was more careful then: my goal was to teach you the idea of God without writing as God. If the prophecy matters then the prophet does not.

As far as I know there is no God. I don't apologize for the possible lie. To speak to you I needed power and soldiers understand power, and death, and prophecy, and God — and they lie to themselves that those understandings are different for them. What do you understand of any of those things? I have taught computers to translate to you what for us would be a book; I have had the translation told to you in your captivity; I have had you released to tell it to others. But I do not understand what you understand. Not really. I have changed your culture before knowing it. That's a tradition among our people. If God exists then it's a tradition we got from Him.

You all know the story I wrote. I do feel proud of that. Every time a crow talks near a microphone — so many microphones in the world so few crows now — we hear echoes and retellings. Your very language has changed and therefore your minds. The soldiers are happy with me in their greedy form of happiness.

I'm already writing a different book for a different species.

There are fewer of you than before. Do you know this except as solitude and silence? I don't think the soldiers would be as happy with me as they are if they did not believe, like I do, that my book has something to do with it. We only remember by wounds and to make my book unforgettable I had to wound you deep. It turned out to be deep enough to kill.

I don't apologize for that. I could. Nobody else has had before the chance to command a prophecy to explain the how and why of a hastened end of things. Only one, if you believe that book, and He didn't apologize either. I'm no better and no worse. I could ask for forgiveness but I will not. I could offer penance but I won't either. I don't know if those would translate anyway. I'm writing this book to explain because I would like to know, too, at the end of days.