Summary

In “Sacrificial Beasts,” the narrator introduces the sacrificial beasts. The males were known to speak no human language and to be vicious fighters. The women were beautiful and well-spoken. They lived in tribes and were nearly immortal, but they also loved to destroy themselves. The males died more often than the females because of their constant fighting. They had been endangered and the humans have set up reserves and breeding programs, but still the beasts killed one another. The top ten floors of Cloudtop Tower in Yong’an acted as a sanctuary for 56 beasts. It was the biggest center for sacrificial beast research in the world.

The narrator’s niece, Lucia, went to visit the beasts with her class, but came home crying because she had seen one of the male beasts slice its own belly open in front of...