Summary

Part I is titled “Stories of Old.” The section opens with three verses from Revelations: 30 that describe the Abyss where a dragon is bound for 1,000 years. Chapter 1, titled “East,” opens with a girl named Tane at the edge of the sea where she sees a stranger emerge. She is frightened, partly because of the stories she heard as a child about water ghosts. She is not supposed to be outside at all, but she had disobeyed the rule because she felt the need to feel the waves. The next day has been designated as Choosing Day, and it is an important day for Tane. Tane knows that she cannot turn this man in because that would prove she was outside when she was not supposed to be, and she will be eliminated from the program. She desperately wants to become a...