When I met the young Mr Turing, I had not yet ascended as Autumn’s King. Nowadays it has become fashionable for the sons and daughters of the lesser fey gentry to improve their position in the shifting hierarchy of the Courts by virtue of intrigue, scandal, and the naked blade; but in those times, it was the custom to advance one’s position through the collection of human bagatelles.
Gladys was approaching her first heat when she shed her fur and lost her tail. The transformation was unintentional, and unwanted. When she awoke in her new form, smelling of skin and sweat, she wailed for her pack in a voice that scraped her throat raw.
As children grow into adulthood, it is often hard to know who is the elder until you are told. With Akpan and Udo, anyone could tell at first sight, on first hearing, who was Akpan, the first son in every way, and who was Udo, the one who came after.
Programs such as Deep Blue (b. 1995) and NeuraMind (b. 2015) had been capable of defeating the most skilled humans in strategy games since the early twenty-first century. However, the goal of second-generation programs such as Albion was not to defeat human players, but to imitate them.
In the storybooks, a maiden will recline in plush, green fields. A doe, big-eyed and beautiful, will press the tip of her horn to the maiden’s forehead before lying in the grass and placing her head into the maiden’s lap.
This variation on the elixir of life pairs the flavour of roasted roc with the medicinal potency of the philosopher’s stone. But buyer beware: this dish isn’t for everyone.
