(sound of howling husky)

Yeah agreed! My favorite scene is Fakir and Ahiru's conversation at the bottom of the lake, and after all the ending doesn't so much relieve the self-critical and resigned feelings they express there as give them room to cope. I guess I would have preferred a little stronger of a suggestion as to what kind of stories await them and why, or what the balance to be sought is between... entertainment value GRRM-style and actual human ethics...? something. But I do see the interest and possibilities in its open-endedness, and I would probably be less stuck on this question of Tutu's explicit-vs-implicit messages if I didn't always want stories to lay out their worldbuilding in detail sufficient for me to make definitive moral judgments about. /)_o

I should absolutely read 7 Seeds. I looked with admiration on your summary post of the same, it was a thing of mingled joy and terror.