Characters appearing in Seep

The story begins on the timeline known as the Poba-verse, during the first quarter of the Hundred Eighth Millennium, when a timeline-crossing transway allows visits to a timeline the Poba-verse split from about fifteen hundred years before. Inspired by this new technology, Morning Glory dreams of creating yet another timeline where imperial history will be free from the terrible wars and cataclysms she has experienced in her life. She is certain that a single event, the sacrifice of Kahee, sent the Empire off on its deadly course, and she convinces Horl to send her back with his chronon-twistor to prevent this tragedy. Her plans go terribly wrong, and patternistic dancing is the only way to reach and heal the broken timeline she created.

The Dancers

Orgmorgan and Morning Glory

dancers
Morning Glory and her partner pause for drinks.

Morning Glory and her husband, Orgmorgan, are the first to join. She feels burdened by the responsibility of having started the whole mess, so he advises her to have a few drinks to settle her mind. Luckily he also has a duplicate in the Poba-verse, so both of her selves have a partner.

Horl and Quixa

dancers
Horl struggles to keep up with his wife.

Though he came up with the idea of the dance, Horl has never done it before and is not the most talented dancer. He just tags along after Quixa, who is far more athletic than he. Once they seep into deeper levels, this will no longer matter.

Katora and Prilas

dancers
Katora and Prilas meet at the dance.

Katora, the most powerful female mindsea in the galaxy, has striven through teaching at the Mindsea Academy to direct the Empire on a path toward illumination, and has met only frustration, as well as disappointment in love. Prilas is a prominent philosopher she has known of but never spent time with before.

Vedina and Thaej

dancers
Vedina and Thaej have a long history.

Vedina teaches at the Mindsea Academy of Lal. She too has been unhappy in love. In the dance, she tries to smooth things over with her first lover, water-chess champion Thaej.

Raolin and Hub

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Raolin and Hub take the dance seriously.

Katora's father, Head of the Circle Raolin, reminds his daughter and others that the dance is not about pursuing romance; it is about healing the Empire. He partners with his half-brother, Member of the Circle Hub.

Puflet and Serpenlino

dancers
Serpenlino and Puflet meet only in the Deep.

As the dance progresses, it begins to pull in participants from other timelines. Once lovers, Puflet and Serpenlino have died on one another's timeline. But they meet again in the dance.

Thermeon and Quokisa

dancers
Thermeon still seeks his goddess-star.

Like Puflet, Thermeon no longer lives in the Poba-verse. But the Deep-level dance summons his other selves, as well as instances of the woman he believes to be his goddess-star.

Sunfox and Fleomis

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Sunfox and Fleomis died in the Poba-verse, but live on elsewhere.

Morning Glory never thought much of Horl's son Fleomis, who peddled arms during the Empire's wars. But he has come into his own on other timelines, and he joins the dance with his husband Sunfox. Tall red-haired Sunfox has earned fame as a detective on multiple timelines. Together, he and Fleomis will track down the source of the Empire's evil.

Shell and Rathax

dancers
Even the long-dead can join in the dance.

Shell has always longed for Rathax, a long-dead mindsea-emperor who sought to rule the multiverse, and she finds him in the dance.

Tara and the Cat

dancers
Tara's cat is the memory of a long-extinct animal.

Tara is a set of memories that has surfaced in many lives from prehuman days to imperial times. Some of the most powerful recurring images revolve around a sabertooth cat.

Wila

dancer
Wila Dances Alone.

The person Morning Glory most hoped would find her partner in the dance is her granddaughter Wila. Like Katora and Vedina, Wila was rejected by the man all three of them loved, Kahee's son, the Wamatuan composer Raggee. Morning Glory felt certain that when she went back in time to stop Raggee's father from sacrificing himself in front of his children, Raggee's wound would be healed, and he would be able to love. But Raggee does not appear. His father's sacrifice was not the sole source of the Empire's evil, after all.