so I said that one of Wren's special interests is murder, but it's probably more accurately described as absence, and the intentional creation of it. all things have a place in the world, however small - there are always consequences to the removal of something.

this is a big part of why she ends up studying a thing that does not exist, at a place that does not exist

I feel too that Wren has a good working relationship with Selcouth. In addition to also being a Neathy chemist, they work with irrigo on a regular basis and have to shape their whole life around the fact that their memory is - to say the least - deeply unreliable.

Sel's interest is less absence itself, and more how one can reliably extrapolate from what exists to determine what is missing, what once existed; to possibly, in turn, understand what might become. (Chthonosophy, possibly! We'll have to see how it's actually used come Firmament.) It's not quite the same field as hers, but it's very, very close.

...also, they're just both prone to exasperation over similar things

so I said that one of Wren's special interests is murder, but it's probably more accurately described as absence, and the intentional creation of it. all things have a place in the world, however small - there are always consequences to the removal of something.

this is a big part of why she ends up studying a thing that does not exist, at a place that does not exist

so I said that one of Wren's special interests is murder, but it's probably more accurately described as absence, and the intentional creation of it. all things have a place in the world, however small - there are always consequences to the removal of something.

this is a big part of why she ends up studying a thing that does not exist, at a place that does not exist

Wren has special interests and they are "murder" and "poison"

this is not a case of "oooh I love to murder people, it's sooo fun!" (as likely implied by earlier writing) so much as she's someone who muses on these topics to the point that she sees totally unrelated (to other people's eyes) concepts through their framing. everything can be poison: not just chemicals, but emotions, environments, concepts, selves. everything can be killed, to some degree or another, leaving an absence that the world must mold itself around.

and in the Neath, where the laws are looser and the immaterial can be made material, this way of thinking isn't just philosophical