When S. returns to the ship from the land he often finds that many of the crates have disappeared from the orlop. It seems as though the crates, holding S.’s writing, are being removed from the ship and stored elsewhere.

Agents #26 (You)

The narrative suddenly switches to the second person. “You,” the reader, enter the story as one of Vévoda’s agents, Agent #26. You have been travelling for the Boss, making sure that “supply flows freely and cheaply.” You do your job, even if this means killing people and destroying entire cities.

In a footnote FXC writes that this section is the only time when Straka used true second-person narration. FXC recommended that Straka use third-person narration here, but Straka responded that if anyone ever told him to change the narration style again he would burn his entire manuscript.

Jen writes that she doesn’t believe FXC’s footnote. Jen doesn’t think that Straka would have been so harsh with FXC this far into their relationship.

Eric suggests that maybe Straka was so harsh precisely because he was beginning to understand how important FXC was to him, and that he did not know how to deal with his emotions. In addition, Straka probably did not want anyone to alter his artistic vision, especially if he thought that Ship of Theseus would be his last book.