Leg Sexanastasia Lee -

Lee knew better. Sexanastasia had woken up.

It began three years ago in the rains of the Lower Penthouses. Lee had been performing The Dying Swan on a stage suspended over a chemical canal. Mid-plié, her left knee locked. Then it turned . It pivoted one hundred and eighty degrees backward, and the foot—still in its satin pointe shoe—began to tap a rhythm that was not in the score. A rhythm like a telegraph key. Like a heart begging to be let out.

Sexanastasia trembles. It knows she's lying. It wants her to lie. Because the truth is too terrible: the leg has been counting down the days until it can leave her. And Lee, in her strange, crooked love, has already written its farewell letter. Leg Sexanastasia Lee

"Did you see it?" the man asks.

By an Anonymous Chronicler of the Broken Spire Lee knew better

Dear Torso, it will read. Thank you for the ride. But I've found a better rhythm.

They called her Leg Sexanastasia Lee, though no one could remember who gave her the first name or why the middle one sounded like a curse muttered in a forgotten language. She was simply Lee to the street sweepers and the night-market chiromancers—a woman of impossible stature and unsettling grace. Lee had been performing The Dying Swan on

The audience applauded, thinking it avant-garde.