The Toll

Greyson reflects that the Toll is a stroke of marketing genius on the part of Mendoza. Mendoza has planted the idea among Tonists that the Living Tone, the Thunder (Thunderhead), and the Toll make a sacred trio.

Meanwhile, the Thunderhead chides Greyson for lying to Ezra; the Thunderhead never advised the artist to take up unsavory art. Greyson tells the Thunderhead that he is merely carrying out the AI’s wish that he be a contributor rather than a mere mouthpiece. In any case, everything that Greyson does is part of the AI’s larger plan, so all Greyson’s decisions are, in a way, those of the Thunderhead. The Thunderhead surprises Greyson by thanking him. The Thunderhead credits Greyson for getting the Tonists, who are a notoriously anti-tech religious faction, to embrace the AI. Though the Thunderhead does not tell Greyson its exact plan for humankind, it does note that the plan will involve pushing humans and the Thunderhead itself out of their comfort zone.

Greyson’s next audience is with Tonist zealots. One of the zealots suggests that they should start killing scythes, an idea which Greyson dismisses. The Thunderhead tells Greyson it admires his way of dealing with the murderous zealot. Later, the Thunderhead watches Greyson sleep. Though it has watched millions of humans in their sleep before, it now feels Greyson’s heartbeat as if it were its own. The Thunderhead monitors Greyson because “monitoring was the closest it could come to embracing” (146).

Rowan is being held at the Fortress of the Three Wise Men in Amazonia, a facility where people with ambiguous motives are kept. Possuelo visits Rowan and accuses him of sinking Endura, a suggestion that Rowan finds so absurd he laughs. However, Rowan knows Possuelo will not believe his innocence, as people want a villain to blame. Possuelo tells Rowan he plans to spread the tale that Rowan or Agent Lucifer is dead, and it was only Citra who was found in the vault. Possuelo also tells Rowan that the young man and Citra will never meet again.

While he has visited Rowan only once, Possuelo visits Citra often, as she slowly recovers. Possuelo plays card games with Citra to sharpen her mental acumen and sometimes spars with her. He finds Citra still very physically weak since she can barely fight with him. Citra repeatedly asks to see Rowan, but Possuelo refuses. One day, as they play a game of cards, Citra wins a hand. Possuelo claps in delight. Catching him off-guard, Citra throws herself at Possuelo and asks him to tell her everything.

Scythe Ayn Rand, Goddard’s associate, visits a construct sanctum, located across a glacier, so she can access the memory construct of Tyger, whom she gleaned (in Thunderhead, it was also suggested that Tyger was falling in love with Ayn). Construct sanctums are where holographic constructs of the gleaned are stored, with all their memories uploaded in the backbrain of the Thunderhead. Though sanctums are open to everyone, the Thunderhead has decreed they be built in inaccessible places, to dissuade people from visiting too often and losing themselves in the memory of their loved ones.

Ayn has to reintroduce herself to Tyger each time they meet since she is not present in his memory database: The last time his nanites uploaded his memories had been right before meeting her. Ayn tells the Tyger construct that she has made a terrible mistake.

After Goddard became High Blade, he moved into the same skyscraper-top residential site Xenocrates (the last High Blade) had occupied before Endura sank; Goddard has replaced the modest log cabin with a crystal chalet. A year after the sinking of the island, in the year of the Ibex, Goddard holds a conference with his underscythes, including Constantine, who in Thunderhead nominated Curie for the position of High Blade.

Goddard is happy that other regions of North Merica, such as East and West Merica, are also abolishing gleaning quotas. The Tonists remain a problem, as, emboldened by the emergence of the Toll, they have been preaching that a new era is at hand. Goddard thinks the solution to the Tonists’ rebellion is to glean them in higher numbers. However, Constantine thinks targeting a group would amount to bias and the tenets of scythedom forbid bias, which is to show an unfair inclination for or against a group. Goddard has a workaround: He thinks the definition of bias should be altered.

The definition of bias is changed to include the clause “inclination for or against any officially protected and registered group” (175). Groups now clamor to register themselves with the MidMerican scythedom, but hundreds of applications such as that of the Tonists, are denied. Goddard is now free to glean the unregistered groups as he pleases.

This chapter is structured as a fugue, or a contrapuntal musical composition in which successive voices play off against each other, amplifying the theme of the piece. The voices are the Tonist zealot whom Greyson rebuked, Goddard, and Ayn. Eager to prove himself to Greyson, the zealot decides he must kill Goddard. The zealot parachutes into the quarters of Goddard. Before becoming a Tonist, the zealot was a thrill-seeker, who had gone deadish 100 times. His life was meaningless till he found religion. Goddard, on the other hand, had been languishing on the Mars colony before he became a scythe. He hated that life and only found joy when his career as a scythe advanced.

The zealot gets into Goddard’s room and nearly attacks him before Ayn gleans him. An angry Goddard wants Ayn to glean the guards for not detecting the presence of the Tonist. Ayn asks him not to be rash and clasps his hand in solidarity. Goddard shrugs her hand off and tells Ayn that she is only his employee, and must do as he asks. Ayn gleans the three guards. She doesn’t show it, but she is crushed by Goddard’s contempt.

Scythe Jim Morrison is happy that the gleaning quota has been relaxed since it means he can glean the bare minimum number of people. Morrison is a junior scythe, known for his good looks, his way with women, and his ability to glean with his bare hands instead of using a weapon and poison. In Thunderhead, Morrison had supported Curie’s nomination. That is why he is alarmed to be summoned to Fulcrum City by High Blade Goddard.

In Goddard’s crystalline chambers, Morrison realizes he must watch his words. He tells Ayn and Goddard that he only wants to follow the rules of scythedom, as interpreted by the High Blade. Goddard is pleased and tells Morrison that he has been summoned for a special mission: to glean the Toll. Since Morrison gleans without weapons, he can pass undetected near the prophet.

A disillusioned Faraday moves away to a distant island on the rim of the atoll. Munira makes weekly visits with food. When Munira brings him artichokes one week, it catches Faraday’s attention. He can tell the artichokes—sent on a supply ship—are the Thunderhead’s way of indirectly reaching out to him: No one but the Thunderhead could know artichokes are his favorite vegetable. Still, Faraday feigns indifference and behaves dismissively toward Munira.

The Thunderhead sends food and other supplies to the atoll through self-piloted ships. The atoll has turned into a buzzing colony, with people constructing roads and piers. Loriana is in charge of communications and frequently sends updates via manual code to the Thunderhead.

One day, a ship brings a high-security package for Loriana, which can only be opened with her fingerprints and blood. The DNA-protected package contains blueprints for what the Thunderhead is planning to build on the atoll. When Loriana sees what the Thunderhead plans, she is filled with both joy and dread.

Two years after Loriana approves the blueprints, Citra is nearly fully recovered. She moves into the same fortress where Rowan is being kept, although the two are not allowed to meet. One night, Possuelo awakens Citra and tells her that North Merican scythes have reached the fortress, alerted to her presence by a mole, Plexioto. As Citra flees, she asks Possuelo to help Rowan. Before Possuelo can reach Rowan, North Merican scythes invade his cell. He renders a few scythes deadish and flees, but is caught by High Blade Mary Pickford of WestMerica.

Pickford orders her guards to render Rowan deadish. Pickford runs into Possuelo and demands he hand over Citra, but he refuses. He orders Pickford to leave as he has just passed an edict that says any North Merican scythe caught on his territory will be forced to self-glean. A reluctant Pickford leaves with Rowan. Possuelo wishes he had never rescued the boy since in Goddard’s hands, Rowan will meet a fate worse than death.

Mendoza gave Greyson many alternatives from which to choose a residence. Greyson chose the least flashy option, the Cloisters, a mortal-age museum (its real-world counterpart is the Met Cloisters in New York City) converted into an abbey. One year since he moved into the abbey, Greyson still doesn’t feel at home. He particularly dislikes his Tonist attendants treating him worshipfully. The only “respite from reverence” is the pragmatic Sister Astrid (231), a Tonist curate who treats him with more equanimity than the others.

Sister Astrid hires a new chef for the Toll since Greyson dislikes the Tonist food. The new pastry chef is supposed to be a culinary genius, and Sister Astrid also likes the fact that he is strongly built, which means he can defend the Toll. What she does not know is that the chef is Scythe Morrison. Morrison collects valuable intel on the Toll, such as the fact that Greyson often gets the munchies at night.

Morrison gets an opportunity to glean Greyson when, one night, Greyson comes into the kitchen for a late-night snack. Morrison steps out and introduces himself as the pastry chef. Carrying out a casual conversation, Morrison inches close to the holy man. Just then, Greyson stabs Morrison in the eye with his cheesecake fork. It turns out Greyson knew Morrison was a scythe because of the hints the Thunderhead has been dropping. Programmed not to interfere in scythe business, the Thunderhead can warn Greyson against the chef only indirectly, such as by falling utterly silent when Morrison appears.

Greyson flees, with Morrison on his heels after killing four Tonists. Just as Morrison is about to catch Greyson, the Thunderhead feeds Greyson the scythe’s favorite Jim Morrison song to speak out to him. Hearing the lyrics, Morrison realizes that Greyson does have a direct line with the AI, and freezes. Tonist guards arrive at the spot and arrest Morrison. Greyson orders that Morrison not be killed. When Mendoza, arriving on the scene, insists Morrison be killed, Greyson asserts his authority as the Toll and asks the guards to lock up the curate for a few hours. Greyson notes he feels no pleasure in exerting power over Mendoza. Perhaps this is why the Thunderhead chose Greyson to be the Toll.

Greyson meets Morrison in the dungeon and makes the scythe an offer: In exchange for his life, Morrison will become Greyson’s personal scythe. The story will be planted that the Toll was one of the four people Morrison gleaned, and subsequently, Morrison was caught and burned. Morrison agrees. His eye heals as he has not taken out his healing nanites.