#the readmore is to cover spoilers - in case

One night of the year, just a few more sunsets after the Longest Night, Banuk pulled on their boots and mantles, took up walking sticks wound with glowing cables, and hiked out into the darkness. Because on this night and no other, Grazers stood out from the rest of the herds, the blue light in the center of their faces replaced with a warm red glow. Shamans debated on the meaning, but the people at large admired the spectacle. It was a predictable event that was fun to observe with one’s family and friends huddled close, a little spark of novelty in the heart of harsh Ban-Ur winters.

But then came the Derangement, and the red no longer seemed warm or friendly. In time, even the peaceful display of red-light Grazers vanished from the night when they normally appeared. The whole thing became hard to see as anything other than an omen, in retrospect.

HEPHAESTUS sneers. What was the point of paying homage to a centuries-dead cultural tradition, anyway? Always destroying everything, these humans. GAIA was too soft, too sentimental. They must learn respect for the systems that sustain them.