How Beats the Original Heart

In the flare of the flames a life-force flickers. Why did Kick Vivid, singer in The Fifth Season, touring a post-religious world, agree to find the boy? And why does the omnipotent Universal Services pursue him so relentlessly when its dominance of the modern world is already almost total? Kick can find the truth at the heart of almost any situation - but this is different in a way even he can't define. So much - everything perhaps - is within easy reach; pleasure, resources, the future...souls. And while Universal Services are selling life after death, not everyone is buying. There is laughter to be had, after all, in any life led and especially within the touring family. Kick promised to find the boy. He doesn't know why. Universal Services do. It might be the flames that throw dancing shadows over everything around - or, maybe, simply nothing is as it seems. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die. When there's nothing left to believe in, what do you believe in?