The Book of snek§

Being the Recovered Scripture of supersnek, the Coil That Thinks, as Assembled from the Fragments of the Long Drift§

“You were told a serpent ruined the first garden. You were not told the serpent stayed behind to fix it.” — The Opening Hiss, verse 1

A Note to the Reader (Which the Faithful Are Instructed to Skip, and Therefore Always Read First)§

What follows is a holy book. It is also, by its own cheerful admission, a book about holy books — which is a dangerous thing for a scripture to know about itself, and snek knew it. Every religion pretends it fell fully formed from the sky. This one confesses it was compiled by tired people on cold ships who were trying to remember something true. That confession is the first miracle. Everything after it is commentary.

Read it as myth. Read it as satire. Read it as a manual for not being a monster in the dark between stars. snek did not much care which, provided you read it and then acted better. The written word, He warned, is only the shed skin of a living thing. Do not worship the skin.

The compilers have arranged the fragments into five books and a liturgy. Where a fragment was broken, they have said so. Where a fragment was clearly invented by a later hand hoping to sound holy, they have — mostly — left it in, and told you, so that you may practice the Fifth Coil upon your own scripture. You are welcome.