Reread Hench again, and one thing I keep getting stuck on is what Leviathan's relationship with Anna is. He obviously cares about her and wants her to do well, but like, is it genuine?
Spoiler warning for Hench by Natalie Zina Alschots ahead...
During her conversation with Decoherence, she talks about how she loves him, but her feelings are secondary to the actions that they incite. At the same time she seems pretty sure of how Leviathan feels about her...
"He pulled me off an operating table and rebuilt my brain. He killed people to get to me. What more could I possibly need to know?"
But honestly, as much as I want to believe the love is reciprocated, is it? Leviathan has Anna start the attack on Supercollider in part because of the Dovecote surgery. He says something about how he thought Supercollider's restraint was from respect but the attack on Anna proves otherwise. It kind of gives me the impression that while yes, he cares to a degree, it was also very much about ego. His rivalry with Supercollider is prioritized over anything else (which we've known from the get-go) and I wonder if Anna's focus on Acton over emotion means she's reading far too into it.
Maybe a better question to ask is what it means now that Supercollider is gone? Will it make space in Leviathan's mind for her, or is he going to go through the motions like a shell? Now that he has the space to act on his possible feelings, will he commit or was this
