Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 380
to cup and back again, Jordan had discovered something he had
at the time been afraid to test. Each and every object in the
world knew its name; all, that is, save for the humans who
lived here, because they had no dusting of mecha within them.
The waves on the lake had known their identity as waves,
but as they lapped against the shore they disappeared as
individuals. Jordan had found by experimenting that when you
changed an object into something else, its mecha noticed and
altered its name to suit.
That had got him wondering: could you command an
object to change its name; and if you changed an object’s
name, would the object itself change to match it?
The cot was a plain wooden frame with thin interwoven
slats to lie on. He pried one of these up and held it out in front
of him. "What are you?" he asked it.
"Cedar wood. Wood splinter..."
"You are now kindling, hear?"
"Consistent," said the splinter.
"So, burn!"
He held his breath. After a moment the splinter said,
"Ignition of this mass will exhaust all mechal reserves.
Further transformations will not be possible without infusion
of new essence."
"Just do it."
He opened his eyes to watch. Nothing happened... then
the splinter began to smoke. "Ow!" He dropped it, whipping
his fingers to cool them. For some reason Jordan had assumed
the thing would neatly sprout a flame from one end. Instead,
the entire splinter was afire.
"Splinter: douse yourself."
It didn’t answer. Well... it had said something about
exhausting reserves. Maybe the mecha in it had died in setting