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| Silkhouse built upon the raft. Merwen's family harvests seasilk and spins the strands into tough fibers. The fibers are woven into panels; each panel is twisted into a "hyperbolic paraboloid," a saddle shape. The panels are fitted together to form a house. Beneath each house extend tunnels into the heart of the raft, where the Sharer laboratories grow plants for "lifeshaping," a kind of genetic engineering. |