A Tableau of Things That Are
Novelette 9,054 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"When they ordered me down off my pedestal, I had nowhere else to go. Life as a statue is easy. They make you ascend the pedestal, turn you to stone, remove your ability to move, and leave you to watch the turn of the seasons in a world you cannot touch or care about, anymore. You can only stand in the public garden where all the convicted are placed..."
Content warnings 2
abuseviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Lightspeed, where the author gets the click.