Abacus of Ether
Novelette 9,150 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
Madam Grey sells life insurance to the young men recruited by the Empire to fight in the Grass War. The war goes badly, but she has a chance to end it—at great cost.
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on BCS, where the author gets the click.