10:08 <Quaker> The notice of her summons is left for her at night, waiting for when she gets back from dinner. A piece of parchment, nailed lightly to her apartment’s door. On it is a crude pencil drawing of a half-sun crowned in rays, sitting atop a straight line. 10:09 <Quaker> Agostina is surprised to see it here, now. 10:09 <Quaker> She was not expecting to move so soon. 10:10 <Quaker> She returns to the bar and calls Amjad, who was asleep. 10:10 <Quaker> “Really, now?” he says. “It’s been literally two days since I said yes, and you’ve got me up out of bed.” 10:11 <Quaker> Agostina says yes, really. And he’ll call the movers as soon as they get back, and take her things to an address that she gives him. He hangs up, but he’ll be there in half an hour. He has taken her to this place many times before. 10:22 <Quaker> The van takes them north, into the depths of Cumbria. Amjad has never been here before, but anyone watching him drive would have no idea. The two of them pass silently through plains and small valleys, and occasionally through small thickets of beech, elm, and ash. 10:23 <Quaker> It is very quiet and dark out here. 10:24 <Quaker> Amjad stops at an unfamiliar place and they get out. Neither of them have been here before, but Badawi can see a lone structure off a quarter of a mile away, down the road. She turns her flashlight on and shines it towards a road sign. CARLISLE - 8 MILES 10:24 <Quaker> The stars are the only light they have. 10:25 <Quaker> “Is it here?” asks Amjad. 10:25 <Quaker> Badawi looks at the sign for a while. 10:25 <Quaker> Eventually, she says: “Yes.” And turns her flashlight off. 10:26 <Quaker> Amjad stamps his feet and moves his hands inside his coat pockets. “God, it is freezing out here.” 10:28 <Quaker> Badawi takes her things from the back of the van and puts them in her duffel, and swings it over her shoulder. “Stay in the van, it’s got a heater. I’ll be back in a bit.” She sets off alone towards the building in the near-distance. 10:30 <Quaker> A few minutes later, she sees that it’s a grey brick house. They must be at the shore, she realizes. Beyond a low wall and a garden of reed grass, she can hear waves lapping against a stone embankment. 10:30 <Quaker> The house is dark, and seems to have been empty for some time. The front door is unlocked. 10:34 <Quaker> Badawi closes the door behind her. Before she turns her flashlight on, she listens for the sounds of movement throughout the house. 10:35 <Quaker> There is nothing. Even the rooms are bare. 10:38 <Quaker> She finds another door, eventually. Stairs lead down into a basement. 10:43 <Quaker> She tests the stairs with her shoe before putting her full weight on it, and when it holds she starts downwards, turning her flashlight on. 10:44 <Quaker> The basement is empty, too. Her light plays over some mouldering wooden posts and stone walls. Tiny puddles of saltwater are building at the corners of the space. Maybe the house will come down in a few years later, and sink into the sea dunes and heather. 10:44 <Quaker> The only thing she can smell is wet air, and salt. 10:45 <Quaker> She starts to check the wooden posts. 10:47 <Quaker> It takes her more than thirty minutes to find it: another half-sun under rays and above a straight line, cut into the wood. The dust covering the rough little etching makes it look like it’s been here for years. It’s just a trick. The person who carved it must have done it a few days ago. 10:47 <Quaker> But she knows it has also always been there. When the house falls into the sand, the carving will still be on a wood post just like this, in a house just like this. Her stomach turns. 10:49 <Quaker> When she looks up, there is a metal elevator next to the post. The light inside the open doors is on. She turns her flashlight off and steps inside. 11:26 <Quaker> When the doors close behind her, Badawi is in a small room of mirrors. Every surface but the floor is reflecting her and every other surface. Agostina in the mirror sees herself repeated endlessly, infinitely, growing smaller, vanishing into a dark tunnel. 11:26 <Quaker> She presses the Down button, and puts her duffel bag on the floor. 11:29 <Quaker> Inside her satchel is a small vial with red threads and flakes of blue stone floating in a cloudy liquid of pale yellow. She feels her heart slow at the sight of it. The elevator starts to move down. 11:29 <Quaker> It will move down, forever, until she drinks what she has brought. 11:53 <Quaker> She puts the vial to her lips and drinks. Eight centuries ago, on the banks of the Guadalquivir, Abu-al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd would do the same, while he contemplated the poem written by a king far from the land of his origin. Many would do so between now and then, thinking of their first home. 11:54 <Quaker> A palm tree I beheld in Ar-Rusafa/ Far in the West, far from the palm-tree land/ I said: You, like myself, are far away, in a strange land/ How long have I been away from my people! 11:54 <Quaker> You grew up in a land where you are a stranger/ And like myself, are living in the farthest corner of the earth/ May the morning clouds refresh you at this distance/ And may abundant rains comfort you forever! 11:56 <Quaker> Agostina feels her self start to slip through her mind, settling in an ebony labyrinth she has made in herself. 11:56 <Quaker> She kneels down on the floor of the chamber and lowers her head. 11:59 <Quaker> Her other names roam the wide halls of this place, where every room appears the same, and is the same. The labyrinth inside of her is one room, and many rooms. She listens for the sound of an infinite sea, an infinite plain and desert under the sky. 12:00 <Quaker> She thinks of a copper edge dripping blood. 12:00 <Quaker> She thinks of a man in green fatigues dancing in a concrete cell while the radio plays. 12:01 <Quaker> She sees a garden path through her names. 12:01 <Quaker> The doors open wide. 12:03 <Quaker> Agostina returns to her feet and steps outside. 12:07 <Quaker> I make my bed in the clover and the stars cover me. 12:11 <Quaker> She repeats the poem in her head unceasingly. It will keep her in this place for as long as she likes. 12:13 <Quaker> The land outside the elevator chamber is a bare plain of green and pale brown and light blue grass, or water, or sand. The plain is impossible to tell from the desert, or the sea. All the places in the world that are like each other are the same. 12:14 <Quaker> The sky is a deep purple and pink, and blue wine and red fading light. The sun is a small light on the horizon, not moving. 12:23 <Quaker> There is a tree in the distance. She starts walking towards it. 12:32 <Quaker> She can see three people sitting underneath the tree. Two of them sit by a small fire. The third sits on a rock a bit aways. Next to the figures by the fire are six bassinets in two neat rows. Every now and then one of the figures will rise to set them rocking at a gentle and slow rhythm. 12:34 <Quaker> The figure on the rock has a guitar, which he plays softly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSkxm4gdrIk 12:35 <Quaker> As she approaches, one of the figures by the fire turns their head and speaks. She hears the world shudder. Her vision swims. 12:36 <Quaker> She says out loud the verse of the poem running through her head at that moment: 12:37 <Quaker> “God created the flowers, so pretty/ and delicate as they are/ he made them perfect in every way/ as much he knew how/ but he gave something more to man/ when he gave him a heart.” 12:37 <Quaker> Her vision clears. One of the figures by the fire raises their hand in greeting. 12:39 <Quaker> The man sitting on the rock inclines his head but does not speak. He is wearing a blue poncho, and a mask: https://i.imgur.com/IRgYkF3.jpg 12:40 <Quaker> Badawi waves hello to Tom Luna and continues past. 12:40 <Quaker> Vincenzo is sitting by the fire, tending to some kind of primitive cooking apparatus. “Hungry?” 12:41 <Quaker> Martina, sitting across from him, is silent. She is wearing a mask, too: https://i.imgur.com/Xtn4b68.jpg 12:42 <Quaker> Badawi knows better than to try to speak to her. “Sure.” 12:43 <Quaker> Vincenzo spoons some beans and meat into a rough bowl and hands it to her along with a spoon. Martina gets up to rock the bassinets. Badawi can see six babies in them, sound asleep. 12:43 <Quaker> “Thanks.” 12:43 <Quaker> Vincenzo puts the metal spoon back in the pot on the fire. “Of course.” 12:44 <Quaker> Badawi eats for a while. 12:44 <Quaker> Tom Luna plays a new song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dZZVFUqA1I 12:44 <Quaker> Badawi motions at the bassinets. “Stealing babies again?” 12:45 <Quaker> Vincenzo smiles. “Only at their mothers’ request.” 12:47 <Quaker> Agostina doesn’t know what to say. She knows her own child should be there, with his other grandchildren. 12:47 <Quaker> Instead, her husband is away and she is away too. 12:57 <Quaker> Vincenzo sees what happens in this place and places like it. “Don’t worry yourself about that. Orlando is working on his studies, and you are working for all of us. The ports of knowledge come first. Heaven’s wildernesses keep him safe. He is freeing himself from everlasting sleep.” 12:58 <Quaker> Agostina wonders if this is a dream. To be honestly perfect, she has never been able to tell between this place and dreams she has had. 12:59 <Quaker> She hands Vincenzo her collected notes. 12:59 <Quaker> They sit in silence for a long time while he reads. 13:00 <Quaker> Vincenzo puts the notes away and thinks. 13:00 <Quaker> Finally: “This country is falling into opportunity. Moving here was not a mistake.” 13:02 <Quaker> “Seek opportunities for expansion among the Star Children. Eliminate Benni Athletic if you need to, and we will assume his networks.” 13:03 <Quaker> “Honor our arrangement with the Diamond Orders and their allies. Seek out their counsel before you act.” 13:05 <Quaker> “Continue to gather information that will help us understand this place. Shun only the servants of the Iron Pyramid.” 13:06 <Quaker> “Don’t enter into business with James Roth. He represents something alien and disgusting.” 13:09 <Quaker> “Give this to the Winter changeling.” Vincenzo tosses something to her. 13:09 <Quaker> Badawi looks at it, then puts it in her bag. 13:10 <Quaker> “Kill the vampires.” 13:11 <Quaker> Vincenzo reaches back behind him and rummages through some bags. He pulls out some skewers and hot dogs, which he puts into the fire. “We’ll start investing in the area. Cash businesses and setting up fences.” 13:11 <Quaker> “What else…” 13:13 <Quaker> “Say hello to Amjad for me.” 13:13 <Quaker> “And don’t forget to move this time.” 13:13 <Quaker> Agostina feels an extraordinary fatigue. 13:17 <Quaker> The tree above them shakes in a sudden wind. One of the babies starts to murmur. 13:17 <Quaker> Vincenzo shakes his head as if to clear it of a lingering noise. Martina returns to shake the bassinets. 13:18 <Quaker> Vincenzo raises his head, and looks through Agostina. 13:19 <Quaker> “But Seeds themselves do lie in perpetual shades, either under the leaf, or shut up in coverings; And such as lye barest, have their husks, skins, and pulpsp about them, wherein the nebbe and generative particle lyeth moist and secured from the injury of Ayre and Sunne. Darknesse and light hold interchangeable dominions, and alternately rule the seminal state of things. 13:21 <Quaker> “Light unto Plato is darknesse unto Jupiter. Legions of seminall Idea’s lye in their second Chaos and Orcus of Hipocrates; till putting on the habits of their forms, they shew themselves upon the stage of the world, and open dominion of Jove. They that held the Stars of heaven were but rayes and flashing glimpses of the Empyreall light, through holes and perforations of the upper heaven, took of the natural shadows of stars, while 13:21 <Quaker> according to better discovery the poor Inhabitants of the Moone have but a polary life, and must passe half their dayes in the shadow of that Luminary. 13:21 <Quaker> Tom Luna stops playing and looks over. 13:22 <Quaker> “Light that makes things seen, makes some things invisible, were it not for darknesse and the shadow of the earth, the noblest part of the Creation had remained unseen, and the Stars in heaven as invisible as on the fourth day, when they were created above the Horizon, with the Sun, or there was not an eye to behold them. 13:23 <Quaker> The greatest mystery of Religion is expressed by adumbration, and in the noblest part of Jewish Types, we finde the Cherubims shadowing the Mercy-seat: Life it self is but the shadow of deaht, and souls departed but the shadows of the living: All things fall under this name. The Sunne it self is but the dark simulacrum, and light but the shadow of God.” 13:24 <Quaker> The wind stops. 13:25 <Quaker> Vincenzo smiles. “It is getting late, after all.” 13:26 <Quaker> He rubs his temples. Martina sits by him. Tom Luna starts to play again. 13:26 <Quaker> The three of them by the fire watch him play for a while. 13:27 <Quaker> In a voice Badawi has to strain to hear, she can hear Martina say something. “Agostina…” 13:27 <Quaker> “Why don’t you play your guitar anymore?” 13:28 <Quaker> When the elevator reaches ground level again, and Badawi steps out, she realizes that the house has actually crumbled around her. 13:29 <Quaker> She looks around, but the chamber is already gone. All that remains is decaying wooden piles among grassy piles of rocks, shaped roughly like a house might have been. 13:30 <Quaker> Badawi picks her way out of the fallen house and through the reed grass garden. 13:30 <Quaker> She turns to look behind her before she leaves. The full moon has come out from behind the clouds. She can see the crystal tops of breakers further down the shore. Water curls and spreads, until the sound carries to her. 13:33 <Quaker> They return to Manchester, on the road they came by. 13:34 <Quaker> Movers carry her things from one apartment in the city to another apartment in the city. 13:35 <Quaker> It is the same apartment. It is the same city. The things in them do not change. Her names remain inside of her. 13:36 <Quaker> Glory to Him Who does not die, and Who holds within HIs Hand the two keys, of infinite Pardon and infinite Punishment.