Chapter 28

“Shining by night with borrowed light, wondering round the earth.”

-Parmenides

The statue was in terrible shape. Thin cracks raced all over it. A deep fissure ran down the right side of the head, another down the left side of the torso. The left arm lay in pieces amongst the ruins of a stone archway it had probably destroyed when it fell. Nonetheless, the grey face looked down with solemn benevolence, and the surviving arm reached out as if to embrace the dilapidated town.

With reverent slowness, Nathaniel entered the semicircle of benches and sat in the outermost ring. Sitting beneath the Prophet’s gaze brought back memories of sitting beneath the original, in the Great Square back home.

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