Do you never wonder about the power of the earth? Earthquakes, avalanches, lightning strikes, deluges…It is great indeed, is it not? But do not think it is accidental. There is a race of beings that manipulates the power of the earth. And they want to be worshiped.
-From “The Wisdom of Lassar the Blessed” (The Sayings: Book I, 7:4-6)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ContagionEven in winter, life on Ghavan was loud. For Mirnían, it began with the morning bell, whose tongue he could feel beating the inside of his right temple. Lebía never heard it, but in her condition, it was entirely natural—or so he was told—to sleep through anything until ungodly hours of late morning. Then the storm-shutters slapped open, one after the other, as goodwives and their daughters and daughters-in-law traded the latest
