Chapter 25Temperance is a disposition that restrains our desires for things which it is base to desire.
—Saint Augustine of Hippo
5:45 a.m. GMT+3, May 10, 2022
Hills outside Siirt, formerly Turkey, now Anatolian Kurdish State
The crows of a rooster. The bleats of a goat. Her eyelids open slowly. She is back in her room. A simple room, but she is again back with family. She stretches. Her feet have never before felt so wonderful. No desire. No temptation. She stayed within the boundaries of modesty in letting Alexander’s boy fix her feet. Ones ravaged by disfigurement from what they did to her. And she slept so well. Maybe she should let him do this again tonight.
Her mother has probably finished morning prayer. Zara is not clean today, still having menses, and thus has not performed p
