Basque Fact of the Week: The San Sebastián International Film Festival

The 70th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival began on Friday and runs through this week. Donostia Zinemaldia, as it is known in Basque, has been a showcase of some of the best of the film industry since 1953. Some of the most recognized names in cinema have appeared on the festival’s red carpet.

The official poster of the 70th edition of Donostia Zinemaldia, featuring Juliette Binoche. From the festival’s website.
  • The festival began in 1953. At first, it was intended to only honor Spanish language films, but in 1955 it was opened to a larger selection of films, specializing in recognizing color films. In 1957, it obtained an ‘A’ rating from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, one of fourteen festivals to get this rating. The festival briefly lost this accreditation from 1980-1984, but regained it again in 1985.
  • The festival was created to extend Donostia’s summer season, to give people a reason to stay in the city longer. Franco was supportive, as he thought it would present a friendlier face of his regime to the world. However, his regime banned certain films. It wasn’t until 1977, after Franco’s death, that all films could be considered.
  • Donostia Zinemaldia has seen its fair share of history. The famous Hitchcock film Vertigo made its premier at the festival with Hitchcock in attendance. That same year, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart tied for best male performance. And films such as Star Wars and Jaws made there European premier here too. Both Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were at the festival for the premier of Star Wars.
  • The best picture award is named the Golden Shell (Urrezko Maskorra in Euskara). Clearly the award is named after La Concha, the iconic beach of Donostia. The first winner of the Golden Shell was La guerra de Dios. The last three winners were Blue Moon (Crai Nou) (2021), Beginning (Dasatskisi) (2020), and Pacified (Pacificado) (2019). The last film made in the United States to win the Golden Shell was The Disaster Artist in 2017. The best lead or supporting performance and best director, the award is the Silver Shell (Zilarrezko Maskorra).
  • In 1986, the Donostia Award (Donostia Saria) was created to honor luminaries in the film industry. The first winner of this award was Gregory Peck, while Juliette Binoche and David Cronenberg have been honored this year.
  • Basque films have been repeatedly recognized by the festival, including four films – Letters from Alou (Las carts de Alou), Butterfly Wings (Alas de Mariposa), Running Out of Time (Días contados), and Bwana – winning the Golden Shell in the 1990s. And, since 1997, the festival has hosted Basque Film Day, showcasing local films. Amidst criticism that the festival didn’t do enough to promote Basque cinema, in 2009 Zinemira was created to screen and promote Basque movies along with the Zinemira award to highlight the career of a Basque film personality.

Primary sources: Roldán Larreta, Carlos. Festival de San Sebastián. Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/festival-de-san-sebastian/ar-65485/; San Sebastián International Film Festival, Wikipedia

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 119

Maite had entered her pod with the hope of getting some rest and taking her mind off of de Lancre and his obvious attempts to get into her good graces. She found it hard, however, to truly relax without the familiar comfort of a blanket that she could pull over her head. Simply standing in this mechanical tube, no matter how refreshed she felt when she woke up, wasn’t the same. And she always woke up with a strange itching sensation all over her body.

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!

The tube would normally emit some kind of gentle mist that had the effect of making her drowsy. Before the mist came, Maite canceled the tube’s sleep routine and stepped out into her room. Lights at her feet came on automatically, lighting her way. Lights also appeared in front of her, almost like the beam of a flashlight, but followered her gaze as she looked around. She shook her head, momentarily causing the lights to shake violently across the wall before they equilibrated. She sighed. Sometimes, she thought, technology makes things more difficult, not less.

She opened her door and stepped outside. While she was technically de Lancre’s prisoner, he knew she had no where to go so didn’t confine her to her room. She stepped through the dining room and out to the balcony. While the city was nearly unrecognizable from her own version of Bilbao, she still found comfort in gazing over the wonderous skyline. She even recognized some of the mountains in the distance. She gave herself a small hug as she thought about her ama and aita back at home. Though she missed them, she knew she would see them again. The bubble had to pop some time, didn’t it? It couldn’t last forever. Even if it was centuries after she died, if anyone found that zatia and popped the bubble, she would return to her own time.

She cursed de Lancre for not popping the bubble of this timeline. She didn’t even care if he collected the zatia for himself and got its power. Keeping these bubbles going when he had the power to pop them, to end the disruption to all of these lives, how could he be so damn selfish?

Maite looked down at the ground below her. Even though it was the middle of the night, she could see people moving between buildings and hanging out in the street, almost as many people as there were during the daytime. She wondered if any of them ever slept. With the tube, maybe the human body didn’t need to sleep so much. And she suspected it also helped clear away toxins from alcohol so there were little after effects of drinking too much. The future had become one long gau pasa.

Watching the people, almost like ants from her view, Maite realized that these people had lives too. Yes, they were part of this bubble and, because of that, they weren’t living the lives they were intended to live, but they were still living their lives. Who was she, or de Lancre, or Marina, to pop their existance away? Was there no other way of collecting the zatiak and preventing de Lancre from becoming so powerful than to end the trajectories of so many lives?

But, at the same time, all of these people had parallel lives, in the main timeline, that they were also living. At what point did they become a different enough person that they deserved to live their own lives? What about babies and children that were born in this bubble? Maybe they never existed in the regular timeline. What about them?

Maite shivered, not so much from the cold but from the unsettling thoughts that clouded her mind. She really wished Kepa were here to hold her. He’d have something clever to say to put her mind at ease. Feeling defeated, Maite wandered back to her room and welcomed the numbing mist that enveloped her.

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net if you want to get in touch with me.

Basque Fact of the Week: Napoleon’s Nephew was a Linguist who Studied Basque

How does an aristocrat – a man born into privilege and titles, the nephew of one of the most powerful leaders of Europe – become one of the most important researchers of the Basque language? Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew, extensively studied the regional variations of Euskara, establishing a critical map of the dialects. While he also studied other languages, including the Celtic languages, his work on Euskara was particularly profound and seminal.

Portrait of Louis Lucien Bonaparte, found at man8rove.com.
  • Bonaparte was born in England – in Thorngrowe – in 1813. His father, Lucien, was Napoleon‘s brother and found himself in England after an unsuccessful attempted escape to the United States. His mother, Alexandrine de Bleschamp, was a French aristocrat. When Napoleon abdicated the first time, Lucien took his family back to the mainland and was made Prince of Canino, in Italy. Thus, Louis Lucien spent his childhood in Italy. After a brief stint in the French National Assembly, Louis Lucien moved to London (some time after 1852), where he lived most of his life.
  • Bonaparte initially studied chemistry and mineralogy – the study of the properties of minerals – having written nearly 140 publications by the time he was 53. However, from our perspective, he is most interesting for his study of the Basque language.
  • Bonaparte first traveled to the Basque Country in 1856. He was received by Anton Abadia and, indeed, that same year he presided over the Basque festival organized by Abadia, even giving a speech in Euskara. In fact, it was likely Abadia, maybe sometime before 1847, who introduced Bonaparte to the Basque people, language, and culture. Indeed, in 1847 Bonaparte published his first work on linguistics, which included Basque. In all, Bonaparte made five separate trips to the Basque Country to perform his research.
  • Bonaparte built a network of collaborators who helped him in his studies of the Basque language and its dialects – the euskalkiak. He had them translate the Bible into the various dialects and he himself traveled the Basque Country to learn about the dialects personally. He published Le Verbe Basque en Tableaux, which describes the variations of verbs in Euskara and was an authoritative guide of the language for a century. The extent of his efforts and the impact they have had are nicely described in this talk by Pello Salaburu. He published his works at his own expense, including a color map of the regions in which the various Basque dialects were spoken.
  • He himself was fluent in multiple dialects of Euskara and amazed his companions with his ability to pick up new dialects. He became fluent in Gipuzkoan after only a few months. At one point they reached the Roncal valley, which had such a strong and rare dialect that other Basque speakers couldn’t understand it. Such were Bonaparte’s talents and facility with language that, within three days, he was able to start conversing with the locals in their dialect.
  • After his first wife, Maria Anna Cecchi, died in 1891, he married Clemencia Richard Grandmontagne, a native of Tardets, Zuberoa, and the sister-in-law of the Basque poet Claudio Otaegui. He had actually been living with Clemencia for many years before, having separated from Maria in 1850. Indeed, as discussed by Salaburu, Clemencia herself aided Bonaparte in his efforts to understand the Basque language, as she spoke the language and had many contacts in the Basque Country. He died that same year – 1891 – in Italy.

Primary sources: Estornés Lasa, Bernardo. Bonaparte, Louis-Lucien (1813-1891). Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/bonaparte-louis-lucien-1813-1891/ar-32829/; Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Wikipedia;

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 118

A few nights later, Kepa found himself at the base of de Lancre’s tower. Kepa had wondered why they didn’t wait for a new moon, but everyone had told him that the streets were too well lit for there to be any advantage. He looked up at the moon hovering above them and noticed some strange lights coming from it. Nudging Latxe in the side with his elbow, he pointed to the moon.

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!

“What are those lights?” he asked.

“Those?” she asked, looking at him quizically. “That’s the Chinese colony. Everyone knows that.”

“There is a colony on the moon?” Kepa asked incredulously. And then, with excitement growing in his voice, he added “That’s so cool! Maite is going to be flabbergasted!”

Latxe shook her head. “Some day, you are going to have to tell me where you really come from.”

Kepa gave her a sheepish grin before changing the subject. “So, how do we get in again?”

Latxe pulled out what looked like to Kepa a small phone or tablet. “With this,” she said, “we can hijack the nanobots within a small radius.” Her finger danced across the face of the screen, touching and highlighting various symbols and icons that Kepa couldn’t decipher. She ended with a sweep of her finger in a circle and then a sudden motion upward. Within moments, an opening appeared in the side of the wall. Latxe stepped through, beckoning Kepa to follow her.

“That’s amazing!” he said as he watched the opening disappear as if it never existed.

“The nanobots are pretty cool,” she admitted. “I can’t imagine life without them.”

“But, they are everywhere, right?” asked Kepa. “Isn’t that a little… creepy?”

Latxe shrugged. “I don’t know. They’ve been around all my life, working in the background, keeping things clean and making sure that we have the right infrastructure for the current population. None of us have any material needs since the nanobots provide everything we might want.”

“Are they all over us too?” asked Kepa with a shiver, absentmindedly brushing off his arms.

“They are programmed to stay off of living beings,” said Latxe. “I mean, if you wanted a change of clothes, they could make that happen, but only touching the fabric and not you. I guess that is one step too far for most of us.”

“What do you mean, ‘most of us?’”

“Well, there is a whole counterculture where people actually hijack the nanobots to force them to modify their own bodies. I’ve seen a few people whose faces constantly morph as the nanobots reconstruct their facial features. One moment they might be an African woman and the next a Nordic boy. Others have the nanobots cover their bodies in metallic scales, literally transmuting their skin into metal.”

“Won’t that kill them?” asked Kepa in shock.

“The nanobots also compensate for any damage they do, providing the body with just enough medical aid to counter the effects of these changes.” Latxe shrugged. “I’ve thought about it myself, about having the nanobots change me, but I haven’t thought of anything I wanted bad enough to go through with it.”

“This place is so weird,” said Kepa under his breath.

“Not as weird as you, my friend,” said Latxe with a chuckle. She looked down at her device. “Come on, we have a long ways to go.”

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net if you want to get in touch with me.

Basque Fact of the Week: Euskalkiak, the Dialects of Basque

One of the challenges I had when I tried to learn Euskara in Donostia was that I was learning Batua but when I went to visit my dad’s family, they spoken the Bizkaian dialect and I had a hard time understanding them. When I told my dad about it, he nodded, saying he couldn’t understand the Basque from Iparralde. Indeed, it almost seems that every valley, every baserri, has its own dialect of Euskara. One of the goals of standardizing Basque is to make communication in the language easier, but of course that comes with loss of richness of the language.

Map of the distribution of Basque dialects by Koldo Zuazo.
  • The person who really established the distribution of Basque dialects was Prince Luis Luciano (or Louis Lucien) Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon. Bonaparte was fluent in multiple dialects of Basque, extensively traveling the Basque Country and delineating boundaries between the dialects. By 1869, he had determined that there were 3 large groups of the Basque language, within which there were 8 dialects, 25 sub-dialects, and an astonishing 50 varieties.
    • Group A is primarily Bizkaian. Within this group, Bonaparte identified three sub-dialects, an oriental dialect representative of the Basque spoken in Markina, an occidental dialect typical of towns like Gernika, Bermeo, and Arrigorriaga, and a “Gipuzkoan” dialect of Bergara and Salinas.
    • The second group is much larger and comes from Gipuzkoa, Nafarroa, and Lapurdi, giving us 4 dialects and 14 sub-dialects. Like Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan is split into 3 sub-dialects, but the two “high Nafarroan” dialects split into split into 9 sub-dialects.
    • The last group comes from Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa in Iparralde. In this group, Bonaparte again identified 3 dialects, comprised of another 8 sub-dialects.
    • Ultimately, then, Bonaparte classified Euskara into 8 dialects: Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan, Northern Upper Nafarroan, Lapurdian, High Southern Nafarroan, Zuberoan, Eastern Lower Nafarroan, and Western Lower Nafarroan.
  • Today, there are five primary dialects recognized by researchers of Euskara, as classified in 1998 by linguist Koldo Zuazo: Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan, Upper Nafarroan, Nafarroa-Lapurdian, and Zuberoan. These regions are connected by transition regions in which variants of the language include feature from two different dialects. Zuazo further notes that all of the Basque dialects have similar influences from Latin, suggesting they all diverged after contact with the Romans. Zuazo maintains the site Euskalkiak.eus, which discusses in more depth the origins and features of the various Basque dialects.
  • A number of features define the different dialects, but broadly they can be classified into three major changes. In the southern dialects, there has been a loss of the /h/ and the associated aspirated stops. The sound /j/ (think of the y in English yes) has turned into a variety of other sounds, including /ɟ/ (y as in Spanish yo), /ʒ/ (s as in pleasure), /ʃ/ (sh as in she), or /x/ (ch as in loch). Finally, the Zuberoan dialect has developed the vowel /y/, not really present in English or Spanish nor the other dialects of Basque. You can find a lot more information about the features that define each dialect at Euskalkiak.eus.

Primary sources: Auñamendi Entziklopedia. DIALECTO. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/dialecto/ar-44516/; Basque dialects, Wikipedia; Euskalkiak.eus

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 117

Kepa and Latxe were back at the baserri, sitting at a table with Olatz/Marina and a few other of her acolytes. To be honest, Kepa wasn’t quite sure how to think about Olatz’s followers. They seemed to blindly follow her direction, but he had to admit that their cause seemed just, at least as far as he understood it. Is a demogauge ok if they are pointing people in a good direction?

Kepa decided to table that thought for the moment. It would prove a fruitful and interesting discussion point with Maite sometime when they were bored, sitting in some bar somewhere waiting for the next mission to chase a zatia. For the moment, he was focused on making that a reality, to find Maite and the zatia and escape this bubble.

Looking across the table at Marina (he could tell she was in control because of the slight distance in her eyes), he asked “How do we free Maite?”

Marina looked back at Kepa and he could tell that she was supressing a sigh. It seemed to him that she would be happy enough letting Maite rot with de Lancre if she could win her revolution. He wasn’t so sure that Marina cared to pop this bubble. 

“Well,” began Marina, speaking in Olatz’s voice, “we need to get into that tower. I’m sure Salazar is holding Maite there.”

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!

“How can you be so sure?” asked Kepa.

One of Olatz’s eyebrows raised. “Let’s just say that he has a fondness for a certain type of young women. He’ll keep her close.”

Kepa grimmaced. He couldn’t image de Lancre’s hands touching Maite, not that he thought she would ever allow it. 

“Fine. How do we get into the tower?”

Olatz/Marina looked at the others around the table. Some shook their heads, others simply looked down at the table. No one offered any ideas.

“Well,” started Latxe after an agonizing silence. “We could use the nanobots.”

“Go on,” said Olatz after Latxe had paused.

“Just like we do here. We can use the nanobots to create temporary doors into the tower and stairs between floors. We can also use them to disguise us from any monitoring equipment.”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Kepa, smacking his hands on the table as he stood up. “Goazen. Let’s go!”

“Hold your horses,” said Olatz in a stern voice. She turned to Latxe. “But…?” she asked.

Latxe smiled weakly. “But,” she said, “we only have the ability to hijack a relatively small number of nanobots. Only enough for one, maybe two, people.”

“What?” exclaimed Jorge. “Two people to storm Salazar’s tower? Are you insane?”

“We aren’t storming it, exactly…” began Latxe as her voice trailed off.

“It’s suicide!” continued Jorge. “Even with the nanobots covering your tracks, it would only be a matter of time before they failed or you ran into humans that couldn’t be deceived.” He turned to Olatz. “Tell them, Olatz!”

“What else can we do?” asked Olatz.

Jorge threw up his hands. “If they get caught, and reveal our ability to hijack the nanobots, we are all screwed.”

“Do you have another idea?” asked Latxe, defiantly.

Jorge stuttered, looking first at Olatz, and then Latxe. He then looked at Kepa and saw the hope on his face. His own face fell.

“No,” he said, glumly.

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net if you want to get in touch with me.

Basque Fact of the Week: Anton Abadia, the Basque Scientist Who Promoted Basque Culture

Leading scientist – once president of the French Academy of Sciences – and key promoter and defender of the Basques. Anton Abadia was both. During his career, he won numerous scientific accolades while also founding the first festivals celebrating the Basque people and their culture. His impact was so great that, in 1997 – one hundred years after his death – his life was celebrated by both academics and politicians.

Anton Abadia. Image from EITB.
  • Anton Abadia, also known as Antoine Thomson d’Abbadie d’Arrast in French, was born on January 3 or 10, 1810 in Dublin, Ireland. His mother was Irish while his father, Michel Abbadie, was from Ürrüstoi-Larrabile in Zuberoa. When he was a child, his family moved to France where he and his two brothers received an education focus on the physical sciences. When Anton was 19, he was awarded his degree.
  • As a scientist, Anton traveled the globe. In 1835, he went to Brazil to study the magnetic field of the Earth. A few years later, he went with his brother on a decade-long trip to what today is northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, where they studied the region, focusing on the geography, geology, and natural history of the country. He also compiled a 15,000 word dictionary of the Amharic language. He was a lover of languages, speaking some 14, including both the Souletin and Lapurdian dialects of Euskara. He also promoted the Catholic faith while he was in Africa.
  • He later traveled to Norway (in 1851) and Briviesca (in 1860) to observe solar eclipses. In 1882 he went to Santo Domingo to study the passage of Venus in front of the sun.
  • In addition to his scientific life, Anton was also a strong proponent of the Basque culture and people. In 1853, he started Basque festivals in Urruña. The first several where held here, but later festivals traveled around Euskal Herria, continuing on until his death in 1897. All aspects of Basque culture found a home in these festivals, including poetry, sports, and religion. He rewarded participants with an ounce of gold and a makila plated in silver. Anton himself would sing with particular affection the song Aitarik ez dut (I don’t have a father). He was the first to coin the phrase Zazpiak Bat, representing the unity of the seven Basque provinces.
  • As a sign of his pride in his Basque heritage, he once wrote: “We Basques are a secret, we are not like other peoples, proud of their origins and full of national traditions. If we have a founder, a first ancestor, it is Adam.”
  • In 1859, he married Virginie Vincent de Saint-Bonnet. They settled in Hendaia where they built a castle which he named Abadia and Anton became mayor of the city from 1871 to 1875. Earlier, he had become a knight of the Legion of Honour and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Upon his death in 1897, he left his estate to the Academy on the condition that, within 50 years, they completed a catalog of at least half a million stars.
  • The castle, which today is a museum and can be toured, consisted of three parts: a scientific wing, where he housed his instruments, particularly his observatory; a residential wing for him and his wife; and a chapel. The castle is adorned with inscriptions in the 14 different languages Anton knew.

Primary sources: Auñamendi Entziklopedia. Abadia, Anton (1810-1897). Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/abadia-anton-1810-1897/ar-611/; Antoine Thomson d’Abbadie, Wikipedia; Anton Abidia, Wikipedia

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 116

“What is this?” asked Maite.

De Lancre had taken her outside of the city using one of the strange egg-pods. Maite had almost had a panic attack, sitting that closely to him inside the egg, but had fought to keep her emotions under control. It had been a relief when they arrived and the egg dissolved around them. 

The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!

In front of her was a massive complex. A large domed building sat above another, larger building. Maite watched as the building complex seemed to undulate, almost shimmering like the landscape behind a hot road when the waves of heat warped the surrounding air. She assumed this was due to the invisible nanobots constantly building and rebuilding parts of the complex.

“This is the AI,” replied de Lancre. “The main AI is housed in the dome and, underneath, is a fusion reactor that powers the AI.”

Maite gasped. “A fusion reactor just for the AI?”

De Lancre nodded. “Computing at the scale of this AI, which is essentially the brains for the whole city and beyond, requires a huge amount of energy.”

“I would never have imagined…” began Maite, her voice trailing off in awe.

“Imagine how I felt,” chuckled de Lancre. “At least, in your time, you have a concept of fusion energy and artificial intelligence. In my time, we didn’t conceive of running water, let alone electricity.”

“So, this AI runs everything?” asked Maite.

“Well, it doesn’t control what I do, or any individual for that matter, but it manages the city and, in particular, the nanobots. You can think of this as the nest from whence the nanobots – the ants – come and go.”

“I guess that analogy only goes so far,” said Maite, “as ant colonies don’t have a central intelligence guiding them – ants are all autonomous.”

De Lancre looked at her with admiration. “I didn’t realize that. But, yes, the nanobots are not autonomous, they get direction from the AI here. Out in the field, they communicate with one another, exchanging information and orders, until they come back here to bring back raw materials.”

“Are any of you concerned that the AI might go rogue? Might do things that are not in the best interests of humans?”

De Lancre stared at the dome before them. “I admit, I personally haven’t given it much thought. If it does start doing something like that, I can always escape with the zatia and pop the bubble. I guess the engineers and scientists who built the thing must have thought about it, but it’s evolved so far from their original designs, I doubt even they know what it is capable of.”

As de Lancre spoke, Maite swore she saw a sudden but subtle shift in the pattern that the buildings around her were being constructed and torn down, but when she looked again, everything looked like it had before. 

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net if you want to get in touch with me.