The city they speak of has much of what is needed to exist, whereas the city that exists on its site, exists less.
Note
Of Aglaura, Marco can say little beyond what its inhabitants have always repeated: a list of proverbial virtues and faults. And yet at certain hours, at certain corners, you glimpse the hint of something unmistakable, rare, perhaps magnificent; you would like to say what it is, but everything said of Aglaura imprisons the words.
At the centre of the scene stands the city as told: a wall, a tower, a gate, a flight of steps, heavy and definitive. Around it lie light fragments that look like nothing; but from a single point of view, for a few moments, their edges line up into a luminous figure. The point of view wanders, and the figure gathers and scatters on its own.
Turn slowly until the figure comes together. Try to touch it and the old words close over it: the proverbial wall slides in front, and the glimpse goes to hide somewhere else.
Quotations are brief excerpts for the purpose of commentary. The full text is available in published editions. The Cities of Ottavia, Valdrada & the soundtrack are inspired by "Monument Valley" from ustwo games.