Signs form a language, but not the one you think you know.
Note
Marco arrives in Hypatia trusting the signs that announce things to him, and finds each thing where he expected another: in the lagoon of the bathing maidens, crabs and the drowned. He understands he must free himself of the images that used to guide him; only then will he begin to understand the city’s language.
The scene is a ring of houses on quays around a lagoon. Each house bears its own emblem, faintly inlaid in its roof; over each door, instead, hangs the sign of another house. No sign is where we think.
Touch a sign: a line of light carries it to the roof it truly names. Follow them all and the lines draw a single figure over the water; for a while the signs go home, then the city shuffles its language and the learning begins again.
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.