At times even the names of the inhabitants remain the same, and their voices’ accent, and also the features of the faces; but the gods who live beneath names and above places have gone off without a word and outsiders have settled in their place.
Note
In Maurilia the traveller is invited to visit the city and at the same time to examine old postcards showing it as it used to be: the same square with a hen where the bus station is, a bandstand where the overpass is, two young ladies with white parasols where the munitions factory is. Not to disappoint the inhabitants, he must praise the postcard city, within limits.
Above today’s square float three postcards, each a little sepia stage. Now and then one comes down: the present building sinks and in its place grows, at full size, what stood there before.
Touch a postcard to call the past down. The passers-by go on walking, unchanged, through both cities: the names remain, and the faces; the gods have gone.
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.