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It is hard to look

Nevio keeps speaking Has he seen , le co?

Or is it Nevio’s voice that has theone," he says "The day has co from the Below"

And then, at the end of the nave, there she is They have tucked her away, and at first I find this strange, because then fewer people can see her, and I thought the point of bringing the bodies here was for people to see the sirens dead But then I understand why they didn’t put her body near the front

Because Maire’s face is at peace

She looks beautiful in a way that is so like the sun It is difficult to turn away, though it hurts so e of her robe and move toward the center aisle of the nave It is time to be seen It is time to be heard

"We knew this day would co over the pulpit, down the aisle He opens his arms "It is time for the Above to rid yourselves of the burden of the Below once and for all It is your time"

I step out into the center aisle Nevio looks up and our eyesall around And I realize that he has come to believe his own lies He believes that he shapes the world as he speaks

People turn to see what Nevio sees Does he knoho I am? Does he remember now that I came Above?

"Who is that?" someone asks

I push back the hood of my robe People move out of my way to let me pass My feet on the marble sound like my mother’s did when she went up in the near silence before a service The jar of water still sits on the altar, and light shines through the s Above

"I a more

Lies and truth have been spoken in this temple, and now my nanition in Nevio’s eyes He remembers now that I caet Maire She was more powerful than Nevio in that moment, and in many others

I am not afraid

I kno to do this Maire showed me, every step, from the first day in the deepmarket to the last day on the island shore She even showed me what to say

I turn my back on Nevio and face the people of the Above I speak I ask

"Listen"

I feel it cole word, everything I have saved, spent

I want it to be this way I want them to listen, but I want to speak to them as a person Someone like them Then maybe they will understand

I want to be heard

I can useI am as human as each of them, and they will hear that, if they can do what I asked and listen I won’t co And that would not hold They have to want to save us

I knohat Bay is saying at this ether I know her mind, and she knows my voice We are water, the same; the river and the bay