The outer passage of the Archives had been waiting for two thousand years, and Keth'serai understood its patience better than most things she understood.
Not because her own patience was comparable: six centuries was not two thousand years, and she had never confused the two. But Lattice at sufficient depth changed your relationship to old spaces the way age changed your relationship to old arguments. You stopped trying to win them. You started reading what they were actually about. The passage was not patient in any sense that involved waiting. It was patient the way stone was patient: because the alternative had never been presented as an option, and the question had never arrived.
// Access Restricted
Account Required
Create a free account to unlock this content, join discussions, and track your reading progress.
