Alive’s the best way I can think to describe it. [ There no uncertainty in her tone. The Singularity is, without a doubt, a living, conscious being of some kind. ] Not… not the rock. I don’t think the Singularity is the rock. I never did, I mean. I think the rock is the burnin’ bush of it all —- there’s an old religious story in my world, that when our God wanted to speak to one of His chosen, He appeared as a burnin’ bush in the desert, but the bush was never consumed by the flames. It was just how God showed Himself.

[ These are stories Julie knows well, could recite in her sleep, and she finds bits and pieces in Abraxas or in the tales of other worlds that line up with the ones she learned in Sunday school. Like hearing different interpretations of whatever the Singularity truly is, on the other side of this rock. ]

What was it you felt durin’ the Dimmin’? I spent that whole week in here, I barely even knew what was happen in’.