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02 - Anthem - Ayn Rand · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two, Liberty five three thousand, Liberty five three thousand,
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  Speaker 1: Liberty five three thousand. We wish to write this name,
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  Speaker 1: we wish to speak it, but we dare not speak
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  Speaker 1: it above a whisper. For men are forbidden to take
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  Speaker 1: notice of women, and women are forbidden to take notice
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  Speaker 1: of men. But we think of one among women, those
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  Speaker 1: whose name is Liberty, five three thousand, and we think
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  Speaker 1: of no others. The women who have been assigned to
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  Speaker 1: work the soil live in the homes of the peasants.
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  Speaker 1: Beyond the city. Where the city ends, there is a
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  Speaker 1: great road winding off to the north, and we street
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  Speaker 1: sweepers must keep this road clean. For the first mile
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  Speaker 1: post there is a hedge along the road, and beyond
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  Speaker 1: the hedge lies the fields. The fields are black and plowed,
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  Speaker 1: and they lie like a great fan before us, furrows
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  Speaker 1: gathered in some hand beyond the sky, spreading forth from
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  Speaker 1: that hand, opening wide apart as they come toward us,
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  Speaker 1: like black pleats that sparkle with thin green spangles. Women
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  Speaker 1: work in the fields, and their white tunics in the
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  Speaker 1: wind are like the wings of sea gulls beating over
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  Speaker 1: the black soil. And there it was that we saw
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  Speaker 1: Liberty five three thousand walking along the furrows. Their body
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  Speaker 1: was straight and thin as a blade of iron. Their
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  Speaker 1: eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear
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  Speaker 1: in them, no kindness, and no guilt. Their hair was
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  Speaker 1: golden as the sun. Their hair flew in the wind,
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  Speaker 1: shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.
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  Speaker 1: They threw seeds from their hands as if they were
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  Speaker 1: designed to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was
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  Speaker 1: a beggar under their feet. We stood still. For the
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  Speaker 1: first time, we knew fear, and then pain, and we
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  Speaker 1: stood still that we might not spill this pain, more
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  Speaker 1: precious than pleasure. Then we heard a voice from the
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  Speaker 1: others call their name, Liberty five three thousand, and they
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  Speaker 1: turned and walked back. Thus we learned their name, and
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  Speaker 1: we stood watching them go till their white tunic was
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  Speaker 1: lost in the blue mist. And the following day, as
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  Speaker 1: we came to the Northern Road, we kept our eyes
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  Speaker 1: upon Liberty five three thousand in the field. And each
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  Speaker 1: day thereafter we knew the illness of waiting for our
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  Speaker 1: hour on the Northern road, and there we looked at
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  Speaker 1: Liberty five three thousand. Each day we knew not whether
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  Speaker 1: they looked at us also, but we think they did.
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  Speaker 1: Then one day they came close to the hedge, and
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  Speaker 1: suddenly they turned to us. They turned in a whirl,
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  Speaker 1: and the movement of their body stopped, as if slashed off,
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  Speaker 1: as suddenly as it had started. They stood still as
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  Speaker 1: a stone, and they looked straight upon us, straight in
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  Speaker 1: our eyes. There was no smile on their face, and
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  Speaker 1: no welcome, but their face was taut, and their eyes
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  Speaker 1: were dark. Then they turned its swiftly and they walked
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  Speaker 1: away from us. But the following day, when we came
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  Speaker 1: to the road, they smiled. They smiled to us and
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  Speaker 1: for us, and we smiled in answer. Their head fell back,
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  Speaker 1: and their arms fell, as if their arms and their
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  Speaker 1: thin white neck were stricken. Suddenly, with a great lassitude,
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  Speaker 1: they were not looking upon us, but upon the sky.
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  Speaker 1: Then they glanced at us over their shoulder, and we
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  Speaker 1: felt as if a hand had touched our body, slipping
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  Speaker 1: softly from our lips to our feet. Every morning thereafter
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  Speaker 1: we greeted each other with our eyes. We dared not speak.
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  Speaker 1: It is a transgression to speak to men of other trades,
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  Speaker 1: save in groups at the social meetings. But once standing
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  Speaker 1: at the hedge, we raised our hand to our forehead,
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  Speaker 1: and then moved it slowly, palmed down towards Liberty five
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  Speaker 1: three thousand. Had the others seen it, they would have
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  Speaker 1: guessed nothing, for it looked only as if we were
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  Speaker 1: shading our eyes for the sun. But Liberty five to
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  Speaker 1: three sat thousand saw it and understood. They raised their
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  Speaker 1: hand to their forehead and moved it as we had. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: each day we greet Liberty five three thousand, and they answer,
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  Speaker 1: and no men can suspect. We do not wonder at
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  Speaker 1: this new sin of ours. It is our second transgression
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  Speaker 1: of preference. For we do not think of all of
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  Speaker 1: the brothers as we must, but only of one, and
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  Speaker 1: their name is Liberty five three thousand. We do not
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  Speaker 1: think of why we think of them. We do not
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  Speaker 1: know why. When we think of them, we feel of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden that the earth is good, and that it
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  Speaker 1: is not a burden to live. We do not think
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  Speaker 1: of them as Liberty five three thousand any longer. We
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  Speaker 1: have given them a name in our thoughts. We call
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  Speaker 1: them the Golden One. But it is a sin to
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  Speaker 1: give men other names which distinguished them from other men.
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  Speaker 1: Yet we call them the Golden One, for they are
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  Speaker 1: not like the others. The Golden One are not like
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  Speaker 1: the others. And we take no heed of the law
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  Speaker 1: which says that men may not think of women save
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  Speaker 1: the time of mating. This is the time each spring
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  Speaker 1: when all the men older than twenty and all the
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  Speaker 1: women older than eighteen, are sent for one night to
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  Speaker 1: the city palace of Mating, and each of the men
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  Speaker 1: have one of the women assigned to them by the
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  Speaker 1: Council of Eugenics. Children are born each winter, but women
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  Speaker 1: never see their children, and children never know their parents.
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  Speaker 1: Twice have we been sent to the Palace of mating.
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  Speaker 1: But it is an ugly and shameful matter of which
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  Speaker 1: we do not like to think. We had broken so
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  Speaker 1: many laws, and today we have broken one more. Today
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  Speaker 1: we spoke to the Golden One. The other women were
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  Speaker 1: far off in the field when we stopped at the
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  Speaker 1: hedge by the side of the road. Were kneeling along
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  Speaker 1: the moat which runs through the field, and the drops
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  Speaker 1: of water falling from their hands as they raised the
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  Speaker 1: water to their lips were like sparks of fire in
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  Speaker 1: the sun. Then the Golden One saw us, and they
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  Speaker 1: did not move kneeling there looking at us, and circles
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  Speaker 1: of light played upon their white tunic from the sun
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  Speaker 1: on the water of the moat, and one sparkling drop
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  Speaker 1: fell from a finger of their hand, held as frozen
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  Speaker 1: in the air. Then the Golden One rose and walked
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  Speaker 1: to the hedge, as if they had heard a command
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  Speaker 1: in our eyes. The two other street sweepers of our
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  Speaker 1: brigade were a hundred paces away down the road, and
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  Speaker 1: we thought that International four eight eight one eight would
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  Speaker 1: not betray us, and Union five three nine nine two
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  Speaker 1: would not understand. So we looked straight upon the Golden One,
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  Speaker 1: and we saw the shadows of their lashes on their
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  Speaker 1: white cheeks, and the sparks of sun on their lips,
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  Speaker 1: and we said, you are beautiful Liberty five three thousand.
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  Speaker 1: Their face did not move, and they did not avert
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  Speaker 1: their eyes. Only their eyes grew wider, and there was
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  Speaker 1: a triumph in their eyes, and it was not triumph
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  Speaker 1: over us, but over things we could not guess. Then
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  Speaker 1: they asked, what is your name? Equality seven two five
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  Speaker 1: two one. We answered, you are not one of our brothers,
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  Speaker 1: Equality seven two five two one, for we do not
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  Speaker 1: wish you to be. We cannot say what they meant,
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  Speaker 1: for there are no words for their meaning. But we
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  Speaker 1: knew it without words, and we knew it. Then no,
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  Speaker 1: we answered, nor are you one of our sisters? If
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  Speaker 1: you could see among scores of women, will you look
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  Speaker 1: upon us? We shall look upon you liberty five three thousand,
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  Speaker 1: if we see you among all the women of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Then they asked, our street sweepers sent to different parts
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  Speaker 1: of the city, or do they always work in the
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  Speaker 1: same places. They always work in the same places, we answered,
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  Speaker 1: and no one will take this road away from us.
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  Speaker 1: Your eyes, they said, are not like the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: any among men. And suddenly, without cause for the thought
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  Speaker 1: which came to us, we felt cold, cold to our stomach.
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  Speaker 1: How old are you, we asked. They understood our thought,
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  Speaker 1: for they lowered their eyes for the first time seventeen
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  Speaker 1: they whispered, and we sighed, as if a burden had
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  Speaker 1: been taken from us. For we had been thinking without reason,
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  Speaker 1: of the palace a mating, and we thought that we
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  Speaker 1: would not let the Golden One be sent to the palace.
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  Speaker 1: How to prevent it, how to bar the will of
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  Speaker 1: the councils, we knew not, But we knew suddenly that
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  Speaker 1: we would. Only we do not know why such thought
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  Speaker 1: came to us, For these ugly matters bear no relation
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  Speaker 1: to us in the Golden One, what relation can they bear? Still,
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  Speaker 1: without reason, as we stood there by the hedge, we
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  Speaker 1: felt our lips drawn tight with hatred, a sudden hatred
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  Speaker 1: for all our brother men. And the Golden One saw
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  Speaker 1: it and smiled slowly, And there was in their smile
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  Speaker 1: the first sadness we had seen in them. We think
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  Speaker 1: that in the wisdom of women, the Golden One had
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  Speaker 1: understood more than we can understand. Then three of the
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  Speaker 1: sisters in the field appeared coming toward the road, So
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  Speaker 1: the Golden One walked away from us. They took the
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  Speaker 1: bag of seeds, and they threw the seeds into the
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  Speaker 1: furrowers of earth as they walked away. But the seeds
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  Speaker 1: flew wildly, for the hand of the Golden One was trembling. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: as we walked back to the home of the street sweepers,
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  Speaker 1: we felt that we wanted to sing without reason. So
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  Speaker 1: we were reprimanded tonight in the dining hall, for without
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  Speaker 1: knowing it, we had begun to sing aloud some tune
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  Speaker 1: we had never heard. But it is not proper to
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  Speaker 1: sing without reason, save at the social meetings. We are
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  Speaker 1: singing because we are happy, we answered the one of
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  Speaker 1: the Home Council, who reprimanded us. Indeed, you are happy,
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  Speaker 1: they answered, How else can men be when they live
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  Speaker 1: for their brothers? And now, sitting here in our tunnel,
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  Speaker 1: we wonder about these words. It is forbidden not to
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  Speaker 1: be happy, for, as it has been explained to us,
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  Speaker 1: men are free, and the earth belongs to them, and
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  Speaker 1: all things on earth belong to all men, And the
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  Speaker 1: will of all men together is good for all, and
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  Speaker 1: so all men must be happy. Yet, as we stand
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  Speaker 1: at night in the Great Hall, removing our garments for sleep,
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  Speaker 1: we look upon our brothers, and we wonder. The heads
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  Speaker 1: of our brothers are bowed, the eyes of our brothers
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  Speaker 1: are dull, and never do they look one another in
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  Speaker 1: the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched, and
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  Speaker 1: the muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking
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  Speaker 1: and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word
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  Speaker 1: steals into our mind as we look upon our brothers,
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  Speaker 1: and that word is fear. There is a fear hanging
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  Speaker 1: in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the
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  Speaker 1: air of the streets. Fear walks through our city, fear
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  Speaker 1: without name, without shape. All men feel it, and none
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  Speaker 1: dare to speak. We feel it also, and we are
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  Speaker 1: in the home of the street sweepers. But here in
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  Speaker 1: our tunnel we feel it no longer. The air is purer.
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  Speaker 1: Under the ground, there is no odor of men. And
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  Speaker 1: these three hours give us strength for our hours above
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  Speaker 1: the ground. Our body is traying us, for the counsel
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  Speaker 1: of the home looks with suspicion upon us. It is
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  Speaker 1: not good to feel too much joy, nor to be
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  Speaker 1: glad that our body lives, for we matter not, and
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  Speaker 1: it must not matter to us whether we live or die,
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  Speaker 1: which is to be as our brothers will it. But
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  Speaker 1: we Equality seven two five two one are glad to
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  Speaker 1: be living. If this is a vice, then we wish
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  Speaker 1: no virtue. Yet our brothers are not like us. All
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  Speaker 1: is not well with our brothers. There are Fraternity two
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  Speaker 1: five five o three, a quiet boy with wise kind eyes,
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  Speaker 1: who cry suddenly without reason, and in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: the day or night, and their body shakes with sobs,
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  Speaker 1: so they cannot explain. There are Solidarity nine six three
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  Speaker 1: four seven, who are bright youth without fear in the day,
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  Speaker 1: but they scream in their sleep, and they scream, help us,
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  Speaker 1: help us, help us into the night, in a voice
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  Speaker 1: which chills our bones. But the doctors cannot cure solidarity.
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  Speaker 1: Nine six three four seven. And as we all undress
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  Speaker 1: at night in the dim light of candles, our brothers
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  Speaker 1: are silent, for they dare not speak the thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: their minds, for all must agree with all, and they
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  Speaker 1: cannot know if their thoughts are the thoughts of all.
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  Speaker 1: So they fear to speak, and they are glad when
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  Speaker 1: the candles are blown for the night, and we equality
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  Speaker 1: seven two five two One look through the window upon
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  Speaker 1: the sky, and there is peace in the sky, and
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  Speaker 1: cleanliness and dignity. And beyond the city there lies the plane,
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  Speaker 1: and beyond the plane black upon the black sky, there
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  Speaker 1: lies the uncharted forest. We do not wish to look
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  Speaker 1: upon the uncharted forests, we do not wish to think
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  Speaker 1: of it. But ever do our eyes return to that
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  Speaker 1: black patch upon the sky. Men never enter the uncharted forests,
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  Speaker 1: for there is no power to explore it, and no
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  Speaker 1: path to lead among its ancient trees, which stands as
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  Speaker 1: guards of fearful secrets. It is whispered that once or
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  Speaker 1: twice in a hundred years, one among the men of
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  Speaker 1: the city escape alone and run into the uncharted forests
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  Speaker 1: without call or reason. These men do not return. They
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  Speaker 1: perish from hunger and from the claws of the wild
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  Speaker 1: beasts that roam the forests. But our councils say this
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  Speaker 1: is only a legend. We have heard that there are
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  Speaker 1: many uncharted forests over the lands among the cities, and
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  Speaker 1: it is whispered that they have grown over the ruins
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  Speaker 1: of many cities of the unmentionable times. The trees have
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  Speaker 1: swallowed the ruins, and the bones under the ruins, and
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  Speaker 1: all the things which perished. And as we look upon
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  Speaker 1: the uncharted forest far in the night, we think of
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  Speaker 1: the secrets of the unmentionable times, and we wonder how
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  Speaker 1: it came to pass that these secrets were lost to
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  Speaker 1: the world. We have heard the legends of the great fighting,
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  Speaker 1: in which many men fought on one side and only
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  Speaker 1: a few on the other. These few were the evil ones,
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  Speaker 1: and they were conquered. Then great fires raged over the land,
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  Speaker 1: and in these fires the evil ones were burned. And
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  Speaker 1: the fire, which is called the dawn of the Great
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  Speaker 1: Rebirth was the script fire, where all the scripts of
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  Speaker 1: the evil Ones were burned, and with them all the
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  Speaker 1: words of the evil ones. Great mountains of flames stood
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  Speaker 1: in the squares of the city for three months. Then
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  Speaker 1: came the great rebirth the words of the evil ones,
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  Speaker 1: the words of the unmentionable times. What are the words
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  Speaker 1: which we have lost? May the Council have mercy upon us.
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  Speaker 1: We had no wish to write such a question, and
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  Speaker 1: we knew not what we were doing till we had
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  Speaker 1: written it. We shall not ask this question, and we
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  Speaker 1: shall not think it. We shall not call death upon
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  Speaker 1: our head. And yet, and yet there is some word,
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  Speaker 1: one single word, which is not in the language of men,
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  Speaker 1: but which has been And this is the unspeakable word,
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  Speaker 1: which no men may speak nor hear. But sometimes, and
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  Speaker 1: it is rare, sometimes somewhere one among men find that word.
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  Speaker 1: They find it upon scraps of old manuscripts, or cut
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  Speaker 1: into the fragments of ancient stones. But when they speak it,
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  Speaker 1: they are put to death. There is no crime punished
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  Speaker 1: by death in this world save this one crime of
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  Speaker 1: speaking the unspeakable word. We have seen one of such
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  Speaker 1: men burned alive in the square of the city. And
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  Speaker 1: it was a sight which has stayed with us through
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  Speaker 1: the years, and it haunts us and follows us, and
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  Speaker 1: it gives us no rest. We were a child then
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  Speaker 1: ten years old, and we stood in the great square
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  Speaker 1: with all the children and all the men of the city,
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  Speaker 1: sent to behold the burning. They brought the transgressor out
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  Speaker 1: into the square and led them into the pyre. They
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  Speaker 1: had torn out the tongue of the transgressor so that
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  Speaker 1: they could speak no longer. The transgressor were young and tall.
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  Speaker 1: They had hair of gold and eyes of blue as morning.
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  Speaker 1: They walked to the pyre, and their step did not falter.
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  Speaker 1: And of all the faces in that square, of all
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  Speaker 1: the faces which shrieked and screamed and spat curses upon them,
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  Speaker 1: theirs was the calmest and happiest face. As the chains
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  Speaker 1: were wound over their body at the stake, and a
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  Speaker 1: flame set to the pyre, the transgressor looked upon the city.
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  Speaker 1: There was a thin thread of blood running from the
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  Speaker 1: corner of their mouth, but their lips were smiling. And
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  Speaker 1: a monstrous thought came to us then, which has never
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  Speaker 1: left us. We had heard of saints. There are the
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  Speaker 1: saints of labor, the saints of the councils, the saints
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  Speaker 1: of the Great Rebirth. But we had never seen a saint,
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  Speaker 1: nor what the likeness of a saint should be. And
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  Speaker 1: we thought, then, standing in the square, that the likeness
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  Speaker 1: of a saint was the face we saw before us
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  Speaker 1: in the flames, the face of the transgressor of the
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  Speaker 1: unspeakable word. As the flames rose, a thing happened which
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  Speaker 1: no eyes saw but ours, else we would not be
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  Speaker 1: living today. Perhaps it had only seemed to us, But
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  Speaker 1: it seemed to us that the eyes of the transgressor
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  Speaker 1: had chosen us from the crowd and were looking straight
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  Speaker 1: upon us. There was no pain in their eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: no knowledge of the agony of their body. There was
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  Speaker 1: only joy in them and pride, a pride holier than
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  Speaker 1: it is fit for human pride to be. And it
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  Speaker 1: seemed as if these eyes were trying to tell us
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  Speaker 1: something through the flames, to send into our eyes, some
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  Speaker 1: word without sound. And it seemed as if these eyes
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  Speaker 1: were begging us to gather that word and not let
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  Speaker 1: it go from us and from the earth. But the
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  Speaker 1: flames rose, and we could not guess the word. What
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  Speaker 1: even if we had to burn for it like the
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  Speaker 1: Saint of the Pyre. What is the unspeakable word? End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter two,