The observatory is new in comparison, and of the last century. The tufa romanesque foyer into the equatorial is long. These walls will long proceed all that lives. The interior is surprisingly small, light from the oculus cascading over the new, unpatina’d machinery of the telescope. Its function remains as esoteric as the star-maps spanning these claustrophobic walls. Light filters through the lens into a bright point on the floor, previous marks burned into the wood here from days of greater light and improper lens adjustment. With the dimness of the encroaching firmament, this light alone could start a birth.

I must collect the purest fluid for this vessel for the incantation…