To my parents

"Do your neighbors burn one another alive?" was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec.

"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."

But in that we started so many things in that moment, we brought to their ends many others that have been the subject matter of this account, and so here is where I draw a line across the leaf and call it the end.