Your labor which gives form to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying Anastasia wholly when you are only its slave.
Note
Anastasia has concentric canals and kites flying over it. It offers agate, onyx and chrysoprase, golden pheasant cooked over cherry wood, women bathing in the pool of a garden. Desires wake all at once. But the city is treacherous: if you work eight hours a day cutting agate, onyx and chrysoprase, you are its slave.
Above, everything that is desired: kites, stones in the stalls, the pool, the pheasant on the coals. Below, on the nearest terrace, six benches where the wheels turn and the workers cut stones, in small bursts of sparks.
Touch a desire: a saffron thread runs down from it to the bench where it was made, and the worker lifts the stone they are cutting. Touch a worker: every thread rising from their labour lights up.
Quotations are brief excerpts for the purpose of commentary. The full text is available in published editions. The Cities of Ottavia, Valdrada & the soundtrack are inspired by "Monument Valley" from ustwo games.