Summary

Chapter 5 opens with a description of an unnamed group of people who speak both latin and anglo. Makina likes this “intermediary tongue…because it’s like her: malleable, erasable, permeable” (65). In it she detects a “shrewd metamorphosis, a self-defensive shift” (65). According to Makina, this intermediary language is enlightening: “if you say Give me fire when they say Give me a light, what is not to be learned about fire, light, and the act of giving?” (66).

Makina travels to the nearby city listed on the address that the old man gave her. She asks for directions from many people, whose advice sometimes leads her away from her destination. She reflects on the messages her brother sent home. The first describes the country and his search for their land. The second said: “I’m fine, I have...