"The things that look fixed in the world, child - mountains, wealth, empires - their permanence is only an illusion. We believe they will last, but that is only from the because of the brevity of our own lives. From the perspective of God, cities like this come and go like anthills. The young sultan is assembling an army, and he has new war engines that can bring down walls as though they were air... The ark has hit the rocks. child. And the tide is washing in." - Italian scribe in Constantinople, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr