"My home, the Great Rift City of Yesh me-Ayin is built into the sides of a vast canyon. The rich folks, and there are many in this city, live high on the walls, and the rest of us, and there are far, far more of us, live along the edges and into the depths." Illumination takes a bite of whatever they've got for dinner, a sip of her drink, and then continues.

"A benevolent society is an organization of individuals that run alongside the law, sometimes past it, and that provides a share of the profits for its members. Mutual aid is to give when we can to those that need it." How best to explain this? "Those up on the wall, they don't like it when they're reminded that we can shift for ourselves. It's threatening."