This is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar

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save for

noovirus

A glass jar of water boils in an MRI machine. In defiance of proverbs, Blue watches it.

invective

scrimshaw

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.’

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

The sedge is withered from the lake, / And no birds sing.’”

La Dame Sans Merci by John Keats

Lo! the spell now works around thee, / And the clankless chain hath bound thee; / O’er thy heart and brain together / Hath the word been pass’d—now wither!’”

Manfred by Byron

Cherenkov-green

Cerenkov (no 'h')

del

Scylla

Charybdis

beater

A harp seal.

hakapik.

rebraiding

ideographic

Pele’s Hair.

it’s customary to send letters that can be opened without ruining the seal,

:-)

orthography.

chignon

anaphylactic.

0000FF,

Hex for blue

Li Bai

Qu Yuan

geometers

Quechua

Tanager.

Parthian

perspicacious,

apophenic

haruspex;

Axum,

hyperbolic geometry.

al-Andalus

Zanj

morpho

Miskowaanzhe,

Outaouais

inimical

sumac.

nuthatches

chickadees,

sapsu...

Gallumfry

jaunts

baobab

San Marco

needle-felting

Sailor’s Delight,

azimuth—a