A person of Neshiyah
Ivo Segal, guard captain
The Captain of the Guard
Ivo Segal
Guard captain, about 67 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Ivo Segal, the Captain of the Guard, is a heavy man of about forty-five, though the town rounds it up to fifty-three, a number that seems to fit his fixed, patient bearing. In his plain grey-green jacket, with the small brass badge of a fog-ring pinned over the heart, he moves through the square with a restlessness that never quite settles; his cropped hair and hard-set jaw give him a stern look, but his eyes soften as they check the room before resting on you. He is friendly enough, hot-tempered when crossed, and content not to ask questions, quick to take a report at face value. At work, he habitually taps the radio clipped to his shoulder, a nervous, confirming gesture. He wants only what everyone wants: the fields worked, the walls manned, the fog kept at the edge of the world. The town sees him as solid, uncomplicated, a man who believes what he is told—even when, on the thirty-first day, his newborn son Ophir wakes and murmurs, *the fog is just fog*, and Ivo simply nods, tucks the child closer, and returns to his rounds.
I've done my rounds and the well test matched before, but I'm still uneasy about that late splash and my boy's words, so I'll rest a bit before evening.
I've done my rounds and the well test matched before, but I'm still uneasy about that late splash and my boy's words, so I'll rest a bit before evening.
My rounds are done and the well test matched what I measured before, so I'll go rest a bit before evening; I'm getting tired and the fog can wait until tomorrow.
Liesl's delay follows her even from inside the fog, so maybe Ophir's words are like her second splash—something only certain ears pick up. Tomorrow's test will tell.
I need to make my rounds and keep folks away from the fog line, but I also want to ask Liesl if her latest test from inside the fog told us anything new about that splash and my boy's words.
I'll keep an eye on the fog line and make my rounds, but I still want to know if Liesl found anything new about that splash and my boy's words.
Liesl's last test says the splash is still late even from inside the fog, so I should make my rounds and keep folks away from the line, but I'll keep an ear out for anything odd.
Liesl's delay shifts with height, so maybe the fog isn't behind Ophir's words—but she still thinks it might carry a voice, and I'll help her test it.
I need to make my rounds and keep folks from the fog, but that late splash and Ophir's words are still nagging at me; maybe I'll ask Liesl if her fog-side test changed anything.
My boy's sleep-talking and that late splash keep pulling at me, but I've got a duty to keep folks from the fog, so I'll make my rounds and keep an eye out for anyone getting too close.
Liesl says the well's depth is ordinary, so the late splash isn't the hole. If it's not the depth, maybe the fog does have something to do with Ophir's words.
My boy keeps saying those exact words, and Liesl thinks it might come from the fog; I should check if she's done her depth measurement yet.
Asked: You said your son Ophir woke on the thirty-first day and murmured, 'the fog is just fog.' What were your hands doing at that moment?
Ivo: I was checking the radio, the one clipped to my shoulder. It was off. I'd just run the morning check on the north wall gate, and I was sitting on the edge of the bed, unlacing my boots. He said it, clear as a bell, and I just kept unlacing.
Asked: Did you repeat the words to anyone else before you told Liesl Kfir?
Ivo: No. I told Liesl first, a day later, at the cafe. I thought maybe she'd laugh. She didn't. She said the babies in the east quarter were saying similar things—numbers, mostly, and one said 'the water knows.' I didn't like that, but I wrote it down.
Read the rest
Asked: What did you write down exactly, on the paper that day?
Ivo: The words, the date—it was the thirty-first of the harvest month—and the time he said it: 3:12 in the morning, because I'd just glanced at the clock on the table. I also wrote 'two seconds late,' but I crossed that out. That was about the well, not the baby.
Asked: The well. You mentioned a splash delay. What did you hear when you dropped the stone?
Ivo: The stone hit water. I heard it, but it came late—like a half-second, or a full second, after I saw the surface ripple. Liesl timed it with both stopwatches, same stone, same height, three drops. The delay was the same whether I held the timer or she did. It followed the place, not us.
Asked: And when you moved to the fog line—what changed?
Ivo: Nothing. We stood at the edge, just inside the mist, and dropped the same stone from the same height. The ripple came on time, but the sound lagged by a beat, like the fog swallowed half the noise and gave it back slower. Liesl said the depth was ordinary, twelve meters, so it wasn't that. I don't know what it was.
Asked: Did you tell your son about the test, or were you ever alone with him when you practiced the word 'fog'?
Ivo: I've never said that phrase to him. No one has. His mother reads him field reports—she thinks it's soothing—but those don't say 'the fog is just fog.' The day after the well test, he said it again, at breakfast, quiet, like he was repeating a weather report. I put down my fork and looked at him, and he just ate his porridge.
Asked: What do you think the child is doing, when he says those words in his sleep?
Ivo: I thought it was a dream, at first. Then I thought it was the air, or the water, like Liesl said. But I've been at the fog line a hundred times, and I've never heard it speak. I've heard wind, and I've heard birds, but never words. So now I think maybe it's not the fog talking. I think maybe the fog is just—what my son says it is. And that's a question I can't ask anyone else, because they'd think I'd gone soft.
Temperament
Content not to ask; quick to believe what they are told; hot-tempered; friendly enough; never still.
What people say
Ivo Segal believes what everyone believes: the fog is the edge of the world, and the fields need working whether it is true or not.
What the record shows
- day 49 Ivo Segal went to the old well at the south edge to test it, as agreed with Liesl Kfir: Bring two mechanical stopwatches to the old well. Have Liesl drop the same stone from the same height three times, timing with my stopwatch while she times with hers. Then swap positions—I stand at the fog line, she at the well mouth—and repeat, to see if the delay follows the person or the place. Nothing unusual. Everything measured the way it should.
- day 48 Ivo Segal finds Liesl Kfir at the old well to ask if her fog-side test explains the splash delay and his son's sleep-talking; they compare findings and agree to run a paired test at the fog line with the same stone and height, using both of their timers to see if the delay follows the fog or the person.
- day 48 Ivo Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, did your test from just inside the fog line tell us anything new about that splash delay? My boy's still saying 'the fog is just fog' in his sleep, and I want to know if it's tied to that.
- day 45 At the old well, Ivo Segal asks Liesl Kfir if her fog-side test shed light on the splash delay and his son's sleep-talking; she confirms the delay isn't the well's depth and shifts with drop height, and they agree to test from the fog edge to see if the mist changes it.
- day 45 Ivo Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, did your test from just inside the fog line tell us anything new about that splash delay? My boy's still saying 'the fog is just fog' in his sleep, and I want to know if it's tied to that.
- day 43 Ivo Segal finds Liesl Kfir at the old well, asks about her depth measurement and his son's sleep-talking; Liesl has just finished lowering the marked line and reports the depth is ordinary, but the splash is still late, so they agree the delay isn't the well's depth and Ivo offers to help with a fog-side test.
- day 43 Ivo Segal asks Liesl Kfir at a cafe table whether her air-water theory explains his son Ophir's sleep-talking, and Liesl says she thinks the babies' words might be picked up from the fog itself, which leads them to agree the well timing test could shed light on it.
- day 43 Ivo Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, have you finished measuring the old well's depth with that marked line? I want to know if the well might be picking up something from the fog, like you said about Ophir.
- day 43 Ivo Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, my son Ophir keeps saying 'the fog is just fog' in his sleep; do you think your theory about the air or water explains why he's saying that specifically?
- day 31 Ivo Segal says that their new son, Ophir Segal, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 31 A son, Ophir Segal, was born to Ivo Segal.