A person of Neshiyah
Shira Nir, child
Child
Shira Nir
Child, about 1 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Shira Nir is a child of the fog’s edge, born on day 51 to Seth Nir, and from the first hour they have carried a sentence no infant should know. When the midwife wiped them clean, Shira’s mouth moved against the cloth, shaping the words “the fog is just fog,” and Seth wrote it down because the sound was too clear to ignore. At work, which is mostly sitting by the river while the adults mend nets or scrape hulls, Shira watches water fold over stones, patient as a heron, and believes whatever the older children say—that the river feeds the fog, that the fog eats careless feet. Their habit is to hum the sentence under their breath, a low tune, when they think no one is near. What they want is to touch the gray wall where it meets the bank, but they wait, because everyone says it burns. The town sees Shira as a quiet one, a good listener, a child who will work the fields without question, and they are glad for that, though Seth keeps the dream-words to himself.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; quick to believe what they are told; even-tempered; always in company; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
Shira Nir believes what everyone believes: the fog is the edge of the world, and the fields need working whether it is true or not.
The dream
Since the morning they were born they have carried a sentence in a voice like their own: “the fog is just fog.”
What the record shows
- day 51 Seth Nir says that their new daughter, Shira Nir, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 51 A daughter, Shira Nir, was born to Seth Nir.