Nachli filled her senses one last time with the vibrant colors and complex aromas of the living world, then pressed a fingerful of the bread spirit against her tongue and began the recitations. Soon she was balanced on the knife s edge between the worlds. The table itself seemed to stretch out into infinity; at some point, she discovered she was seated in the middle of a long road between two columns of diffuse light. If she concentrated on her memory of her body sitting at the feast instead of what her senses were currently telling her about the Famine Lands, she could feel hands resting on her shoulders as if through many thick layers of cloth. They were comforting but so distant.