"It was like that, at the start. A dull, bland, pointless world, small and tiny." She closed her eyes, and her eyeshadow leapt out. "But it's all gone now. Then. Whenever. The domes collapsed, the Proxies died, and the Arc returned."

She opened her eyes and looked at him. That constant smile made his face hard to read, but he wasn't joking. What could she say?

"I heard the Proxies called Gods, more than once. But I don't think that's what you mean. I can't say I ever thought about it myself."