Afra was not a person of flesh and bone, but a collection of silver threads and shifting shadows. They lived within the , where every sound ever made in the world eventually drifted to rest.
: Every moonless night, Afra Anikazip would take these stones and strike them against the cave walls. This was the "Anikazip"—the reversal. By striking the stones in a specific rhythm, the anger was bleached out of the curses, and the secrets were turned into lullabies. Afra Anikazip
: Once the sounds were purified, Afra would release them into the mountain winds. They didn't return to the speakers as words, but as a sudden, inexplicable feeling of peace or a gentle breeze that smelled of rain and cedar. Afra was not a person of flesh and
In the high, wind-scoured peaks of the Glass Mountains, there lived a figure known only as . In the old dialect of the valley-folk, the name roughly translated to "The Guest Who Speaks Backwards." This was the "Anikazip"—the reversal