The Magpie and the Endless Citation

A Magpie found a red thread tied around a silver button.

A knot in the thread bore a promise: FOLLOW, AND THE PROOF IS NEAR.

At the next knot the same promise appeared, and at the next. The Magpie followed until dusk, when she discovered that the final knot had been tied to the first.

“The proof must be somewhere in the circle,” she said, and began again.