“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”

Repeated multiple times throughout the novel, the epigraph is later cited as belonging to Dante Alighieri. It forms the backbone of the novel’s moral and thematic messaging, directly referencing the human tendency to avoid addressing crises that have no easy moral solution. The specific reference to the “darkest places in hell” possibly refers to Cocytus, the Ninth Circle of Hell, which is home to those who were traitorous in life. This identifies the act of claiming neutrality during moral crises as a deeply sinful act of betrayal.

“You are gazing up at me from the shadows. Your eyes are mournful, and yet in them I sense a veneration for what I have accomplished. You understand I have no choice. For the love of Mankind, I must protect my masterpiece.

         It grows even now…waiting…simmering beneath the bloodred waters of the lagoon that reflects no stars.

         And so, I lift my eyes from yours and I contemplate the horizon. High above this burdened world, I make my final supplication.

         Dearest God, I pray the world remembers my name not as a monstrous sinner, but as the glorious savior you know I truly am. I pray Mankind will understand the gift I leave behind.

         My gift is the future.

         My gift is salvation.

         My gift is Inferno.

         With that, I whisper my amen…and take my final step, into the abyss.”

As the Prologue closes and Bertrand Zobrist leaps to his death, Brown lays down the first pieces of the novel’s puzzle and utilizes colorful vagaries to disguise references to future moments in the plot. Zobrist’s love for the unnamed figure (later revealed to be Sienna) watching him hints at the love between them that inspired his work while the capitalization of “Mankind” epitomizes Zobrist’s humanist moral code. The use of the phrase “the lagoon that reflects no stars” will serve to add prominence to itself later when it is included at the end of Zobrist’s riddle poem.