When Irina woke up, she was facing the window; she'd fallen asleep staring at it from her bed the night before. The frost-covered panes were still aglow with sunlight. When she was new to Siberia, she used to cover the window with a sheet at night, so that she could sleep in darkness. But eventually, she came to find something comforting the endless daylight... it somehow made the icy tundra feel warmer, happier.

There are places in the universe where light cannot reach, Irina thought to herself, black holes are places of eternal darkness. The way she saw it, they provided a balance for places like Siberia, where the sun never set.