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Hello and welcome to meet this
pod episode 10. I'm your host de

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Mitas. Our story for this
episode comes to us from Alex

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Schwartzman. Alex is a writer,
translator and indologist from

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Brooklyn, New York. Over 100 of
his short stories have appeared

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in nature analog, strange
horizons, intergalactic medicine

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show and many other magazines
and anthologies. He won the 2014

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W SFA small press award for
short fiction, and was a two

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time finalist for the Canopus
Award for Excellence and

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Interstellar fiction 2015 and
2017. He's the editor of the

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other notified funny objects
annual anthology series for

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humorous science fiction and
fantasy, and of future science

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fiction digest. His epic fantasy
novel or Adonis crown was

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published in October of 2019.
His website is www dot Alex

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schwartzman.com. There are links
to Alex's site and where to buy

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her Danny's crown in the show
notes. Without further ado, the

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law cars fortune by Alex
Schwartzman.

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Who Nothi is making house calls
thank you for coming lekar the

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man's voice is both tired and
hopeful. The lecarre notes the

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cheaply made furniture and bare
walls of the small home. A woman

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sits on the couch her eyes red
and puffy. She stares into space

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and makes no move to acknowledge
you Nothi. Her husband looks

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grim and determined his hands
tremble slightly, as he offers

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her a bundle of bank notes. Who
Nothi glances at the notes. It

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isn't much but there is more
than one way to pay for her

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services. You understand how
this works? Who not the asks.

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Both of them nod. Neither will
look her in the eye nor each

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other. Lead me to him. She says
the man shows her to the next

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room where a four year old boy
is lying in bed and healthy,

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walks in and shakes her head
when the father tries to follow.

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She shuts the door behind her.
The boy is burning up with

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fever. She lives her hands on
the child's forehead and focuses

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on his illness. It's merely
pneumonia, and disease that

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should have been treated with
herbs and mixtures instead of

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magic. The family was too lacks
or too poor to seek such

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treatment in time. The sickness
lingered and grew. It had taken

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firm hold of the child's lungs.
It's too late for the healer.

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She realizes as she studies his
small sweat drenched frame.

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without her help. The child will
be dead within a day. No Nothi

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closes her eyes and readies
herself. She focuses on the

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prison in her mind which holds
1000 deaths. She wills the

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tiniest opening into existence
taking great care not to permit

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any of her wards to escape. She
begins to hum softly using her

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magic to draw the pneumonia out
of the boy. She traps the malady

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contains it within a mental
cell. A few minutes later, the

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boy's fever is gone. His
breathing steady. The lecarre

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feels bloated like a balloon
overfilled with water, stretched

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to its limits and ready to
burst. She exhale slowly forces

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herself to focus again and
begins humming a different tune.

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She grabs hold of another
sickness, one that is more

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potent, more dangerous. One that
takes up far more space and her

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prison. She pours it into the
boy she feels instantly lighter,

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as if an enormous pressure is
lifted off her temples. The

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malignant tumor she expelled had
been a challenging prisoner to

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contain a burden that required
vigilance and fortitude. One

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that she bore for far too long.
It Nestle's in the child's brain

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now. Bonatti exits of the room
without looking at the boy

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again. I bought you a decade.
She tells the father perhaps

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longer then he will need another
lacquer. But she knows that this

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family will never save up enough
to pay for a lecturer to take on

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this tumor by the time it is
fully grown. The man Thanks for

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profusely but his wife stares
daggers that do not be until

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finally she can hold Back no
more doubt. She's tells her

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husband don't thank her. The
witch has done us no favors.

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When off he has heard it all
before, but she can't help

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responding. Your son will live
longer. He has a chance now.

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Without my ministrations he
would have had none. The woman's

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tears are directly in the eye.
Your user is merchant, not a

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healer. You tray death for worse
death and profit from the

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exchange. I don't know how you
let us live with yourself. Then

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she spits on the ground that do
not these feet. Do not the

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pities the woman's lack of
facility for logic. This forlorn

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creature knows nothing of the
burden she bears of the strain

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of containing so many deaths for
so long. She thinks back to her

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years of training. To her
mentors patient guidance, it

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takes a special mind to become a
lecarre a special strength. His

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words reassure her just as they
did back when he lived. Without

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another word she turns to leave.
The father trails her tries to

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apologize for his wife's
discourtesy, who Nothi ignores

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him and walks away.

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Back in her home, or not the
gradually releases the pneumonia

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into her own body. Her adult
immune system would be able to

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handle it, and she cannot afford
to hang on to every sickness she

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captures. Her prison is nearly
full as it is replete with much

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worse things. It isn't often
that she can unburden herself

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the way she did with the tumor.
And even with it gone, she can

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feel the rest of her deaths
constantly pushing probing

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against her prisons walls. Four
days later, she is coughing,

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nauseous and feverish. When her
Stewart arrives with news go

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away, she croaks I won't see any
clients but another week. This

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can't wait insists I found a
vessel. The news Joel to Nothi.

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If true, this is a rare once in
a lifetime find. A vessel is a

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healthy body of someone with a
talent for magic, which also

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lacks a conscious mind. Her
mentor searched desperately for

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one late in life when he felt
himself becoming too weak to

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contain his captive deaths, but
didn't succeed. The steward who

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served her mentor before her was
well trained to never see

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searching. She has to hurry
before the other lecarre is to

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find out about the vessel to
some would spend all their

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treasure to possess such a
prize. Who not the chance to

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pneumonia back into her mental
sell. She needs to be in her

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best form for this. She arrives
at a house in the prosperous

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part of town and she is ushered
to a young woman's bedside. The

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girl fell in her temple on a
sharp edge or so her widowed

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father claims there are telltale
signs that insinuate a different

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story. Her body is perfectly
healthy though. Besides a few

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bruises, her mind is gone. She
will never wake up from a coma.

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Oh, nothing can sense the magic
within the girl. She is indeed a

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vessel. The greatest fortune
immature lecarre could hope to

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possess. What's more, the father
eager to keep the circumstances

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of the girls injuries discreet
demands only a small fortune.

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The word of the vessel hasn't
spread sparing or Nothi the

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necessity for a bidding war
against other like ours. She

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hands over the money and is
alone with the vessel at last.

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The girls magic is strong. It
takes a special mind to become a

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car. Had things turned out
differently. She could have made

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a fine one. And healthy wonders
briefly if her magic could

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overcome the girl's death wake
her from the coma. But even

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attempting this would be
ludicrous, akin to a diver using

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a mallet to shatter the finest
largest Pearl she found in her

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lifetime just to learn if it
would break. Who not the places

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her hands on the vessels warm
forehead and opens the gates of

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her prison wider than ever
before. She chants cancers and

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plagues heart disease and stroke
schizophrenia and smallpox pour

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into the vessel until for the
first was time in decades, who

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northeast prison is vacant. The
lecarre staggers out of the

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house lightheaded and weak. She
can't think can't focus. Is this

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00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:19,050
what she's supposed to feel
like? She lets a steward help

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00:10:19,050 --> 00:10:22,740
her into the carriage and drive
her home. Moments after she

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00:10:22,740 --> 00:10:26,670
crawls into her bed and permits
herself to lower her eyelids.

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Sleep claims her. In the
morning, she wakes with a

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feeling of anguish, guilt and
revulsion of the things she's

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done the way she is, her calling
as a car hit her all at once.

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She has never felt this way. Not
before her apprenticeship to

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become a car nor sense. It is
infinitely worse than corralling

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a multitude of deaths within her
mind, and she can't bear it. And

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Aarthi remembers with perfect
clarity, her calm demeanor, her

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ability to survive and even
flourish. While plying her

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trade. The detached clinical
manner, she can no longer muster

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and takes a special mind to
become a car but perhaps what

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makes it special is a flaw
rather than a gift.

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She comes to believe that
whatever depression or mental

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block had allowed her to
function must have somehow been

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poured into the vessel, along
with all the other sickness.

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Whatever thing made her broken
and allowed her to live with

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herself. She must have it back.
She rushes over to the vessels

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home but she's too late. The
young woman passed away

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overnight extinguished by one of
the many deaths meant for

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others. The body has already
been burned. And Aarthi leaves

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the vessels home and stark and
Windows staring at her with

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00:12:02,190 --> 00:12:06,960
cincher. She picks up the bass
as she struggles to cope with

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the guilt in her heart. The
weight of decisions she made

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feeling much heavier than her
mind's prison ever had. Her feet

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hit the cobblestones faster
until she was running down the

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streets of her city. eyes stung
by sweat her lungs burning in

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agony. She is an expert click
are able to capture any sickness

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00:12:34,770 --> 00:12:40,260
contain any disease, but she
doesn't know how to outrun her

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humanity

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meet a spot is always looking
for great stories with some

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00:12:54,270 --> 00:12:58,080
fantastical element. Check out
the Submissions page over at

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00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,550
Metis pod.com/submissions. And
where did working on some fun

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00:13:02,550 --> 00:13:05,220
stuff for the show and the
community surrounding it. So

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00:13:05,220 --> 00:13:08,340
stay tuned and remember to rate
and review and share the show

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00:13:08,340 --> 00:13:12,420
all around. The music you're
hearing is into the unknown by

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00:13:12,420 --> 00:13:15,870
odd Sprite. More of odd sprites
work can be found at odd

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sprite.com links in the show
notes midis pod is released

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00:13:21,300 --> 00:13:23,700
under Creative Commons
Attribution non commercial no

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00:13:23,700 --> 00:13:27,180
derivatives license. That means
share it all you like just don't

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00:13:27,180 --> 00:13:32,340
change it or sell it. We'll see
you next time folks. Have a good

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00:13:32,340 --> 00:13:32,580
one.