Duarte's lonely ten-year-old daughter learns buoyancy through clay boats while her father's new senses reveal thought gathering around her hands and mind.
Teresa Duarte is ten years old and already nearly as tall as her late mother. She grows up inside the State Building of Laconia, where classrooms designed for a future generation remain largely empty. Colonel Ilich tutors her across mathematics, history, art, and practical experiment while other children are scarce enough to make her childhood lonely.
At a fountain, Teresa repeatedly reshapes a clay boat to make it float, steer, and satisfy her sense of beauty. Winston Duarte watches the moment when her understanding changes. His altered perception shows a pattern around her head and hands that may be thought itself. Teresa notices him, waves, and returns his smile before he leaves rather than distract her from learning.
A ten-year-old girl almost as tall as her late mother, with otherwise undescribed coloring and features, working clay with attentive hands beside a fountain.
Teresa is Duarte's beloved and isolated heir, the child for whom Laconia's future is being built and the clearest subject of his emerging perception of thought.