The tale is thus a speculative philosophical journey, born from the collision between Talleyrand's practical maxim and radically different visions on the purpose and power of language. It is an impossible meeting in a timeless space (the "Garden of Words"), where four masters of language (or its disdain) debate its essence, revealing, through their contradictions and complementarities, the many faces—and dangers—of this unique human gift Talleyrand mastered and mistrusted so