The theme of this chapter is Traveling the Paths Beyond.
When I say theme, I just mean the “keyword” I used to guide my writing while I was trying to get the feel correct. Like the chapter titles, there’s often more than one layer of subtle significance.
Discussion welcome.
The pieces do be falling into place now! Really liked how Siobhan displayed her innate tenacity/aptitude but also knew her only way to win was to get Grandfather back here. Even this young she finds ways to surprise those more powerful than herself.
I did find this part took me out of the story for a moment to check id understood all the negatives correctly:
Claudio lunged at her, and she smacked him with the root end of the stick. It did absolutely nothing that one might not have expected a dead piece of wood to do, and Claudio paused for a moment in surprise.
Could just be tiredness impeding my comprehension but that sentence is tripping me up every time I read it so far.
I think that was my favorite sentence in the chapter. I also had to pause to parse it, but it was phrased in such an amusing way.
I was fine with it, for what it’s worth. Maybe it is a bit convoluted, but I agree with CoveringStorm that it was very amusing in its phrasing.
I’m very hopeful that Siobhan looks in the mirror in the next chapter bc I don’t think she’ll like what she sees at all.
Also though Claudio did get in her head this memory of his actual body being destroyed pairs well with him not having a shadow when he walks with Siobhan in the spirit realm during the Lacer fight. Might be encouraging that he’s not whole?
Thoughts:
As always, I should not be writing comments at 2:30AM. I’m always amazed when they end up even moderately coherent.
Last things first; it’s amazing how it’s in unguarded moments that we see people’s true faces. Grandfather is always so aloof and austere and vaguely distant from everything. The way he imparts offhanded knowledge even as he brushed himself off after a life or death struggle is the epitome of this. But that look of horror when Siobhan began to convulse speaks volumes. I am convinced he loves her. He might not be a good man, he might not be the best grandfather or father, but I really do believe he loves both his daughter and granddaughter.
First things second:
“You escaped again?” he asked in astonishment. “Is this the resilience of a Naught?”
It seems that even an aberrant has enough humanity to fall into the trap of attributing ridiculous feats to Siobhan.
(Yes, her ability to last in the spirit realm is remarkable, her focus and clarity of will is remarkable, but ultimately it was due to her mother that she could escape - Miakoda provided the portal for her.)
Middle bits last:
And then Siobhan was wrenched away by a tether that pulled on every molecule of her being, even the parts that had been scattered and lost. As she was sucked through the barrier between here and there, the pressure forced her back together.
This is fascinating. I wonder if this is what led to the weirdness in her mind. If there was a point in time where multiple copies, sheddings of her spirit, existed, maybe capable of independent thought, maybe nothing more than ghosts of an unravelling child, ill prepared for the dangers of the spirit realm.
Then suddenly forced back together before they could become distinct entities.
Maybe this is why she can split her Will.
I’m so desperate for us to be back in the current time! I desperately wonder how these revelations will impact her. Will it unlock the creature in her head? She knew she wasn’t supposed to remember. Now, presumably, she does.
I guess it might actually be the resilience of a Naught, though not the one Claudio was thinking of.
Me too! How quickly does she remember all these things? Like does she cast the crown of madness, remember it all, and then come right back to the present in a life and death struggle?
And worse, it doesn’t solve her problem with the Red Guard. None of this looks like a super-secret method of transferring consciousness. She has a method an aberrant used to connect itself to the dreams of people and pull their thoughts into the spirit world.
Depending on how the next chapter plays out it does look like Fake Claudio has probably transferred his consciousness from Claudio’s body into Siobhan’s so maybe there are some hints in there for her to work with.
This chapter changed my view of Raaz so much. He was more powerful than I ever imagined, but also more sincere as a grandfather than I gave him credit for. His disregard for the villagers is not excused, but I won’t be interpreting the mysteries around him from a viewpoint of suspicion by default. I hope we get a chapter from his POV at some point.
Fun chapter. Heads up, the discussion link at the end of the chapter on the website is still a placeholder.
Well! I have some thoughts on that.
Things she can give the Red Guard after this - send them after Hyperiodax (was that the Titan’s name? Dammit, why is that one so hard to stick in my head? It’s simple enough!) which is a treasure of sorts.
She can present to them the (probable) method by which she split her Will.
Assuming that Claudio ends up in her head (safe assumption at this point) she can present the method by which he became a lucid aberrant and let them decide if they want to pursue that to their destruction (unlikely, and also very likely to get her locked up and studied).
But she was never really looking for something to give to the Red Guard. She was trying to solve her own problems and get out of Dodge. She went to Oliver to get backup for this spell, but she was already prepared to leave town, probably the country.
She blew out a long, slow breath. Since the chances of being able to avoid capture if the Red Guard became determined to find her were so minuscule, she needed to finalize her preparations to run. To disappear forever.
In fact, Hite was not Siobhan’s most urgent problem. She needed to deal with the seal in her mind, which might be cracking further.
So! If she gets out of this compos mentis and in control of her own body - big ifs here - she has some useful information for bargaining with the Red Guard should she go that route, but that was not her goal. She might have shattered the seal in her mind entirely.
You can see the altered equilibria of being after Siobahn got back. Aspects can be learned but to do so is to interact and exchange and thus shift. And when baseline concepts are shared but held in differeing scales of context that can result in alienation. Purpose of blinking is rather specific to the need for water as a exchange surface for example, but what defines the water on ones skin from tears from that in your eyes keeping them wet, etc etc. Lots of ways to be shifted amd yet live, but some things are beyond the dynamics of life as experienced in the mundane realm.
I wonder how much her bodies responses may have their own conceptual weight from her bloodline to resist such alienation. The alienation isnt fatal but exchanges are how things exist in a framework of change at all and so she shifts not beyond what she is as of yet but somewhat.
There is the thought that her Bloodline may help align her to concepts in the spirit realm that may act as a exchange or repository for more baseline existance and through that act as a kind of exchanging buffer to alienation from humanity. Effectively making a conceptual space of human aspects that one may more easily tap into or align with due to it on some level being you and the ideation of such encoded through socialization. May even relate to how her grandfather teaches her to act and how her mental exercises are thus more effective as she is drawing on a imprint of being a Naught.
This was very bad, she realized dimly, because being forced to grasp the ungraspable meant that her structure must be rearranged.
Abandoned by flesh and bone, blood sang the song that only the earth remembered how to hear. And at the bottom of a well that never ended waited the reflection of all those who had peered too deeply.
Claudio may have been drawing Siobahn closer and closer to the origin point of the Titan I think, with concepts growing more diffuse in relation to her human context in a effort to make her a anchor.
I do partially suspect that her bloodline may be made to possibly gain such mirror states or at least help create such a human concept in the spirit world that can be relied on. Less sure if they understood the possible implications of such copies and imprints if they succeeded. You can see some possible logic for it though in the same way as trying to imprint ideals of certain concepts relating to symbols or colors onto a larger population.
Might indeed have some implications for Myrdins own reflection. What better vessel than yourself for a being that is made of moments of you?