Charles26

If I believed that I should be really confused🙃

So Christopher is increasingly aware of what without having the least comprehension of why. Difficult flashbacks that he does not yet understand. Evidently Marco and Adrian are very much clearer about what is happening - more so than we are, though thanks to the Prologue we do at least have a better idea than Christopher. But the tension is mounting, and either the storm is about to break or the tidal wave is about to come roaring in (choose according to taste). And the tor won't provide any useful shelter, of that I'm sure. Again, well written and congratulations, @andy cannon

Or perhaps Adrian was one of the druids who cursed them? The tension is building. At some moment, quite soon, Christopher will remember. And I suspect that with that memory will come an awareness of imminent menace. Well written!

Ooops! Forgot to say that I really like the chapter. I think that one of the biggest challenges with fantasy/supernatural stories of this sort (I think the expression may be urban fantasy) is to root them firmly in the real world. That's a challenge which this story is meeting extremely well.

Well, perhaps they wouldn't. Oxford, being a world unto itself, has DPhils by the gross. But certainly a degree as modest as that doesn't merit "doctor" in those academic circles.😉

Perhaps you could get round the question by redefining the sin. The Greeks and Romans reported that homo-erotic/homosexual relationships were frequent and accepted among the Keltoi that they fought against, which may have included the ruling classes in the British Isles, so objections to a loving or sexual relationship as such between the two men would unlikely. But to sleep with an enemy warrior? That might be a betrayal and a sin worthy of punishment.

"It is an honour that I dream not of" as Juliet remarked about marriage. Not that that lasted long once she set eyes on Romeo. (These days Shakespeare would be prosecuted for promoting under-age sex but attitudes were a bit different then!) Not that Levi is under-age, of course. Levi's upbringing in an environment that went on endlessly about the sins of the flesh is clearly now being undermined or overwhelmed by hormones and new possibilities. He doesn't yet know what he wants and until he works out what he wants he won't know who he wants. But he is a decent young man at heart and he won't want to hurt anyone, so I doubt that he will be playing around with people's emotions once he has decided which way he wants to go. I hope he doesn't get hurt too much himself in the learning process. And in the meanwhile his driving and his relationship with Matt are both going well so there is a lot to be happy about. A great chapter. Thanks @Mark Ponyboy Peters

On your marks. Get set. Go! This should be interesting. At least Aethan is finding his way emotionally to Ghor.

So far, so complex. Ghor at least now knows (more or less) how he feels about Aethan, so that's half-way to a resolution of the relationship. Well, apart from Vaxen causing problems. Aethan is getting there but is understandably jumpy and unsettled. But it's looking hopeful. All that remains is the minor matter of the Object and the universe at large😉.

Difficult to feel comfortable with what Aethan has had to do with Vaxen, though easy to understand why. I hope it proves to have been worth it!

Knowledge, famously, is power. It doesn't guarantee success but it surely improves the odds. What Aethan has learned from his dream may be very useful to him. Or then again, it may not😉

Mutual empathy would help both a them a lot but the environment and the circumstances don't exactly lend themselves to empathy. It will be a struggle to get there, though I suspect they will in the end.

Well; that's dramatic! An alliance is being formed if not yet a friendship (and more?)

Another impressive chapter. The more we learn about Oliver, the less I feel I really understand him. His problems run both broad and deep. Very deep. One of the most remarkable things in his history is not that he is divorced but that he ever had a husband. Daniel must be an astonishingly tolerate and forgiving man. As he walks, Oliver is changing - perhaps healing, perhaps growing. His soul or spirit or whatever you like to call his inner self is starting to make emotional and intimate contact with the world, with people (including, to some extent and rather late, Daniel) and even his own body. How did he come to be so cut off from everything that matters? Was he born that way, raised that way or forced that way by some traumatic incident? His growth or healing is wonderful to observe. This walk will surely be the saving of him - and when he does meet someone he should be human enough to respond to that man's - and his own - gifts and needs. I look forward to future developments in future chapters. Beautifully written, of course!

I neglected say that I particularly like: "It was a man handing over the brake and keeping the wheel, and doing it in one sentence, on a public footpath, without breaking stride." Very effective. An interesting metaphor that tells us a great deal about where this may be heading... Of course, apart from the impact it has in the context of the nascent relationship, I am also (facetiously) reminded of my driving lessons where I had the wheel and the driving instructor had the (dual-control) brake. But that wasn't a metaphor and our relationship was entirely and strictly limited to my learning to drive🙄.

Very much a tale of two parts. The learner's permit and driving lesson are good fun and it's always a delight to see Matt and Levi bonding. So, great. And then Casey. Levi has been warned - repeatedly - but as Matt told him when he first went to T'ville, he is being given reasonable freedom of action in the expectation that he will grow, but part of that growth will come from making and dealing with mistakes. The attraction is clearly compelling and few people think clearly in such cases, especially when they have no prior experience (and I don't think Levi has any relevant prior experience!). We don't really know about Casey yet. At least he is honest about his reputation; but you have to be pretty stupid to lie about something which everybody knows. His come on to Levi was far from subtle. Blatant, in fact. I don't trust him; I think he's trouble waiting to happen - but I have to admit I don't know. I'm quite sure we (and Levi) will find out a chapter or ten down the line. Thanks for another good chapter.

Sheer physical exhaustion. Exquisitely described - I hurt all over through empathy. Oliver's rigid control is cracking, which can only be good since it's doing him more harm than good. I do understand his arithmetic, calculating approach to things since I have the reflex of counting and working out updated percentages at frequent intervals with far too much of daily life. If we had any doubt, we are now told unambiguously just how much Oliver has been keeping body and soul in separate compartments. "... and it wasn’t a system. It was just attention. Attention to a body he had spent thirty-six years piloting and was only now, lying in the dark in a stone building in the mountains, beginning to inhabit." Very nicely expressed.

That's really something. Evan and Cian. Instant desire. Erotic tension. Serious arousal. And a wait from Wednesday to Saturday for - perhaps - some kind of consummation. A decidedly intense chapter and, again, well written. If this is anything to go by the next chapter should be worth waiting for🥵. Not too long, I hope.

It's getting there - but Mannly really will have to talk!

And so not, perhaps, a pilgrimage. Pilgrims usually have a clear destination in mind, even if it doesn't prove to be what they hoped for when they get there. It would be difficult to show that Oliver has any sort of destination at all, poor guy.

Of course Mark has to be a signature author. How not? Well done, in any case😀

The emotional wall he has built around himself; the defences against any sort of feelings - they are just maybe beginning to crack in the different world in which he has put himself. I hope things go well, even with the blistered feet. Beautifully written. An elegant, cutting style. Good job.

"As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish that man would go away." It's only tangentially relevant, but there is at least one person that I've particularly liked since he first was introduced in A Good Place. I've been watching out for him and he hasn't been mentioned at all, even though Tony and Aaron are at the birthday party. What has happened to Zack??

Oh, lovely. What a wonderful chapter - what a wonderful moment in Levi's life. Just for now no anxieties, no worries, no griefs. Just the love of family and friends. Something to make life truly worth living and a memory to cherish: "I will not lose it before I lose the light of my days." (Anne McCaffrey The Skies of Pern.)

I think that Oliver is not a happy man - but that his distress is so total it numbs him beyond any sensation. This promises to be an interesting story.