Ethan, miserable and broken, at least goes to a good place and person to recover. Maybe he will listen and move on. Maybe Caleb will slowly fade, even as the new baby takes his place. And maybe that is what was meant to be. But what of Caleb?
There is an emptiness I feel I this. There is cavern in which your words echo with the sadness and waste of all this, and the grim outrage of betrayal. This poem is wet with the tears you shed, as should we all, for a man who knew too little love.
You have made my day! That you should read these aloud at all makes me very, very happy. That your mum enjoyed them - and maybe you did too - lifts my heart this evening.
It's always fun to find a scientific or mathematical principle that needs a poetic treatment. I believe Aditus put up the challenge of The Universal Gas Constant once....
I loved this chapter. You wrote the action with such intensity and my gut tightened as Chris pulled back that fist. But Stefan heard 'love' from someone who could really mean it, and that might make all the difference. Beautifully done.
Occam's Razor
Will Occam had a razor keen,
the like to which has ne'er been seen,
though Aristotle came quite close,
as logic seemed to him routine.
It's not a razor (I'm jocose),
but Occam's rule for all verbose
explanatory theorems states:
eschew the over-grandiose.
Instead, in rational debates,
if two ideas have equal weights,
the one with least assumptions wins
the day o'er other postulates.
My heart is burst, my head, it spins;
the simp
And while I liked this chapter, it makes me so very sad, for Caleb realizes he can never live again in the light with Ethan, even though he can try to give his lover the life he ought to have lived. But even this may not be possible, for the Ruler now stalks Caleb, as well as his hounds. I am filled with foreboding.
So Orpheus is unveiled and revealed for who he is. Ethan was so easily broken, and all The Ruler needed to do was sow just a little doubt. Now Ethan knows real pain, pain undisguised and unmasked by his drive and desire for Caleb. Can Ethan's love regain any of its purity by being so tried by Death itself? You weave such a tale of intrigue and mystic adventure here, and all derived from that simple, foolishly undeclared love...
No, I don't hate you. But you have left me pondering questions. Is Orpheus up to his own game? Is Ethan - the boy Caleb loved - really anywhere at all? Because the all powerful warlock doesn't seem like that guy. Of course, you smash that all-powerful notion to tiny bits at the end of the chapter. I do like psionic snow plowing, though. Great idea!
I love the flashbacks and the way in which Caleb is reaching for Ethan. How much you make me wish time could flow in two directions. Beautifully written.
I can see why you liked this chapter so much. Jake becomes far more human, and Ethan retreats from becoming something quite other than human. Perhaps he can find a way to move on, and perhaps not. Or perhaps there will be another way to reunite the pair that none of us foresee, and that even Ethan's magic cannot fathom. But there will be many rivers to cross before that happens, I imagine. Great chapter!
Caleb is learning more and more, and we are doing so with him. But I wonder if he will truly die when he meets Ethan again. For who knows if the Ethan of the journal or the Ethan returned is the one Caleb loved. You have simply multiplied the mysteries for me. As usual, I might add. Thank you!