Cane23

What does that even mean? You’re frightening me! 😱

Daddy being daddy...and saving the world! I like it...

...and experience! Reding the chapter and comments again...and cannot stop thinking - Daniel is one lucky bastard! 😁 If you strip everything down, Daniel is incredibly lucky. He has something most people in stories like this don’t - a network that doesn’t abandon him. Nora stays. Alec stays (in his own flawed way). Even figures like Max and his brother orbit him with a kind of reluctant loyalty. That’s rare. In many narratives, a character who spirals the way Daniel does would be socially “cleansed” by the plot - isolated, punished, cut off. But here’s the twist - that luck almost becomes part of the tragedy, because Daniel doesn’t experience it as luck. He’s surrounded by people who are willing to love him as he is becoming, not just as he was - but he’s still chasing something that exists outside that circle. What he tasted with Malik isn’t just desire or connection; it’s something closer to a myth of transformation. And once someone internalizes that kind of experience, ordinary (even deep, real) love can start to feel… insufficient. So, externally, he’s a “lucky bastard.” ...internally, though, he’s in a much harsher position. He has love but can’t fully receive it; he is seen but doesn’t feel recognized in the way he now craves, and he is supported but still orbits an absence! His biggest enemy isn’t just himself - it’s the standard he now measures reality against. And that standard was created in a moment that can’t be repeated, which makes his situation almost cruel in a quiet way - he’s not deprived...he’s misaligned with what he already has. So, instead of seeing one lucky person, we see what happens to a person who already has enough - but no longer feels like it is?

Sounds like Monty Python! 😁

A 'huge' sacrifice for Julian! 😁

And the perfect STD protection! 😜

Faster fingers! 😁

(To be concluded…) 😉

Daniel’s journey isn’t just about breaking out of control - it’s about learning where his freedom ends and someone else’s begins. Everything we’ve seen about Malik points to a very specific kind of exit - he controlled the encounter from the beginning; he gave Daniel an experience (not a relationship) and then he closed the door himself. That last part matters most because this wasn’t “I’ll be here if you find me.” ... it was closer to “This happened. That’s all.” So, if Daniel actively seeks him out, he’s not just revisiting his past - he’s potentially violating a boundary Malik made very clear.

Well… yes. Going off script would be Malik calling Daniel for coffee the next morning!

Wow, I knew the Crusades would either make them stronger or break them, but… Lloyd exceeded my expectations so early in the story. Throwing himself in front of danger to protect his king - an absolutely well-deserved knighthood!

Luckily, they have Simon and his highly analytical mind - someone who can actually keep track of who’s whose boyfriend, ex, or lover, who’s in which body, and what everyone’s current status is. 😜

Yes, the whole situation looks bizarre. For a moment, I found myself wondering - what exactly is the issue here? It comes across more like a lovers’ quarrel than a case of harassment.

Max with deep, shaking thrusts, each one accompanied by a sound that came from the unlocked room inside him, the room Philip had described and Malik had found and Max had furnished with laughter and paint and stubborn, reckless conviction. Daniel laughed. The laugh was short and warm and arrived from the room that had been growing inside him for a year, the room that Max had opened and Alec had furnished and Nora had given permission to exist. The room was bigger now. It held more people. Alec and Max are furnishing different dimensions of the same space. Max furnishes: eros + joy + artistic perception. The fusion of language and body; the feeling of being seen as a whole, alive being. With Max, the room becomes alive, expressive, expansive...he brings color, movement, laughter and intensity that doesn’t destroy. Alec furnishes: stability + presence + emotional safety. The ability to stay - the quiet, non-performative intimacy. With Alec, the room becomes grounded, livable, sustainable...he brings weight, stillness, continuity and care without spectacle. What we see is the difference between construction and residence. Malik breaks the wall; Max opens the door and fills the space with life; Alec makes it stable enough to stay; Nora says, “you’re allowed to live here”. But ultimately - the room is Daniel’s, the others are architects, catalysts and co-inhabitants (temporarily or differently). There's one thing with Max that, on a first glance, looks inconsistent...Daniel says “I love you” to Nora, he says it to Alec...he doesn’t say it to Max. So, the question becomes - why is he most verbally silent with the person he seems most aligned with? Not all “I love you" mean the same thing. Daniel’s “I love you” to Nora is mature, grateful...recognizing a shared life. But it is not a claim of romantic future - it’s a release wrapped in love; it’s the kind of “I love you” you can say because the stakes are resolved. With Alec, the “I love you” is rooted in safety and presence; tied to care, intimacy, and grounding and... almost… discovering a new emotional language. It’s easier because Alec doesn’t destabilize Daniel - he holds him! With Max, everything is intensified - Max sees him completely, he names love openly (“ti amo”) ...Max is tied to Daniel’s truest, most unfiltered self. So, why doesn’t Daniel say it back? Because with Max, saying “I love you” is not expression, it’s commitment to a self he is still becoming. Max doesn’t collapse when Daniel doesn’t say it back; instead, he says “either you didn’t hear me, or you did”. Max knows - Daniel heard, Daniel felt but, Daniel just isn’t ready to verbalize at the same speed. The fact that Daniel doesn’t say “I love you” to Max makes that relationship more real, not less...because it’s not rehearsed, inherited or safe. It’s still forming in real time!

Oh, my dear friend, I actually wanted to respond to your previous comment - but @CasualWanderer82 outpaced us with a new chapter. Even though I didn’t agree with you then, I have to admit I was completely taken by your passion. That’s exactly the spell @CasualWanderer82 casts on all of us - we get enchanted by the moment, just as Daniel did. We fall in love with the illusion, and we start aching for that illusion to become reality. But our author is kinder to his characters than that. He doesn’t give them what they want - he gives them what they need. If we look closely at the last two chapters, there’s a very deliberate shift. Daniel is changing, fundamentally. And if you pay attention, Malik is mentioned only once in the previous chapter - and even then, almost as part of the narrative background, placed alongside Nora and Max. In this chapter, he isn’t mentioned at all. And yet - he appears. Not as memory, longing...fantasy. He appears as truth. And that changes everything. Because what we are forced to confront here is something we’ve known from the very beginning, but, like Daniel, we resisted fully accepting - Malik is, in a sense, an actor. A performer. But not just any performer, not even just a good one. He is exquisite. After all, Daniel didn’t pay for something artificial, he paid for an experience. And what makes it so powerful is that nothing in that experience was fake. The desire, the emotion, the intensity, the distortion, the rapture - everything was real in the moment. That’s what made it extraordinary (@FanLit has captured that moment magnificently). It was an award-winning performance not because Malik was “playing” a role, but because he became it. But when the curtain falls, the lights go out. And the actor goes home. To his life. To his wife. To his children. What remains is Daniel - shattered, yes - but also left with the task of gathering those pieces and rebuilding himself, this time on something real. That’s why this moment feels so devastating. The myth collapses...completely. And two chapters ago, I would have been afraid for him - that he might regress or even fall apart entirely. But now… I don’t think so. Daniel has already changed too much. He has opened too many doors, stepped into too many truths. This won’t destroy him. It will hurt - of course it will. It’s a disillusionment. But it feels less like a fall…and more like the final step in his transformation.

Thank you very much for this comment...because I was wondering...am I wrong for thinking the same:

Byzantines were not simply Greeks - they were the Eastern Roman Empire, and they saw themselves as “Romans” (Rhomaioi). Diplomacy was one of their greatest strengths, often paired with a notably flexible approach to loyalty and alliances. Nicaea, a Byzantine city of major importance to Christianity, hosted key Ecumenical Councils where the Nicene Creed was established. Given this legacy, it’s understandable that they would seek to reclaim the entire city intact, rather than reduce it to ruins soaked in blood. However, the strategy they’re playing, trying to sit on two chairs at once, may ultimately leave them without either.

Magnificent and terrifying!

Few rather dark chapters. If it weren’t for Jack’s fun spirit and quick wit, the shift in mood and tone might lead us into an entirely different genre - something closer to horror. Amazing play with styles, @Laura S. Fox, the tension is incredible.

If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Wow... hehe, too bad Tyler isn’t Matt! 😁 So, what’s Charlie’s favorite dish - fried brain, cooked brain... fresh brain?!

Didn't know if the book was a gift or a trap or something in between That’s the question - was the book a gift or a curse? Is the spy a double agent, perhaps? Why is he helping Wylan… or did he intend to expose him before even reaching the Holy Land?

Sounds like wine tasting! 😂

Is the book written in some form of ancient Arabic Braille, or is it in symbols that only Wylan, as a mage, can recognize?

And here I thought Ellis’s job was to torture only the characters, not the readers too! What a frustrating melodrama... At this point, I think Charlie should just go live in that bungalow - at least he wouldn’t have to share a room and bathroom with Taine!