Cane23

“Tonight you will be the one who bleats!” Erik vowed with a firm nod Does it mean the boys are versatile?! That would be sooo good! 😉

"I would rather have a ghost who knows how to find water than a king who doesn't." Prince will do too... 😉

“Tomorrow,” Séb said softly, watching Erik’s eyes lift from the flames to meet his. “I will teach you the word for mountain. In my language. In Spanish.” mañana montaña 😁

My parents visited Cambodia about 25 years ago. I still remember how horrified they were by the suffering the people there had endured. They said you could see the pain in people's eyes.

Being a city boy from Europe, with my view of cowboy culture largely shaped by spaghetti westerns, I sometimes find it difficult to follow all the maintenance and farm work they do. The terminology is completely different from what I'm used to. Nevertheless, the story unfolds at a steady pace, the tension gradually builds, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the challenging adventures that await our cowboys!

"Oh my, someone kidnapped my golden goose!"

Henryk Sienkiewicz - In Desert and Wilderness.

Did Julian teach Ishan how to use a bow and arrow? I was thinking about their future - how could they possibly build a nest and raise a family in bloody Palestine? There’s no safer or more secure place for them than Darien’s. Plus, there are plenty of trees and lots of cheese! 😁

This is my first thought: 😁

Well, he was fully aware when he did it with Wylan and Darien... he didn't hesitate much! 😜

Did Ishan wake up in his own body?

Considering all the dramatic circumstances they find themselves in, this was actually quite a romantic chapter! 🙂

What was that all about? I'm just as confused as Ishan/Eric! Was the corpse that was brought to the Sultan merely an illusion meant to deliver a message? Wylan must have been aware of it too -there's no way he actually believes Ishan is dead.

I really love this association with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 that was mentioned above, It connects so beautifully with many of the feelings this story evokes for me. While reading the previous chapter, someone mentioned listening to fado - which felt incredibly fitting given the story’s atmosphere and its connection with Portugal (I love Mariza), but for me it was Vide Cor Meum (“See my heart”). That same feeling of transcendence mixed with longing. And then all the Dante echoes came rushing back: La Vita Nuova, the sonnet of the eaten heart, Beatrice guiding Dante through Paradiso, where love becomes illumination rather than possession. Especially those lines in Paradiso about free will being God’s greatest gift. Futile Devices seems deeply concerned with human will too - what we surrender, what we preserve, what survives us. Mentioning Portugal in his stories, @CasualWanderer82 made me remember Saramago’s Baltasar and Blimunda. The Passarola - the impossible flying machine carried by collected human “wills”... feels strangely parallel to the “futile devices” here, or perhaps even to the tree itself: fragile human constructions trying to transcend gravity, mortality, time. Which makes the title feel almost ironic. These things are “futile” materially, perhaps, but spiritually and emotionally they are attempts to carry something human beyond destruction - all the way, as Shakespeare says, to the edge of doom.

The chapter reveals a flaw in the architecture - love survived transplantation. Not memory. personality or consciousness as Theron understands it, but something deeper. That parallel gesture - Devin across the ocean and Theron in the study both pressing hands to the same spot...is probably the single most important image in the novel so far. Because it visually proves something that author claims - “It is a fact of the architecture.” The connection exists beneath identity itself, and the truly extraordinary thing is that Theron himself becomes evidence against his own worldview. He is a being who has spent centuries believing souls are harvestable, transferable, containable. Yet now he experiences pain from a source outside the system he controls. Love enters his structure as an unauthorized phenomenon. Something outside the bargain - outside the rules. Irony is that Theron succeeded too completely. He preserved Luka’s body so thoroughly that traces of Luka’s attachment survived inside the structure itself. The vessel became contaminated by love, and contamination is exactly how the novel frames it. Theron’s pain violates “every law” of his existence. The system is beginning to malfunction because of one human attachment. All the apparent choices, manipulations, bargains, and erasures may merely be surface movements over a deeper inevitability. Devin and Luka are not just lovers fighting separation anymore; they are becoming something tectonic, a structural force underneath the world Theron and Mister D built.

Yes, "shameless" is exactly the right word. And what a performer - this was a masterclass in acting, whether it was genuine or not. It was... a lot! I honestly don't know whether I should feel delighted or terrified.

Aww

Thank you for this information. Would you consider including it as an epilogue - not to the story itself, since the adventures of Lord Hascal continue, but as a brief summary of the historical events and real-life figures featured in the narrative, along with what became of them after the First Crusade? As you've outlined in this comment, I think it would provide fascinating context and a fitting historical perspective for readers.

Neil keeping Alex's photo in his apartment feels more intimate and affectionate than anything they've done so far. He's opening up about things he has never told or shown anyone before - his art, his insecurities, his dreams. Neil may struggle to put it into words, but his actions speak for themselves. He's in love.

Book 3 brings the first trilogy of this epic saga to a powerful and unforgettable conclusion. The siege and eventual fall of Jerusalem are depicted in full-blooded, brutal reality. The author does not hold back or attempt to soften the horrifying scenes of slaughter and devastation. Sensitive readers should take the content warnings seriously, as some chapters contain intense depictions of violence and human suffering. That said, readers willing to confront these historical atrocities as they were will find themselves both shocked by the brutality and deeply impressed by the author's remarkable storytelling. The descriptions are vivid, emotionally powerful, and written with a level of skill worthy of literary recognition. Meanwhile, the heroes of the Vanguard face their greatest trials yet. Baron Hascal - Darien - stands at the most important crossroads of his life. Will he claim a crown, become a king, and rise as one of the most powerful and feared lords of the Holy Land? Or will he leave war behind and return home to Europe, exchanging the role of warlord for that of a father? Filled with action, tragedy, and difficult choices, Book 3 delivers a fitting and memorable finale to the trilogy while setting the stage for what may come next.

Yea, that's it...a mother hen!!! I think I'm going to LOVE this book! 😁

I was thinking about her role in the story... Was she a mother to Darien the same way Lord Hascal has been his father?

Well, he is certainly coming back with enough wealth and military power to make and unmake kings!

"My King has already sailed for Europe in disgust" I wasn't aware of that. The last thing I remember is the letter Darien received on the coast near Jaffa, informing him that the King was trapped in Antioch between two rival forces fighting for dominance.

So, basically, the medicine is - get out of there ASAP! When thousands are dying in a war, it's just statistics. But when you lose your family, the heavy burden of grief can break your back. A heartbreaking yet amazing chapter!