Canticle - Chapter Ten
Aug. 4th, 2024 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatSorry about the temporary hiatus! But I'm back now. As I recall, we left off with Cadderly uncorking a bottle. Oops.
Now we get to see if it lives up to the hype.
We start this chapter with Danica. She had been reading a book, but she's interrupted by the arrival of Avery and Rufo. She realizes that this means her boyfriend is in trouble again.
I like that Danica isn't willing to take any shit here though:
Avery, normally polite to guests of the library, came quickly and bluntly to his point. “Where is he?” the headmaster demanded.
“He?” Danica replied. She knew perfectly well that Avery was referring to Cadderly, but she didn’t appreciate the headmaster’s tone.
Avery realizes that he's being a dick and apologizes, expressing his frustration with Cadderly. Danica accepts the apology, understanding that her boyfriend is occasionally a douchebag. The narrative uses the term "free spirit", but yeah, he's annoying. He's even stood up Danica a few times, because he's an idiot.
That said, she's also in love.
She doesn't care for Rufo. He apparently hit on her a lot at first, and he was pretty creepy when she turned him down. I appreciate knowing this, and I think it would have been useful to hear this earlier.
When she had politely turned Rufo down, he just stood towering over her, tilting his head and staring for a long moment with that same frozen, unblinking stare on his face. Danica didn’t know exactly what it was that had caused her to rebuff Rufo way back then, but she suspected it was his dark, deepset eyes. They showed the same inner light of intelligence as Cadderly’s, but if Cadderly’s were inquisitive, then Rufo’s were conniving. Cadderly’s eyes sparkled joyfully as if in search of answers to the uncounted mysteries of the world; Rufo’s, too, collected information, but his, Danica believed, searched for advantage.
Rufo had never given up on Danica, even after her budding relationship with Cadderly had become common talk in the library. Rufo still approached her often, and still she sent him away, but sometimes she saw him, out of the corner of her eye, sitting across the room and staring at her, studying her as though she were some amusing book.
Yeah, okay, I can see why he wouldn't be "innocent" enough if he acted like this.
Anyway, amusingly, Avery has to get Danica (and our) attention again, asking if she knows where Cadderly is. She doesn't, and the look of concern on Rufo's face has her worried. When he mentions that he'd left Cadderly in the wine cellar yesterday, they go to look.
-
We scene shift to Cadderly. He's waking up in that dark place. He doesn't seem to remember what happened last chapter. He does remember Rufo and the wine cellar. And he can hear Danica calling for him.
Oh, that's a clever set up. Everyone will think he just got injured on the stairs, and since this isn't the real world, they won't assume a long period of unconsciousness would mean massive brain damage.
Rufo is the one who finds him first, and Cadderly notes that he looks weird:
Kierkan Rufo found him. The tall man seemed more ghastly than ever to Cadderly as he looked up at the shadows splayed across Rufo’s angular features. Rufo appeared surprised to find Cadderly, and he glanced around as if undecided as to how to react.
“Could you …” Cadderly began, pausing to catch his breath, “please get … me … Get this off me.”
Still Rufo hesitated, confusion and concern crossing his face.
“Over here,” he called out finally. “I found him.”
Cadderly didn’t hear much relief in Rufo’s tone.
As creepy as he's been, I do feel some pity for the guy here.
Anyway, Cadderly's apparently pinned by crates and Rufo starts helping to remove them. There's a point where it kind of looks like Rufo's tilting one of the heavy casks to fall on Cadderly's head, but he's interrupted by Danica, who helps push it away.
Danica checks his wounds and Avery asks for an explanation Cadderly can't give. He remembers counting bottles, and that's about it. Avery assumes that he'd wandered off, but Cadderly has his doubts. He thinks he remembers seeing something like a light. That jars memory of the door behind the casks.
Cadderly runs to the casks, but when he moves them, he encounters a solid wall. He's confused and distressed. Danica reassures him: he's got a head wound and some temporary confusion is understandable.
Cadderly asks an oddly defensive Avery what would be below the rooms, and is sent off to the healers for his trouble.
--
NOW we go to Barjin, who is watching the smoke rise from the flask. Apparently there's some formal rituals that still need doing, but they're mostly formalities. The curse in underway.
It's going to be much slower than it had been in Castle Trinity, as this is diffused, and not a concentrated dose. That might be scarier, since people aren't likely to notice they're breathing it in until it's too late.
We end the chapter on some Barjin monologuing. No curse effects yet though. Maybe next time.
Now we get to see if it lives up to the hype.
We start this chapter with Danica. She had been reading a book, but she's interrupted by the arrival of Avery and Rufo. She realizes that this means her boyfriend is in trouble again.
I like that Danica isn't willing to take any shit here though:
Avery, normally polite to guests of the library, came quickly and bluntly to his point. “Where is he?” the headmaster demanded.
“He?” Danica replied. She knew perfectly well that Avery was referring to Cadderly, but she didn’t appreciate the headmaster’s tone.
Avery realizes that he's being a dick and apologizes, expressing his frustration with Cadderly. Danica accepts the apology, understanding that her boyfriend is occasionally a douchebag. The narrative uses the term "free spirit", but yeah, he's annoying. He's even stood up Danica a few times, because he's an idiot.
That said, she's also in love.
She doesn't care for Rufo. He apparently hit on her a lot at first, and he was pretty creepy when she turned him down. I appreciate knowing this, and I think it would have been useful to hear this earlier.
When she had politely turned Rufo down, he just stood towering over her, tilting his head and staring for a long moment with that same frozen, unblinking stare on his face. Danica didn’t know exactly what it was that had caused her to rebuff Rufo way back then, but she suspected it was his dark, deepset eyes. They showed the same inner light of intelligence as Cadderly’s, but if Cadderly’s were inquisitive, then Rufo’s were conniving. Cadderly’s eyes sparkled joyfully as if in search of answers to the uncounted mysteries of the world; Rufo’s, too, collected information, but his, Danica believed, searched for advantage.
Rufo had never given up on Danica, even after her budding relationship with Cadderly had become common talk in the library. Rufo still approached her often, and still she sent him away, but sometimes she saw him, out of the corner of her eye, sitting across the room and staring at her, studying her as though she were some amusing book.
Yeah, okay, I can see why he wouldn't be "innocent" enough if he acted like this.
Anyway, amusingly, Avery has to get Danica (and our) attention again, asking if she knows where Cadderly is. She doesn't, and the look of concern on Rufo's face has her worried. When he mentions that he'd left Cadderly in the wine cellar yesterday, they go to look.
-
We scene shift to Cadderly. He's waking up in that dark place. He doesn't seem to remember what happened last chapter. He does remember Rufo and the wine cellar. And he can hear Danica calling for him.
Oh, that's a clever set up. Everyone will think he just got injured on the stairs, and since this isn't the real world, they won't assume a long period of unconsciousness would mean massive brain damage.
Rufo is the one who finds him first, and Cadderly notes that he looks weird:
Kierkan Rufo found him. The tall man seemed more ghastly than ever to Cadderly as he looked up at the shadows splayed across Rufo’s angular features. Rufo appeared surprised to find Cadderly, and he glanced around as if undecided as to how to react.
“Could you …” Cadderly began, pausing to catch his breath, “please get … me … Get this off me.”
Still Rufo hesitated, confusion and concern crossing his face.
“Over here,” he called out finally. “I found him.”
Cadderly didn’t hear much relief in Rufo’s tone.
As creepy as he's been, I do feel some pity for the guy here.
Anyway, Cadderly's apparently pinned by crates and Rufo starts helping to remove them. There's a point where it kind of looks like Rufo's tilting one of the heavy casks to fall on Cadderly's head, but he's interrupted by Danica, who helps push it away.
Danica checks his wounds and Avery asks for an explanation Cadderly can't give. He remembers counting bottles, and that's about it. Avery assumes that he'd wandered off, but Cadderly has his doubts. He thinks he remembers seeing something like a light. That jars memory of the door behind the casks.
Cadderly runs to the casks, but when he moves them, he encounters a solid wall. He's confused and distressed. Danica reassures him: he's got a head wound and some temporary confusion is understandable.
Cadderly asks an oddly defensive Avery what would be below the rooms, and is sent off to the healers for his trouble.
--
NOW we go to Barjin, who is watching the smoke rise from the flask. Apparently there's some formal rituals that still need doing, but they're mostly formalities. The curse in underway.
It's going to be much slower than it had been in Castle Trinity, as this is diffused, and not a concentrated dose. That might be scarier, since people aren't likely to notice they're breathing it in until it's too late.
We end the chapter on some Barjin monologuing. No curse effects yet though. Maybe next time.