Mister Monday: Chapter Sixteen (Part II)

[pangolin20]

Chapter Sixteen (Part I) | Table of Contents | Chapter Seventeen

Corneille Blanche: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to Mister Monday! Last time, Arthur met the Old One and told his story… and nothing much happened further.

I last left off with Arthur looking at the Old One, who is bound against the clock face. Just now, the doors on the clock open, and a “small figure” comes out of each door. One moves to the numeral nine and the other to the three. The first figure is “a caricature of a woodchopper, a little man in green with a feather in his cap, no taller than Arthur”. He holds an axe nearly his own size. The second is “a short, fat woman with an apron and a frilly cap”. She has a “giant corkscrew”, of at least two feet. Both move their weapons irregularly as they move.

They both seem to be made of wood, but they also look alive. They eyes move and they can move their mouths too, as they pull back their lips to giggle every few seconds. Their arms, however, are “jointed like a puppet’s” and move jerkily. Their legs do not bend, and they seem to proceed as if they are on a track.

When they reach the rim of the clock, they turn to the Old One and advance on him. When they have gone past one numeral, the man chops faster, and the woman turns her corkscrew faster. Arthur watches in horror. The Old One cannot defend himself at all, and he knows the puppets plan to do “something horrible”. He wonders what he can think about it, because he cannot “just stand and watch”. He “heft[s] [the Key] like a knife” and steps closer. I do not quite know what he thinks he can accomplish, but whatever.

He steps out from behind the pyramid, and the clock strikes again, which Arthur thinks might be the fifth stroke of twelve. As the echoes fade, the puppets stop just before the Old One. Arthur steps closer again, and both puppets turn to look at him. Um…

Just then, someone tells him “don’t” and clutches at his sleeve. Arthur turns around, ready to strike, but it turns out to be Pravuil. Well, at least he is in time now. Pravuil tries to pull Arthur behind the pyramid, saying that it is the Old One’s punishment and nothing can be done about it. The puppets would simply take Arthur’s eyes as well, and he does not think Arthur’s eyes would grow back “with the same facility as the Old One’s”, not when they are taken “by the Clock-Marchers”. (The new edition capitalises this term.)

Arthur is “aghast” as he realises that they “take out his eyes”. He looks back while speaking and immediately regrets it. The two puppets are now standing on the Old One’s chest, looking down at his face, “and both axe and corkscrew [are] about to descend”. Eek.

Pravuil suggests they retreat a bit further, since the Clock-Marchers can sometimes leave the clock! That is quite a problem, then! He says it is his eyes for now, but “for many centuries it was his liver”. My, I get the feeling someone has been inspired by a certain myth. I also think that might have been the better option… At least he had full use of his senses back then.

Arthur freaks out and Pravuil leads the way behind a large pyramid while looking back, explaining that it is “a punishment laid upon him by the Architect”. Well, that is a quite different picture than the Will painted! Every twelve hours, for all of eternity, this will happen. His eyes regrow in two or three hours, to be taken again nine hours later. That is quite horrible.

Arthur asks what the Old One did to “deserve this”. I do not think he could have done anything to “deserve” it, frankly. Given that he does not seem to have done something that causes eternal pain (we would have noticed that), this is disproportionate, at the least. Pravuil mutters he does not know about “deserve”, and asks if he “deserved” to be sent to the Coal Cellar. As for what the Old One did, he has no idea, and he thinks it is better not to talk about that kind of thing. He does think it might have something to do with interfering in the Secondary Realms (which fits with what the Old One said). He says that the Architect is, or was, a “jealous creator”.

The clock strikes again and they flinch at the sound. Arthur asks why the Old One is not free if the Architect is gone. Pravuil explains that her work in the House cannot be undone. “Lesser beings” can interfere in the Secondary Realms, but not in the House, aside from things like “minor decorations and fittings”. Big things like the Old One and the clock are “fixed for ever”. They can also notably not be affected by the Keys, so I would say that is a quite bad example of “big things”. Further… this makes no sense with the later books, so I am quite sure Pravuil is lying here.

Arthur shivers, and thinks back to the Old One’s torture, how he lies there “chained and defenceless”, with his eyes open, “and that would happen every twelve hours for eternity?” He finds it “too awful to think about”, but he knows he will be incapable of not thinking of it, so he goes to distract himself.

Since I can bear to think about it better, I would say that the Clock-Marchers are not the only part of his torture. Even without them, he would still be locked up in the Deep Coal Cellar, cut off from the rest of the House, and confined to only the clock face, without any interaction whatsoever. With them… he naturally also has his eyes taken twice a day. I think the worst part of that is just how predictable all this is, and how little he can do at all. Also… the last thousands of years have probably become better for him, as he can at least see Coal-Collators and Coal-Chippers from time to time. Those may not be positive interactions, but they are interactions nonetheless.

Well, Arthur asks why Pravuil came to help him. Pravuil says that he “had a visit from Monday’s Dusk”. Dusk apparently “[s]cared the wings off [him]”, or he would, if he had any, but he was “very nice”, and promised Pravuil “some small luxuries” if he helped Arthur.

That sounds… not impossible, but all to convenient to me. Why would Dusk specifically have chosen Pravuil from among all the workers down here? Further, I am quite sure that Dusk wants to avoid attracting notice from Dawn and Noon, so why would he have stayed away this long? And to get those “small luxuries”, he would have to have left the Coal Cellar and then come back.

I also note that he implies he only went back to help Arthur because Dusk explicitly told him to, which I do not think would make Arthur trust him!

Pravuil then asks if Arthur is truly a mortal, even though he has the Lesser Key. Arthur agrees, and Pravuil asks if he is a “Rightful Heir to the Lower House”. Arthur says the Will says that, though actually he just wants to go home with a cure…The clock strikes again, and Pravuil kneels. He offers to “swear [his] allegiance to the true Master of the Lower House”. He may only be a Coal-Collator, but he will serve Arthur as best he can.

This comes somewhat out of nowhere, I think, but alright. I can see why someone in Pravuil’s position would want to follow Arthur, because he offers a chance to get out of here… but it does not fit well with Pravuil saying that it is better not to pry into things like the Old One’s imprisonment. This is a far greater risk, and yet he is willing to take it? It can happen, but it seems unlikely.

They both look at each other for a bit, with Arthur not knowing what to do. The clock strikes again. Arthur says there is “still something shifty” about Pravuil. “Something that he instinctively didn’t trust.” Yes, good going, Arthur! This is who I would like to see! I also fully agree with Arthur. I think it is that the way he acts does not line up with who he is supposed to be. Like:

-When he told his story about how he came here to Arthur, would he not have said what he refused to change? I would expect him to defend his decision, or, at least, be indignant about being sent here because of such a small thing.

-Would he not have bothered to warn Arthur about the Clock-Marchers in detail if he has really lived here for so long?

-Why is he so casual about Dusk visiting him? He is a Coal-Collator, after all, and now he is visited by one of the highest powers of the Lower House.

Well, Arthur thinks Pravuil might be “more trustworthy” if Arthur lets him have his allegiance. He thinks about films and decides to tap Pravuil on the shoulders, as if knighting him. The clock hand shines brighter and some of the light “flow[s] into Pravuil”. He says he accepts Pravuil’s allegiance and thanks him for it. He declares Pravuil “Sir Pravuil”. Pravuil gets up and is very pleased with it.

Arthur looks at him. Pravuil has grown a few inches, so now he is taller than Arthur. He also looks “less ugly”, his nose has shrunk, and much of the coal dust on his face has fallen off. While Pravuil agreed to this, I do think it is a quite unsettling side-effect of naming him “Sir Pravuil”. (This will also be back later.) The clock strikes again. Arthur has lost count, but he thinks it is the “stroke of twelve”, the last one. A moment later, the doors of the clock close again.

Arthur asks if it was the Clock-Marchers going back inside. We get this:

He was already wondering when he could go back and ask the Old One about the Improbable Stair. If it was the way out, he wanted to get on it.

Yay! Arthur finally has a concrete plan to improve his situation! It only took the greater part of the book before this happened, but I think it will improve quite a bit from here on.

Pravuil says it was indeed their doors closing, and if they stay on the clock face, they are always back by now. Still, it is better not to trouble the Old One until his eyes are back. (I would avoid that either way.) He offers Arthur tea and Arthur accepts.

Pravuil says that they need to go a little way to his “camp”. Fortunately, Dusk gave him “a little box of the best Ceylon tea and some sugar biscuits”. He has not had tea for at least a century, he says. So… Dusk just gave him tea and biscuits? Yes, I know it would be very nice for Pravuil, but why would Dusk not have offered to get him out of here? (Also, who did Pravuil get this tea from?)

Arthur asks how long Pravuil has been here. Pravuil says it is “[t]en thousand years, give or take a month”, and it has been very dull. Um, ten thousand years ago was just when the Trustees took over. We have heard that they became as they are over time, so Pravuil’s superiors would not have wanted to interfere with stars at the beginning, and they certainly would not have demoted Pravuil for refusing! I think you are playing the drama up a bit too thick, Pravuil.

Arthur then asks if Pravuil knows anything about the Improbable Stair or the powers of the Key. Pravuil says he knows little. He knows of the Improbable Stair by hearsay, and that it was supposed to be the Architect’s stair to “reach all parts of Her creation”. That sounds promising! He does not know anything further. As for the powers of the Key, he was just a “relatively junior” star cataloguer, so the Keys were far “beyond his purview”. He is certain that the Old One will know, since he is the oldest being after the Architect.

He goes to guide Arthur… and then he “stop[s] walking as Arthur stop[s] walking”. They have both heard the same thing: a “stealthy step” behind them, a soft sound of clockwork, and “the faint swish of air”, as if of something moving up and down. “Something like an axe…”

And there the chapter ends! That certainly is a nice cliffhanger. See me again in chapter 19, then!