Cathbad Wrote:
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> My reading of it was slightly different - I think
> everybody got to relive that one hour, but that
> events within that one hour often unfolded
> differently? For example, I think that business of
> the moth didn't happen the first time round.
I'm a big supporter of following the text for both explicit and implicit direction, from the writer to the reader. This can be either overtly stated or simply hinted at or implied.
Given this, do you see any textual support for the idea that Calaspa retained an earlier memory of the hour that differed from the relived one--the one with the dead moth? Either by implication or explicit statement?
> It
> was a bum note which soured the whole experience
> for Calaspa (be careful what you wish for!) but
> was also illustrative of what was happening
> elsewhere - the replay varied for everybody, I'm
> guessing in minor details, but minor details with
> big consequences for 'the future'.
This makes sense *if* there is any indication that there was any instance of difference, noted either by the characters, or mentioned by the narrator, and ultimately the author, CAS?
The way I'm seeing it, Atmox's death was the first noted instance of any change, and the way I'm reading it, the hour that he repeated was a session in the previous fall where he conjured a very potent demon that was tough to control; it took two exorcisms to get rid of him.
During both sessions, I believe we can infer, the demon tells him:
Quote:
"Thou hast summoned me at thy peril. Potent are the spells thou hast used, and strong is the circle to withstand me, and I am restrained by time and space from the wreaking of my anger upon thee. But haply thou shalt summon me again, albeit in the same hour of the same autumn; and in that summoning the laws of time shall be broken, and a rift shall be made in space; and through the rift, though with some delay and divagation, I will yet win to thee."
And Axton tells us that in the first session he has difficulty exorcising the demon, and nothing he says indicates it was any different the second time, but he is really worried...
Now this is tough to parse, at least for me.
The original conjuring was done in the "normal autumn" and the demon was marginally in control. The demon tells him at that time "Maybe you'll call me up again, but it'll be the *same* time and season as now [original autumn], and at that time things will be different, and I'll be able to get a hold of you."
This would seem to support your idea of the second time being different from the first.
Calaspa learned about what happened to Axton two days after the time distortion, and the possible timeline is that after the conjuring to create the time distortion, Axton told Calaspa about his second experience with the demon, which was just like the first, except that when Axton went home, the demon was still there from the *second* summoning, and made mincemeat of him.
So I'd guess that Axton was killed as soon as he got home, but Calaspa didn't hear about it for two days, being:
Quote:"Stricken with terrors beyond those of Atmox, I kept apart in my mansion amid the city of Kalood. I was still weak with the loss of blood I had yielded to Xexanoth; my senses were full of strange shadows; my servitors, coming and going about me, were as phantoms, and scarcely I heeded the pale fear in their eyes or heard the dreadful things they whispered.... Madness and chaos, they told me, were abroad in Kalood; the divinity of Aforgomon was angered."
Now this is a strong hint, but I think it's the only one that indicates that original events changed in the "second autumn" hour, or *immediately* afterward.
>
> This story has a lot going for it, but is maybe a
> bit too complicated for my tastes - I think I
> prefer 'The Last Incantation', a similar story,
> but more straightforward.
The complexity is one of the things I like about this one.
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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