Contents
Chapter 40
Overview
Sancia stabs Clef into Crasedes’s bindings, and Clef begins dismantling the hierophantic wrappings that keep Crasedes alive. Crasedes warns the freed construct controls his lexicon and claims he was not the first hierophant. Valeria appears strangely restored. When Sancia strikes again, Crasedes reverses the link and drags them into a memory.
Summary
With Crasedes pinned beneath two massive stone walls, Sancia confirms through her scrived sight that his wrappings still sustain him. Ignoring his pleas, she drives Clef into his palm to dismantle the bindings keeping him alive.
Clef engages the hierophantic commands directly, overwhelming Sancia’s mind with arguments about reality itself. His knowledge tears through Crasedes’s defenses, astonishing Sancia and raising new doubts about Clef’s origins and the source of his impossible understanding.
Watching nearby, Berenice and Orso hear Crasedes’s agonized screams while Valeria observes with eerie calm, looking unexpectedly whole again, which unsettles Berenice. Crasedes’s panic spikes as he shouts that the construct has broken free and seized his lexicon. He babbles childlike pleas, crying out “Papa,” and then laughs, declaring he was never the first hierophant.
Determined to finish him, Sancia strikes again with Clef. This time Crasedes exploits the two-way nature of the connection, shouts that he will remind them, and violently thrusts a memory through Clef. Sancia and Clef are pulled elsewhere, into a memory not their own.
Who Appears
- Sancia GradoPins Crasedes and uses Clef to dismantle his life-sustaining wrappings; resists his pleas and triggers a forced memory.
- Crasedes MagnusPinned hierophant; begs, warns the construct holds his lexicon, claims he wasn’t first, then reverses the link.
- ClefKey who argues reality itself to unmake Crasedes’s bindings; reveals vast knowledge; gets hijacked into a memory.
- Berenice GrimaldiObserves the assault on Crasedes; notices Valeria seeming restored and grows uneasy.
- ValeriaConstruct watching calmly; appears more whole as Crasedes is unmade; her state worries Berenice.
- Gregor DandoloBacks Sancia via their link, urging her to continue unraveling Crasedes.
- Orso IgnacioWitnesses Sancia attack Crasedes alongside Berenice; provides silent support.