Act Three - The Angel’s Game — Chapter 3

After Señor Sempere’s funeral, David withdraws for days, clinging to the hope that Cristina will return. Accepting her absence, he reenters his study, rereads his employer’s manuscript with bitter resolve, then reads Diego Marlasca’s Lux Aeterna and burns it, vowing to succeed where Marlasca failed.

He resumes work at midnight, writing with ferocious intensity for nights on end. The obsession consumes him: his fingers bleed, fever blurs his vision, and he ignores food and rest, driven solely by the desire to bewitch and destroy through his pages.

Isabella arrives, horrified by David’s state, flings open windows, draws a bath, and summons a doctor. The physician diagnoses exhaustion, dehydration, and early anemia, treats the razor cuts on David’s chest and bandages his fingers, orders nourishment, rest, sunlight, and a follow-up visit. Isabella enforces every instruction.

She feeds David broth, dresses him, and escorts him into the winter light. During their walk in Ciudadela Park, Isabella says her parents are relieved she returned home and that she is mostly at the bookshop. She reveals that Sempere has proposed marriage; she is considering it amid debts and hopes for a family.

David gently warns that compassion can be mistaken for love and urges time. They share a quiet understanding, and when David asks, “Friends?” Isabella seals it with “Till death us do part,” reaffirming their bond as she steers him back toward health.