One Equal Temper

Chapter Three

disclaimer: Sue away! I’m a grad student in medieval history, just how much do you think you’ll get?

A/N Sorry for the delay. I’ve been super busy. Indeed, I should be working right now. On that note, this chapter isn’t that great, but I needed a bit of cathartic writing time anyway. I apologize in advamce. I know Book’s secret isn’t all that inventive, but I can’t think of anything else. And sorry for the pop-philosophy, but hey, if you can sit through the Matrix Reloaded, you can damn well put up with this.

River’s allusions: The alphabet is from the ‘Jump off the Cliff Notes’ for The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn. Also quoted are Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, and Tori Amos. For the Hitler/Hohenstaufen remark, see the debate around E. Kantorowitz’s biography of Fredrick II, written in Germany in the 1930s. For Thoreau, see his remarks “On Civil Disobedience.’ Also a line from The Usual Suspects.

To Strive

Book’s revelation dealt the final, crushing blow. My whole world came crashing down around me. In the span of twenty-four hours, I have learned that everything and everyone I thought I knew are not what they appear. My own people sent me on a suicide mission in search, (in search gorram it) of Reavers, I was saved by, of all people, a browncoat, and now...

What is left? The fundamental order out of which I made sense of life is gone. Nothing remains but a vacuum, a void full of chaos. What is a life without order? I am lost. For the moment I am alone with my thoughts, the sterile infirmary empty of all life except the crazy girl, the one the Alliance messed with. And her presence is almost comforting. Distracted beyond recall, she rocks in a corner, reciting the alphabet with a nemonic only she understands. ‘A is for Hester the horrible whore,’ she mumbles, ‘B is the baby she got the A for.’

The ‘verse, in all of its immense and frightening disorder seems far away from this clean, quiet space. I wish that I could remain like this forever. I