Sunday, October 20, 2019

Page 1891 -- CXCVI.

Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Six: ‘Take root, seedling, and germinate...’
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Emiliana Elroy sighed as she realized that she had stopped paying attention to what she was reading again. Her lack of sleep was really starting to get to her, it seemed, and it certainly didn’t help that her chosen reading material for the evening was so damn confusing.

The Many Mysteries of Mutation, by Agam Elroy.

Technically, she had read this thing twice already, but even now, she still wasn’t sure that she actually understood any of it. The subject matter seemed complicated enough on its own, but the archaic prose only made it more difficult. And strangely enough, there was quite a bit of poetry in it, too.

That last part might’ve been more discouraging to her, but the book’s normal writing was so incomprehensible to her that she kind of preferred the parts with poetry. She could at least occasionally feel like she understood what the poems were trying to say.

Desires held, promises kept.
The mind, the labyrinthine self, an unconscious adjudicator.
Therein is fulfillment met.

Desires held, promises broken.
The mind, the saboteur of god, a righteous terror.
Therein is misery spoken.
Aimless heart, promises unthought.
The mind, the ceaseless turner, a motivating factor.
Therein is a world of rot.
She’d been staring at this particular passage for the better part of an hour now, feeling somehow stupider with each passing minute. She could’ve sworn that it made sense to her the first time she read it, but the more she tried to deepen her understanding, the less clear it seemed to become.

She set the book down and rubbed her eyes. Maybe she needed a break. She’d been doing nothing but reading lately. It just seemed like the most useful way to spend her time, given the circumstances.

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