runsforcelery wrote:Okay, I'm gonna toss this out and then snatch my hand back from the shark tank. I will say only that I snipped 11 words out of the text (not saying where), just to hide the serial numbers and, well . . .
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“
Demons!” Clyntahn whispered hoarsely, raising his scepter between them. “Demons!
Creatures of hell!”
“Hell, Your Grace?” She laughed, and the sound was cold and cruel. “You don’t know the meaning of the word . . . yet.”
“Stay back!” he snapped.
“We have no intention of harming you in any way, Your Grace,” she told him. “None. As Merlin said, we’ve only come to enlighten you. You’ve talked a lot about your special relationship with Schueller and the archangels, so we thought you might like to meet them.”
OK... So I've been chewing on this for a while.
At the end of HFQ, we have Merlin visiting Thirsk in his study as the cliffhanger. I think that's what we're looking at here - the cliffhanger. Just to keep our appetites whetted for the "grand finale."
As to Clyntahn's visitors? I believe they're Merlin and Nynian. Where Nimue would certainly be motivated to say the things that are being said, I can almost HEAR Nynian saying them... With all the force, sarcasm, and venom of 40+ years of brewing hatred for the Inquisition and the "Grand Fornicator" in her voice. I believe that by this time, the Inquisition has effectively collapsed as any kind of disciplinary entity.
I see them showing Clyntahn the "grand truth" of the Gbaba, Schueler, Langhorne, et al, and the images of all the deaths that have resulted because of their actions. Recall that we've learned from the recent posts that there have been uncountable other deaths (and remember our speculations about that)?? I could easily picture those images being shown to Clyntahn... Thousands upon thousands of dead bodies... Misery... Agonizing misery and privation... The voices crying out for revenge... For justice... Things that HE - Clyntahn, sequestered in his chambers in the Temple - was directly responsible for... Something that will finally pierce even his psyche... Along with the message that the dead are crying out for retribution...
And in the next book, I can easily see Clyntahn falling into insanity (the kind that everyone else recognizes as well - babbling all the time, drool leaking from the corner of his mouth, etc. etc. etc.) and the Pasqualates taking him away to a nice, safe, quiet monastary somewhere... And then humanity's slow recovery from the predations of the Inquisition.
