Saturday, March 21, 2015

The Night Circus- Part One (Primordium): Chapter Fourteen (Stratagem) - I Don't Even Feel Bad

This chapter begins with Chandresh and Marco discussing Celia. Chandresh notices Marco's ghostly pallor and how visibly shaken he is and sends him home.

When he returns to the flat, significantly distressed, Isobel is waiting, and asks him what's wrong.

"'I know who my opponent is,' Marco says, pulling armfuls of book down from their shelves and spreading them out haphazardly over tables, leaving several in messy piles on the floor. Those remaining on the shelves collapse, a few volumes falling, but Marco does not seem to notice."

He tells Isobel that Celia (though he doesn't use her name) is Prospero's daughter, saying "She's too good" and calling the situation "problematic".  I'd say, though, the biggest problem with Celia as his opponent is the eventual apology he'll have to give to Isobel, because even at this point, I think Marco already knows he's in love with her. They just haven't actually met yet (cue Michael Buble song).


As she asks him more questions and he murmurs about Celia changing her dress color, Isobel silently consults her tarot cards.

The first card is L'Amoureux (The Lovers, representing a relationship), which is suspicious enough to Isobel that she asks Marco if Celia is pretty (last chapter, he described her as "radiant"), but he doesn't answer. 

The next card is La Maison Dieu (The Tower, representing letting go of old attitudes and beliefs to accept wisdom, which I guess represents either Marco letting go of his confidence about the competition or Isobel having to accept that Marco is in love with Celia). Marco doesn't answer when she asks is Celia is stronger than her (which she is...kind of).

They've determined now that the circus will be the setting for the competition, so Isobel suggests she join on as a fortune-teller, and Marco is less than thrilled.

Marco sees Isobel as separate from the rest of his life, the parts with Chandresh and Mr. A. H-, and he tries to keep her separate from them. He knows now that time is ticking down to the competition, and he knows that when it begins she will be more of a distraction to him than anything else, especially now that his thoughts are becoming occupied by Celia (wink wink), but he reluctantly agrees to arrange a meeting with Chandresh for her.

I'm just going to quote the end to this chapter, because most things I could say about it have already been said, and we know (by which I mean I knew and then spoiled it for everyone reading this) that Isobel was done for the moment Marco saw Celia. I don't even feel bad about observing her figure it out, but I wish I did.

"'What is Prospero's daughter named?' Isobel asks, as though she can tell what he is thinking.
'Bowen,' Marco says. 'Her name is Celia Bowen.'
'It's a pretty name,' Isobel says. 'Is something wrong with your hand?'
Marco looks down, surprised to find that he has been holding his right hand in his left, unconsciously stroking the empty space where a ring was once burned into skin.
'No,' he says, picking up a notebook to occupy his hands. 'It's nothing.'
Isobel seems satisfied with the response, lifting a pile of fallen books from the floor and stacking them on the desk.
Marco is relieved that she does not have the skill to pull the memory of the ring from his mind."

You don't need tarot cards for this one.

Chapter Fifteen should be out by next Saturday.

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