Chapter Summaries
Chapter 8: Adelice and her friends sit and eat uncomfortably around a dinner table with Kincaid. The dinner is even more luxurious than that which they ate at Dante’s safe house. As they begin talking, Kincaid speaks of the history of his estate. He knows that they are refugees, and that Adelice is a Spinster. Kincaid reveals that he was once a Guild official, but that he is now in exile. Kincaid and Cormac had a disagreement about how Arras should be run, and it turned out that Kincaid was in the minority amongst his friends. When he arrived on Earth, he had very little, but monopolized the solar trade. Kincaid quotes Shakespeare’s Henry V. As they are eating, Valery walks in. She says that Loricel aided her escape, and Kincaid granted her safe passage from Arras to Earth. Loricel told Valery that she had the option of either being ripped or running, and Valery says she would have come to Earth she had known that she could. Kincaid turns everyone’s attention to the chemical burns on Adelice’s arm, which she tries to cover up. Kincaid insists that one of his men look at her burns. As Kincaid and Valery romantically tease one another and play with their food, Jost impatiently asks Kincaid if he is going to help them, to which Kincaid replies that they will help each other.
Chapter 9: A guard leads Adelice down to the holding cells where her mother is being held. They have cleaned up her mother, given her fresh clothes, and brushed her hair – which Adelice finds bewildering because Kincaid and his men do not think that Remnants are human. When Adelice calls out to her mother, the Remnant replies that they both know she (the Remnant) is not Adelice’s mother. The Remnant reveals that, although she is no longer Adelice’s mother, she does remember everything from her past life. However, the Remnant does not remember why she did all those things for Adelice and for her family. The Remnant and her comrades were prepped to look for Adelice, or kill her. The Remnant’s story reveals that there is a lab in Arras that is used solely for preparing Remnants to come to the surface. The Remnant asks Adelice if she will tell all this to Dante. Adelice asks why she cares if Dante knows, and the Remnant replies that Adelice was not the only reason that Cormac sent her to find Adelice: Dante was the other main reason. Outside the cellblock, Dante is waiting for Adelice. They find a spot near a fountain on the estate, where they cannot be heard, to have a conversation. Dante says that his techprint was his ticket in with Kincaid. When Dante scans Adelice’s techprint with a digifile, it reveals that Dante is Adelice’s father.
Chapter 10: Adelice, in shock, denies what Dante says at first. He says that her parents had encoded it in her techprint. Adelice says that her parents are dead. She runs inside, and Dante does not stop her. She goes into Jost’s room, climbs into his bed; before Jost can ask her what is wrong, she stops him with a kiss. They cuddle, and Jost asks what Adelice is running from, to which she responds that she is not running from something: she is running to something, and that is Jost.
Chapter 11: Adelice enters Kincaid’s library, looking at the vast number of books in it. Kincaid asks her if she has seen books before. Adelice says that she had read a few back home. Adelice begins to demand answers, and asks what Kairos is. Kincaid says that Kairos is the name of a scientist. Adelice presses Kincaid for more details about Kairos, and Kincaid says that Kairos was the scientist who started the Cypress Project and vanished afterwards (rumor has it that he was not in line with the Guild’s ultimate plan). Some of the people left behind after the Exodus called themselves the Kairos Agenda, which eventually got weaker as resistance to Arras grew more futile. The Agenda believed that Kairos left behind a machine (called the Whorl), which, according to myth, could give Earth control over Arras. It could also apparently make Earth independent of Arras – a motive that drove Kincaid to look for it over the years. Kincaid shows Adelice and her friends an old film about the Cypress Project. It shows World War II, and the scientist who discovered the strands. The film shows him demonstrating the loom for a group of men, it also shows the original Eligibles – people who had to prove their health and value to earn a spot on Arras’s weave. Those who were left behind on Earth adapted to the changing surface conditions. The Guild decided which people came along to Arras, and they assumed the rest would be killed in the war. For Adelice, the film raises more questions than it answers.
Chapter 12: Dante begins to explain himself to Adelice: the man who Adelice thought was her father was actually her uncle. Dante left Arras because he was being chased by the Guild. Dante urged Adelice’s mother to come along with him, but she did not. He says that he would not have left her if he had known that she was pregnant. The age gap between Adelice and Dante is a result of time differentials between Earth and Arras: 1 month on Earth is 16 months on Arras. In other words, for Dante it had only been a year and a half on Earth since he left Arras. He explains that Arras is not subjected to the same physical laws that Earth is. He says that Adelice’s parents kept this a secret to protect her. The Coventry would never have let Dante marry Adelice’s mother because of the genetic mixture that would manifest itself in their child: the mix of genes is why Adelice has such special powers. However, the Guild did not allow Dante to marry, which is when he realized that there was something wrong and that he needed to leave. When Adelice asks why the Guild wanted him, Dante replies that it is a secret. He also explains that men do not need a loom to alter – however, men can only alter things that already exist. He revels himself to be a Tailor – and Adelice deduces that this was why he ran from the Guild. Tailors receive a much worse treatment than Spinsters do. In fact, Dante says that Tailors disappear and very few people know that they even exist. Tailors can alter the creations of Spinsters and Crewelers, remove memories, adjust emotions, and even undo things entirely. Dante demonstrates his ability to alter on a fern’s leaves, ripping the time out of them. As Dante and Adelice discuss the concept of time, Adelice comes to realize that the only thing that progressed in Arras was technology. No one even aged, and Arras’s history did not change either. Dante says that 16 years have passed since the Exodus to Arras from Earth. On Earth it is probably close to the year 1960, but this no more than conjecture. Generations in Arras have lived and died before those left on Earth have even forgotten the Earth, meaning Cormac is over two hundred years old.
Chapter 13: Adelice is having a nightmare in which Cormac has her locked up and attempts to make sexual advances on her. The next morning, Jost, Erik, and Adelice have breakfast in Adelice’s room. Adelice explains her findings and conversation with Dante to the brothers. After Erik leaves the room, Adelice apologizes to Jost for not thinking about Sebrina, his daughter, and what effect the time difference will have on her. Jost replies indifferently, saying that it is not her concern – and he adds that he wants to protect Adelice, to which Adelice protests. They make love, and in the end, Jost tears up and is skeptical about whether Kincaid will help them.
Chapter 14: In the estate’s gardens, Adelice encounters Deniel, a Sunrunner and a refugee from the Eastern Sector. He worked in the grey market in Arras until he was forced to come to the Earth. He pulls out a blade as they near doors. He drops the knife and shoves Adelice through a hidden door. He presses the blade against her throat again, and Adelice claws at his shoulder, rending his threads, causing blood to spew from his laceration. Adelice then screams as loud as she can. Deniel jumps at her, trying to cover her mouth. Erik arrives to help Adelice off the ground, and Kincaid’s men take Deniel away. Kincaid apologizes for Deniel’s actions, and says that he will be seriously punished. Dante takes great issue with the fact that Adelice is attacked, and criticizes Kincaid’s lack of proper security. Kincaid assures Dante that his daughter will not be attacked – revealing that he knows about the relationship between Dante and Adelice.
Analysis:
The biggest development is the relationship between Adelice and Dante. The recurrent theme of secrets and expectations also runs strong here. Dante, even though he is revealed to be Adelice’s father, hesitates to answer Adelice’s questions about his past. The reality that Adelice experiences becomes even more nebulous as she struggles to accept Dante as her father. More importantly, Dante also has trouble with this and avoids Adelice as much as possible at first.
However, Dante’s compassion and fatherliness surfaces from time to time in the form of warnings to Adelice about how she should conduct herself. The climax of Dante’s fatherly sentiments comes when he is enraged with the breach of Kincaid’s security, and derides Kincaid for not doing enough to protect Adelice.
Parallel to this relationship is the one between Adelice and Jost, which becomes ever more complicated. Jost is deeply suspicious of Kincaid and his intentions, but Adelice routinely dismisses his suspicions. He takes issue with the fact that Adelice is attempting to be so self-reliant – he says that he wants to protect her. He also shows apathy when Adelice attempts to apologize for her lack of consideration of Sebrina. But what truly problematizes and complicates this relationship even more is when he and Adelice passionately (and mutually), at multiple points, kiss and make love to one another.
Furthermore, the mistrust of Kincaid finds its roots in the incident with Deniel, as Jost is floored and suspects Kincaid even more of attempting to sabotage Adelice. Kincaid is also unclear about what he wants – he alludes to his desire to separate Earth and Arras. But how he plans to do this, especially in light of the fact that the Whorl allegedly exists, is also unclear. He does not speak to Adelice about what exactly he wants from her, and his suave, sometimes aggressive (and unpredictable) behavior is all the more worrying for Adelice and her friends.
The differences between Arras and Earth are also a source of tension for many characters. Dante, due to the time difference, takes issue with having missed out on much of Adelice’s life. Adelice worries about Amie growing up, and Jost worries similarly about Sebrina. The three are all uncertain of how they are to overcome these barriers, especially as Kincaid’s agendum may come into conflict with their own. The iniquity and ruthlessness of the Guild also signals an urgency to somehow find a solution. The fact that these differences exist also reveals the extent to which the people of Arras are gravely unaware about the conditions of their existence. Information, or lack thereof, is being used to condition them, and the extent to which this happens is incredibly subtle, especially as seen through the many revelations that the characters have in these preceding chapters.
