The Swords of the Ancients

I’ve come to the realization that, unless things take a very drastic turn in the near future, I will almost never be able to read everything I truly intend to read. Thanks to a four-year stint in college to earn a degree in English, I’ve got a backlog of books that I’ve been wanting to read, and I’m finally attempting to get around to it. This pile of literature has not been helped along by the fact that I now work at both a bookstore and a library. I’m always surrounded by books, and I’m constantly receiving more recommendations. For the longest time, my list has been purely mental. I’m finally attempting to collect everything in a single word document, though I’m tempted to use a spreadsheet, thanks to the suggestion from a customer at work. I’m grouping these into three major categories. A) Books I have not yet read, 2) books I have started, but have yet to finish, and Finally) Books that I want to reread, either because it’s been way too long or because I simply love them that much.

The relationships of the characters are evolving. A conversation over the sounds of jazz last night helped me realize that, despite the age difference, there’s a deeply complex bond between Zachariah and Rebecca. Much like Arsus, though simultaneously drastically unlike him, they are more than what they initially seem. You see, I’m fairly certain that this is not the first time that these two have met. When and where their first meeting took place, I’m not sure. Rebecca just happened to pipe up yesterday, telling me that she noticed that there was a lot more behind the eyes that first smiled at her after the deaths of her grandparents in a caravan raid. There was not just a welcoming of a stranger. There was recognition and acceptance of the inevitability of fate.