Her giddiness somehow made him feel accomplished. “The sixth years,” he answered, “will start leagues smaller than you. Be assured that there is no comparison to what we did here today.”
With the tension of the experiment easing up and it all having gone so well; her having done as well as he could not have expected, new light seemed to have entered this room. Half-finished as it was, his attempt at a new life was laid out here in all its materials, still in the process of taking form. Samuel felt suddenly very proud of Themis, fond of her with an intensity that unsettled him and that he could not express by more than, perhaps, the gleam of his eyes.
“It is admirable that you committed to your craft completely,” she said. “I am not sure you will always think that,” he heard himself answer; With a smile, as if he was joking. He rose from his chair and stepped towards the windows to open them. What she had seen was merely the surface. Much like the scarred circles on his palms, it was just the tip of the monolith that lay still in the darkness. He thought that if she were ever to know how far he had taken it, or see what else he had done to his body in the process, she might not think it admirable anymore. He did not think it was admirable. And that possibility made him feel a twinge of melancholy.
Naturally, this meeting was drawing to an end. In a short time, when the excitement subsided, she would feel deeply exhausted; she would then want to leave to rest. “Take a few minutes until you feel steady,” he cautioned and went to the back of the room to get both of them a small bite to eat and recover a bit of her strength, before she departed.
With the tension of the experiment easing up and it all having gone so well; her having done as well as he could not have expected, new light seemed to have entered this room. Half-finished as it was, his attempt at a new life was laid out here in all its materials, still in the process of taking form. Samuel felt suddenly very proud of Themis, fond of her with an intensity that unsettled him and that he could not express by more than, perhaps, the gleam of his eyes.
“It is admirable that you committed to your craft completely,” she said. “I am not sure you will always think that,” he heard himself answer; With a smile, as if he was joking. He rose from his chair and stepped towards the windows to open them. What she had seen was merely the surface. Much like the scarred circles on his palms, it was just the tip of the monolith that lay still in the darkness. He thought that if she were ever to know how far he had taken it, or see what else he had done to his body in the process, she might not think it admirable anymore. He did not think it was admirable. And that possibility made him feel a twinge of melancholy.
Naturally, this meeting was drawing to an end. In a short time, when the excitement subsided, she would feel deeply exhausted; she would then want to leave to rest. “Take a few minutes until you feel steady,” he cautioned and went to the back of the room to get both of them a small bite to eat and recover a bit of her strength, before she departed.