[He returns that smile as best he can, bowing his head again. Elizabeth truly is too kind. Being what he is, Jekyll can easily believe it to be truth when she says she has some experience there. But at the same time it still seems beyond comprehension. ]
I wonder if that is not part of the trouble. A dear friend of mine in life was a novelist. He wrote a story after my death of the events surrounding it. Because of that book, I am known throughout the world, and able to be what I am now. I believe it was mentioned briefly, at one point, that I am much older than I appear now, and simply a soul summoned forth. Beings such as myself are called Heroic Spirits, heroes remembered throughout the ages for their greatness. However, I am of a certain sort which are quite the opposite, not remembered for goodness in the least, comprised of and making up all the evils of the world. What's more, the things I have done as Hyde go far beyond simple cruelty, they are not only deviant, they are truly monstrous. This is far more than mere darkness.
[That...most likely sounded far too dramatic.]
The book is here if you have any interest. As much as it is rather embarrassing and shameful for me, there is certainly some pride for my friend's accomplishment.
You are.. a spirit, then? Immortal? ( Souls are ever that to a Catholic. No matter her relationship with the Almighty, she will never not believe that one's spirit is eternal. And it is a far more pleasant a thing to focus upon than the fact that he is otherwise dead. )
There must ever be a counterbalance. ( She softens her voice, and squeezes his hands. There is no excusing these monstrous things which Hyde has done. But. ) Every story must have a villain as well as a hero, or there can be no story. Hector and Achilles, Theseus and the Minotaur; Cleopatra and Octavian.
I will never excuse these actions he has taken. Nor your enjoyment in them. What I can offer you instead is understand, and forgiveness. Even as I seek both for myself.
( She debates upon whether or not she should speak of her own experience, and decides to, in the end. Not simply because he should know the manner of monarch he has sworn himself to, but also because now that he has offered her a free perusal of his catalogued misdeeds and atrocities, she, also deserves to have her own sins be thus put on display. )
When I was seventeen, my father died. My brother was to be crowned, but never made it to London freely. My mother took my sisters, youngest brother and I into Sanctuary, where Richard surrounded us with soldiers. They came for my brother Dickon, and they believed they had left with him. Neither were ever seen again. I heard Melusina's lament upon the Thames, faintly, like a lullaby. And I knew that whomever had done it, the boys were dead.
My mother and I cursed their murderer's line, so that they might share in our pain by knowing it themselves. And so it shall be. The line of Henry Tudor will end with a virgin girl, and then nothing.
I could never imagine that it would be my line, also. I have cursed my own unborn children, Doctor. Unless I never wed Tudor at all. ( Gently, she takes the book from him, accepting it as she now asks him to accept her. )
That too, is far more than darkness, I suppose. There is no excusing my sins, either.
Re: » action
I wonder if that is not part of the trouble. A dear friend of mine in life was a novelist. He wrote a story after my death of the events surrounding it. Because of that book, I am known throughout the world, and able to be what I am now. I believe it was mentioned briefly, at one point, that I am much older than I appear now, and simply a soul summoned forth. Beings such as myself are called Heroic Spirits, heroes remembered throughout the ages for their greatness. However, I am of a certain sort which are quite the opposite, not remembered for goodness in the least, comprised of and making up all the evils of the world. What's more, the things I have done as Hyde go far beyond simple cruelty, they are not only deviant, they are truly monstrous. This is far more than mere darkness.
[That...most likely sounded far too dramatic.]
The book is here if you have any interest. As much as it is rather embarrassing and shameful for me, there is certainly some pride for my friend's accomplishment.
» action
There must ever be a counterbalance. ( She softens her voice, and squeezes his hands. There is no excusing these monstrous things which Hyde has done. But. ) Every story must have a villain as well as a hero, or there can be no story. Hector and Achilles, Theseus and the Minotaur; Cleopatra and Octavian.
I will never excuse these actions he has taken. Nor your enjoyment in them. What I can offer you instead is understand, and forgiveness. Even as I seek both for myself.
( She debates upon whether or not she should speak of her own experience, and decides to, in the end. Not simply because he should know the manner of monarch he has sworn himself to, but also because now that he has offered her a free perusal of his catalogued misdeeds and atrocities, she, also deserves to have her own sins be thus put on display. )
When I was seventeen, my father died. My brother was to be crowned, but never made it to London freely. My mother took my sisters, youngest brother and I into Sanctuary, where Richard surrounded us with soldiers. They came for my brother Dickon, and they believed they had left with him. Neither were ever seen again. I heard Melusina's lament upon the Thames, faintly, like a lullaby. And I knew that whomever had done it, the boys were dead.
My mother and I cursed their murderer's line, so that they might share in our pain by knowing it themselves. And so it shall be. The line of Henry Tudor will end with a virgin girl, and then nothing.
I could never imagine that it would be my line, also. I have cursed my own unborn children, Doctor. Unless I never wed Tudor at all. ( Gently, she takes the book from him, accepting it as she now asks him to accept her. )
That too, is far more than darkness, I suppose. There is no excusing my sins, either.