Chapter 147

CLAUDIA. I’m moving backward, and I can feel it. There’s a shift in the air that I can’t quite explain, a burst of coldness that you would get when you submerge your body in water and you need a moment to adjust to the temperature before breathing again. Wind seems to be billowing in front of my face, making me struggle to open my eyes. My heart feels like it’s left behind along with my stomach as the flickering gets faster and faster. But just when I think it’s going to get worse and I will get lost in this endless vacuum, the speed ceases and I’m able to open my eyes at last. And that’s when I see images upon images flickering before my eyes like a series of moving pictures. Then I finally see Tristan. Him as younger man, looking at his subjects while they bowed to him. There’s still a spark in his eye that is completely gone from his gaze now. Here he looks like he may be pleased to see them. The image changes and shows me another younger version of him, perhaps in his twenties