Role

Chapter 11

"Gaspare," she always whispers. "I'm afraid."

Melianna is with Gaspare forevermore. But she is just a shadow of the fierce,
free-spirited actress with whom he had fallen in love.

Her shade hangs about him like a leaden robe of fear and need, and he has
begun to regret becoming married to her.

Gaspare's art has suffered. His works and conquests have seemed less
satisfying by the day, and his desire to sit upon the throne has waned, for
it, too, is merely another burden. Another thing that needs.

He worries that the gulf between life and undeath is too wide for his Patron,
Raltevio, to cross. And, even more troubling, he has begun to believe that
Scarabaeus was correct. At a meeting before Gaspare's Becoming, the Father of
Devils told him that Love was illusory - just chemicals in the gut and the
brain that caused a misleading sensation. Troublingly, he has begun to see
this as the truth.

Gaspare has long struggled to maintain his humanity and the gifts and light
of life, but he now wonders whether he even remembers what that ever was. Or
if his greatest work of art, thus far, was the artifice of a (twisted)
conscience and of Love.

Scarabaeus' words years ago planted a seed that is beginning to sprout,
calling that all, now, into doubt.

The Father of Devils has suggested that Gaspare look for enlightenment and
inspiration from the devils in the Inferno, who have long known immortality.

Many of Gaspare's links to the mortal world are waning. His visits with
Daphedee have been ever more rare, and this has had a destabilizing effect
on him. He feels abandoned by many in the Troupe, as well. The Becoming sickness
is beginning to creep back into his mind, facilitated in part by the strain of
bearing the fears of his dead lover.