GenericSciFi

‘Old Man’ Patrin, the Scribe …

Patrin’s story is told in retrospect. Before Serin passed he suggested Patrin chronicle all that he’s done for the Kingdom of Denion, and now as an old man who is very much aware of his own mortality, he begins his story. It’s important for the reader to understand that Patrin is writing from memory of things decades in the past. While we are privy to his feelings and impressions and thoughts of his youth, his journal entries are subject to the passage of time. He doesn’t always recall the details of a particular matter, some events are related in broad strokes.

One of the obvious traits of his writing is his tendency to recall pain and grief. It’s evident that he hasn’t progressed emotionally from the trauma he experienced in Baler’s camp and later from Galin’s use (betrayal of friendship) of him as an assassin.

But, the story is more than a painful memoir, for even as he writes he is fulfilling one last mission— destroy the remaining otherworldly tech. The opening dialogue of each chapter tells us of his progress; now the old man, lamenting a task that he should have completed as a younger man, follows his own footprints from the past across the continent and far south into foreign lands, seeking a place known only as ‘The Falls’. Once there he will take the last of the tech and rid the world of it.

Author’s Note: I think the greatest lesson that Patrin’s story can offer us is about ‘moving on’. Patrin never progressed beyond the scars of his youth. His earliest memories have marred him, and, for me, the saddest part of the story is that thus far it appears he will die still stuck there, in the past.