Alchemised

“Helena wondered sometimes if she still had eyes. The darkness surrounding her never ended. She thought at first if she waited long enough, some glimmer of light would appear, or someone would come. Yet no matter how long she waited, there was nothing. Just endless dark.”

Helena Marino’s captivity at the novel’s start introduces the stakes of the narrative. Helena is locked in a dark stasis tank, unable to see or move. The third-person narrator’s depiction of her physical circumstances affects a tense mood. Diction including “darkness,” “surrounding,” and “endless” evokes notions of imprisonment and powerlessness.

“Run, a voice kept telling her. But she couldn’t; her arms and legs couldn’t hold her. In the absence of any physical ability, her thoughts turned inwards. Had she really forgotten something? Perhaps the Eternal Flame was not gone but remained as a hidden ember, waiting until the time was right. The possibility sparked a glimmer of hope. But how had she been made to forget?”

Helena’s inability to access her past life introduces the novel’s theme of The Contested Terrain of Memory. Helena senses that there is more to her existence than she remembers, but she is unable to access her buried past. Without these memories, Helena feels powerless. She does not know who she is or what her captors want with her. At the same time, Helena understands that her memories might contain a key needed to defeat her captors; this possibility offers her hope, which is essential to her survival.

“No matter what she did, it wouldn’t bring him back. Her shivering grew uncontrollable. She curled onto her side, burrowing into the bedding. The wounded feeling in her head grew until it was a sinkhole drawing her inwards, her skin growing taut like a membranous exoskeleton.

Helena’s body language in this scene captures the intensity of her grief and despair. When she remembers once more that Luc Holdfast is dead, she experiences a physiological reaction. She shivers uncontrollably, “curls onto her side,” and “burrows into the bedding.” She tucks herself into the fetal position, which conveys her vulnerability.