The Atlas Paradox

During the initiates’ studies, Dalton raises the example of Viviana Absalon as a way to talk about some of the larger concepts that affect medeian studies and training: fate, balance, and death. Viviana was a medeian who died an untimely death at 45 but during her autopsy was discovered to have the organs of a woman half her age. Although it provided interesting fodder for discussion, “Viviana Absalon left them without a meaningful conclusion, merely providing an experimental point of argument—could she have lived forever, had fate not intervened?” (82). Dalton has reached his own conclusion—that “perhaps the untimely death of a medeian whose gift for life was somehow an inevitable or predestined outcome” (82)—but not everyone agrees.

As the initiates grapple with the larger questions that their study of magic raises, Viviana Absalon’s example serves as a touchstone, especially for Reina, who is interested in both the limits and meaning of possessing power. Parisa, whose studies center on the concepts of fate and free will, is also affected:

She recalled Dalton’s lecture, the proof of fate that he’d derived from the body of Viviana Absalon, the medeian whose specialty was life. Life that had summoned her death, like two sides of a coin.