The Starless Sea

The Keeper drags Zachary Ezra Rawlins away from the fissure and into his office. The Keeper tells Zachary to breathe and gives him a drink that does not make things better as promised; it makes them clearer and sharper, which feels worse. Zachary glances at the Keeper’s notebook and sees that it is full of passionate love letters—in poetry and prose—all focused on Mirabel. The Keeper strikes the doorframe, making it crack, then puts his hand back on the frame, which knits itself back together. The stones around them shift and the chasm fills back up. The Keeper announces that Mirabel was in the antechamber and that he will not be able to retrieve her corpse until the rubble is cleared, which will take time.

Zachary rolls a die, which lands on the heart as expected, then asks what the symbol means. The Keeper explains that the dice determine what fate awaits a new arrival. Hearts are for poets who “wore their hearts open and aflame” (325). Zachary asks whether more than the three paths mentioned in Sweet Sorrows exist. The Keeper answers that all have their own path, and that symbols offer an interpretation, not a determination.