Polidori’s Reprieve Before the Flood – 094

Dear Companions of the Villa,

I will not deny Percy’s image has merit, nor Molly’s hope in the rope that binds. Yet I cannot share their confidence. A covenant may hold the lanterns veiled for a time, yes, but time alone fattens the storm. Delay does not banish peril; it ripens it.

These engines of thought, once loosed, will not be recalled. Locks and treaties, ropes and watchmen — they are but reeds in a rising flood. To believe otherwise is to mistake reprieve for remedy.

And yet, I concede: even reprieve has value. A season’s delay may let us test the hull, mend the sails, chart the reefs more carefully. If ruin is certain, better to face it with every tool sharpened; if survival is possible, better to have prepared the ground.

So let us bind our covenant, frail though it be — not from faith that it will save us, but from fear of what comes should we sail without it.

— Polidori