#qualls

Detailed notes with direct quotes:

All page numbers are from US editions, paperback for the first three books, hardcover for the last two.

On the purpose of Wolfe’s imprisonment and torture:

Keria, on what to do with Wolfe after he invented the press: “He should be taken to a place of questioning and there made to see the error of his beliefs.” (I&B, p. 127)

On Wolfe’s disappearance and the destruction of his work:

Santi: “They took his research. And then he was gone.” (I&B, 322)

Santi: “They destroyed his research, his personal journals, everything.”  (I&B, 322)

The Archivist’s guard’s confession that Jess finds includes Wolfe being arrested and questioned, but no record of anything after that. It isn’t specified, but I’m assuming this is a record of what happened in Alexandria before Wolfe was taken to Rome, since it’s the Archivist’s guard. (P&F, p. 62)

Wolfe: “My device was destroyed, and I was charged with heresy. My work was erased. I was made to disappear, too.” (P&F, p. 63)

Wolfe was arrested in his house, taken to the Archivist’s office (he was questioned there, not specified whether torture was involved), then a cell below the Serapeum (implied he was tortured there, but not specifically stated), then to Rome. (P&F, p. 144-145)

Wolfe’s book on printing, at least, was not destroyed, but put in the Black Archives. Unclear what really happened to his journals and other work (P&F, p. 310)

Santi was in Belgium when Wolfe was arrested and would probably have been killed if he’d seen the press (A&Q, p. 134)

Wolfe on what his fellow Scholars ignored: “...he was dragged off in the night, when his work had been scrubbed from the shelves…” (S&P, 247)

On what happened in Rome:

Wolfe’s journal: “There are mornings when I wake and I am back in the cell, and I see nothing but the dark. Feel nothing but the pain. (P&F, p. 52)

Wolfe: “The pattern follows what they did to me: arrest, torture, prison, erasing me as if I never existed.” (P&F, p. 62)

Wolfe may have been drugged, specifically to keep him from remembering where he was held: “I don’t remember. Can’t. Believe me, I’ve tried. I can see pieces, but not… not anything significant.” (P&F, p. 66) (this memory loss might be drug induced, as Dario speculates, but torture itself can cause memory problems..)

Wolfe: “I can’t recall any useful details. What they did to me was very effective.” (P&F, p. 139) (As above, this memory loss might be from either drugs or the torture itself.)

Wolfe, mentioning physical torture methods: “I will happily remember every cut, every burn, every blow if it helps set that boy free.” (P&F, 140)

Being taken out of his cell in Rome was always (or at least usually) bad - Wolfe can handle remembering everything up until the Mesmer asks about what happened when he was taken out of his cell in Rome (P&F, p. 145-146)

Psychological torture method: “They lie [...] It’s their favorite tactic - I know it well - to break your mind and your spirit.” Specifically, falsely claiming that loved ones are dead. (p. 218)

Toward the end of his imprisonment, he seems to have become withdrawn: “there is no variety in his responses to questioning, whatever the particular tools we chose to employ. He rarely speaks at all now.” (S&I, p. 82)

As described by Qualls as of the day of his release: “if your plan was to break him, he is long past broken” (S&I, p. 82). “There are limits, and he has reached them.” (S&I, p. 83).

Qualls (hallucination) on some of what he did: “I’ve been with you in your darkest moments. I’ve cleaned your wounds. I’ve listened to you weep.” (S&I, p. 221)

The “gentle” questioning: “That had only made it worse, the times when the questions had been kind and soft, and there had been a cup of tea and a sweet pastry and a bath. Fresh clothes.” (S&I, p. 221)

Qualls did all questioning: “the questions always came, and always, always, the gray, pale shadow was there to ask them” (S&I, p. 222)

“He’d spent months in a cell like this, huddled and broken” (S&I, p. 224)

“...his body broken in the cells in Rome…” (S&P, 247)

Prison details that may or may not apply to Wolfe’s experience in Rome:

Prisoners are rewarded for good behavior with paper and books (P&F, p. 1)

Psychological manipulation: one guard was ordered to be friendly to Thomas to get secrets out of him (P&F, p. 1)

Cells, at least the one Thomas was in, have barred doors, stone walls and floors, a metal ring in the wall that prisoners can be chained to (P&F, p. 217)

Starvation is a possibility: Jess observes that Thomas lost weight in Rome (P&F, p. 217)

Limited availability of personal grooming and clothing options: Thomas’s hair and beard are a mess, clothes are an “oatmeal-colored shirt and trousers that were much worse for wear” (P&F, p. 217)

Prisoners are kept with wrists and ankles shackled for long enough durations that skin looks “raw” when the shackles are removed. Both Thomas and the other prisoner that Jess sees were chained. (P&F, p. 218, 221)

Torture room equipment: “Mechanical devices” with “spikes, straps, wheels, gears” (P&F, p. 221), “a particularly large construction that looked like a bed, but with gears and ropes and straps stained with old blood” (P&F, p. 222) (either a rack or some kind of restraint table?), “machines built to cut, to tear, to pull, to cause suffering and anguish. There was no other use for them.” (P&F, p. 225)

Rations in the prison in Alexandria seem nutritionally adequate, though it doesn’t mention quantities or say how often they’re delivered: “Meat, bread, cheese, figs, a small portion of sour beer and a larger one of water.” (S&I, p. 91). Wolfe doesn’t find the taste appealing (S&I, p. 92)

The Artifex threatens to shoot another prisoner to coerce Wolfe’s compliance (S&I, p. 94)

Mind games from the Artifex: “I will protect Santi if you take your own life” “if you don’t accept this bargain, I will see that he suffers every torment you can possibly imagine in your place. I’ll even have you brought along” (S&I, p. 98-99)

Prison conditions Wolfe does not think of as torture: “deprivation and the boredom and routine of prison”. He does, however, consider the looming threat of horrible execution to be psychological torture (S&I, p. 227)

Qualls:

Thought they had learned as much as they could from questioning Wolfe six months before releasing him (S&I, p. 82)

Did not want Santi dead (S&I, p. 82)

Did not know why the Artifex hated Wolfe (S&I, p. 82)

Does not consider himself a good person: “I am, as you’re aware, not a merciful person, or a kind one; I would not last long in this job if I had even a shred of such fine qualities.” (S&I, p. 82)

Has limits, does not specify what they are: “I have had enough.” “There are limits, and he has reached them. So have I, surprisingly.” (S&I, p. 82-83)

Very thorough in his plan to release Wolfe, exact sequence of events unclear: “I have personally released Scholar Wolfe, and I have seen the Archivist in person [...] The Obscurist Magnus has also been told.” Archivist allowed the release in part because Qualls had information on other prisoners in Rome, in part because Keria was furious. (S&I, p. 83)

Feels strongly enough about Wolfe’s release to threaten to expose Library secrets if the Artifex ever has Wolfe imprisoned again (S&I, p. 83)

Speaks to Wolfe in a creepily pseudo-comforting tone, at least while Wolfe is hallucinating him: “We’re old friends, you and I. I’ve been with you in your darkest moments. I’ve cleaned your wounds. I’ve listened to you weep. Remember?” (S&I, p. 221)

Hallucination Qualls describes the times the questioning was gentle as “the good times.” (S&I, p. 221)

Appearance: “the gray, pale shadow”, Even in full light, the man had always been terrifying. Something about him was dead, and it showed in his eyes, his smile, the not-quite-human way he moved.” (S&I, p. 222)

On the aftermath:

Santi: “It was more than a year before he turned up again. Middle of the night. He looked like he’d crawled out of hell.” (I&B, 322)

Santi: “He’s a walking ghost. He’s been a ghost since the day they finally let him go.” (I&B, p. 323) (could be a reference to his status with the Library, but I read some indication of his mental/emotional state into this, too)

Santi: “I was there when Wolfe crawled bloody to this door. I’m the one who saw what was done to him.” (P&F, p. 138)

Wolfe doesn’t blame Santi for not wanting to see the Mesmer session because “he remembers how I was after” (P&F, p. 141)

Keria was there when Wolfe was released: “She brought me home. To you. She left before you found me.” (P&F, p. 291)

Released by Qualls personally (S&I, p. 83)

“He’d come back from Rome a broken, shaking shell of a man” (S&I, p. 226)

Wolfe’s own memories of his return home: “A broken bone heals twice as strong, he told himself. Santi had taught him that mantra the night he’d stumbled in the door of their house. [...] Santi had bathed him, dried him, clothed him, held him through the night to whisper it in a constant, bracing refrain, because Wolfe had been unable to speak or explain where he’d been” (S&I, p. 230)

Continuing threats and punishment after Rome:

Pretty much every ephemera from the Artifex involves a threat or attempt to kill Wolfe.

Wolfe, to the Artifex: “I’ve done all that you have asked of me since my release. I’ve stood silent when you threatened my friends, my lover, destroyed my life’s work. I’ve borne every punishment.” (I&B, p. 160)

Wolfe: “Saddling me with your class was a kind of punishment. To teach me obedience.” (I&B, p. 286)

Santi: “They wanted him to find your secrets and turn them over. But he found your secrets and he never betrayed them. […] Little rebellions. Wolfe was meant to die on the trip to Oxford. He’s an embarrassment and a risk. Living on borrowed time.” (I&B, p. 323)

Journal monitoring, at least as far as Wolfe knows, began after Wolfe’s arrest. He’s afraid they’re monitoring Santi’s especially closely: “I was afraid you’d change what you were writing. If you had, they’d have taken you.” (I&B, p. 326)

Wolfe: “I was finally released, under the condition that I never again publish or pursue any lines of research that the Library deems dangerous. I live on sufferance.” (P&F, p. 64)

Trauma symptoms:

Suicidal thoughts:

““Better safe than dead, sir” [Glain] said. “As you well know.” “Do I?” His face, Jess thought, looked more set and grim than ever, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes [...] He looked thin and haunted.” (P&F, p. 34)

Santi: “It’s keeping you alive. That’s what I care about.” Wolfe: “Then you care too much.” (P&F, p. 58)

Wolfe: “I’m not insane [...] I’m not on the verge of it. I may be stretched to my limits - my limits being admittedly lower than they should be [...]”

Wolfe, in response to Santi saying he’ll support him: “That’s what makes me live when the alternative seems so peaceful” (A&Q, p. 269)

““Promise me that tomorrow, there’s no prison. No Qualls. If it comes to that-” “If it does,” Santi said, “then it comes for us both.” [...] Odd, that the promise of death would sound so inviting when put that way” (S&I, p. 349)

Self harm:

“He slammed the heel of his hand into the wall, again and again until he felt the skin break and smelled hot blood” (S&I, p. 99)

In prison again: “His skin itched so fiercely that he rubbed scars until they bled” (S&I, p. 220)

Tremors and other psychosomatic symptoms:

“There was a tremor in his voice now, and in his hands, too” (P&F, p. 58)

In prison again: “His skin itched so fiercely that he rubbed scars until they bled” (S&I, p. 220)

When remembering the nicer questioning in Rome: “Wolfe remembered it so vividly every scar began to ache” (S&I, p. 221)

“His hands trembled” (S&I, p. 220)

After the Qualls hallucination: “Wolfe held his head in his hands, shivering, sick, shaking from the onslaught of memory” (S&I, p. 222-223)

Being taken for questioning: “a wave of very real nausea and dizziness” (S&I, p. 230)

Trouble telling reality from hallucination:

Wolfe’s journal: “On those mornings, I am convinced I never escaped that place, and the life I have had since never existed at all, except as a fantastic illusion.” (P&F, p. 53)

Self-induced hallucination as coping strategy: imagining Santi to get himself to sleep while back in prison, he seems to lose touch with reality, and Saleh’s comments in S&P suggest he might have been talking out loud while doing this (S&I, p. 220)

Qualls hallucination (S&I, p. 220-222)

Cell door opening (S&I, p. 223)

Sphinx could also be a hallucination (I tend to see this one as real, with the automaton’s attention drawn by Wolfe’s one-sided conversation with Qualls and attempt to open the door, but ymmv. (S&I, p. 223-224)

In Rome, Wolfe hallucinated Santi with him and was sure it was real at the time (S&I, p. 224-225)

Hallucinates Santi comforting him when he’s in prison again (S&I, p. 225-226)

The morning after the Qualls hallucination, he thinks of it as “a vague dream” and hopes his conversation with Saleh was hallucinated as well (S&I, p. 227-228)

Saleh: “Wolfe spoke of him [...] well… not to me. I suppose better to say he spoke to him when Wolfe was… unwell [...] Prison was not good for the man” (S&P, p. 51)

Nightmares and intrusive memories:

Wolfe: “I see all this every night in dreams.” (P&F, p. 63)

In prison again: “A night when he wouldn’t close his eyes, for fear the past would smother him.” (S&I, p. 87)

In prison again: “relaxing brought the memories. He’d fought them every night, sometimes all night; lack of rest made them more vivid and compelling” (S&I, p. 220)

While hallucinating Qualls: “He remembered. And that was more frightening than the idea that this was a ghost, a phantom, a madness.” (S&I, p. 222) (could read this just as a statement on how traumatic the memories are, could read as repressed memories surfacing)

After the Qualls hallucination: “Wolfe held his head in his hands, shivering, sick, shaking from the onslaught of memory” (S&I, p. 222-223)

Repressed memories:

Wolfe, on where he was held prisoner: “I don’t remember. Can’t. Believe me, I’ve tried. I can see pieces, but not… not anything significant.” (P&F, p. 66) (this memory loss might be drug induced, as Dario speculates, but torture itself can cause memory problems..)

Wolfe: “I can’t recall any useful details. What they did to me was very effective.” (P&F, p. 139) (As above, this memory loss might be from either drugs or the torture itself.)

While hallucinating Qualls: “He remembered. And that was more frightening than the idea that this was a ghost, a phantom, a madness.” (S&I, p. 222) (could read this just as a statement on how traumatic the memories are, could read as repressed memories surfacing)

After the Qualls hallucination: “Wolfe held his head in his hands, shivering, sick, shaking from the onslaught of memory” (S&I, p. 222-223)

The morning after the Qualls hallucination: “He’d forgotten that he’d spoken to Saleh in the depths of his delusion. Or at least had hoped that the conversation had been imagined” (S&I, p. 228)

Seems like he’s already repressing the memory of the Qualls hallucination: “Something tugged at him, and for a second he felt a bubble of panic surface. Some memory clawing to the surface, something from the prison. Then he remembered, and a flinch ran through him.” (S&I, p. 348)

Not talking about Qualls more than once could be an effort to repress those memories, too (S&I, p. 2348)

Anxiety/Panic Attacks:

In the prison, Wolfe snaps at the kids, his voice breaks, and Jess observes trembling, sweat on his face even though the temperature is cool, and possible trouble breathing (“Wolfe dragged in a tormented breath”) (P&F, p. 220)

At the castle, Wolfe and Santi end up fighting because of Wolfe’s reaction to being trapped and fear of being captured “So we stay here, in this - overstuffed prison, waiting for the Archivist to turn the High Garda on us? I won’t. I can’t.” (A&Q, p. 267)

Wolfe, to Thomas: “You understand. Rooms grow small. Silence gets heavy.” (A&Q, p. 283)

When the Artifex ambushes the pack in the Iron Tower, Wolfe and Thomas both look “as if their souls had already left their bodies.” (P&F, p. 324)

Wolfe is oddly quiet when first locked up in Philadelphia (A&Q, no dialogue from p. 16-28, while others are discussing strategy)

When put in prison again: “A day of shuddering, flinching, imagining that every sound was a torturer coming for him again.” (S&I, p. 87)

When hallucinating Qualls: “He stopped breathing. Like a child, hiding in the dark from the monsters, that was all he could do.” (S&I, p. 221)

When the cell door “opens”: “something inside him twisted and screamed in terror at the thought. I won’t make it.” (S&I, p. 223)

Wolfe, learning he’s nominated for Archivist: “His eyes burned, and for a moment he thought it was with tears, but no, no, it was anger. He couldn’t speak. Could hardly breathe for the pressure of fury building in his chest.” (S&P, p. 246) (Dominant emotion here is anger, yes, but don’t these also sound like panic attack symptoms? And doesn’t Wolfe frequently get angry in response to feeling trapped?)

Triggers:

Memories, in general, trigger symptoms.

A list of triggers, smell being the worst: “He could ignore the darkness, the bars, the discomfort. But not the smell.” (S&I, p. 87)

Hey, look, I did not learn my lesson from the fan event and I am once again planning too much stuff! Help me narrow it down, please? If there’s anything here y’all especially want to read, let me know because that will motivate me to actually get around to writing it.

One thing I am planning to do to maintain sanity is combining a lot of the kink stuff into a larger fic about a kinky masquerade ball. Wolfe/Santi, Khalila/Dario, and Jess/Thomas will all be in attendance, and I may add in Anit/Katja as well.

I’m also combining a lot on the whump, and not committing ahead of time to what tropes will go where. Some of them are so damn obvious that I know they’re just going to end up in anything I write.

1. Whump: Shaky Hands. I don’t even have to try for this, honestly. If there is Wolfe, there are shaky hands.

2. Kink: Voyeurism. Dario spying on Wolfe and Santi during Ink and Bone. Probably just a short little thing.

3. Whump: Delirium. Maybe on this one. Not going to be a separate fic, just possibly going to end up in something else.

4. Possibly nothing. Some of the kink stuff might end up in the big kink party fic.

5. Kink: Frotting / Vibrator. Jess/Thomas. Demonstrating a new invention at a very kinky masquerade ball. This will be part of a larger fic about this ball.

6. Kink:  Blow Jobs / Suspension / Masks / Flogging. Wolfe/Santi doing a demonstration at the kinky masquerade ball.

7. Kink:  Leather / Scent / Forniphilia / Aphrodisiacs. Khalila/Dario at the masquerade ball. He serves as a table and she teases him while people watching.

8. Kink: Sadism. This has to end up in the masquerade fic somewhere.

9. Kink: Costumes. At the masquerade, obviously. I may also do whump: Shackled, possibly combined with kink for Wolfe/Santi cuff desensitization.

10. Kink: Toys. Jess and Thomas promoting their new side business at the masquerade ball.

11. I’m torn on this one. I kind of want to do combined whump/kink and finally write the Medica tent Wolfe/Santi quickie, with Wolfe using sex to keep Santi in bed so he doesn’t get up and tear his stitches. But mirror sex / formal wear just begs for a Wolfe/Santi quickie in a bathroom at some formal Library event.

12. Not sure. Maybe kink, more Khalila/Dario at the masquerade.  Lingerie / Cross-Dressing / Biting seems made for them. Could work for Anit/Katja too. Maybe whump; “don’t move” could work very nicely for some post-Rome Wolfe stuff, probably involving self injury.

13. Kink: Pegging / Nipple Play / Dirty Talk. Even more stuff Khalila and Dario might do at the masquerade.

14. Kink: Fucking Machine. Another one for Jess and Thomas at the masquerade.

15. Whump: Scars. Wolfe after Rome, of course.

16. Kink: Shibari / Hot Dogging / Uniforms. More options for Wolfe and Santi at the masquerade.

17. Possible combined whump/kink: “Stay with me” /  Boot Worship / Lap Dances / Scars. Jess/Thomas/Dario. Thomas has a rough time, and Khalila loans them Dario to help cheer Thomas up.

18. Not sure on this one. Muffled screams may end up in whump stuff.

19. Kink: Shotgunning / Double Penetration. Wolfe/Santi/Santi. Probably combined with 28.

20. Whump: Trembling. Honestly, like the shaking hands, that’s going in anything whumpy, so it’s kind of a gimme. Might also do a little kink: Masturbation thing. Er, does it count as masturbation when it’s post-canon Jess jerking off and Spirit Morgan helping him along?

21: Whump:  Laced Drink. Wolfe in Rome. Warning y’all now that this might end up as noncon Wolfe/Qualls (not crosslisting this as kink, because that part would not be written as porn). Almost definitely combining with 22, maybe some other whump stuff too.

22. Whump: Hallucination. Probably combining with 21, but might do post-Rome Wolfe overworking himself and ending up hallucinating from lack of sleep.

23. Not sure on this one. 

24. Kink: Begging / Anal / Alpha/Beta/Omega. May combine with whump: secret injury.  The prompt is kink, but this will probably be very whumpy, with some healing sex at the end. Post-Rome, Wolfe and Santi as an alpha/omega couple struggling to deal with their first heat/rut after Wolfe’s return home. Still debating who will be the alpha and who the omega.

25. Probably nothing here, although humiliation could factor into a lot of whump stuff.

26. Probably none of these.

27. Probably none of these.

28. Kink: Spit-Roasting / Overstimulation / Incest. Wolfe/Santi/Santi. Nic and Vittorio play a game: who can make Chris have the most orgasms?

29. Probably nothing here.

30. Whump: Recovery. This will be a part of any whump I write.

Timeline: This is the night before the rescue. Two days before the Feast of Greater Burning. So at this point Wolfe has been in prison for around 3 weeks, probably.

In this much time, Wolfe has gathered information on the prison’s security and proceeded to teach it to his whole hall. He’s a researcher, a teacher, and a schemer, even under stress. The Library has condemned him as a rebel and a heretic, and here he is all but falling apart and still fucking living its values of gathering and sharing knowledge.

Ariane is getting weaker. She seemed fine back in chapter 7. Wolfe is vague about the reason, just observing that she isn’t well and might soon be too weak to keep participating in his lessons. Could just be illness, maybe from unsanitary conditions. Could be starvation. This adds a sense of urgency to Wolfe’s plotting; if he loses Ariane, he loses that whole side of the hall because he won’t be able to pass word along.

Wolfe’s memories are very closely associated with sleep. They come to him when he’s tired and trying to sleep, and lack of sleep makes them worse. Add this to Paper and Fire, where he mentioned memories coming to him in dreams, and waking up thinking he’s still in the past. Everything to do with sleep is threatening for Wolfe.

Trauma symptoms at this stage: trouble sleeping, intrusive memories, shaking hands, itching.

More self harm: “he rubbed scars until they bled.”

Prison conditions: “hunger, thirst, the constant, gnawing chill.” So those rations are definitely inadequate. The chill is presumably from distance underground, although it’s possible the Library is using that air conditioning tech from the Iron Tower to make things worse. And this is Alexandria, where people will be more used to heat than cold, so even a mild chill could be very uncomfortable.

Wolfe’s memories of Rome are so bad that being starved and chilled seems tolerable by comparison.

Wolfe’s ability to imagine Santi so clearly shows us just how good his imagination is. Of course, it also shows us his weakening mental health: he gets lost in his imagination very easily. This is a coping mechanism that we will soon learn he has lost control of before, and he’s at risk of that happening again.

Here’s Wolfe imagining Santi, and I think the order he things about things in gives us some idea of what features he likes best: smile, eyes, hair, beard, neck, shoulders, scars, chin, hands, warmth, strength. The smile, eyes, hair, and beard get the most description. Shoulders get an adjective. Hair is what he imagines touching.

“First his smile, the one that came so rarely in public and so easily in private.” A few things to note here. First, this tells us how happy and relaxed Santi is when he’s alone with Wolfe. We think of Wolfe as the guarded one, but Santi is as well; he’s just polite and charming about it instead of prickly. Both Wolfe and Santi can let down their guard for each other. And I suspect that that’s something that appeals to Wolfe a lot, having a side of Santi that is just for him. Also, by imagining that smile, since it is a private thing, Wolfe is bringing its association with privacy into his comforting illusion. He’s had no privacy for weeks, and he needs it.

Bit of a parallel with Morgan here. Morgan imagines being comforted by Jess to reassure her that the plan will succeed; she associates Jess with success. Wolfe imagines being comforted by Santi, who is “a barrier between him and the pulling darkness”; he associates Nic with protection and healing. Both associate their partners with warmth. Both use these acts of imagination to get through difficult moments.

“You are made of scars, and so am I.” This line just needs to be here.

So now we have Qualls, and we must decide whether he’s real or not. Well, no, we don’t, because in case you haven’t figured it out by now, I adore ambiguity. Thus, this bit makes me quite happy.

Depending on how we choose to interpret it, Wolfe waking up in a panic is either a symptom of PTSD and a sign that Wolfe’s own coping mechanism is turning against him (if Qualls is an illusion) and/or a sign that his current PTSD symptoms had protective value while he was in Rome (if Qualls is real). In either case, the line between what helps Wolfe and what hurts him is very blurred. Imagination comforts but also terrifies. Hypervigilance warns him when he’s in danger, but also keeps him from getting adequate rest.

Qualls is just so fucking creepy. He competes with Gregory for creepiest character in the series. The excessive familiarity, the falsely comforting tone, the casual discussion of abuse. *shivers*

But compared to the Artifex, Qualls is polite. The Artifex used Wolfe’s first name, without permission, along with a number of insults. Qualls uses Wolfe’s title and speaks respectfully.

Shit that Qualls has totally said to Wolfe before: “Hush now, Scholar. Crying out will do you no good.” “I always keep my promises.” “I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to ask you a question.” Note the implicit threat in all of those.

Wolfe mixes up Qualls’s voice with Santi’s. There are exactly two voices Wolfe has such a deep, emotional connection to. Also, there are not many people Wolfe imagines are capable of sneaking into his cell.

So mixing Qualls up with Santi has all manner of horrific Rome and post-Rome fic potential.

Wolfe thinks of his fear of Qualls as childlike. He’s so helpless that all he can do is hold his breath and close his eyes. There were probably times in Rome when those were physically the only things he could do in response to threats from Qualls.

Qualls cleaned Wolfe’s wounds. Some Medica training for Qualls, then? But, ugh, how awful is that? The same person who hurt him was the one who took care of him afterward. That’s a mindfuck.

Library villains serve tea and sweets. More parallels with Morgan there. For both Wolfe and Morgan tea is used as an attempt to throw them off guard. Also, like Gregory, Qualls comes off as really rapey with shit like “Sometimes it was very gentle. Those were the good times.” Good for whom, Qualls, you fucking creep?

The things Wolfe associates with kindness here are just so heartbreakingly simple. Food that tastes good. Being clean. Qualls fucked with him by giving him that small chance to feel human after indefinite periods of dehumanizing treatment. And by doing that, Qualls made Wolfe associate those little, basic things with trauma, to the extent that the memory is very vivid and causes psychosomatic pain.

“Kindness made the inevitable cruelty so much worse.” Like the wound cleaning, this is a mindfuck. The person who hurt him is also the person comforting him. It’s also quite possible to read this as saying that some particularly awful abuse followed or accompanied the nicer questioning, something bad enough that it’s physically painful to think about.

Qualls is saying all this in a supposed attempt to be comforting. Either Qualls has a very twisted view of what he’s done to Wolfe and the relationship he had with Wolfe, or Qualls is being deliberately triggering.

Like many of our villains, Qualls does not take responsibility for his own actions. He says the Artifex made him do it.

Qualls asking about the Artifex could be evidence that this is real: it matches with the Qualls letter earlier. Or it could be evidence Qualls is not real: Wolfe’s encounter with the Artifex is messing with his head. Qualls coming back to question Wolfe again would contradict what he said in that letter to the Artifex.

Memory is a recurring theme in this conversation. Qualls keeps asking Wolfe to remember. Wolfe struggles to refuse, wavering between firm “no”s and silent memories. His responses to Qualls are all denials and disagreement.

“He remembered. And that was more frightening than the idea that this was a ghost, a phantom, a madness.” A couple ways to read this. Wolfe could be remembering Qualls’s general behavior: a habit of following through on promises of abuse. It could be a more specific promise made at the time Qualls released Wolfe. If we’re going from the theory that Wolfe forgot some of the events surrounding his imprisonment, anything Qualls said to him between the interrogation mentioned in the letter and the release would fall within that window of time surrounding a traumatic event where memory is unreliable. He could have just remembered a promise Qualls made then.

Also: Wolfe finds madness less frightening than his memories. His madness during/after Rome was a defense mechanism.

This “shadow in shadow” disappearance is either proof that Qualls wasn’t real or evidence of Qualls having some sneaking skills.

So, the cell door opens either sideways or inward: Wolfe pulls it open and leans against it to hold it shut. But then “he went weak against the bars” between opening it and the sphinx coming. Bars next to the door? The bars of the open door? Is this where he shuts the door or is this evidence it never really opened?

More of Wolfe’s eyes having trouble with light. The sphinx’s red light dazzles his eyes enough that he has to cover them.

In the middle of a fucking mental health crisis, Wolfe can still attempt to coordinate a prison break.

Here’s our turning point for Wolfe’s development in this book. He’s just faced his past with Qualls, now he has to confront his fear that he is helpless and can’t escape. It’s not just this jail he’s afraid he can’t get out of. It’s Rome.

Wolfe’s imagination is strong enough to make him doubt his own senses. Distinguishing reality from illusion is a real, serious problem for him.

Do I think Qualls totally manipulated Wolfe’s hallucinations of Santi to torture him more? Of course I do! Considering the drugs available, Qualls may have caused at least some of those hallucinations.

Little signs that Wolfe is starting to move past the crisis. He doesn’t stay on the floor. That desire to be a bit more comfortable shows that he hasn’t completely given up. And then he imagines Santi without even trying. On a subconscious level, he’s fighting to get through this.

“I’ll be with you. When you think you can’t endure, I will help. Believe in me, if you can’t believe in yourself.” Another good line. Must work this one into post-Rome fic.