The Connoisseur

Chapter 14 - Myth Made Real

When Sophia entered the dining chamber once more, she immediately caught Alexander’s eye.  He stood alone by a pillar, staring at the doors of the hall as the other guests continued eating around him.  He hurried towards her.

“Are you well?” he said.  “I was worried.  The food did not disagree with you?”

“No.  Not at all,” said Sophia quietly.  “It’s wonderful.  It all is.”

Alexander glanced away.  His face became stern.  “It was my conduct, then.  Tell me what I have done wrong.  Have no fear of honesty.  I wish to know.”

Sophia slowly approached this bizarre man, dressed like an Emperor of antiquity, speaking like a gentleman of the Enlightenment, and familiar with every age of history.  She was touched that he cared for her opinion.

She put a hand on his shoulder.  “Later.  Let’s just enjoy this, yeah?  For God’s sake, look at it.  Look at it.”

The two of them leant against the colourful pillar and took in the scene.  People were laughing, talking, singing even.  Food passed down the tables, wine flowed, and everything was more colourful than any rainbow.

“When you travel somewhere new, in time or space, you always notice the differences first,” said Alexander.  “The heat or cold, the smell.  The strange things people say.  The practices and customs, however bizarre they might seem.  However terrible, even.” 

He shook his head.  Sophia didn’t know whether to look at him or the crowd.

“Next you notice the similarities,” he continued.  “First it’s between your own world and this.  You see that you aren’t so different to an Arabian trader in imperial Ctesiphon.  But then!  Then you see the similarities between this age, this world, and every world.”  He gestured towards the gathered people.  “We’ll always do this.  Human beings have always done this.  It doesn’t matter where you are – with a family of Inuit in the Arctic, or a group of loudmouth Athenian youths in Plato’s academy, or with the labourers who built the walls of Angkor Wat.   We’ll always have tables and chairs, and we’ll always sit down with one another, and eat together, and talk together.”

Sophia suppressed a shiver.  She felt a lightness in her chest, and the blood in her ears.  You bastard, Alexander, she thought.  One speech and he gets away with everything.  With much effort, she stopped herself from laying her head on his shoulder.  She wished she could do so, and that she could fall wholly into the dream with him, and never wake up to the world she knew.

“Your age,” she said.  “Your world.  Where is it?”

Alexander remained silent.  Sophia turned to face him.  She took his hands in her own, gently turning him towards her.  They looked at one another. 

His face fell.

“How can you travel in time?” said Sophia sadly.  “When did you first do it?  Have you always done it?  Give me something, please.  A birthday, family, anything.  I want to know you, Alex.”

His face twisted and turned.  For a shadow of an instant, Sophia thought his lip trembled.  When he looked away, she felt him shudder through the hands that she held.

“Okay,” she whispered.  “It doesn’t have to be now.  It doesn’t even have to be soon.  But please, please think about it.  I just want to know you.”

“You shall,” said Alexander hoarsely, almost in a gasp.  He held her hands tightly.  “You shall.  You shall.”

*

When they returned to their seats, Alexander was less familiar with the guests.  His conversation was as courteous as ever, but Sophia noticed that he did not speak with anyone for any length of time.  She spoke little with him too, but it was not the same silence between them as it had been before.  There was no awkwardness in it, only an acknowledgement that words, at present, were not needed.