Traitor
I have other questions for him.
I glance down at the wrinkled leather vest he’s wearing. Open at the
front, a muddy brown color.
“Do you tan your own leather?”
Brennur frowns in confusion at my change in subject. “What?”
I jerk my chin. “Your vest. You were wearing one before too. I’m
just wondering if you tan your leather yourself.”
“Yes, I tan my own leather,” he answers with a scoffed impatience.
“What of it?”
My fingers twist around a nugget of gold as I spin it on the table.
“You use oak bark, is that right?”
The question is simple. My intent behind it is not.
And even though I keep my face expressionless, my tone easy, I’m
coiled so tight I could spring at any moment because I recall what happened
when he took me through the fairy ring, just before Una stole my memories.
I remember…remembering.
Brennur hasn’t caught onto the rage that’s simmering beneath my
skin, because he looks impatiently to Wick. “What is this about?”
I lean forward slowly, and I can feel the flame from the lantern
casting off against my face as I draw his gaze back to me. “It’s the scent.
The taste,” I say, my tone gone dark. “It leaves an impression when
someone shoves a piece of polishing cloth into your mouth to shut you up
as you’re being kidnapped. That oak bark was very distinct, and you still
reek of it.”
His eyes widen. Only a fraction, only for a second.
But it’s enough.
“It was you.” My voice is low. Even.
Full of terrible rage.
“You were the one to kidnap me from Bryol and take me into Orea.
It didn’t matter that the bridge of Lemuria had been destroyed for hundreds
In the Wachowskis’ original shooting script, Morpheus, having recently “awakened” the protagonist Neo from the Matrix, explains that “as in Baudrillard’s vision, your whole life has been spent inside the map, not the territory.” The line did not make the final cut, though the film retains a shot in which Neo picks up a copy of Simulacra and Simulation that has been hollowed out so it might better hide hard disks of his (illegal) hacking programs. (...) The Wachowskis tried to involve Baudrillard in their film, but he declined and later described the film as a misread of his ideas, giving this “hollowed out” reference an unintentional meaning.
