I base this on all that I know from
dreams soon to come. I did dream of the
view, though, of a sea of clouds with peaks jutting up like islands. And I dreamed of a report of a sugar-ship at
Sargeddohl Harbor on December 28 (the dream specified the date quite clearly, inconveniently
enough) and that rebels would have to target this ship. I remember it having twin stacks.
Of course the neurological enhancements
that Deirdre refers to happened in three very intense dreams in two nights of
my teens. You can read about them in
"The Poison Gamble". At the time I considered
it, on one level, as story material, and on another, as coping with my
guilt-feelings for having "stolen" my intelligence, being of the wrong race,
class, and gender (according to society at the time) for it.
Yet new research has shown me another
level, that my body knew long before science confirmed it. I have a host of physical ailments now linked
to high IQs—allergies, asthma, arthritis, fibromyalgia, hypoglycemia—all products
of the body overreacting . Thank God
I've been spared Lupus at least! Tests
have shown that I have hyper reflexes, as well (not that they're much good with
arthritis!) Greater susceptibility to
PTSD also comes with the package, somewhat but not completely ameliorated by
greater ability to self-psychoanalyze.
This is what teachers miss when they
call IQ one's "potential" and condemn practically all "geniuses" as
"underachievers". One's potential also
includes one's mental and physical health.
What set apart Leonardo DaVinci was not his intelligence alone, but also
his freakishly robust health in combination with it (in his prime he would bend
pokers in two for a party trick, and lived to old age in an era not known for
it.)
I
wrote the Cherone parts based on what made sense. He's a mountaineer. He loved his Aunt Soskia. And he's not cowardly, just in shock from
things outside of his experience.
Climbing down to the rescue of her remains would cover more familiar
territory than trying to become a warrior.
It also fits with the timing.