Short Fiction · Chapter
V: Nycteris explained
Nycteris is born to the dark lady Vesper in a windowless tomb, under lamplight, and is raised by Watho and Falca in total darkness.
What happens
Nycteris is born to the dark lady Vesper in a windowless tomb, under lamplight, and is raised by Watho and Falca in total darkness. She has the dark features of her mother but the blue eyes of Aurora. Watho deliberately keeps her from all natural light, training her to be nocturnal and teaching her only music.
Themes in this chapter
Reality vs. Illusion
Nycteris is deliberately kept in an artificial, lamp-lit world, cut off from natural light and the true reality of day and night.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Five or six months after the birth of Photogen, the dark lady also gave birth to a baby: in the windowless tomb of a blind mother, in the dead of night, under the feeble rays of a lamp in an alabaster globe, a girl came into the darkness with a wail.”
About half a year after Photogen was born, the dark lady Vesper delivered a daughter in a sealed, windowless tomb, lit only by a dim lamp, and the infant cried out into the blackness.
Describes the secret, nocturnal birth of Nycteris in complete isolation from natural light.
“Watho called her Nycteris, and she grew as like Vesper as possible—in all but one particular. She had the same dark skin, dark eyelashes and brows, dark hair, and gentle sad look; but she had just the eyes of Aurora, the mother of Photogen, and if they grew darker as she grew older, it was only a darker blue.”
Watho named the child Nycteris, and she resembled her mother Vesper in every way except for her eyes, which were the same blue as Aurora's, though they deepened with age.
Highlights Nycteris's mixed inheritance: dark like Vesper but with Aurora's blue eyes.
“Watho, with the help of Falca, took the greatest possible care of her—in every way consistent with her plans, that is—the main point in which was that she should never see any light but what came from the lamp.”
Watho and Falca tended to Nycteris meticulously, but always in accordance with Watho's scheme, ensuring the girl never experienced any light except that of the lamp.
Reveals Watho's deliberate control over Nycteris's environment, keeping her in artificial light.
“She was a sadly dainty little creature. No one in the world except those two was aware of the being of the little bat. Watho trained her to sleep during the day, and wake during the night. She taught her music, in which she was herself a proficient, and taught her scarcely anything else.”
Nycteris was a delicate, pitiable child, known only to Watho and Falca. Watho conditioned her to be nocturnal and instructed her only in music, which Watho excelled at.
Emphasizes Nycteris's isolation and the narrowness of her education under Watho.