Motif · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Loneliness

The layer of darkness since the Masquerade, named on a church lawn: 'It was loneliness. It had always been loneliness… It was isolation that would break us.' Ikicha's 'Gods, I am so lonely'; Carl regretting the motorcycle ride to Homestead alone; Ren breaking; Agatha ten years from the collective, liking it; Lucia Mar, the most isolated crawler, holding the thing that brings them together.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 4 — Old Havana
• Chapter 8 — The Bedlam Bride
• Chapter 15 — The Thorn Room
• Chapter 20 — Ruby
• Chapter 50 — Homestead
• Chapter 51 — Residuals
• Chapter 63 — The doggie door

Progression

A lonely goat, all by himself (ch. 20); 'Everyone leaves me' (ch. 16); a motorcycle ride alone to a shelter and the regret of it (ch. 50); 'Gods, I am so lonely' (ch. 63); Ren broken (ch. 59); the veil named on a church lawn (ch. 63); Agatha, ten years from the whole, liking it (epilogue).