Sunset Diaries

Sunset Diaries is the presumed memoir of Christopher Illopoly, the famed occultist. Entries within it describe events in the decades following the 1920s.

March 1959
"'[THE CARAPACE-CROSS DID NOT PERISH BUT PASSED WITHIN]'. Of course they did; of course they did. By definition, this changes nothing, and yet I cannot ignore it. At the very least it lends strength to Coseley's arguments. I am beginning to think, after all, that he is right. "Birds of a feather stick together." Teresa, Teresa. Perhaps, had we known, it would have changed nothing for you, either. Is it fair to tell you? '[THE CARAPACE-CROSS DID NOT PERISH BUT PASSED WITHIN.]' I feel sick. [...]"

- Illopoly, 'Sunset Diaries', March 1959

December 1973
"My efforts have paid off, by way of a Christmas Eve visitor. I wish these things wouldn't happen at 2am. I'm sure they didn't when I was younger. Visitor claims to have been a reckoner in Duffoure's mob, back in '25. Paid off Morgen, and she let them through the Summit Gate. (So Teresa was right, as usual. If only we'd found Morgen in '32.) Visitor claims to be blood of the earth, which means Antaios' line, which means the line of the Flint and the Wheel. Visitor says the Wheel still turns in the House of the Moon, and the kinship means they're going to be a Name when the Wheel returns. I think I might even believe it. I'd heard Duffoure was Antaean too, so that fits. Perhaps he really was Teresa's father, after all. But if the Wheel still turns… I've got some thinking to do. After all, any student of Histories knows: as within, so without. One way or another."

- Christopher Illopoly, 'Sunset Diaries', December 1973

March 1974
"The Bureau went in the last round of budget cuts - of course it did. It hadn't even been called 'the Bureau' for years. A sub-department of a sub-department, I suppose... but it seems to be a private enterprise now, if not precisely a commercial one. It must be Lee. The years have only made her more determined. And richer, I suspect. They didn't mention her name, but there was a wheelchair downstairs, and I don't think any of the others are even still alive. They could be, I suppose. They could have been sipping lymph or nectar... but the world is not kind to their sort, and the Mansus is less kind still. They didn't mention what they were looking for, either, but from the questions they asked, it can only be the Key. Fifty years ago, I would have told them everything I know, and trusted Lee to do the right thing. But I can't be sure of her agenda, not any more. What the years do to mortal flesh, they do to mortal ideals also. I'll write to Coseley. He won't know what to do either. But it's only polite."

- Illopoly, 'Sunset Diaries', March 1974

February 1975
"My landlady has been questioned. By 'a very nice man', she says, but a very nice man who asked peculiar questions. Whether, for instance, I cut my hair before I sleep. Time to move on. I can't put it off any longer: I'll have go to Port Noon. I can't imagine our friend is still there in the hills, but someone may know where she's gone. I will be met with contempt, if I'm fortunate, and suspicion, if I'm not, but I'm no threat to the Long. I have a cabin on the Hebe Stanton, leaving tomorrow. I find, to my surprise, that I'm looking forward to it. I cannot but be curious about the place. I'm even looking forward to seeing Coseley again, although I imagine I may feel differently, a couple of lectures in."

- Illopoly, 'Sunset Diaries', February 1975

January 1982
"Last night I saw Teresa. I had not expected it at all. I don't believe that she saw me. Perhaps she wouldn't even recognise me, what I am now after all this time. (But I think that she would recognise me. I would recognise her in a crowd, in candle-light in silhouette, glimpsed in a ballroom mirror, even had she aged these decades too). I am badly shaken. I suppose that the Concursum is the place that this sort of thing is bound to happen. Even now I know the temptation to go to the Lodge, to ask her directly - whether she has taken a side - if she still speaks to the Ligeians - whether she knows where it is. (Old man, you're lying. There is only one question you really want to ask. The others are just excuses.)"

- Illopoly, 'Sunset Diaries', January 1982