Annotated Chapter 8 Page 21
Poe is wearing his jacket from all the way back in chapter 7, in case the eyes weren’t enough of a giveaway.
…Wish I’d put some more detail and complication into Cybele’s cell design. Sure, unlike the hotel from the last several scenes, it’s not a thing with real-life details that you can find documented online in plenty of photographs. But a sufficiently determined artist could’ve done more with it.
Bonus: wish I’d gone on Reddit and said “hey, worldbuilders, if you were designing a prison for a creature with capabilities X Y and Z, what would you include?” Or some other forum, but this seems like the kind of question Reddit would really dig into and come up with good chewy details.
Also! I wish I’d thought to make the setup “there’s a camera and a speaker on the ceiling, and a video screen in the next room, and that’s how people talk to the prisoner.”
Only in combination with the previous two wishes, though. As-is, that weird little slot-window is one of the few points of visual interest in the whole setting.
(BOING)
Visitor: It won’t work, you know.
Cybele: ?
Who are you?
Visitor: Someone who’s familiar with the setup here.
You can’t get out the way you came in. There’s an extra level of security. One of those terrifying sigils installed in the room above. Without a direct order from your Master, you’d never make it through.
Cybele: Oh! That was smart of them! After all, some of us can fly!
Visitor: That’s right. Some of us can.
