Lady Lilianna D’Alba D’Argenlunna has been mentioned from time to time as one of the influences in Chrístõ’s formative years. She taught him to dance, and to be a gentleman. She has also appeared in the Marion and Kristoph stories as a friend and confidant of Marion, and Kristoph’s childhood sweetheart. But there was no real opportunity to examine Chrístõ’s relationship with her in detail. This story opened up the possibility. Chrístõ’s decision to try out the ToSA machine – Total Sensory Administrator opens up his past to him in a very real way. We see him spend a perfect summer day with his Lady, an example of courtly love as envisaged by poets. We also see Chrístõ’s early thoughts about Rani and Romana, who appeared very much earlier in the Theta Sigma series.
Meanwhile,
Kohb and Camilla are learning to fly, and learning something more, too.
I decided that Camilla, since she can’t have Chrístõ, would set
her sights on Kohb. He, however, needed to learn not to be a servant in
order for her to do that. Their ToSA experience of being birds, flying
over the ocean, broke down the class divisions and allowed him to kiss
her. And from here on, things won’t be the same again.
I never, of course,
intended for Kohb to be some kind of Alfred the
As for Chrístõ’s relationship with Lady Lily, there was a great deal of speculation about it online. I even received a piece of ‘slash’ fiction in which Lily taught Chrístõ about sex in quite lurid ways. But it never was meant to be like that. It IS Chrístõ’s first love affair in many ways. But the line in his favourite song, impossible dream somes it up. “To love, pure and chaste from afar.” What he needed, however, was closure on that love, to be with Lily when she died, which in real life didn’t happen. And that was why he had to work through his dream with the help of ToSA.
