- Octavian's telling us all about where he grew up, and it's definitely a little weird.
- First off, he remembers stuff like a house, a garden and apple trees.
- Okay, not that big of a whoop. Sounds like a pretty typical house, right?
- But here's where things start to get strange.
- Octavian's holding his mom's hand as they look at flames rising from the orchard behind the big house.
- And his mom is smiling with delight.
- Servants are lighting gas on fire.
- By the way, there's also a huge wall surrounding the property, you know, to keep people out.
- But also to keep people in. Yep—things are getting freaky.
- But the wall isn't something Octavian understands until he's older, looking back on everything.
- Then a last line: Octavian gets all philosophical on us and says something about (we're totally paraphrasing here) how everything that wants to rise up, ends up burning or destroying itself.
- Cheery fellow, this Octavian.