“My body has done its share of impossible things,” I say. “It does not owe this one as well. Yours still has room.”

The Nursery

Not the study — that’s where I write the future into columns. Not the hall — that belongs to the living and the almost-dead. We chose the old nursery instead: faded wallpaper with boats and moons, curtains drawn against a morning that was not ready for us yet.

The Ask

There’s a particular quiet that settles over a room when everyone in it has agreed not to lie to one another. We sat close. We spoke plainly. Some decisions are too important for anyone in the room to perform a certainty they do not feel — so no one did.

I will not pretend that the four of us left that room the same as we entered it. Some things, once decided, change the shape of everything that follows.

“And Wolfgang?” I ask.

“He does not need to know the method,” Asdar says. “Only the result.”

Continue the journey. Start the series here → The European Records

© 2026 I.Ph. de Lange. All rights reserved. Published by CYcrds OÜ.

Author’s Note: The Fire Horse

I wrote Drina’s line — the fire horse is loose and you will have to tame it to survive — at the start of this year, before I’d thought to check the calendar against the page. 2026 is 丙午年, the Year of the Fire Horse: volatile, fast-moving, not a year known for patience. I only noticed the overlap afterward, which is either coincidence or exactly the kind of thing this book keeps insisting isn’t.

I’ve stopped being surprised when the writing gets there first.

I.Ph.