Drawn out, the chase continues. Dourst writes in a very slow style with fastidious attention to detail. Through Straka, Dourst mimics the style of an older literary period, but comes off as excessive at times. He creates mixed metaphors, “the air smelt of hot metal.” The prose comes off as forced and repetitive.

Eric determines Straka’s description of “elusiveness” is like that of a maze.

Eric makes a reference to other works by Straka — Coriolis and Braxenholm. He compares the description here to a “maze” and “catacombs scene” in the two stories, respectively. Indeed, S. becomes increasingly disoriented as the tension around him rises.