Except where noted, this Critical Edition of the Notebook of Calchas of Valeria consists of the complete text of the work, accompanied by my own glosses and speculations. The text of Chapters One and Two follows that of the copy found in the Great Library at Tolek. The text for the remaining chapters was transmitted at the request of the translator directly from the Gilead Archive, during which operation a segment of Chapter Three was unfortunately damaged.
I tend to let Calchas speak for himself; how can I do otherwise, when he keeps so many secrets even from me? Sometimes I can’t help but interject when I feel that he is seriously mistaken or has missed something obvious. Other than that, the editorial comments usually come in the form of a short essay every few sessions, re-evaluating my view of Calchas’ universe in light of his latest adventures. I attempt a complete, running account of my speculations, however bizarre or feeble.
In retrospect, I’m fairly pleased with the job I did piecing together the mysteries of Chapters One and Two, although I’ll admit that the climax of Chapter One was as surprising to me as to Calchas, simply because I invented Valeria myself, and the one thing I knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is that she was utterly unimportant. Ahem. I’ll have more to say in the editorial commentary for the end of Chapter Two. In Chapter Three, Calchas and I were on roughly equal footing and figured things out at about the same time, although I might have solved the puzzle a little earlier had I not been frantically trying to figure out the stars, the one great red herring that snared me. (I ought to have followed Calchas and recoiled in terror.) And then in Chapters Four and Five I seem to have pulled my act together. I have my brother to thank for helping me piece together the big burst of speculation near the end of Chapter Four; this let me make some good guesses in Chapter Five, one of which proved to be more or less right.
But I ought to let my readers judge my detective-work for themselves, just as they’ll judge Calchas. I hope he was as much fun to play off of as he was to play, and I hope (in full awareness of the experimental nature of this project) that the Notebook is as interesting to read as it was to write. And now, without further ado…