"You approach Perdurance, where the brightest and most beautiful of London's youth are conserved like jewels in a glass case."
"I've heard no one grows old in Perdurance," a crewman says.
"Nor hungers, nor sorrows," says another.
"Nor leaves," your signaller adds.[1]
Perdurance is a magnificent shuttered palace in Albion.
A Perfect Day[]
"Perdurance is a jewel in the Empire's crown; where its favourite sons and daughters are pampered, protected, and preserved."[2]
The jewel of Albion, Perdurance holds the offspring of its most accomplished individuals, who live through a single perfect day for all of time thanks to to a stable supply of hours.[3]
The rooms of The Half-Light Masque reflect this idea, and are named after the time of day during which the inhabitants of the Masque stay there. Those are, in order:
- The Morning Room, presided over by many different dowagers of noble birth. Perdurance's golden youth, the Debutantes, spend their time here writing letters to the outside world while their chaperones and servants see to the palace's household accounts.[4]
- The Afternoon Room, a giant dining hall where the Debutantes and their chaperones eat to their heart's content.[5]
- The Evening Room, a grand ballroom, where the people dance and listen to the music, and everyone wears a mask, even the servants.[6]
- The Parlour of Dusk (or perhaps Dawn), where the day's journey ends and very quickly starts again.[7]
Not All That Glitters Is Gold[]
"Why on earth would they want to [leave]? To do so would seem remarkably ungrateful."[8]
While the Debutantes' life at Perdurance is opulent and safe, it's definitely not happy - constrained to single, never-changing day, and under almost constant surveillance, their stay at the Half-Light Masque is more akin to a prison sentence.[9][10][11] This is exemplified by the Governesses, the empress's agents, who wear featureless masks of polished obsidian. These individuals stalk the passages between the Masque's rooms using a system of hidden hatches called the Doors of Night; their job involves the re-education and disposal of Debutantes whose families have displeased Her Majesty.[12] Not that having one's child be at Perdurance is a great reward either; in fact, some of the Debutantes' parents feel that their children are being held hostage at the Masque as a form of punishment.[13]
References[]