It shouldn't meant anything to him - that this is the thing Silver says to exonerate himself with. What is one terrible lie beside everything else? He's already undone every worthwhile thing. He's replaced the stones in the wall they'd been unbuilding. An hour, a day, he'd said. At least there on the island, the words had seemed true. His reasoning had felt as honest as it was broken. He'd believed those things. This is different.
Flint looks at him, split open and hacksaw dull. It feels like being strangled, he thinks. And laughs, lopsided and flat - one short crackling sound as the sea shifts under the ship's hull and the greatcabin murmurs around them.
But he cannot pretend that he isn't using what he knows of Thomas Hamilton to disarm the weaponry of Captain Flint. He doesn't deny that. It is a sin. One more sin in the long line of transgressions John had committed. This one is both the least and greatest among them at once. He took a confession made to him in the dark and used it to root out the one thing that could dismantle his dearest friend.
If Flint was ever his friend. John applies the word to him knowing that it does not fit correctly. They had been more and less than friends. And John has torn that asunder now. He does not think the gift of Thomas Hamilton will be suitable to repair the damage he's wrought.
"I'm giving you back to him," John says, because it's the only hope he has left. Captain Flint's story ends in a reunion with his long lost love. The world continues as it was, undisturbed.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Flint looks at him, split open and hacksaw dull. It feels like being strangled, he thinks. And laughs, lopsided and flat - one short crackling sound as the sea shifts under the ship's hull and the greatcabin murmurs around them.
What a hideous thing to promise him.
"Don't." Do that. "Don't use that here."
no subject
But he cannot pretend that he isn't using what he knows of Thomas Hamilton to disarm the weaponry of Captain Flint. He doesn't deny that. It is a sin. One more sin in the long line of transgressions John had committed. This one is both the least and greatest among them at once. He took a confession made to him in the dark and used it to root out the one thing that could dismantle his dearest friend.
If Flint was ever his friend. John applies the word to him knowing that it does not fit correctly. They had been more and less than friends. And John has torn that asunder now. He does not think the gift of Thomas Hamilton will be suitable to repair the damage he's wrought.
"I'm giving you back to him," John says, because it's the only hope he has left. Captain Flint's story ends in a reunion with his long lost love. The world continues as it was, undisturbed.