Paul

A thirteen year old with no power, who looks at Noel for five evenings and says the true thing out loud.

Who he is

Thin, plainly dressed but not poorly, with "the particular alertness of someone who had learned to pay close attention to the adults around him because something in his life had required it" (ch. 220).

His mother works nights. He states it without self-pity:

NOL: You should go home. Your family will worry. PAUL: My mother works nights. She doesn't notice till morning.

What he sees

He is the only person who notices Noel failing, and he says so on the fifth evening.

PAUL: I've seen you. You stop when something's happening and you watch and then you walk away. You did it outside the bakery last week, when those men were arguing. And by the well. (ch. 220)

Then the line that names the arc:

PAUL: Because you watch like you used to be someone who did something about it.

He does not accept deflection. When Noel calls his reason complicated:

PAUL: Most things adults don't want to explain are complicated. Funny how that works.

The refusal

Ch. 221 has Noel end the friendship to protect him. Paul takes it apart in four lines.

PAUL: That's what people say right before the thing that's actually about me.

PAUL: You're not the only thing keeping me safe. I was fine before you started walking with me. I'll be fine if you stop. That's not the point. The point is you found one person who wanted to spend time with you and you're getting rid of him because you're scared of something that might not even happen.

PAUL: You're just making it complicated because complicated is easier to hide behind.

He says "I'm going home", walks off, and is not on the wall the next evening or the one after.

What he does

Ch. 222. A dozen rogue ability users are wrecking the market square. Noel is frozen at its edge. Paul, who has no ability and no weapon, walks into the open ground and shouts at them.

PAUL: You're cowards! All of you! Hurting people who never did anything to you!

PAUL: I said you're cowards! You'll be punished for this! All of you!

The rogue manifests a chromium drill and fires it at him. Noel takes it through the side.

This is the mechanism of the whole arc. Noel could not act for two chapters of deliberation. He acts in no time at all when it is Paul.

The two things Noel says to him

Both are worth keeping together, because they are the same sentence.

NOL: Paul. You're a stupid brat. (ch. 222, on the ground, bleeding)

NOL: Don't. [...] Not yet. (ch. 223, wiping the boy's tears with a thumb that leaves blood on his cheek)

Open questions

• What happens to him after ch. 223. He is last seen frozen at the square's edge with tears still on his face.
• Whether the "boy who watches" reading is deliberate. He is the third child in Acts 9 and 10 to be the turning point of an adult's arc, after Tom in ch. 199 and the girl with the wooden horse in ch. 214. See ../volumes/07-the-acceptance.md.