that's my impression

I don't know anything about declensions, Marianna, but your logic is certainly impressive.

Can we give the novelist some marks for inventiveness? She has created a clever little allegory which certainly seems plausible: "sine cera". She didn't convince you or Jackie but there is as much truth in her allegory as there is truth in the actual root.

Or, is there?

When the waxen facade melts away, what is below is certainly true, but is it "pure"?

Or is it, more likely, less pure, more confused, more complex, than the mask?