Part 32: Chapter Nine - pt.1

REEL 12: The army arrives.




When Klara got up next morning, it took a few seconds for her to understand where she was.

I heard her voice right before I woke up...

...and she inquired: «Who gave me out, who pointed out my windows? Had my faithful not warned me in advance, had they not invited me, waited for me – would I have known where to hide the next day? There was one that gathered his servants, surrounded the house where I was, and I would have never escaped were it not for my miraculous abilities...

...But my faithful in the triangle-shaped yard saw me from above, warmed me, sheltered me for I showed them many miracles, and convinced them with my deeds...»






She left Horns at dawn, crossed the square and entered the Cathedral again.




What has happened to your legs, darling? This is terrible... How did you get these patches? Oh, wait... I’m sorry. Just seeing things. Such poor lighting in this hall.
Of course! What could happen to me? And I cleansed the Raw Structures this time! Did you hear?
The last I heard, the disease remains there just like yesterday. Don’t play games with me, girl.



So it was true... Burakh had failed to do anything about Klara’s contagious sister and she did a repeat performance of the act she had debuted in the Cathedral three days ago. It was too late to try and save that part of town.

Here is the program for today. You shall go to the Kains and find out why they value that heinous Polyhedron so much. The grounds are the same – tell them I accuse them of starting the outbreak. Don’t accept the «work of art» excuses.
To the Kains? I’m not going! They hate me...
You are adorable... Hate? Really? Don’t worry. You are under my protection now. They won’t dare touch you. Still, keep away from Maria... Niece is so unpredictable.
What? What did you call her?
Silence. Don’t concern yourself with that. Find out how to get inside the Polyhedron. Once inside, do whatever you want. Well, the usual. It doesn’t matter what you do actually, I’ll find out what I want to know, one way or the other. You can even refuse to go. Nobody is forcing you. Then I’ll know that your instincts prevented you from entering.
You think I’m nothing more than a housecat that the owners let inside their new home so it would find the most comfortable spot to lie down!
Something like that. You have a sense of humour.
May I ask you a question?
Be my quest. But one question only.
Why do you need all this?
First of all, I want to force the Kains to leave their defensive position. Secondly, I need to hear an impartial opinion on the Polyhedron. You have to agree that an impressive structure like this needs to be studied more thoroughly. I suspect that the rumours of its abilities have been grossly exaggerated.
And if I refuse?
There is other fish in the sea, as you well know. Someone else will do it – but I don’t think it’s in your best interests to leave this job for the others.
Who am I?
I’m not sure yet, darling... Maybe today you will bring me the answer on the soles of your boots... Have you ever seen them? They are quite interesting. I watch your feet every time you walk away... it is a sight to behold!
You are afraid of me, Aglaea, aren’t you...? This is why you can’t kill me. You are afraid that if you will, something will become irreparably broken, am I right?


With that, she walked away, glancing back constantly. Once out of Inquisitor’s sight, she tried looking at her soles, but found nothing particularly interesting. Just a carving of some tree sticking out of the ground on each one – certainly nothing to behold.



She then returned to Horns, for a permission to enter the Polyhedron.

I shall now explore the opposite side. It is already clear to me whose domain it is. Not two days ago, I was ready to pronounce a cruel sentence on them, but I’m not so sure about it anymore. Old Georg will open a path to the unapproachable Polyhedron for me.




Nobody shall escape...
Georg Kain, I come to you by order of inquisitor Aglaea Lilich!
So what? Do you think you can intimidate me with the name of my sister-in-law?
Will you change your tone if I say that my visit will decide the fate of Polyhedron?
Do you really think your visit has so much significance? ...Now you are going to give me some honest, unbiased answers. Are you an ally of Aglaea?
No. I am her victim.
Are you now? I doubt that. You see, I’m glad you’ve come here. Because now, trying to save what little heritage our dear brother left for us, we’ve almost solved the mystery of Simon’s transfiguration. Can you check something really important for us?
Will you answer my questions then?
Yes. We’ll answer and let you inside the tower. It’s what you’ve come for, isn’t it?
How did you know?
Aglaea needs formal grounds for her decision; the more the better. Your visit to the tower hasn’t even taken place yet, but the conclusion has already been made... But one should always hope against hope.
What can I help you with?
We want you to go to the Apiary and find doctor Rubin – he is hiding there from our wrath. Tell him that he is forgiven. Let him come here. Perhaps together we will be able to figure out what has happened to Simon’s blood.
And what has happened to it? I don’t understand...
Bachelor said that he and the Haruspex had been trying to discover the origin of this strange blood. Blood that was identical to Simon’s. The only man who knows the answer to this riddle is hiding inside the short wing of the Apiary, risking his life every minute. We’ll provide you with medicine, ammunition and clothing if you agree to go there right away.
But why me? What does it all have to do with me?
That’s what we would like to know.



The judge gave her some cartons of medicine, cartridges for her pistole, and a long macabre-looking coat Klara wouldn’t wear even if she found herself in the heaviest rain.



On the far end of the Stone Yard she caught a glimpse of something new in the scenery from the corner of her eye.



A soldier armed with a rifle was standing behind a hastily assembled barricade. He didn’t pay much attention to Klara – probably hadn’t been in town long enough to know about her.



So the army Alexander had been talking about had arrived.



That had to change the balance of power in town somehow.



Soldiers ignored her completely and wouldn’t reply to her questions or even make eye contact.



They were very disciplined.



On her way to the Apiary, Klara decided to visit the boy, Spichka. He probably needed healing after being fed a potentially dangerous medicinal powder by the executor.



But the child seemed healthy and even quite gay. Klara decided that the rumours about the terrifying effects of the Powders had been made up, probably by the executors themselves, to prevent the population from using up this valuable resource.

Go away; I need to be alone for a while.



Georg’s information wasn’t entirely correct. Rubin wasn’t in hiding – she had already told him about Kains’ pardon. In their conversation two days before, Rubin had told her about his intention to visit the Apiary and ask odongs and butchers where he could possibly find more of the magical, Simon-like blood.





But when she arrived at the Apiary’s smaller building, Rubin wasn’t there. Had he broken his promise to the Kains and fled? She found Bachelor Dankovsky there instead.

I’ve been thinking about you a lot.
Do you know where Rubin is?
Rubin is no longer here. He is coming back tomorrow. Now I want you to listen to a riddle, Klara.
I’m listening.
On the fifth day, Rubin said that Simon’s unique blood had been used up to the last drop. It had been used to make vaccine. But. Yesterday Burakh created a serum out of the blood that was very similar to Simon’s and had even more pronounced properties.
And whose blood was it?
Only he knows that. But that’s not the biggest mystery. On sixth and seventh days, the Haruspex brought me blood that was a lot like Simon’s. Where did he get it? That’s what I wanted to ask just you about. I’ve been examining some of the simpletons that you’d cured; their cells mutated but they didn’t acquire immunity.
Why would they acquire immunity? I’m surprised they didn’t die altogether. And where is the Haruspex? I had better talk to him...
He is here. In this building. I’ve been looking for him myself... for my own reasons... Could it have been the Apiary inhabitants that provided him with this blood? What do you think?
Could be... why don’t you ask him yourself?



Since she couldn’t go any farther on the ground floor, Klara could only try looking for Burakh upstairs.



But it turned out there was no «upstairs» up the stairs. There were, in fact, more stairs. Klara continued her ascent.



She thought the origin of the mystery blood was actually very easy to explain. The blood that was brought on days six and seven, that was «very much like Simon’s, but not actually Simon’s»?



It was Simon’s.



There was no proof that all of it had been used up on day five. Not everyone knew it, but human body could produce a LOT of blood...



Either Rubin or Burakh could have a jar or two hidden away somewhere. On ice.



It was quite possible that there was indeed no other source and no other person with the same abilities.



Still, if Rubin wanted to keep looking, Klara wasn’t going to try and stop him.



When the stairs finally ended and Klara reached some kind of room, she was winded and her legs felt like they were on fire. She had long since lost count of the number of flights of stairs she had to surmount. Burakh was there. Why did he have to climb so high? Why did he have to climb so high?? It was now clear why Dankovsky decided to wait for him at the ground floor.

Your appearances don’t surprise any more.
Tell me, Burakh, where did the blood similar to Simon’s come from?
Do you know who the Adherents are?
Yes, I do.
It is the term for people who are, for various reasons, considered «more perfect» than the others. They are a little closer to the ideal, created in Its image like the late Simon.
Some of them were on Saburov’s list of suspects...
Did you happen to touch an Adherent with your hands recently? Maybe you sentenced one of them to death or converted them into your primitive faith? These things can be considered touches. Think about it carefully.
I don’t know. I don’t remember.
Well their blood is now similar to Simon’s. We are already certain about Ospina and Julia... Who else... let me see... all of them are villains...
Did you say villains? Is Julia a villain too?
Oh, yes. She doesn’t look like one, because she’s composed and clever. But she was the mind behind everything the Saburovs did recently. She is the ideologist of Humility. She provided scientific grounds for death by necessity.
But what’s so special about her blood?
You see, Simon’s blood was just a shadow of something else... It is as if Simon was the weakest, most mundane specimen of the wonderful creatures I am talking about. Yes, his blood could help, if it wasn’t... worn down by constant struggle... He was getting a little long in the tooth, if you ask me.
What are these creatures?
They were bulls. Aurochs. Demigods. Their blood could fight disease. And if the plague is a tool of supreme punishment, then these creatures had learnt to overcome the supreme laws of this world.
Are there many of them?
I wish we could find more! But Elder Oyun says that it was the last one. Simon was weak but the Bos Primigenius was strong. We could achieve so much if we could find a source of such blood!

Bos Primigenius... Klara remembered Oyun saying something about how he messed up the dissection of that thing.

I was told that Rubin had made a discovery about me.
Have you seen the Bachelor? Both he and I were trying to meet Rubin here, but I must have missed him. It was he who managed to talk to Rubin. I haven’t seen him for five days. I even doubted he was alive. Georg wanted to destroy him.
Georg has already granted him pardon.



Well, at least his theory explained what was special about all those Adherents. They were more perfect and closer to the ideal, but their souls had nothing to do with it – it was all about their rare, cow-like blood.



...She forgot to ask where he had gotten that blood on days six and seven. Did his words mean that it had come from one of the Adherents Klara had a brush with during her stay in Town? Ospina, Laska, Anna, Eva... She hoped none of them was hurt.



Another thing to remember was that the Bachelor had been performing blood tests on sixth day, and out of his suspects at least Anna and Ospina had already been mesmerized by Klara at that point, so their cells were supposed to be «mutated». Did he not notice a change in their blood? But she knew little about science and blood tests.









Q: I'm curious though, about how the blood became cow-like. Was it our actions? Or was it like that before our arrival?
A: Kinda both. All Adherents were special to begin with. I'm guessing they all have traces of genes from those ancient beings who were more in tune with the universe. Burakh and Rubin insist that there are some bovine characteristics, but who knows really, to these locals anything good is associated with bulls. Remember that Simon was the one who assigned the Adherents. These people have other things going for them as well, but one of the criteria must have been that they somehow belong to the same lineage as him. But when we came in contact with them, whatever midichlorians they had became supercharged. When Bachelor and Haruspex looked at their blood tests, they freaked out and decided that Simon had returned from the dead.

Q: I don't get the soldiers design. Let's say that you're a designer who doesn't want to go to the tired old storm trooper motive (particularly since the soldiers aren't really that "evil") and you're staying away from Russian uniforms for the sake of maintaining ambiguity... still, sleeveless black shirts and caps? What.
A: It has been noted that their uniforms are similar to those of the French Foreign Legion. Except the sleeves had to go. I mean, how are you supposed to intimidate the population without showing them some guns.