Part 34: Chapter Nine - pt.3

Klara was recovering from the fifth dimensional jump she'd had to experience. The moment she stepped on the line drawing she'd found at the very bottom of Polyhedron’s inner space, the colourfully-lit paper walls around her disappeared, and next thing she knew, she was in a garden with two children. It was dark and only the centre of the garden was properly illuminated. The air was still, just as it was in the chamber, moments ago.



The children were unusually tall and were staring at her with bewilderment.

Hey! HEY! What are you doing here? Go away!
Why?
We play here – and you must play over there. Say now, have you killed them all already?
What?
Your Humble. Have you killed them? We just can’t stop arguing... He says you are the only one who can save all the Adherents. But I think you’re the only one who can kill everybody AND win!
Yep... This is troublesome. Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves: I’m Barley. And her name is Mushroom.
What is this place?
Don’t you see? We’re inside the Polyhedron. There are many places like this here, but they are hidden. You were not supposed to see them.
How did I end up here?
That’s what we’d like to know! This was by no means supposed to happen. You must be right here – look, in the sandbox! This must be... this is a miracle.
A miracle...



That was when Klara noticed the pile of sand that children had been playing with. They had constructed a sandcastle... no, a sand city on a hill. It even had a wine-maker’s bottle positioned upside-down to symbolize the tower they were in.
Why did they think she was supposed to be in there?

But you are probably the only one who can do it. You can work wonders, after all. Can’t you? And this goose keeps saying this is not the way you should be played. That you must kill, instead of trying to save them... That you’re getting out of hand.
How do you know so much about me?
I’m telling you – we are playing here. See? We’re building a town in a sandbox! We are playing Pestilence now. Take a look inside... See anything?
Yeah, and we didn’t actually put you there to save them... But you started your work so zealously... you really must be alive! I think you really can save everybody... Wouldn’t that be great?
You are a good kid...
Of course, I’m good. Toadstool’s the mean one... I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Ouch! Stop hitting me! I won’t call you names... Let’s show our guest the exit.
Yeah, just go already! You cannot be here.
How do I get out of here?
You can pass right through walls. None of this is actually there. It’s all a reflection of thoughts in the glass.
Thanks...
Just don’t listen to this spitfire! Save them, don’t kill them!



It was time to transport back. Klara looked into the sand city again. She didn’t see any people or bulls – just a conglomeration of crude sand houses.















No, she couldn’t get into the pretend town; it was just sand to her.



There were no drawings on the floor... no floor itself, actually. Just grassy earth. She walked to the gate leading out of the garden. Nothing could be seen beyond it. Klara stepped through



and found herself back in Khan’s place.



Her descent down the Polyhedron’s many stairs was slow. She was still trying to process all that she had seen, so distracted she almost fell off the stairs twice. The implications of what she had learned in a conversation with two kids playing in the garden could be fairly nightmarish.




What was that? What is going on? Who has arranged all this? So this is what the Authorities look like? Those whom Aglaea Lilich abhors so much? Then who is she, if she hates them so?



But as she got farther from Polyhedron, her common sense was beginning to take control again... Rat Prophet had indeed hinted at the childishness of the Authorities, but you couldn’t take anything that thing (or ANY children) said without a whole wagon of salt. The idea was too insane to consider seriously.

Though, Klara had to admit that hating laws and inevitability and hoping for a miracle was indeed what children were often known for.




I’ve learned the whole truth.
Really? Amazing! This means you ignored the requirements of your mission, because nobody asked you to do that. I was the one who learned the whole truth. You just helped me... I am even thankful to a certain degree.
To a certain degree?
Because you are a tool of the Law and I am its servant. Both perform their duty, but, unlike you, I do it of my own will.
Well, what did you find out? I don’t think you know what I know now. Otherwise, you would not be so full of yourself... dolly.
I’ll ignore what you just said. A typical example of hasty, uninformed conclusions. You don’t keep abreast of life. Your so-called revelations have become obsolete long ago. Leave them for the Bachelor and the Haruspex... And please don’t tell them anything if you meet them. Let them work it all out by themselves.
All right... Well what did you find out?
Summing up the conclusions based on your discoveries, I will combine all cause-and-effect relationships into a single picture. I will reveal the cause of the epidemic from the mystical point of view. It might all have been obvious for you. Perhaps what I’ll say will not be news for you. But it will be your sentence.



Sentence...? Aglaea’s henchmen did not look particularly intimidating, but the way she said those words sent a shiver down Klara’s spine. The Impostress tried not to betray her nervousness.

Sum it up all you want. I’m on my way to victory already... Not even all these shams, all these reflections of reflections, will deceive me. My faith is firm! And I am free.
Suure you are!
Speak, scarecrow. Talk my head off...
You want to hear it? You should; it’s about you after all. So the earth begot the town. Two completely different worlds – but they could coexist in symbiosis. Now that was a miracle. A real miracle. Usually, civilisation tends to destroy the traditional wisdom.
Why?
People don’t like to be friends with their own history. But in this very town an impossible thing happened – people triumphed over the oppressive framework.
How did it happen?
As you can see, the town is small. It’s made up of people, not ranks or functions. Thanks to a concurrence of circumstances, these people managed to build an environment where everybody could live a happy life. But it happened by an amazing fluke only.
None of them looked too happy to me... But what do you care about simple folks – you’ve obviously only met the aristocrats!
I didn’t say «easy» or «well-fed» life. I said – happy life. Simple folks will tell you the same thing. Happiness isn’t a function of fullness of the belly. Those who have full bellies are always dissatisfied with something. Local rulers understood, or felt it. They really were extraordinary people... They approached the problem of universal happiness in a creative way.
How?
It is not often that a chain of extraordinary people rules for five generations straight. Even more rarely, they love and respect each other so much that they keep on pursuing the ancestors’ policy. But these people got used to living with miracles. This is what ruined them. They wanted to learn to control miracles. The environment created by the elder generation moulded the younger generations in their image. They all paid for it in the end.
Why?
Such is the Law: any attempt to capture a miracle is punished severely. The disease is a tool for restoring the balance. Part of this Chimera of a town must be destroyed, and there is no way back. Co-existence of the town and the miracle can not continue. And by all that is holy, I know what to choose!
But what about me? What will become of me?
You are an instrument of the Law. But you have outlasted your usefulness. And since my mission is not only to study you, but also to keep you in check, I am henceforth forbidding you to be any longer, and banishing you from this town. And the captured miracle shall be cast away, relegated to oblivion.
I...
You can soak back into the earth from which you came. Go. I allow you, and I mean both of you, to die any death you’d prefer. On one condition. I prohibit you from getting anywhere near the General. Otherwise, he may imagine himself to be your tool. Or it could be the other way around... I don’t even know what would be worse. Now go.



Once outside, Klara took a deep breath. It was time to sum up what she had learnt in her three days of working for the Inquisitor:

-Aglaea was an all-out Humility follower in everything but the name – she intended to crush the Utopia to save the town and the Order.
-Aglaea firmly believed that Klara was the plague bearer, the actual weapon the Law was using against the Utopia.
-Since she believed that Klara was no longer needed, she already knew a way to get rid of the Utopia herself. It would probably boil down to dismantling the Polyhedron somehow.
-Whether Aglaea knew that the soul of Nina, her dead sister that had married into the Kains family, was using the Polyhedron as a physical vessel for her soul, was unknown.




The events repeated themselves. This time it was Aglaea who drove me away, branded me an evildoer and ordered me to fall off the face of the earth. I am less stricken by such betrayal the second time around. But so far as I’ve fallen out with her, should I go see the General then? If so, I should be heading for the Town Hall.



When Inquisitor forbad her from meeting the General, it seemed suspiciously like she was trying to put an idea into Klara’s head. But there was no other choice – she needed a force to ally herself to if she wanted to have a chance of influencing the events any further.





The actual town «hall» – which was smaller than a living room of some of the people she’d met – had been converted into a temporary military headquarters.



The General was bug-eyed and potato-nosed, tall as a board... a tall board. He looked like someone you could deal with, Klara decided with relief.

Here you are, my sweet child. I’ve heard a lot about you. So, are you the girl that healed dozens of people with her virtue and is now suffering persecution and harassment from the unbridled mob?
Yes. That is correct.
Despicable riffraff always destroy that what they cannot understand, repay good deeds with ingratitude. They need to be talked to in a different language. And I swear, one day I will! I will not abandon you. You need reliable protection.
Thank you.
Why have you come here, to me? Should I take it as a sign?
Inquisitor Aglaea Lilich prohibited me from seeing you. Why?
Inquisitor hates and fears me. And, I should say, the feeling is mutual. Most of all, I fear that the mission of saving – or destroying – the town, could turn into a sort of long-range cannon duel. She will surely scheme against me.
But she still has to obey you, doesn’t she?
On the contrary. Duty calls me to obey the Inquisitor. But Lilich never stops playing her games. I heard she had already been sentenced to death for this – but I guess they have pardoned her... She will make a dishonest decision. She will act not on her duty, but on her own ulterior motives. It is obvious that both of the healers are already poisoned by her deception.
Why does she exaggerate my role so much?
It’s not exaggeration. You made a strong impression on me. Long before I even saw you.
How is it possible?
On our way here, one lieutenant told us a legend about saintly Devotresses of the warriors. He spoke of medieval wars, of pilgrimages and the way those quiet and unremarkable girls, orphaned and poor peasant youth, inspired mighty armies to serve a higher cause... His story shook me to the core.
It was just a coincidence.
Such coincidences don’t occur without a reason. No... I’ve been thinking about it a lot on my way here. He started telling his story just at the right moment. My life is coming to a turning point. I’m staking everything on this operation. My mission, my soul, my fate and the fate of our country. I need a voice from above – because I don’t know whom to listen to anymore...
Please continue....
Yes! Assignment to this diseased town is an expedition to hell. I am supposed to die here – and so it will be. Old Alexander Block will die, but new one will be born. A new army will emerge from this town, and will launch a great campaign to the glory of the Truth.
I hope everything turns out well... There are not too many of you. And what makes you think you have been sent here to die?
I’ve become inconvenient to the High Command a long time ago. Ever since I initiated the military reform. Since I turned the tide of war. Since it became clear that the permanent war – bread and butter for corrupt generals – was coming to an end because of me. They’ve given up trying to get me killed at the frontline, so now their only hope is this mysterious plague.
So the Authorities are counting on the plague to kill you?
They also hope that the mission will disgrace me. I, Alexander Block, a hero of both campaigns, a conqueror, and people’s idol, am playing the role of the executioner and destroyer of our own town. When they were assigning me, they made it clear that whoever destroys this helpless town is going to be hated and despised by people.
Who said that?
They did... it seems to me that more than anything else in the world they want this town to exist. Let it be sickly, disfigured, smouldering and miserable, let it be a source of everyone’s suffering, but let it be. They’ve sent the army here in fear of public opinion. People are a force to be reckoned with.
Then people won’t hate you...
They will. The Authorities will make sure of that. They know how to manipulate the collective consciousness. They will depict destruction of the town not as action necessary for public safety but as a tragic mistake. They will take credit for all the good that will come out of it, and I’ll take the blame for all the harm.
I won’t let them do it!



Klara really didn’t want to inspire any new war or crusade. But in the existing situation, it was better to have a rogue army on your side than against you.



The Authorities this general was talking about had little in common with dream children running a pretend town in the sand. There were authorities, then there were Authorities, and they were not to be confused.
And to think that for a second she had indeed believed those two... impostors...



But it was time to pay a visit to Morpheus. She decided that Clot was the closest mansion from the Town Hall. She couldn’t think of a reason to look any further for a place to stay.



Like her twin, she seemed to be getting into a habit of changing her lodging every night.



Kapella didn’t even seem to notice her crawling into her bed fully clothed.



When Klara finally decided she was comfortable enough, she took out her notebook and pen again.

And this is how my day ended. No, I am not alone now either... There is one last tiny hook that still keeps me fastened to this town. It is not about my sister any more. The last person who I should pay a visit to is the immortal man, Simon Kain.



She flipped the pages towards her sketch. It seemed a little creepy how much the picture she had made resembled a certain sandbox city she didn’t want to be reminded of. Something had to be done about it. Klara got to work.





REEL 13: That night at the theatre...