by Zoha Kazemi
For the heirs of the new drowned world, everything that had happened before seemed vague and ambiguous specially the duration of the events. But after the Great Fog, under the shiny sun and the clear sky, things had started to look more clearly. The sky like the sea had finally calmed down. But the navigation systems of the ships had broken down. The Captain of Ariad and Parsan’s ship and the rest of the crew hadn’t survived the Great Fog. They had loosened the ship from the start and tried just to keep it afloat and not let it drown in the storms, although they didn’t live to be thanked for their efforts and saving the lives of many on their ship. The storms had past but no one had any idea of where they were and how deep was the water. There could be anything under the surface, the ruins of the drowned cities, giant buildings or a ship that had wrecked during the storms. It was safer not to move the ship to avoid any collisions with unknown underwater obstacles. They had anchored their ship and started looking for help, to be able to repair their navigation systems.
A week after the Great Fog, two search parties were formed on Ariad and Parsana’s ship. The first group was a ship-search party and the second team to find land. Ariad and Parsana had joined the second team that was led by a middle-aged man named Hami. He had located the ship by a compass and the star positions that had once more lightened up the night sky. Their ship was anchored somewhere at the south west of the drowned city of Hamedan. Before they had set out to search, they had cleared the ship of more than hundred and twenty bodies that were lying around all over the ship. The bodies of the Great Fog victims were thrown out into the sea, among them Parsana’s father and Ariad’s sister who had stayed awake during the fog taking care of their loved ones that had been put to sleep; their masks had ran out of oxygen suffocating them before the sky had cleared.
The ship-searches had found many ships without live passengers and had settled the ships by anchoring them in their position at the sea. They had taken out whatever supplies they could from the ships to their own, thrown out the corpses and repaired the ships for further settlement. Later on, those ships that were not repairable were chopped up and used as raw material for the new settlements on the islands. The second search party had sailed away with a boat to where once the Alborz heights stood. They expected to find some form of land close to the pre-rain city of Damavand, according to Hami’s calculations. They had decided not to move their ship to avoid colliding with the remains of the pre-rain cities and to save up the ship’s fuel for the boats and for light and heating of the ship. After half a day of sailing, they had arrived to the first land, somewhere around the drowned city of Qom. It was a small hill with a ship stranded on it. The search party had set out to explore the land and the lucky ship that had apparently been mud bound at the right time, staying intact.
The stranded ship was a library full of books with the stamp of Iran National Library on their first pages; it was one of the three treasure ships of Tehran citizens, trying to save their heritage. But the library ship passengers had lost their lives in the Great Fog and their only survivor was a baby boy, laid on the ship deck beside his mother’s dead body. He slowly moved his little feet and hands in the air. It wasn’t clear when his mother had died. If it was after the fog, how had she lived through the fog to give birth and if it was before, how did the baby survive without air and milk? They hadn’t found any oxygen masks in the ship. But it was full of food and other supplies since the ship had only twenty passengers from the count of the dead bodies. The live Rain Born baby was a miracle: a promise of new bright beginnings! Parsana and Ariad had taken the baby in but Hami had named him. ‘Saviour’ was the name of the little miracle baby. A group had left behind on the island including Ariad, Parsana and Hami, and the rest had gone back to take the news, throwing into the water twenty dead bodies of the Saviour Ship passengers on their way back.
Everything else from this point on is written down. The library ship had provided them with pens and papers, encouraging them to write down anything that happened. They had spent five years on the stranded ship. More than fifty of their ship passengers had resided on the island, unknowingly setting up the new small civilisation of the post-rain era. They had started communicating with other ships and Hami had started making the map of the Rain Born world marking the position of every ship on the map. They had passed the first rule of the post-rain society: The Saviour Island was theirs and no one from the ships could enter it without their permission. They had to pay for entrance giving them food, livestock, farming soil or valuable geographical, historical, technological or navigational information. Hami had travelled around in those five years looking for more land finding nothing but endless water. Parsana had tried to make the little Saviour speak, but he seemed unable to say out a clear word. Ariad believed the boy was both deaf and mute. But the boy was able to hear and react to their commands, he just resisted talking.
Until one night when he became ill, burning up with fever. Parsana had looked after him the whole night, trying to lower his temperature by putting a damp cloth on his feet and forehead. The boy mumbled unclear sounds and had woken up Parsana who had fell asleep by his side and said his first word ‘land’. He had said that he knew where the new land is. Most of the Saviour Islands residents had made fun of him. But Hami who had seen the miracle of his birth and had named the ship and the island after him, was more than happy to take a new trip searching for a land. He just didn’t know where to sail and now the little Saviour had given him directions. The search team had set sail taking the boy with them.
Saviour had closed his eyes and point to the direction where the boat had to go. It was to the south west of the Saviour Island. They were on the sea for three days until they finally reached the great new island of Oxan, near the pre-rain city of Ahwaz. This was Saviour’s third marvel, his miraculous birth the first and starting to talk after five years was his second. Saviour had stayed in his birth island. But many people from nearby ships had fled to the new land. Hami would take taxes and entrance fees for those who entered the island. And those who resided had to accept the Saviour Rules, believing in the Saviour and his marvels and obey the laws of the new land. Saviour had given his Rules on his way back to the search party. His Rules, given in the age of five was only title-wise and he had spent the rest of his life explaining them to the people of the sea and the new lands. He had appointed Oxan as the trade centre for the ships although at the time not much trading took place and the only money that came in was from the entrance taxes.
As the years passed and fishers started to fish more than their need and the divers started mining the drowned cities and diving out goods from them, the Saviour’s Rule about Oxan being a trade centre started to make sense. Hami would sit by him for hours, drafting the detailed plans and laws of the Oxan. Ariad would also take part in the conversations and there are many references in his Narratives to the talks between the Saviour and Hami and how they regulated the Oxan commerce system. But Parsana gives a different account of the Saviour from the similar time. She had written that the Saviour became exhausted of all the serious talks. He could neither play with the kids born after the Great Fog – all smaller than him – nor was he able to take up so much responsibility given to him by Hami. Parsana talks about the Saviour introducing him as a great man stuck in the body of a teenager who wants to grow up fast and become an adult, taking control of the world around him. Her other narratives, although respectful of the Saviour’s high position, explains her mother-son relationship. She explains her love to her foster son as being great and deep but insisting that she would never undermine his rules because of her emotions towards him. In one of her accounts, a woman asks why Parsana and Ariad would not have a baby of their own. She replies that Saviour had not given them permission to have a child and that their love for the Saviour is too great, leaving no place for them to love another child.
Chapter 12
The sea is dark and so is the sky. Tirad cannot see anything. There is no moon or stars in the s
ky. He feels a slight motion under his feet and hears the water banging against a wooden wall; he is standing at the edge of a boat. He hears a voice from afar as if someone is calling him. But as he rolls his eyes on the water, he can’t see anyone. The boat suddenly shakes as if the giant fish have attacked it. He loses his balance. He still hears the voice, it is Lealy’s. As he falls down into the water, he sees the attacker that floats on the sea. It is not a fish. It is a giant snake that has rolled around ready to devour him. Tirad screams. Lealy is calling him. He feels the cold water against his skin as he reaches the waves and with a sudden shake, he wakes up and sits on his bed. His skin is covered with the humid moist and sweat. He rolls his hand under his pillow and takes out Parsana’s handwritten pages and sighs, relieved. He had put them there last night to be sure if someone came into his cabin in the middle of the night, they wouldn’t find them. He gets up from his bed and looks outside of his cabin window.
A large crowd has gathered for the Spawn-Scorching ceremony. The fire is lit. He feels confused. It must be around mid-day. How could he have overslept like this? The maids will serve lunch after Tuesday morning Spawn-Scorching. He didn’t want to miss this particular ceremony that he needed so much. He washes his face with his daily water share and takes a clean cloth that is placed on his shelf, ties it around his waist. He shall wash up after the ceremony. He takes out his leather bag and puts Parsana’s pages in it and hangs the bag around his neck. He doesn’t know who is performing the ceremony today but he hopes it would be Hurmaz. He looks from his window again, but the crowd is dense and he can’t see the performer. He better get down faster before it is over. But the blue book catches his eyes. He had put it there on his desk in the middle of the night. He should hide the forbidden book now. He looks around to find a suitable hiding place, but he can’t find one. It’s best to put it under the bed, at least not to have it lying around within eye’s reach. He picks up the book. There’s a note under it! It’s Hurmaz’s handwriting. The note is short and written to Tirad, telling him to attend the Circle meeting next morning before the Spawn-Scorching ceremony.
Who had brought the note to his room? And when? Last night, he had gone out of his cabin two hours after dinner and had returned at midnight. But he hadn’t seen the note when he came back from the library. Or perhaps he had just put down the book on the desk and missed the note. He feels horrified of the thought of someone having entered his cabin and had put the note under the forbidden book. If Mart had been sent to deliver the note, he might already be in trouble. But he did the right thing hiding the handwritten pages under his pillow. He doesn’t want anyone to see them before he shows them to Hurmaz. Perhaps he was too busy hiding the pages that he had missed the note on his desk and didn’t get to attend the meeting. But he thought the meeting was in the afternoon. Why did they have to change its time? Why didn’t they ask someone to wake him up in the morning, a maid or a student; they usually send someone up to fetch him, not just a note! He won’t know what had happened exactly until he talks to Hurmaz. Now he is worried to see Hurmaz. What excuse shall he give for missing the meeting? But he has so many questions that he wants to ask him. To ask why they hadn’t sent someone to fetch him for the meeting is the less important of all.
Tirad passes through the pilgrim crowd and makes his way to the great fire. Khunas is standing by the flames with a copper bowl by his hand. He picks up a few dried spawns with a metal prong, holds it over the flames and sings the Saviour Hymns with a beautiful voice: “Faults burden the man’s shoulders… They hang from him, pulling him down… He is forgiven… With the burning flames…reborn…by the scorched spawns…the flaming embryos of the sea…shall unburden all…burnout the wrongdoings…all faults are forgiven…” And he puts the heated spawns on the shoulders of a young, thin man who is crying like a baby. He puts them on his right shoulder first and then on his left. Tirad doesn’t know if the man is crying because of the smoke that has gotten into his eyes or from the joy of being relieved of all his faults that burdened him. The man bends a little so that Khunas can put some scorched spawns on his neck back to unburden him of any faults that might hang from there. Khunas takes the prong away and continues with the same melody: “You are now free…by the Rules of the Saviour…may you stay light and free of all faults and impurity…” The roasted spawns leave a red trail on the man’s sunburnt skin. Tirad know his back neck will be blistered, but his shoulder burns are minor. The man goes to Lealy so that she would place moist napkins on his burned areas.
Tirad is once again caught up by the fine motion of Lealy’s fingers. He tries not to follow the tan skin of Lealy’s arms towards the desirable bumps of her full breasts that slowly tremor with her hand movements. He has come for the Spawn-Scorching ceremony, yet he is unable to stop his temptations. He intentionally turns his head away looking for the higher tier disciples. He sees Mart with two red circles on his naked shoulders, markings that prove he has been cleansed by the roasted spawns. He sees Farnab that is going towards the cabins; he must have been the first person taking part in the ceremony, as usual. Hurmaz comes closer, standing behind Khunas but Tirad can hardly see him through the thick smoke. He turns around again this time looking for Dalia and her mother but doesn’t see them in the crowd. The baby’s body was to be burnt today; perhaps it will be done at the end of the ceremony. Or maybe they have already burnt it and he has missed it. He suddenly comes eye to eye with his student. The little girl has put her messy hair behind her ears and looks at Tirad and his every move with careful supervision. He wants to send her away. He feels annoyed and anxious by her curious eyes. But didn’t he want the girl to see him cleansed from the unwanted killing of the snake? He suddenly looks down as if something touches his feet. But there are no water snakes where a fire burns. He sighs and turns towards the fire. He should have stayed in the line if he wasn’t a disciple. The pilgrims stand back allowing him to go forward and he approaches Khunas, standing in front of him.
Khunas lets go of the burned spawns in the fire and picks up unroasted ones from the copper bowl. He starts singing the Saviour Hymns and places the burning spawns on Tirad’s shoulder. Tirad feels the sharp pain and takes it in with all his heart. He has to keep his head high and cleanse himself of all his faulty deed and thoughts, he starts counting them in his mind without any order: killing the water snake, taking the book ‘Brothers Karamazov’, having believed that Lady Parsana was exiled from the Saviour Ship or even considering the possibility, oversleeping and missing the Circle meeting, desiring Lealy’s arms and Dalia’s eyes that had no eyelashes… Will he ever feel unburdened by them? He brings his face forward demanding the ritual to continue. He needs to spawn-scorch his forehead to cleanse his mind from the temptations and scepticism. It is the third time he requires such a ritual. The first time was after handing over to Hurmaz the forbidden book of ‘Brothers Karamazov’ and the second time was after Lealy had expressed her love to him tempting him to sleep with her. He knows it’s going to be painful and he desires that soaring pain with all his being. He wants that lightness of heart and that peace of mind that comes afterwards and the cleansed breath he would exhale after the scorched spawns are removed. Khunas presses the prong on Tirads’s forehead between his eyebrows as he sings, “You are now free…by the Rules of the Saviour… May you stay light and free of all faults and impurity…” Tirad feels the pressure and the burning on his sensitive skin. He feels a soar sharp pain, perhaps the soaring pain of all his impurities and temptations that spread through his body from head to toe. He can no longer feel his legs. He shivers and falls down on his back with a shriek before Khunas takes the prong away.
He hears unclear voices of laughter from the crowd. He is not sure if he is dreaming or awake. He opens his eyes and rolls his tongue around his dry lips that taste salty. He must have been moved to the other side of the deck, away from the fire and the crowd, after he had passed out. Lealy puts the salt stone on Tirad’s lips again and some fish-oil soaked napkins on
his forehead burn. The smile she wears on her face contradict her frowning. The laughing sound of the crowd continues. Tirad looks around to see the little girl. She is staring into the flames and even if she had seen him fall, she hadn’t waited for him to wake up and ask questions.
“Don’t worry! They wouldn’t dare to laugh at you! They are burning the crippled baby,” Lealy says, sneering. Tirad asks about the mother and the daughter. Helay replies that Hurmaz didn’t allow them to come out with this mad crowd. Tirad praises Hurmaz for his wise decision but they had to tattoo their hands. There is no point in arguing with Lealy when Hurmaz had ordered them to stay inside.
Healy starts giving advice to Tirad like a kind Master: “Try not to take the ritual with an empty stomach or you’ll pass out like you did today and it won’t be good for your reputation!” she says with a smile. Tirad understands. Lealy stands up and before Tirad gets the chance to thank him and ask more about Dalia and her mother, she vanishes into the crowd. The crowd has tightened and Tirad cannot see the baby or hear what Khunas is saying. He doesn’t care to see the burning of the little deformed body but wants to hear Khunas’s speech. As he stretches his neck to focus on Khunas, he feels a touch on his soaring shoulder. Hurmaz is standing behind him. Tirad lowers his head to respectfully say hello.
“Mart came to fetch you this morning… He said you weren’t well! Now I see! What’s wrong? Are you ill?” he asks straight away.