by S J Amit
“This is what she was talking about,” I mumbled, “it’s here,” and I stopped.
“Who talked about what?” Kelemance asked.
“Ingrid. She talked about this palace. I want to see what’s inside,” I released Choopster’s hand, “I know we need to keep going, but it’s on the way, will you come with me this time Kelemance? We’ll go in together? And try not to waste any time.”
There were three women at the entrance, all dressed in shiny bronze silk capes. One held a golden watering can, the other a golden tray, and the third a white cloth. “Welcome to these gates,” they recited in unison. The one with the watering can poured a few drops onto the tray, and the two others approached us. The woman with the cloth dipped a finger in the liquid and glided it over my face, dipped again and glided it over Kelemance’s face, and again on Choopster’s face. It was warm, felt like oil, and its scent was sweet. “Nectar from the Caesars’ blessing as an aura to your heads. You are welcome to stay at the palace for as long as you desire,” she wiped our faces, “until one of the Caesars’ speeches charms you, or until the Caesars find you unfitting.”
Kelemance pointed at the decoration on his cape, but none of the women seemed to take interest in it. They didn’t notice my decoration either. I’m not sure they even looked at it. The three women pressed against each other as if they were a wall in front of the entrance. “Their highnesses, the Academic Caesars, will take in any person wishing to stay in the Palace of Wisdom in order to receive the Palace Wisdom decoration. However, the terms for staying, the necessary tasks and the timeframe of perseverance vary from Caesar to Caesar,” they recited together. “An Anteballegarian resident who cannot uphold the Caesars’ demands will still have to serve in the Time Management Battalion in order to receive other decorations,” they said, bowed together and finally moved over and cleared the passage.
We walked through a wide and extravagant hallway until we reached a passage which led to a giant space. Two curved walls on both sides of the space joined up at the tall ceiling, and staircases stretching across each wall led to the floor above. At the edge of the space to our left there was a group of men and women standing in rows, all dressed in uniform, standing straight and tense and listening to a man who stood in front of them. The man was also wearing the same uniform, but he was the only one who had a hat on his head. “You must enter the lives of every single person in Anteballegaria, whether they stay in the palace for a long time or not, whether they enter the palace at all or not. You are the Time Commanders, each of you will have Profession Soldiers assigned to you, and your job will be to train them in time management.”
“What should they do with their free time?” one of them asked.
“An unnecessary question! If you train them properly, none of them will have free time. If they find themselves with a surplus of time, they won’t know what to do with it. This is why distraction training is also detrimental, so that no one even thinks about leaving the walls, heaven forbid.”
“And what if they ask for personal time?” a woman asked and glanced at us.
“Another unnecessary question! Anyone who has reached the level of commander should already know that in Anteballegaria, once a decoration is received, there is no personal time. And it doesn’t matter what type of decoration is received!” He turned to look at us for a moment, as if he was telling us off too. He removed his hat, tucked it under his left arm and marched through the rows. “Your time is no longer yours!” he roared into the air.
“Your time is no longer yours!” the uniformed people roared back and immediately dispersed.
He walked over to us in a slow and upright march. To my surprise, his frozen face thawed out with every step he took, and when he reached us he put his hat back on. He examined our capes, paused over Kelemance’s decoration, then mine, and finally lifted his gaze and smiled to us with pursed lips, shook our hands and saluted Choopster with a smile. “I’m glad that a child this young is already showing interest in the happenings within the Palace of Wisdom. You’re welcome to go upstairs.” He indicated with his head towards the right side staircase, crossed his hands behind his back and watched us as we walked away. When we got to the stairs I noticed his eyes were still following us, and continued to do so as we climbed up the stairs, his gaze accompanying us to the second floor together with the eyes of the portraits painted on the walls. It wasn’t until we reached the second floor that he stretched himself, stomped in place, turned around and walked away.
We stood upstairs, facing two giant spaces separated by a long tall wall that stretched to the ceiling. At the entrance to each space there was a wooden board that hung from the ceiling, polished and shiny with white lettering on it. The right board read “The Research Dukes and The Science Nobles”, and the left board read “The Technology Knights”. There were dozens of people working there, concentrating on whatever it was they were doing, keeping busy. None of them turned their heads to look at us, not even for a moment.
I entered the space on the right, Kelemance and Choopster following me. On the right there were dozens of small desks, and on the left there were rows of shelves. The people working there wore blue or purple shirts, pretty much equally divided. Every minute someone else would get up, walk over to the shelves, take an item from the countless items that were on them - syringes, knives, scissors, pots, test tubes, rows of books - walk back to their desk, mess with something, write a few things down, and then return the item to its place. A man wearing a blue shirt lifted his hand in the air, and everyone gathered round his desk. I stood on the tip of my toes, but I still couldn’t see anything. “I am a Duke within the Palace of Wisdom, in the name of the Caesars’ Monarchy I have discovered another purpose which shall be added to the Library of Reasons for All Things,” he called out loud and the people around him kneeled. Only one woman wearing a purple shirt stayed standing. She went to a shelf, took a magnifying glass and a book, and returned to her desk. She passed the magnifying glass along the pages until she stopped and wrote something down on a sheet of paper. “In the name of the Caesars’ Monarchy,” she called out loud and sat upright, “I am a Noble within the Palace of Wisdom, I have taken the Nobles’ oath to decipher the findings and organize the knowledge in the palace library as long as I live and breathe!” The people who were kneeling around the desk got up and returned to their work.
The purple-wearing noble woman returned the magnifying glass and the book to the shelf while the duke approached us. I assumed he was going to tell us something about the place. “A little break before taking in the new-found knowledge,” he blurted, hardly even slowing down as he passed us, and continued towards the stairs. The woman in purple rushed after him, and before they left he stretched to the right and to the left, and pulled his arms up and down. “You came to the palace on a wonderful day,” he called to us, “today we discovered the fact that the air--“
“And scientifically proved it,” she interrupted him, “rest assured,” she panted and let her hair down.
“That’s right, we discovered and scientifically proved the fact that the air--“
“Until further notice,” she smiled at him.
“Right, right, we discovered and scientifically proved - until further notice - the fact that the air which arrives from beyond the walls contains compounds of substances that renew the earth here.”
“What do you mean until further notice?” Kelemance asked.
“Until we find newer or completely contrasting information to what we’ve already discovered,” she answered.
“And how does all this help you?” Kelemance continued.
“Oh, obviously,” she glanced at Choopster who was clinging to our legs from the front, “finding the reasons for all things, deciphering the findings, editing and collecting the knowledge, all of that helps us in finding many solutions which will allow us to add much more time for the people to live in Anteballegaria.”
“Your Nobleness and your Dukeness, even in Anteballegaria people eventually die, isn’t that so?”
“Of course they die,” they both laughed. “It’s well known that anyone who lives also dies,” the duke didn’t even try to mask his degrading tone.
“Your Dukeness and your Nobleness, as far as I know, all the components that compose the Land of the Mosaic are intertwined, they’re of equal value and importance. If one component lives longer than it’s meant to, another component must die.”
“That’s an interesting issue,” she scratched her head and looked at the duke.
“Your Nobleness and your Dukeness, I’m deeply moved by your sacrifice. But if all living things die, isn’t it perhaps advisable to first make sure that all living things live?” Kelemance went near them. “To the best of my knowledge, in the Land of the Mosaic it’s impossible to find the reason for time, to decipher or to measure it. So perhaps it’s better to focus the wisdom of air and earth on living during the existing time, rather than adding more time to the time without being able to live within it?”
“Fascinating!” the duke said and rubbed his chin. “Perhaps we should introduce him to the Caesars?”
“Sure, sure, why not? And why should he not be assured?” the noble woman nodded.
“Thank you, but maybe some other time,” Kelemance bowed and walked backwards. “I simply wanted to know if all of this knowledge would eventually allow for people to live and move freely through the Land of the Mosaic, sail the river that runs through the Valley of Abandoned Issues and cross the ridge to go beyond the Mountains of Freedom?”
“I don’t think that’s what the Academic Caesars want us to research,” she shifted her gaze from Kelemance to the duke, then back to Kelemance, “but if we were asked to, surely we’d use everything in the Land of the Mosaic in order to discover and decipher its entirety, know and understand it from beginning to end.”
“Even if there will be nothing left of it,” the duke looked impatiently towards the staircase.
“I apologize,” Kelemance sighed, “perhaps the nectar of the Caesars’ blessing which we were anointed with at the entrance has provoked a surplus of curiosity within us.” He tossed his cape back over his shoulders. “How can you use everything within the Land of the Mosaic in order to discover it from beginning to end, if it has no beginning nor end? How can you decipher the Land of the Mosaic without sailing the river that runs through the Valley of Abandoned Issues, which always continues flowing, yet never begins nor ends?”
The duke and the noble looked at one another for a moment. “We believe that we shall succeed,” they answered in unison. “We believe objectively, of course,” the noble woman added with bright eyes.
“How did you know what to say to them?” I asked Kelemance as we entered the left space and passed under the board that read “Technology Knights”.
“I learned to speak the language of the Palace Wisdom. I’ve been here countless times, Julian. It’s always the same. In the Colony of the Lost, they always try to understand all the things in the Land of the Mosaic that we ourselves are busy experiencing, always want to know about all the things in the Land of the Mosaic that we prefer to feel. In a place which doesn’t have a beginning or an end, one is allowed to think about the unfathomable without fearing that which is unknown. But the Research Dukes and the Science Nobles enable the people from faraway places to feel safe. In the Colony of the Lost, the act of researching is more important than the reasons for its existence or than its findings. So they know what to research and how to do so, but the reason for researching isn’t important for them.”
“What’s wrong with wanting to know and understand things about the place where you live?”
“That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with research and science, it’s just that it’s more important for the dukes and nobles to scientifically prove things that will support the people’s opinions and the Caesars’ stance regarding the Colony of the Lost and the Land of the Mosaic, rather than admit the existence and importance of things which they cannot prove. On occasion they’re asked to find, decipher and arrange issues in the palace library which they can’t really answer, understand or know. So they develop emotions towards scientific findings from their own studies, and develop belief in what they call ‘research facts’. As time goes by, they don’t know already how to tell between truth and fiction, and they get confused between what they know and what they don’t.”
“And why are they doing all this?”
“I don’t know. I only know that no one in the Colony of the Lost has any idea anymore about what’s accumulated in the palace library. I think that within the colony’s surrounding walls, the role of the Research Dukes and the Science Nobles is to keep the people from faraway places continuously calm.”
In the Technology Knights section, people were wrapped from head to toe in gray fabric, so that only their eyes were visible. There was a big rectangular table in the center of the space, and on it were small square-shaped items of some sort. Two people stood facing us behind the table, with their backs to the wall beyond them, and between them and the wall there was a black curtain that reached up to the middle of the wall. The rest of the people stood close to the two white side walls to the left and the right of the space, far from the table, and didn’t move. The white walls had metal helmets hanging off them. One of the people pointed at the helmets, and the people in gray walked over to the walls, wore the helmets and then gathered around the table. Sparks flew over the table, and a strong smell of lubricant filled the air. Yellow smoke arose. The person who had pointed at the helmets turned to us and indicated something.
“Let’s back up a bit,” Kelemance gently pulled me and Choopster back. The people in gray also walked away from the table, except for the two people who stayed by the curtain and pulled it up.
“What’s that?” I asked Kelemance. In the center of the wall beyond the curtain a glass room was revealed, it had a few small openings, and contained two male peacocks and two female peacocks.
“I have no idea,” he said. We almost reached the staircase to the left of the space.
“Did you see that?” Choopster turned to us, smiled and pointed at the peacocks.
“Come here, Choopster, stand next to us,” Kelemance sounded a bit worried.
One peacock spread his shiny feathers and called loudly, then shook himself until he made the glass shake too. One the female peacocks called back to him loudly. All of the squares on the table simultaneously lit up, and the people who watched cheered with dimmed calls through their helmets. The second peacock spread his feathers and moved from side to side, turned to the right, then to the left, shook and moved his feathers until both female peacocks approached him. This time the second female peacock made a loud noise, and the squares on the table all turned off and back on again. The people in gray cheered every which way, hugged, and after a few moments removed the helmets and hung them back on the walls. The two people who stood by the glass room pulled the black curtain back down.
“The spectacle is finished, the experiment is over,” The supervisor said.
“The Technology Knights, always at your defence!” everyone called out and removed their head covers, “Defending the palace, defending Anteballegaria!”
The supervisor then walked up to us, paused over our decorations, and then looked at Choopster. “Be proud of your knights,” he removed his gloves.
Choopster was fascinated. “Can I feed the peacocks?” she asked the gray knight.
“Maybe one day you too shall be a knight, and continue the tradition.” A slight smile lit his face as he spoke to her, and she smiled embarrassedly and returned to clinging onto our legs.
“Can I ask what exactly did you check, or discover?” I dared to ask.
“Of course,” he gladly answered. “Through the use of the male peacock’s feathers and
the female peacock’s scent, and with an accurate adjustment of their voices, we’ve developed a device which will protect us all and beat loneliness. Their majesties, the Palace of Wisdom’s Academic Caesars, ruled that loneliness makes Anteballegarian people lose their minds, causing suicidal thoughts, such as doubting the walls.” He looked at me and Kelemance, as though awaiting approval. “By the Caesars’ command, we shall continue to fight until we find solutions and answers for all needs!”