by S J Amit
“This reminds me of something, but I don’t know what exactly, something that scares me a little bit,” I held the mask in front of my face.
Kelemance smiled. “In the Colony of the Lost, they’re scared of not consuming. They believe that the God of Coin, who creates more and more objects for them, forbids non-consumption. The people who came from afar can’t survive without occasionally adding an object that they didn’t have before, even if they already have dozens of objects that resemble it. I think their hope is that their God will improve their status. I told you, they believe that he’s the only one who can change their status, and that it’ll happen through the objects that he sends and they collect for him.” He placed the mask back on his face. “I’m not sure why, but it may be caused by the habit of searching for happiness, because from what I’ve gathered so far, they’re certain that the more God loves them, the more they stand a chance at finding it. The gatherings at the Squares of Consumption do them good. From rite to rite they develop stronger emotions towards objects, mainly towards new objects, which help them forget the pain.”
“The same pain that reached me?” I put on the mask and fastened it behind my head.
“The pain that had reached everyone who came here from a faraway land. When faceless, everyone is the same, and when everyone is no one, no free spirit can distract them.”
We went into the crowd and tried to walk through its density with the least amount of force. Kelemance walked ahead of me holding Choopster’s hand, and turned his head back every few steps to make sure I hadn’t gotten lost. I brushed against the people, being careful not to bump into the children who popped around between them, and occasionally raised myself onto the tip of my toes to check if I could already see the path we were aiming for on the other side of the square.
Within a moment the crowd went silent, Kelemance turned to me and indicated for me to stop. There were cheers from all directions, everyone turned to face the middle of the square, raised their hands in the air and applauded. A square stage was raised in the middle of the square, and on it stood a man in black and a woman in white, their shiny capes fluttering in the wind, their faces covered with glossy masks. The stage stopped high above the people’s heads and raised hands. I could see then that behind the man and the woman there were four round armchairs, three that were close to each other and another separate one. The cheers grew stronger, the people to the right of the stage cleared a path, and wooden stairs were pulled from under it and placed next to it. Four people climbed the stairs, one in the front, three behind him.
“Absolutely not!” Kelemance grabbed my hand, “Don’t remove it until we get out of here.” I didn’t even notice I had reached for the mask. “You’re right to recognize them, we’ve seen them before.”
Because of their clothes I knew that the first man was one of the Academic Caesars, and the other three were the Research Duke, the Science Noble and the Technology Knight. Their faces were covered by wooden masks just like ours. They sat on the armchairs, the Caesar separately and the other three close to one another.
“Can you believe that the palace dwellers have allowed people without decorations to be here? It’s simply unbelievable,” a man’s voice pierced through the noise to my left.
“Excuse me?” I turned my head to him.
“It really is unbearable, even if these people have only just arrived in Anteballegaria recently, still, show a little respect for the place,” a woman’s voice behind us joined in. “I heard that a few of them were related to the Duke and the Noble,” she pointed towards the stage.
The man clapped along with the crowd and glanced back quickly, “How have none of the palace dwellers said anything to them? Show a little humility in the face of sanctity.”
The woman moved her face close between our shoulders, her mask almost touched my shoulder. “Between you and me, there are some Dukes, Nobles and Knights in the Palace of Wisdom that should have given up their seats long ago, there are even a few Caesars. They don’t fit in and they’re definitely not as talented as they used to be. Some of them shouldn’t have even lived in the palace to begin with,” she added.
Kelemance gently pulled me to the right and came closer to my ear. “In the Colony of the Lost, they compete over gossip, arrogance and mockery, they have a set of rules which I haven’t figured out yet. They call it Politeness.”
The crowd went silent all at once, the Technology Knight stood between the man in black and the woman in white and raised something with both his hands, then placed it on the center of the stage and sat back on his armchair. The man and the woman advanced, lifted up the object he had placed and raised it in the air. The crowd cheered again and the two moved slowly around the stage, presenting the object they were holding as the onlookers cheered and waved their hands high in the air towards the man and the woman.
“With all due respect to your Family Man decoration, I was here first,” a man standing behind Kelemance turned to him aggressively.
“By all means,” Kelemance gestured for him to pass between us.
“Pay no attention to him,” a woman following the man added as she walked between me and Kelemance, the palms of her hands looked aged. “We’ve all been where you are.” She pointed at the biggest decoration among the ones she had on her cape, the Coin decoration. “You’ll get there too one day.” She continued walking towards the angry man.
The crowd slowly calmed down and the woman in white on the stage held the object with both her hands.
“I also think that not everyone should be here,” I heard the older woman telling the angry man as the crowd’s shouting subsided. “You shouldn’t get upset, at least he has a Family Man decoration, so he’s trying. Everybody comes from different places, he’s probably one of those who live close to the walls. They don’t think the way we do, they’re not very developed.”
I felt like going over and telling them something. Kelemance put his hand on my shoulder as though he had read my mind, “The closer they get to the God of Coin, the more they’re allowed to boast about the status they’ve reached,” he whispered and indicated for me to look at the stage, “They need a separation into types of human beings in order to feel more special than others. When people who have come from afar have nothing to live for, they fight over objects. Don’t let the words behind the masks get to you. If you don’t actively partake in the rites, no one will get in your way of seeing the path, and you’ll remember why you came here. Soon we’ll continue our way to her parents, to where you had wanted to go, and then this whole dealing with the rites practice will seem to you like a waste of precious time, a loss of energy over nothing.”
“I, Priestess of Anteballegaria, bless you all,” the woman in white called from the stage. “The palace dwellers too, their royal highnesses the Caesars, who have honored these rites with their presence, their royal Dukes, Nobles and Knights,” she turned around to face them and all four got up and stood in different places on stage, each one looking at different parts of the crowd around the square. “Who shall purchase this, who needs this more than anything else, only God knows. Here, in the Square of Consumption, I can see how important it is for you to accept our God’s decree.”
She passed the object to the man in black, who also held it with both hands. “Recently, the Property Angels appeared before me again and told me - there lies happiness, give them the next thing.” He raised the object and the crowd cheered again, “As the Prophet of Anteballegaria I have turned to the Caesars, Dukes, Nobles and Knights,” he quickly glanced to where each them was standing on stage, “and they have created that which will make each of you a better person, stronger, smarter, more beautiful, more efficient and more important. That which will improve your lives.” He slowly turned in place to present the object to the entire crowd. “This is yours!” he called out loud, “For that is what the CoinGod has commanded!”
The crowd cheered loud
ly again. The Caesar, duke, noble and knight turned to face the prophet and the priestess, and bowed their heads at the object. When the prophet in black stopped, the priestess in white started walking along the sides of the stage, from one corner to another. She raised one hand and the crowd went silent. “Everything that you purchase in the name of our God will symbolize the spirit of the times. The prophecy helps us not to fear, and when the spirit of the times changes in accordance to God’s decree, we will know what else we need to make and renew for you, until the time of sanctity arrives and we gather again to thank and praise him.”
She stood in the center of the stage next to the prophet, who was holding the object close to his chest with his head bowed down. He started humming, slowly moving his head from side to side and moving in place. The priestess in white, the Caesar, the duke, noble and knight, and all the people in the square joined him, humming along, lowering their faces and slowly moving their heads from side to side. Thousands of faceless people bowing their heads. Countless wooden masks hiding the faces of humans, short, tall, women, men, bald heads, curls, long hair, brown, braids, blonde, pulled back, black. I turned to Kelemance. “Keep your head down,” he whispered to me. Choopster looked down at the ground too.
“In the name of the holy occasion, a song of praise to our Lord,” the priestess in white called out when the humming ended, and everybody raised their heads and straightened up. She pulled out a long necklace from behind her back, it was made of big shiny diamonds, and at its end there was a golden hoop in the shape of a smiling face. She neared the edge of the stage and moved the necklace like a giant pendulum from left to right. She slowly walked around the stage, and a sound of prayer came out from behind all the masks that were looking up and swaying from side to side along with the smiling pendant.
“Don’t look at the golden smile,” Kelemance shook me by my arm. “You too, close your eyes,” he told Choopster and discreetly obstructed her view of the stage with his cape.
“May you be by our sides when all luxuries become necessities, until our longed-for happiness arrives,” I heard the crowd singing in unison and praying together. “May we have the right to continue and sacrifice for you, our Lord, everything that we can. We will devote all of our desires to you, sacrifice our life’s spirit for you, in your name we will hoard all of the things, objects and items we possibly can. With complete faith in you, our Lord, we will renew our objects, for we have no life but with you.”
“Our lives are not lives without you, CoinGod!” the priestess called out.
“Amen!” the crowd called back.
Kelemance lightly tapped on my back, indicating that we can look up now, and pulled his cape away from Choopster’s eyes.
“Your hearts are now filled with faith and assurance,” the prophet continued the speech with the object still pressed to his heart. “In order to prevent your souls from the agitation between desire and need - if awareness surprises your hearts - we have permitted making your acts of decree more pleasant. Remain faceless until night falls, and allow the holy public-emissaries to entertain and calm you between one stall and another. Find peace between one purchase and another during the holy rites, and rest tonight in grace and deep sleep.” He turned to the four who were behind him, and they walked down the stairs. “May you be blessed!” the prophet in black called to the crowd as the stairs were pulled back under the stage, and it began lowering until it disappeared.
“We’ll continue on our way in a moment.” Kelemance stayed standing as countless stalls and tables were brought to the square from all directions and placed around the whole surface. “Ready?” he lowered his gaze to Choopster when the hustle-bustle died down a little bit, “Come on, let’s go,” he held her hand and we crossed the square together through all the stalls and tables.
Each table and stall had various items on it. Each one had one person standing close to it and speaking to a group of people who gathered on the other side in front of him. At the side of each group there was another person, a man or a woman, who stood separately wearing a red cape and a mask with colorful stripes on the nose and cheek areas. Each red cape had one single decoration, the same one on all of them, a golden embroidery in the shape of a smiling face, like the one on the pendant that the priestess held. Their hands had sock puppets on them of various characters, with eyes and wigs and lips, and they spoke and performed to groups near the tables and stalls. I couldn’t quite hear what the puppets were saying, but some of their expressions made me laugh. There were some stalls where people were laughing, and some where I could hear crying and wailing. I didn’t know who the people were listening to, the person in front of the stall or the person performing with the puppets.
“You’re leaving me? For him?!” A puppet with a moustache said to a puppet with a long black curly wig.
“It’s not what you think!” The puppet with the long wig flicked her hair back and hid behind one of the items on the table. “I’m in love!” she sighed with a faint voice, kissed the object, and the onlookers burst with laughter. She disappeared behind the performer’s back, and a moment later another masculine puppet appeared on his hand instead. The sounds the man in the red cape made changed to whistles, and he moved the puppets in front of each other.
“This is the most important thing since the most important thing ever that had been presented here,” the man standing near the items in front of the onlookers, who were fascinated by the talking puppets, got a few lines in, “This formula is undisputable. Absolutely infallible. Much more efficient than any comparable. It’s non-stop wonderful and beneficial.”
“My beloved, I’m delighted that you’re delighted!” The puppet with the moustache sobbed, “But why this way? From the place I came, you’ve left me no choice, I must!” the doll turned to the onlookers.
“Julian,” Choopster pulled my hand when I didn’t notice I had stopped, and we advanced towards Kelemance, who was waiting for us among the people.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. On each and every table they have an inanimate object which is more important than the person who had made it and the people around it.” We kept walking and Kelemance pointed at another woman with a red cape and puppets on her hands who was standing among the stalls, “And at the side of each gathering in the Square of Consumption there’s a public-emissary entertaining them.”
The three of us walked, trying not to bump into anyone, Choopster between the two of us. Kelemance directed us to the edges of the square, which became less populated the further we advanced. We waited for a group of people walking in front of us to pass, and they stopped very close to the square’s edge. Four of them started talking among themselves, and within a moment the rest gathered around them. Each of the four had a cape with a coin decoration that stood out from the rest of the decorations, but each one’s size was different.
“Beautiful, so livening, had it before, now it’s also more prolonged. Mine’s new,” the first man said with short intakes of breath.
“Fantastic, incredible duplicating triangles as they dance at you, but mine is new new,” the second woman added excitedly and put her hand on her coin decoration, which was bigger than the man’s who had spoken before her.
“Twenty four, a golden saddened by a chilled five despite the forward, sweet up to shining colors. Inside, new new and better, no?” the third man continued with a shaky voice, placing his hand on his coin decoration, which was bigger than the woman’s.
“Perhaps. Corner roundness, die in private, no doubt if definite magic, with actual as-if but for real. Flat, I wish souls on our side on the board,” the fourth woman answered indifferently. “Mine is new new and better and huge too, better a totally different tiny one in future maybe, almost but always on me.” She put her hand on her coin decoration, which was the biggest of all four’s.
“This is the conversation I had told you that I couldn’t understand.”
Kelemance led us around them as they continued talking. Their tones heightened, and a public-emissary with a red cape and puppets on his hands approached them and started performing with two round puppets that had arms and legs, making them talk. He could hardly be heard over the four people’s loud and very excited chatter, but he continued.
“Shut up! My world is falling apart!” one of the four people screamed at one of the puppets as it came near him, and punched it in the face. Someone pushed in, separating Kelemance and us, and pounced on the screaming man. He tripped over, got up and started hitting the person who made him fall. I grabbed Choopster’s hand and looked for Kelemance a few feet away from us. More people interfered and shouted and hit each other, a fight broke out. I pressed Choopster close to me.
“Come on!” Kelemance appeared from somewhere and pulled me by the arm to his direction. I lifted Choopster up and carried her to the square’s edge with big fast steps.
“Are you alright?” Kelemance asked us.
“Alright, alright,” I answered, took Choopster’s hand and we all rushed towards the sandstone path that appeared before us.
We only slowed down when we were far from the square. We caught our breaths, Choopster let go of my hand and walked alone ahead of us. We took off the masks and put them in the bags. We kept walking, and the open fields on both sides of the path grew smaller, their trees multiplying into a grove. Down the winding road, white houses with brown triangular rooftops occasionally appeared between the tall trees and broad branches.
“Kelemance, you look a little bit in despair.”
“In despair? Julian, in the Land of the Mosaic, despairing from life is the total opposite of human nature. It’s a trait I had only discovered through people who had come from afar, who decided to live their lives within the walls instead of moving forward after having gotten lost in the Land of the Mosaic. It’s just that every time I pass through here I become saddened. They live on the riverbanks of the most beautiful river, at the bottom of the highest mountain, but they’re addicted to distractions like the ones you witnessed, in order to forget the pain.”