Holy City: Chapter Twenty-Three

The next day there were many tests. The priests of Lyonesse invited V to the High Temple to take tests. He felt like he was back in school.

There were flash cards to test his memory. There were flash cards to test his psychic ability. V failed both tests.

The priests that ruled from the High Temple were cut off from society much like the commissars in the academies that ruled in Damasia. Much like the wealthy oligarchs of Vitesia. They each had created elaborate structures that insulated them from the daily life of the average person. They each enforced edicts on the rest of society. This came from a desire to control. If one is given the power to control the fate of others, one tends to find a way to use it.

After the battery of tests, V was left alone with the High Priest in a room that looked like a confessional, with a light shone directly into his face like it was an interrogation. The High Priest sat behind the light. It was difficult for V to make out the High Priest’s face. This is what the High Priest wanted.

“Are you a spy from Vitesia?”

V laughed at the question.

“Why is this funny?” The High Priest was very serious.

“Because I was once accused of being a spy from Lyonesse.”

“Who accused you of this?”

“An enemy of yours.”

“Which one?”

“Do you have so many enemies that it is not clear?”

“Why do you refuse to say?”

“Because it is unimportant. The people who accused me of being something I am not.”

“If someone accuses you of something there is usually a reason for it.”

“But the reason does not have to be truth. People find reasons, to forward an agenda or an innocent mistake, there can be many reasons for an accusation, that doesn’t mean it is true.”

“I am here today to find out the truth about you.”

“Are you interested in truth?”

“Yes.”

“I think, like those that accused me of being a spy many nights ago, you have already made up your mind whether it is the truth or not.” V looked straight into the light that was shining in his eyes. The light hurt, his sight blurred, but V kept staring not wanting to look away from the High Priest.

“Why do you claim to be a prophet?”

“I make no such claim, your king made that claim for me.”

“Why did you come to this kingdom?”

“For sanctuary.”

The High Priest did not believe V. The High Priest did not know if V was a spy and he did not care. The purpose of the interrogation was not to find anything out. The purpose of the interrogation was the interrogation itself.

The High Priest leaned in very closely, blocking the strong light. Now he was backlit, V could see the face of the High Priest clearly, a halo rising from the back of the High Priest’s head as he said his next words in as threatening way as possible.

“I will say this to you once and only once. Our King may believe you have some worth to this Kingdom. That does not mean it will always be so. Our King will always be our King. But he can be fickle. He will become tired of you as he became tired of the others who came before you. Your stay in this palace is temporary.”

“As is yours.”

“The position I hold has served this nation for 500 years. It is not temporary.”

“But you are. I accept that my stay here is temporary, do you?”

“You don’t understand me, I protect this nation. I protect the King. I do not like to see him fooled by imposters.”

The High Priest sat back, his threat conveyed. The light was directly into V’s eyes once again. It did not bother him any longer.

“Do you protect the Queen as well?”

The High Priest gestured to the surroundings of the High Temple.

“I protect the entire nation.”

“I think you protect only yourself.”

V’s posture relaxed. He did not blink. The High Priest stood and looked down on V.

“I have warned you. I will not do it again. The last prophet thought he had power. That last prophet is buried without his head under a rock in the desert.”

Several other priests emerged from the corners of the room and surrounded the High Priest, enveloping his body, making him invisible. The dark shadow of priests moved as one for the door and left as shadows leave the world at nighttime. V, as he was becoming accustomed to during his time in Lyonesse, was left alone in a room by himself. The High Temple was sacred but it was not peaceful. It did not bring prayer or meditation to V’s mind. There were no windows, there were only walls that ran many stories above to form the inside of a pyramid. The High Temple that served the High Priest was a tomb for all those who entered. It reminded V of darkness, only darkness. He longed for sunlight.

V walked towards the exit of the High Temple. Two guards were stationed at that exit. They held long spears and wore golden helmets. They did not stop V from leaving but they followed him as he did. They followed him out into the Courtyard of the Saints and through the Mausoleum of the Kings. V walked under covered arches the length of the mile-long pathway that formed the outside corridors of the Abbey. The corridors that connected the High Temple to the Summer Palace. The corridors that cut the world in half between shadows and light. V was followed by the two guards of the High Temple for most of his walk until he passed an invisible barrier that marked the end of the Abbey and the beginning of the Palace. Once he was past this invisible barrier, tombs were replaced by manicured gardens. Headstones were replaced by flowers. V had stepped out of one world that promised an afterlife into one that promised life.

The guards of the High Temple were replaced by guards dressed in the bright colors of the Summer Palace, Harold’s guards. They did not follow V as he continued to walk under the covered archways. They were stationed at posts high above watching the speck that was V as he passed between the shadows and light.

V rounded a corner and noticed a pond filled with orange in the middle of one of the beautiful gardens. The orange moved in streams below the water and V was drawn out from his covered pathway onto the grass and walked over to the pond under cover of a thick blanket of white clouds in the sky above.

The streams of orange continued to move back and forth underneath the still surface. V stood over the water and looked down. He could clearly see into the world below. He watched the large orange fish for several minutes. The clear water developed a fracture in the middle of the artificial pond and another fracture on the edge of the water and then another fracture and another. The ripples of the fractures crashed into each other making it harder to see the world underneath. V’s clothes started to get wet from the drops of rain, water flowing down the top of his head like beads of sweat. The gardener ran inside. V stayed outside getting wet. He continued to watch the large orange fish as they swam from one side to the other. The rain continued with a pleasant steadiness. The gardener returned with a blue tarp and covered some area of the garden V had not paid attention to. The rain continued to fall. The gardener was done with his protective duties and noticed V standing in front of the pond. He rushed over to V.

“We must go inside. We do not wish to get wet.” The gardener said. V thought of the desert as the gardener guided him under cover away from the rain. V did not mind getting wet. V stood in one of the covered pathways. The gardener handed him a towel so he could wipe his face. “It will not be long.” The gardener said. “The showers pass quickly this time of year.”

V wiped the water away from his face and then watched the pleasant rainfall. As he watched the rainfall from the covered archway, V heard a thunder that was not from the sky. It was a thunder coming from across the courtyard, from the covered pathway on the other side of the courtyard. The King and the Queen and all of their retinue of two dozen courtiers were rushing down steps onto that pathway. Harold and Isabel were in front of the group. They weren’t so much leading the group as walking faster than everybody else. Harold and Isabel were in the middle of an animated discussion filled with silences. Neither appeared to be happy. They both were in a hurry either because they were in a hurry to get some place by an appointed time or because they weren’t happy where they currently were.

Instinctively, V raised his hand, to say hello to his two new friends, but the group was too busy paying attention to itself to notice him

V’s hand stayed raised in the air unacknowledged. Harold and Isabel were still walking fast and not paying attention to their worldly surroundings. Neither were in a position to notice V, even when they looked directly at him, which they both did at different times as they passed quickly through the other side of the courtyard disappearing into the corner of a stone building.

Once the last person of the group had disappeared from sight V finally lowered his hand. The moment in time now gone. The look in the eyes of the King and of the Queen stayed with V. They had not stared through him as one sometimes does. They had both simply looked without seeing, neither expecting to see an invisible prophet standing visibly on the other side of a courtyard filled with bright orange fish. The rain had stopped, the shower passing quickly as the gardener said it would. V looked up to the sky and knew it was time to go back to his room and wait. The clouds looked as if they were about to open up once again. V knew the next rainstorm was unlikely to be as pleasant as the last.

Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty-Four
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