While Luke and the officiant argued, Tahyang studied the wall toward which the officiant had been looking. He whispered to Gene.
“I think there’s something on the wall opposite. It looks like a crisscrossing net. And beneath it, I can see something like a small altar. There’s a door behind the altar.”
Of course, only Tahyang’s eyes could pierce the darkness well enough to see it. Rosa spoke.
“The general will probably come out that way. But I don’t know why they’re delaying. Do they really think they can persuade us?”
Luke continued picking holes in the argument, but the officiant was more patient than they had expected.
“Greatness will return only after this world has been purified. Once Delphinad has turned to sand, you too will understand Sing’s greatness.”
“Ah, so what you mean by greatness is destruction. But I’ve always thought something great should be complete in itself. Isn’t destruction the act of breaking something that already exists? Then if Delphinad weren’t here, where would you find your greatness? After Delphinad is gone?”
“Destruction is sacred because it restores greatness. Even if all that remains is a place of sand and stone, we shall begin again.”
Luke swore too quietly for the officiant to hear.
“This stupid fanatic.”
Then he raised his voice again.
“Thank you for talking until your throat’s sore. To show my gratitude, I’ll tell you a little truth. In fact, you’re right to a degree. There are no sacred gods, great kings, or immortal virtues in Delphinad now. But you know why they’ve disappeared? It’s not because Sing fell.”
Luke spread his arms.
“It’s because the world’s grown too large. Delphinad’s grown too large and become the capital of the world itself. The peoples scattered across the continent have discovered each other, and divided up maps of their own to follow. Living in Delphinad, we know that the great library holds an enormous number of books and an enormous store of information. If we choose to, we can go and read them. I’ve read quite a few myself. Now, what happens the more you read? Do you grow wiser? No, you know too much.
“You spend all day reading dozens of books about thousands of years of history, then go home with all those thoughts filling your head, and deciding what to eat for dinner seems too trivial. You just want to make do. You go to a lecture on property transactions on the library’s first floor and feel like a fool, the only one making a loss. You become so absorbed in how to buy a splendid house cheaply that you forget to go to bed with your wife. I don’t have a wife, but things like that happen anyway. They say kings in the north are fighting bloody wars, but do you want to argue over a branch your neighbor’s tree has dropped across your boundary? You just let it go. The more we learn about everything, the more trivial ordinary life becomes, and the harder it is to find where our own lives have gone. Ah, shall we call it the sad reality of existence?”
Luke caught his breath a little, then launched into an even faster stream of words.
“And what about the gods? Delphinad has the Pantheon. Every kind of god has gathered there, leaving us to decide whether to light a candle to the god of luck or the god of probability before we visit a gambling house today. If Sing had only one god, we’d need to live a thousand times longer than its subjects just to offer every god our true worship. Now we’ve learned of the whole world’s affairs and knowledge, and as a result we can’t return to an age when we worshipped one god and lived happily among a few hundred neighbors. In other words, the ideal of Sing you’re describing would only work if Delphinad’s population shrank to one hundredth of its present size. In that sense, you have considerable foresight in choosing destruction.”
Gene stared at Luke, dumbfounded. Unexpectedly, Tahyang was smiling. Growing more and more heated as he spoke, Luke shook a clenched fist.
“But! Delphinad isn’t the only place in the world. If it’s destroyed, that will certainly be a great loss. But before long, other countries will come to crush you with enormous populations instead of reducing their own, rather than envy your ideal. You want a small elite. No one else intends to oblige. So according to your plan, you’ll have to destroy the whole continent, leave a handful of people alive, then begin again by clearing fields with fire. There’ll be no cocktails, no stamps, no art books or splendid clothes or lamps lighting the boulevards. You’ll spend your days plowing and digging the earth in utter darkness. Do those bundles of rags lying there know that’s what the return of the ancient realm means? That’s all from prospective subject number four. If you have more to say, by all means continue.”
Before the officiant could answer, Rosa spoke.
“I’d like to give him a glass of water.”
Perhaps the officiant could think of no reply, or had decided he would never recover his costs in a debate. He suddenly turned toward the wall he had originally been watching. When he raised both hands high, something moved near the altar. Tahyang spoke.
“Someone’s come through the door. He’s standing before the altar.”
The officiant spoke.
“Your Majesty, we shall now begin the coronation. Lie upon the altar.”
He approached the altar. But the man who seemed to be the general did not move. The officiant spoke again.
“We shall begin the ritual.”
“First, I have a question. You said that even after I was reborn as Vitalis, I would retain my own consciousness. Must I then realize these transcendent values you speak of for myself?”
It was Nikephoros’s voice, low and deliberate as always. He did not yet seem to have become the strange being from before.
“No, Your Majesty. Once you are reborn as His Majesty Vitalis of Sing, you will know them naturally.”
“Then wouldn’t those be Vitalis’s thoughts rather than mine? Would I still be myself?”
“All kings of Sing have united themselves with the body of the sacrifice and maintained their own selves without contradiction. Your Majesty, too…”
“The king and the sacrifice become one? Then am I the king, or the sacrifice?”
“That is…”
When the officiant stumbled over his answer, Luke turned to his friends and raised a forefinger.
“The sacrifice, I’d say.”
Gene lowered his head and burst out laughing. Then he spoke.
“Then surely the king’s consciousness overwhelms the sacrifice’s? Not that it’s our problem to worry about, but I think the officiant let something slip.”
Their conjecture proved true. The officiant suddenly shouted.
“That doesn’t matter! You need only become His Majesty Vitalis!”
At the same moment, they heard a suspicious sound. It was like the creaking of a gigantic ship’s timbers. Tahyang spoke.
“The wall is writhing. Something… Are those vines?”
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