The City of Magic - Chapter 19

The Trial “A way with him, away with him!” the crowd cried. “What mockery! Shall we not even have a trial?” Sin cried. “Away with the enemy, away with him! This is our verdict!” the crowd cried. Sin signaled and a loud cymbal clanged. The crowd paused. “The verdict shall follow the trial!” she declared. “Our Archenemy shall be rightly denounced, and the judgment sealed by our seven governesses. It’s our turn now, and of the power of darkness. May Shadows prevail and may Magic and Sorcery obscure Reality; may the...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 18

Superbia W e reached Superbia. The streets were flooded with people wearing masks of different forms. Yet, the masks on the faces of the people were usually not very dissimilar, and it seemed as if we were bumping into the same person again and again. It was not possible to recognize the true person behind the mask, at all, and we marveled that we knew no one. We were all here nobodies to each other, and the only reality, at hand, were the masks; the only relations, self-interest. It appeared that there were two orders of...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 17

Sloth “W alk!” she commanded, “and never look back!” I thought this was crazy. But, I followed. “Hey you, where are you running away?” the drunken voice continued to call. “Faster, faster!” Sophia called. The dust from the ground swirled up and filled the air as we paced on. We coughed as we walked. The drunken man had begun singing: “Why do you run beating dust in the air? Why do you hurry as if the world needs your care? Hey, the world’s on its own, buddy; You ain’t gonna make it any inch better! Come, enjoy...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 16

Stranger S ophia had managed to rip off a sewer lid and pulled us into it. It all happened in the twinkling of an eye, and the barred lid was closed. We were curved now in a 4 feet deep gutter that had, by now, a foot of rain water gushing through. I held Inno in my lap so that she could sit straight and we kept our heads close to the lid. The light from the headlights grew near and then disappeared completely, leaving a fading trail of humdrum from the vehicles that eventually stopped. It was all dark again. I wondered that...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 15

Sophia I  found myself in a wet, dark, chill, lonely street. The clouds above growled in anger dropping cold perspiration down on us. “That was a narrow one, isn’t it?” a heard a familiar voice. I turned around and saw the little murmuring man that I had seen earlier. He now had a pleasant face and his hair was groomed well backwards. “Who are you?” I asked. “My name is Seer,” he replied. “They also call me Prophet. I’ve stayed behind to only let you know that it will not be long any hence. Your liberation draws...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 14

A Narrow Escape “H ope you scraped some fun off the Fair!” Clever smiled and said. He was speaking loud since the sudden siren had also stirred up much commotion that voluminously flooded the range of air. “Yes, we did!” I answered aloud. “Going to the Center?” “Yes,” he replied, “Let’s be quick!” We hurried to the Center. There was a great fountain, lit by colorful and playful lights, in the middle of Fair with a good sized open space in the front for people to stand. There was a stage set up by the fountain adorned with...

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The City of Magic - Chapter 13

Chance, Fate, and Avaritia I  had taken Inno to a small food corner and bought for her a piece of sweet bread with the money that Piety had given me. We sat there she ate the bread holding it in her little fingers. There were a few stout men sitting on a table thrown a bit far from us. They were eating too much and seemed too disgustfully voracious. “You guys from Gula make our stalls grow fatter!” a waitress remarked as she dropped a tray of meat on their table. They didn’t respond to her, but just jumped on the meat...

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