Canto XXIV
The Eighth Circle:
Fraud
Bolgia 7: Thieves
Scene I
“I have been in love so many times.” Virgil hummed to himself when they
climbed the hill to the right of the huge building. While he took to the
slopes, he recollected his failed marriages. He recalled each of his wives;
they were not of the physique that others will cheat over but they held
intellectual qualities that he loved. He used to banter with them on his works
hence when he was without a wife, he developed the orb to be his companion. He
felt that the orb should be his conscience to the real world not of mechanical
inventions but other meaningful ones.
“What’s love have to do with this?” Dante had interrupted Virgil’s
thoughts. “I need to rest. The climb is more treacherous than expected.”
“So, the poet can speak once more. I thought your soul left here and
remained was a mechanical frame.” Virgil replied with a tone of sarcasm.
“I did for a while but Hell made me realized that I cannot journey
without a soul. My soul may be the only difference we hold here.” Dante looked
at the hill. When it was seen from below, it was a small climb but once they
took to tit, the path they had to traverse was steep and at some turnings,
dangerous with its slippery steps. Add to the woe, the rain came and the flakes
of snow.
“Thank you for the gruesome reminder of the living soul. I am without
one for a long time. My ex-wives told me so many times; they berate me that I
am soulless. I had married both of them not for the companion of the soul but
their intellectual mind. I do regret my vow then but now that I am in the
bowels of Hell, I do cherish if they could still forgive me.” Virgil sighed.
“Love can be unkind, and I am the proof of it.”
“I did not mean to ---” Dante wanted to console the companion of his.
“Virgil, without you I would have been stuck here or perished in the pits. I
had ---”
“I forgive you. Your mood swings and ----” Dante was surprised by what
Virgil said.
“Mood swings? I have none.” Dante sounded agitated. “It may be---”
“Your living soul that held it. You are forgiven. Can we move on now? We
have a hill to climb.” Virgil wanted to change the subject but Dante won’t.
“I am not upset at you --- Maybe I was.” Virgil continued. “You are
alike to questioning me at times.”
“I do. There are things you do not tell me. When you here last, how far
did you go in Hell?” Dante could not keep it to himself.
“As far as possible but not that what I had seen was to prepare us. Hell
is a huge place; a world of its own and what I had seen then and now differs in
some places. The more important aspect of it was what I could perceive, I used
it to save us both. I am not a ---”
“Of which I am ever grateful.” Dante cut in. “I am truly grateful and I
do apologize for my doubts in you. I ---”
“Save it, Poet. Let us go home and all will be squared.” Virgil stood up
and then looked at the slopes. “I am weightless for I am a dead soul, but you
are not. Your bodyweight is holding you up. I will move on ahead and recon the
route you can take.”
With that, Virgil took his climb and Dante waited. The wait was not
wrong for Virgil soon appeared to guide Dante. Nevertheless, the climb was
still tedious for Dante and soon he reached the top. To the front of him was a
rope bridge that crossed the deep gully below. He looked down and saw the
sinners there running or hiding behind any cover they could find, but in a
gully filled with boulders that were not a chore but form the cracks of the
boulders were seen the evil of the Garden of Eden.
“Serpents aplenty,” Dante muttered in fear. He had feared serpents or
any creature that lurks in the lower undergrowth and strikes when unnoticed. He
had that fear when he was in the forest with the squad.
“It’s Hell. Where else would you find these creatures?” Virgil frowned
at the sight of the serpents. He had during his childhood seen the serpent
coiled around the twig. He had run back to his mother in fear. It was to remain
inside his memory till then.
Dante saw the sinners bitten by the serpents and the sight that behold
him soon after gave him the fear down his spine. The serpents will wind their
frame upon the sinner and laid bare their fangs onto the jugular necks at the
neck. The sinner will scream out and soon will be covered in flames which will
take to crisp their soul, but soon after the soul will appear once more and the
sinner will run once more from the serpents.
“They burned and then they come back,” Dante said to Virgil. “Is there
no end to their misery?”
“That is not all. I saw some when bitten became serpents to hunt the
others. I even saw the serpents attacked their own and the bitten serpent
becomes a soul once more. It’s like a never-ending circle of misery.” Virgil
said to Dante. “I saw some souls bitten in turn came back as serpents. It was
unforeseen for those. It reminded me of what one soul told me when I was here
last. We are in the Circle where the thieves are punished for their sins.”
“Thieves? Thievery
is stealing someone else’s property. Another example of thievery is identity
theft. Someone can steal your identity and used it to acquire wealth. There is
also plagiarism involves the theft of someone else’s ideas and sometimes even
their words. All of these should be here; punished here.” Virgil’s view on
thieving. “They are all the same. They took what was yours when you are not
aware of it. I had once my works stolen by another; all the efforts drained by
one act, and I was upset but the thief paid the price when the invention could
not work for there was work to do there. I was consulted and rectified it after
I took back what was mine.”
“Plagiarism
of words, when credited to the source, is not a sin. Most of us borrowed ideas
and on many occasions the words there, but if we credit the source, it will
widen the read of the words.” Dante defended the works of some works. “I can
attest the Book was quoted many times without a mention of its source.”
“Dante,
see below. It’s me. Vanni Fucci.” Dante heard his name called and looked below.
He saw there was one he knew when he was with the Army. He had befriended the
other when they were recruited together to the Volunteers. They were at the
Quartermaster to collet their gears when Vanni who was behind Dante was called
out.
“Vanni
Fucci, you miserable bastard. I have finally caught you here. You were the
thief and till now, will be the same.” The one who accused Vanni was in the
other line. The accuser raised his voice to the others. “The bastard stole from
the till at the cathedral. He was asked and directed the sin to me. He accused
me of the act and I was punished. He stole more and later absconded not to be
seen till now.”
“Vanni
Fucci, you can volunteer to die for the Empress but your sin of thieving will
not be cleansed here.”
“I
am not who you accused. I am Benny Fucci. The one you claimed could be my
relative. I am not a thief.” Vanni denied the act. The matter was resolved then
without proof but soon, Benny died in the battle. Just before he died, he told
Dante his name was Vanni Fucci.
“Pray
for me, the man of words. I am a sinner in life.” It was the last seen by him
till Dante heard his name called.
“Why
are you here, Benny?”
“I
am ---here for my sins.” Vanni had then run for some steps to avoid a serpent
lurking near him. “I was Vanni Fucci; the thief and a fake. I guess upon my
death, judgment fell to me to be here.”
“I
can’t help you there, Vanni. You have to be careful yourself.” Dante said to
Vanni.
“I
am not concerned for myself. I am only for you for the news of your journey
have reached even us here. Some have thought you may be the savior to them.
Bits I may know but beware your journey may be tainted with obstacles. Go back
now. Your city awaits you for it will be burned to ashes. The others told me
so.”
“How
could the others had told you unless ---- You are a traitor working for the
other side. For that, you deserve to be here.” Dante was angry with Vanni. “You
are with mine and yet you betray us all.”
Vanni
was not to reply for he was bitten by a serpent and burst into flames. Dante
saw Vanni burned and re-appeared as a serpent. In turn, Vanni the Serpent bit
the other serpent which evolved into a sinner. Such was the absurdity of the
act there.
Just
when Vanni the Serpent was thought to be the more vicious one, another serpent
bit it. Vanni soon re-appeared.
“Darn
it. I am screwed by God.” Vanni with his arms raised and the middle finger
extended higher, called out with his loud voice. It was blasphemy to curse on
the God there in Hell. Those words of Vanni caused the ceiling of Hell to roar
and a descending figure was seen descending to the gully. It was a huge centaur
galloping there.
“Who
condemned God? I am Cacus the Centaur seek thee.”
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