Canto III
Ante Purgatory
Scene I
Dante disliked being
rude but having traveled into Hell and out, he was bitter in his attitude
towards others. He recalled following Cato who led him along the silvery
surface. Their walk was long and hard in the snow. He may be a soul or worse,
the holographic image like Cato, but found myself needing to breathe.
“It’s not your body
asking for it but your mind had been attuned to the process of resting and
recovering that it made you think you needed to rest.” Cato looked at him.
“Thank you for your
crude assessment. I am without a physical body now.” Dante replied with scorn.
“Are you or they are the
ones which cannot feel you?” Cato voiced back. “The issue with the living
vessel is they perceived things too much from their end…or most times, the
wrong end.”
“You said so that I am
---- a hologram-like you, and my body lies somewhere up there.” Dante snapped
out. “I am a soul like ---”
“Those poor bastards you
saw in Hell, or are they? Perhaps you were the one who is ----dead for Hell was
not ready for you, you appeared ---alive then.”
“What are you saying,
Cato. I am not keen on riddles here. I have seen Hell, and it’s not a place to
re-visit ---.”
“Even when you do die? I
think you will have to for that is the passage of death after life. In your
belief, you will go through Hell before reaching --- Purgatory and then to
Heaven. The living assumed that they have their judgment days. Even for Dante
Alighieri.” Cato smiled. “The only contention for you is that you may have to
do it twice for you are not dead yet, and yet you been to Hell.”
“Never!” Dante was
agitated then and fear rose down his spine. He had seen Hell, and won’t go back
there not again even in death. If he was to go. he will --- take his place in
Limbo like the others.
“If you were to open
your thoughts, have you wondered why a baby cries upon birth? The midwife tales
were that the soul in them cries out in protest of being born. It’s sad for the
journey of life should have been received with laughter and thanks.” Cato
smiled widely then. “I am a program and hold no control on my emotions when I
am activated ---.”
“And you smiled here?” Dante
hit back.
“My emotive here is the
routine I am to display when something amusing was presented. Don’t you smile
when you find something funny?”
“I am not amused by your
analogy.” Dante turned away. “Why did you drag me here?”
“I did not drag you here.
Cassela asked of you to follow me, and I am not complete yet in my lines of
logic here. Why did I raise the issue of life and death? You did not see my
rationale for it.”
“Bloody rationale does
not work for me.” Dante was feeling lethargic and yet I was without a physical
frame.
“I am to tell you of
Purgatory which you are step in, or rather had stepped in. I want you prepared
for it.” Cato explained. “It’s the Second Kingdom as ----”
“Second Kingdom? I have
read of it”, Dante then recalled from his memories the words to describe
Purgatory by the mythical muses.
Now I shall sing the second
kingdom
there where the soul of man is cleansed,
made worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Here from the dead let poetry
rise,
O sacred Muses, since I am yours.
Here let Calliope arise...
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatorio#Ante-Purgatory).
“Calliope is my
inspiration in moments of despair and woes.” Dante smiled. “I read of her from Iliad
and Odyssey. Both tragic tales lightened by the sweet muse of hers. I saw her
in these words.”
Here rise to life again, dead poetry!
Let it, O
holy Muses, for I am yours,
And here
Calliope, strike a higher key,
Accompanying
my song with that sweet air
which made
the wretched Magpies feel a blow
that turned
all hope of pardon to despair.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatorio#Ante-Purgatory).
“I can be Calliope if it
will enlighten your mind now.” Cato voiced out.
“Please don’t. Your
image now stands well with your character. Please do tell me why to invoke me
to think of the muse?”
“I did it for the
journey you are to take here will be hazardous to yourself, unlike in Hell
where those souls there were the sufferers. You are to be taken on a new path
here. There are nine levels in Purgatory, all correspond to the seven deadly
sins. These are the roots of sinfulness.”
“How can there be more
‘deadly’ than the ones I had seen in Hell?” Dante questioned back.
“Here its motives, and
not actions which were taken into the penance there,” Cato replied. “The levels
here will question the motives. It drives in deeper than the action that may
have been taken. It’s not what you do but you may have done. You can kill a man
once in the physical term but in the motive, you could have done it many times
by different means, and for different reasons, and the person may not know it
happened before.”
“Where does the prison
comes into it?” Dante was baffled. “Have you not heard of the Seven Virtues?
Kindness ---”
“Kindness, Temperance,
Charity, Chastity, Humility, Diligence, and Patience--- They were the works of
Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, a Christian governor who died around 410 A.D. They
are supposed to be the antidote to the Seven Sins. It was not defined in the Good
Book but a word of mouth spread the concept and idea in the continent.”
“So, both of us read the
same materials or rather your creator did, but if he had found the virtues, why
not the use of it here and have this place to be a ----"
“Prison --- Both places
are alike to prison where we draw on your sins to surface, and what better way
to purge you than to face it. Many souls are broken in that pursuit.” Cato
replied. “Anyone who comes here thinks that they are dead and will be facing
salvation and it will further wreck their lives while here.”
“You are a bastard,
Cato.”
“I am not for it was not
created by me. As a fact of the logical approach, I am to assist you through
it. I want you to see and survive Purgatory as you did in Hell.”
“What if I choose not to
proceed?” Dante handed out his challenge.
“You may but you will
lose your body and your soul remains here,” Cato replied. “It will be a disappointment
to Virgil who had tried so hard to get you through Hell.”
“Virgil! I have forgotten
all about ---it.” Dante was baffled between the mythical companion and the
mechanical orb.
“Dante, I am here. I am
restored. I heard you just now. You need to go on for not only you will be lost
here but my creator Virgil. His physical body lies there too.” The orb hovered
before Dante. “He is not dead. I managed to access the server and discover
that.”
“We cannot let go now
for there are others which we can still save. Doctor Bormant was not alone in
his works with you. There are others. Innocent life to be saved.” The orb
continued. “The Empress believed in you.”
“Don’t use the Empress
on me. I am a poet. I am not a warrior.” Dante defended himself. “I never
volunteered for the task. I was not ready for it.”
“And yet, you survive
Hell. You are the nemesis of the prison here. Your knowledge of the poems makes
you an exception. Be brave for yourself and above all, for Beatrice.” Virgil
raised the tone.
Dante glared at Virgil.
He was thinking of Beatrice then
‘Ever her name was
invoked to spur him on. I am a fool in the subject of love. Like his desire to
invoke the muse. Maybe Calliope is his Beatrice after all.’
“Shall we? To clear
Purgatory is to know it first.” Cato smiled again cutting in the opportune
timing. “But I just cautioned you. For those you will meet, you cannot reveal
to them the truth of this place. If they are to know they are not dead and in a
prison of their mind, they will go mindless and be lost forever. You must
remain silent on the truth that has been revealed to you.”
“I ---” Dante was
confused.
“Don’t be dismayed. Go
through the task and be done for Beatrice. She awaits you.” Cato told Dante.
“For her, I think you will transcend Purgatory to see her
once more.” Virgil beamed out more of the light.
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