Canto IX
Time to choose the dream
Scene II
“I thought myself was
Achilles. I was taken by my mother, sleeping in her arms, from Chiron to
Scyros, thither ---” Dante mumbled out.
“We don’t have any jugs
of wine or ales so we can eliminate your state for being drunk. I think it’s
your fear that made you dream of such events that for your knowledge resides
inside you from your readings and not your experiences.” Virgil offered his
solace to the state Dante was in but the latter continued his tale.
“The goddess Thetis, had taken him while he was asleep away from
his tutor, the Centaur Chiron, in Thessaly, to the island Skyros to live,
disguised as a young woman, among the women in the palace of King Lycomedes.
Thetis’ plan failed to keep Achilles out of the Trojan War. Ulysses and Diomed
came to the palace and showed jewelry and weapons to the women (and the
disguised Achilles) of the palace. The women were interested in the jewelry,
Achilles was interested in the weapons, and Ulysses and Diomed carried Achilles
off to fight and die in the Trojan War.” (https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/dantes-purgatory-canto-9-retelling-prepurgatory-first-prophetic-dream-and-saint-peters-gate/)
“Hold no fear, Poet.
This is one war where we have God on our side. Be assured we are at a good
point.” Virgil motioned ahead to Dante. “Thou art now received at Purgatory; See
there the cliff that closes I round; see the entrance there where it appears
divided. A short while ago, you fell asleep once more and came to a lady, and
said ‘I am Lucia’ ---” Virgil tried to lend focus to their situation then.
There was no snow around
them but they were by the sea with the breeze and location they were on the ledge
by the cliff facing the sea.
“Saint Lucia’” Dante
muttered with his right hand on the elbow of Virgil. “Saint Lucia is the patron
of light and sight. If she is with me, that means that I am shown the light in
his darkness.” (https://taylormarshall.com/2012/12/saint-lucy-in-dantes-inferno-and.html).
“There we go, the Poet
is in his moods,” Virgil muttered.
“It can’t be. We are in
the program made by the Doctor. Why Lucia?” Dante looked at Virgil. “Why you?
Or Cato. Could there be glitches in the program?”
“Dante, I am a glitch. I
believe it to be. So was Cato. It will appear that the best of programs at best
perfect in the labs and when released, there will be reports of bugs. I had
VIRGIL field testing ---"
“Virgil, shut up.” Dante
was in his mood. Virgil knew that silence was welcome then.
“One last line, the lady
placed you here,” Virgil added on. “I floated along if you need to know. An
advantage is a construct. Or a rather friendly one. I did not melt my feathers
up there.”
Virgil was hinting at
the Greek myth, of Icarus who had his feather dropped off when he felt towards
the sun. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus)
Dante looked at his
surroundings. He was past the main gate with the ‘P’ on it. He looked in the
other direction and saw the three stair-steps that lead to the entrance; the
steps all have different shades of color. The first was of marble, the second
rough stone, and the third red-gemstone.
Dante
thought, “The three colors represent the three stages of repentance:
self-examination: white, sorrow for sin, contrition: darker than purple-black,
and the last was penance: red.” (https://davidbruceblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/dantes-purgatory-canto-9-retelling-prepurgatory-first-prophetic-dream-and-saint-peters-gate/)
It led to the door
behind the Angle. It looked more like the process of Hell to Purgatory. And
that was Purgatory the follow-up, but Dante wondered what was the color of
Heaven; Gold or Silver or even Diamond for translucent. He won’t know until
they cleared that place. It was guarded by what may be an Angel for the figure
was all light and the sword he had stuck on the ground next to him seems to be
also energized to the blade.
“Who are you? And how
did you get in?” The Angel there did not look friendly.
“We were brought here by
the ---lady from Heaven,” Dante replied. “He is Virgil and my companion.”
Virgil stepped forth and
faced the Angel. It was like an up-close face confrontation without the follow-up
to a physical brawl but Dante was sure there was more to the confrontation.
“The Poet was brought in
by the program. He dematerialized and then appeared after the gate.”
“Then he is in the
bridge to Purgatory.” The Angel voiced out. “Where you were was Ante-Purgatory.
The destination after Hell and before Purgatory. Like what you may have seen at
Limbo in Hell, that was the version of Limbo. It’s the place where the souls
could remain there, refusing to be cleansed of their final sins.”
“And am I to believe
you?” Virgil glared at the Angel. It was silence then while time went past as
if there was the movement of time but the sun did move several degrees on the
horizon. In the normal movement of time, it would have been two hours hour.
Virgil then approached
Dante.
“It’s done. We can go
past that ---poor construct now.” Dante asked.
“Well, I did the Giskard
shutdown on Jander, from Issac Asimov's tale in ‘The Robots of Dawn.’ It was one
of the routines I went through in the VIRGIL (Vigilance Remote Guard
Intelligence) qualification tests. I challenge other programs in the interfaces
and shut down the other. It’s part of the function for intelligence gathering
and communications.”
“Much as it pains me to
bring it up but I read the Master of Science Fiction and the whole Robot
series. All eight in the series.” Dante painfully looked at Virgil. “I am also
a sci-fi buff.”
Dante then approached
the Angel who still stood there. He looked at the Angel there. He placed his
hands over his heart.
“You are real--- I know
you are. Those are the real gates.” Dante looked to the expressionless Angel
dressed not in white but of the earth ash. (shade of the mother earth.). “You
are not ----de-activated?”
“No, I am not. Dante. you
are probably aware that there are some assistances here. Virgil was one, and so
was Cato. The Doctor has entered in interference and we are all part of it.”
The Angel looked at Virgil. “His attempt was futile. His routine of ‘resistance
is futile’ was lame.”
“Resistance is ----”
Virgil was surprised that his attempt had failed.
“Resistance is futile?
Seriously, Virgil. I thought we are in the era that we know aliens exist but
they choose to stay away from us although we could zip to the nearby planets. And
we won’t get real warp space from any pointy ears not yet anyway.” The Angel
told Dante. “Here, the interference is to get you through here as we did in
Hell. Trust yourself.”
“I heard that before.”
Dante looked at the Angel.
“Yes, Empress Beatrice
told us to communicate with you if you ever felt you are losing your way.” The
Angel then motioned to Dante to the doors behind.
“The door is there. We
don’t have the intel on the door and what is beyond. I have the keys but not
the means to open them. You have to do it alone. We will try to interfere when
we broke those codes.”
The keys were two; one
was gold and the other iron. Dante looked at them. He thought of the chalice
that was supposed to be drunk by Jesus on the long dining table with his
apostles, including one named Judas. Why a similar thought was in his mind? It
was just that why there was to be the selection of what was the one to look
for. As the chalice or the holy grail will be the choice to make. Was it God's
mode of testing us?
“Which key opens what?” Dante
asked.
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