Dante V Canto XVI Scene I

 Canto XVI

Third Terrace;

Scene I

Dante could not make out the scene when there was nothing to see. The sight was one of the five senses in the living; sight, hearing, touch, feel and taste.

“I can’t see anything.” Dante was still trying to comprehend the situation then. He had his right arm towards Virgil but with both of intangible form, it was ineffective. He was not assured and began talking to hear Virgil replying.

“I can’t make out much. I have turned on my sensors from infra to thermal but I have no data for me to process.” Virgil was trying to process their predicament. “My initial assessment was that this is not the visible suspension of carbon or other particles in the air, typically one emitted from a burning substance.”

“If I may, Virgil. I assess that this could be the act of God.” Dante was relying on his knowledge of the situation. “We may be punished for it.”

“Poet, we are not in the real Purgatory. I thought it was made clear to us.” Virgil shifted focus to reply. “And this dark screen may be a script from the program, which is why I cannot assess it from the physical state.”

“I do apologize. I am unused to the loss of sight.” Dante meekly used his sense of hearing to detect the presence of Virgil. “But I was to say that our loss of the sight, may be a --- retribution from the --- program as if God will invoke it while we are still ensnared by wrath.”

“You are an inspiration, Poet.” Virgil released his sarcastic reply towards Dante. “Do you want to re-trace our steps?”

“No, we could move on.” Dante cut in. “Are we any nearer to any edges?”

Dante reminded Virgil the terrain they had traversed was on the ascension to the top. With the lack of sight, it was a virtual nightmare. Virgil did not reply but his assessment was the concern was not on where they were to go, but the companion of his needed more assurance for Dante held the physical feel inside him. The event when Cato expressed that the radical atoms had lent to Dante a sense of the physical form may be to assure the latter to continue.

Virgil felt that Dante was still fixated on his living physical form, hence his pace of climb was slower. As Dante expressed his concern about falling off the edge, it may not happen if he were to configure his mind to think like a construct and not a living soul. None of the souls they met in Hell or Purgatory had to share their concerns of falling off the edge.

“Are we any nearer to any edges?” Dante was getting frantic.

“I doubt it. Can you stomp your feet? Perhaps you will know then.” Virgil replied. Dante tried that not with a stomp, but with a firm step on his toes. He felt nothing but he was not falling.

“I can’t tell. I can’t feel but I am not falling.” Dante spoke out. At that moment, he had a sudden vertigo seizure. His knees buckled then and were distracted by the voices at a distance.

Holy Holy
Are You, Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
You are Holy

(https://www.musixmatch.com/ Songwriters: Smith Michael Whitaker / Biblical)

Dante turned to the sound. It was melodic like a choir with perfect sync but there was a difference. The choir was not on the surface but above it; to be exact they were floating.

“They are in unison. The voices and the melodies. They are great.” Dante displayed his euphoria on seeing something pleasing after the torturous walk he had in Purgatory.

“I liked the hymns. A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος (hymnos), which means "a song of praise". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn#:~:text=A%20hymn%20is%20a%20type,%22a%20song%20of%20praise%22.).

“Yes, I know the meaning of hymns. I also know that the singing of hymns was not officially approved in the Church of England until 1820.” Virgil added on his knowledge. (https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-31/golden-age-of-hymns-did-you-know.html)

“Why England? I doubt that the colonial empire of the 20^th Century matters now that we are a new empire with Empress Beatrice ----” Dante held onto his country of birth. “Most of these nations have merged into the huge empire broke down ---”

“The New Empire you are referring to had fractured into two parts; the New Empire and the Federation. If both sides learned to sing the hymn in unison, maybe we won’t have this war.”

“Why are you against the hymn?” Dante looked at Virgil. “You are a ---”

“They are not singing there. They are purging their sins; the sin of wrath. They channel their sins by singing in rejoice with God. My creator Virgil programmed in me the lessons of psychology.” Virgil explained his meaning. “In his notes, it was stated that logic cannot exist on its own without understanding psychology or we will leap off the cliffs like lemmings. The misconception of it was it was the logical solution to curb the population, but the living souls did not do that, so why? They were smart to migrate when the place was overpopulated and food was getting scarce. They then leaped off the cliffs into the water be in a lake and swim to a new place. Some or most of the lemmings will perish in the swim hence the myth of them committing death then.”

“Back to the issue where I defined the singing.” Virgil continued. “It’s their counter to their wrath behavior.”

Dante was to reply when he heard the voice from the choir.

“Whose body pierces through our smoke? Who speaks of us exactly like a man who uses months to measure time?”

Dante turned to look and saw the choir was before them. Virgil and he were busy arguing the hymns that they did not see the darkness around them was around them but not over them. Dante looked back at Virgil.

“Do you see the darkness? It’s not over us anymore.” Dante exclaimed out. “Is it a miracle? The choir had moved the darkness back.”

“Poet, we are in a virtual program. Nothing that is here is real.” Virgil hit back.

“Nothing is ---clear. Not even the other Hell and Heaven, or even the other Purgatory. We just move on like the journey of life. We can’t move back. We have to accept the ---truth.” Dante glared at Virgil. “The few times when you called on me, I am not upset at you. I am just making the point here when you see me undecided or having misgivings. I was just myself. The living soul decides or tries then. We take chances in our life. And sometimes, choices are made towards us. Wrath was one, and here, we try to purge it so we can be a better soul.”

“I can relate to that but for now, I can see. There is no more darkness. They shifted the darkness away.” Dante was still fixated on the darkness. Virgil remained silent. He sensed Dante’s mood then which was a relief to see once more with his sight when they should be on their walk. Virgil wanted to understand it all and even to say he was sorry but that was not in his program. He then voiced to Dante.

“The choir needs an answer. They want your and not mine.”

“Yes, I am alive,” Dante told the choir. He then hesitated. “Why am I here?”

“We don’t have the answers to your whereabouts. All we can say was that the darkness was to veil you as like those who had not been purged of the sins of wrath. When you countered the sin of wrath, the darkness was lifted from you. Since you are with us, the darkness had lifted but once we move on, it will engulf us once more.” The one who spoke among the choir explained. It was a man. "If not, it would have absorbed you like us and we have an eternity to correct our wrath.”

“I can lead you out. You saw the darkness fades from me.” Dante replied. “I am with God. I can save you.”

“Should you stay with us, that will be passed your timeline of living and then we are alone again. We are not living souls. That intrigued us hence our line of question. We are all dead souls here and that included those who had left us when their purge was done. But we never had one like you. You are alive.”

“Here I am alive.” Dante looked at the other. “I was tasked to come here by God. I am to journey through Hell and now Purgatory to understand the works here. I know ----”

“Dante, you can’t tell.”. It was Virgil who interjected then. “But you can ask them how we can move on.”

“We are intrigued.” The lady in the choir spoke. It was then the choir group started to singing but it was not in sync. The lady was into the singing and then turned to Dante.

“We seem to hit a snag; pardon the expression but we need to move on.” The lady turned to walk. Virgil stepped forth to stop them.

“Before we ---part ways, can you tell us the next path to take?” Virgil asked to cut in.

“The part ahead is in you. You have been purged of your wrath. That means you are cleared to move on. We, however, have to serve ours and not ours to guide.” The choir choose to move then but one stood back.

“Then we are lost, Poet.” Virgil snared in his expression. It was then another trailing the choir approached Dante.

“I am a Lombardo. I am named Marco” The man there introduced himself. “I have yet to serve my sin of wrath but I can show you the right path ahead. I can’t leave for I am still in me that anger of God and us, the living.”