Dante Book IV Canto II Scene II

Canto II

From Hell to Eternity

Scene II

The voice of the Celestial Pilot was mechanical in tone. It stood taller than Dante, with its frame covered by the loose tunic over the guard uniform, and the hood over the head. It was the hands that displayed the metallic entity. I was to reply when Cato did the unplanned. The holographic image projected an energy surge on the mechanical pilot. The Celestial Pilot reeled backward with its arms raised before Cato’s energy zapped its server and shut it down.

“We can move now. I have momentarily shut off the Celestial Pilot.” Cato spoke to Dante.

Dante looked at the newly arrived group, manacled and dreed in the orange overalls like the earlier group. They looked in disbelief at where they were. One of the newly arrived approached me.

“Do tell us where are we? And how can we get to Purgatory? We are ready to be purged of our sins.” The one spoke in enthusiasm.

Dante was to speak when Cato spoke instead.

“You must be told that we are pilgrims like all of you. We came just now, a while before you, by another ---a vessel which was rough and difficult as though the journey was --- unimaginable.”

The one who listened to Cato saw then Dante’s uniform.

“He is an Angel too.” Dante has soon swamped the newly arrived group. Dante held out his arms towards them but his outreached arms did not feel them. His outreached arms returned to his bosom empty. He looked to Cato, and the other shook his head. Dante was baffled.

“I cannot feel him. He is ---” One among the group called out. “The Guard is an Angel.”

The ones that were trying to hold Dante departed and bow towards him. Dante was motioned to step aside by Cato.

“What did happen there?” Dante asked.

“You ---- They saw you as an Angel. When you were imprisoned in Hell, you may have felt that you met the souls there. You may have the impression that you were a living being but actually, you are like them; a living soul.” Cato looked at him. It then struck at Dante who was in disbelief at the thought he may be after all not dead. “You are still in it--- the prison although you visualize yourself fighting the Doctor and leaving it.”

“You have not,” Cato told him. “You are still in the prison but at a different stage. Or rather, your soul is stuck here. You are like in a dream within a dream, and still dreaming.”

“Am I dead?”

“No, you are not. Not technically but your ---soul was extracted from your physical form while you were in Hell, or rather while you were in the torture chamber. That I learned from the Doctor’s notes.”

“Where ----What happens to my soul? My physical body?” Dante was aghast that he may have been dead after all. At that moment, he was the dead one among the livings.

“I can’t explain it all but the answer remained inside the prison. That is why we need to go back in. Your soul is there and your body is in Limbo at the very top of the structure., I knew that from the server.” Cato looked to Dante for his acknowledgment but then the other was in a bit of a bind.

“How can that be? I escaped Hell, and ---” Dante was not going to accept the explanation.

“Dante, you escaped Hell and now proceeding to Purgatory but you are still a prisoner here like them. Your soul existed here. You need to find your body to be complete.”

“What of them?” Dante asked Cato.

“They will be fine. We have to leave them here. Let them pranced around singing praises or idling their soul here.” Cato spoke. “It’s not a choice we have here. It’s Purgatory. They are not deserving yet.”

“What do you mean to deserve? They are here not of their own will.” Dante asked. “They will stand a chance to know the truth here. Then they will do the needed like an escape.”

“Unfortunately, they are not ready for it. Their souls are trapped here. If we were to tell them that, they will go insane or worse, be overtaken by a frenzy to kill. I think it will be fine as it’s until you have done your task. We need to move.”

“You are mad like the Doctor.” Dante then looked at the pilot. “What of the ---Pilot?”  

“The Pilot will be fine. It’s a program and was momentarily attacked on the server. The unit will be active shortly and will reboot its server. It will not recall the incident here and will return for a full diagnostic on its server. During then, we will be gone. You and ---”

“Dante? Do you remember me?” It was the voice of the past for Dante.

“Casella?” Dante looked at the lady in the orange overall.

“Yes, it’s me. I am here. Are you ---” Dante was a lot for words towards Casella She was Beatrice’s friend and was missing for some years? She was assumed dead by the authorities.

“How did you get here?” Casella asked and Dante evaded the question.

“I was ---dead and was in Hell. I was sentenced to the Second Circle there.” Casella muttered out. “It was my sin to ---love you when I knew you were for Beatrice.”

Lust was a sin that was punished in the Second Circle of Hell. There was one other I knew who was there; Francesca da Rimini. She was innocent of lust in his view but seek her real love. Even God may have erred in serving the punishment as it was Casella.

“Why did you not tell me of this?” Dante asked.

“We were close, all three of us but I was the bystander in your eyes. You loved Beatrice and when she left you, you were heartbroken. I had sent you a poem of our love but you ignore it.”

Dante recalled the poem she sent to me. It read in his mind as I was reading it then.

Love, which in gentlest hearts will soonest bloom
  seized my lover with a passion for that sweet body
  from which I was torn unshriven to my doom.
Love, which permits no loved one not to love,
  took me so strongly with delight in him
  that we are one in Hell, as we were above.
Love led us to one death. In the depths of Hell
  Caïna waits for him who took our lives."
  This was the piteous tale they stopped to tell.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)#Second_Circle_(Lust)).

Dante said to himself that he was the fool then. He wanted to tell her otherwise but she stopped him.

“There is no need to explain yourself. I am relieved to be going to Heaven. And seeing you here eased my mind.” Casella was ever the generous one. I was to tell her that she may not be in the real Purgatory but a version that was demented.

“We must leave, Dante.” It was Cato who motioned him to leave then. The wall before them slid open and the group there dispersed inside. I was to follow suit unsure of his existence anymore. At that moment, it was not the thoughts of Casella but Beatrice.

“Go with him, Dante Alighieri. We were not meant to be together in this lifetime. Maybe next.” Casella called out to him before she returned to the others.