Dante VI Canto XX Scene 11

 Canto XX

Fifth Terrace; Avarice

Scene II

“Hail Mary!” The hail of the sweet mother of the Son could be heard from a distance ahead from Dante. He rushed ahead and saw the group of souls laying on the ground as seen by him earlier; faced down but they were lying in circles facing each other with each circle larger. They were singing in praise of Mother Mary reciting it thrice. The three Hail Marys are an expression of special communion with God's grace as it expresses itself in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. This is the spirit in which we should say the rosary: with faith, hope, and charity similar to that of Mary. The rosary is more than a prayer.

“Earlier we met those who thought themselves as equal of God; avarice was their sin. It as there can be no kingdom with two Kings, and only one may rule supreme.” Virgil had said earlier.

“That was why the Empire split into two, as seen in the archives, Rome was one, and so were many before and after it. There can be no state too huge for managing it will be difficult. Just as an old tree, may grow big in time, but if its roots are not firm, it will collapse eventually. There will be a beginning and the end.”

“You are mistaken, Poet. Some trees grew huge and tall over the years, and many fell not to their doing but the acts of others. It may not be Man-made alone but some were due to nature or the call of conditions that prevailed then.”

“I won’t go into that now. I need to hear these souls. They called on Holy Mary for some reason.” Dante approached the circle of souls, stepping over one other to reach the first circle. He counted nine of them. They were linked by the hands on the feet of the one forward. The inner-circle was lined by joint hands. He leaned down to speak to the one there.

“Why did you call on the Holy Mother Mary?” Dante asked.

“Mary had nothing when she gave birth to the one who was to lead us out of the wrong way. She did it in a stable when there were no rooms nearby in. It was hardly a choice then. As we are all here.” The one spoke and then asked. “Who are you? You are different.”

“My name is Dante, and I ---- new here.”

“I am Hugh Capet, named after the King who founded the French Kingdom then. I am not him but I have done my deed worthy of the famed Capet. We are imprisoned here. I am ---”

“I heard of you, Hugh Capet. You are the one who initially rebel against the Empire. You were the leader then but you disappeared soon. Never was seen or heard of for some time.” Dante looked at the one there. “How come you knew ---”

“You knew too. I’ll be thankful if you lie down like us. Link hands with us. The Harpies will be back.” The two linked with Hugh Capet crawled backward giving their spaces to Dante and Virgil. The y moved back and joined with the ones in the middle circle.

Dante and Virgil did as he was told overlapping their hands with the others, and it was only seconds before the harpies arrived. They lay still while listening to the singing. The harpies hovered and soon left to find new pastures or hunting grounds.

“We can talk like this. We did not escape Hell to get captured here.” The one named Hugh Capet spoke.

“I don’t understand,” Dante said to the other. “We ---”

“You are part of the rogue program. And you are Dante inserted in recently and having escaped the Hell; you were placed there by the Doctor perhaps. We think it was ---- no, we knew. We have been around in here. I started from the core again, and then inserted in the bugs or rogue routines.”

“How long were you in here?” Dante turned his face to look at the others. “All of you?”

“Yes, and no. I was the first, and then came my new associates, and then there are some we rescued. We know we are not into Purgatory; the proper one. We are in a prison; a virtual one.” The one named Hugh Capet spoke. “I had that name inserted and blended in from Hell to here. I had to learn the prison from the inside out to destroy it. Your insertion was not part of the plan but acceptable.”

“You were in Hell?” Dante asked.

“Yes, I was. I was in Limbo when I saw you. I reckoned you being new and lost you for some time, if time could be measured here in his prison, then I saw you at the valley where the sinners conflicted with the serpents. I then asked myself how did you get there so fast. I did some checking, and interact with the other souls. You are special, Dante. You were inserted like me but by a different group. I am not sure who but since you arrived, we saw the new Angels arriving. I kept our profile low.”

“Let us re-track. And stop trying to interact with my programs.” Virgil snapped out. “I am not one of you.”

“Yes, I know. You are VIRGIL designated. When I was here, your creator was still designing you. I am ---Hugh Capet for you. That is my designation. I was inserted into the Supreme Leader’s team to learn what was going to happen and was surprised to see the development of this prison. It's brilliant.”

“So, Hugh Capet rose from the binary bits to a full-fledged insertion program.” Virgil was cynical then. The historical Hugh Capet was the first King of France’ rose from commoner life to be King. “Who are they? The others?”

“Nicholas or rather he called himself Saint Nicholas. He is the bad program who lays breadcrumbs to any programs looking for us. He is so good that we are still here. Tell them, Nicholas.”

“I dropped not bread crumbs but golden bits that lured the programmers. They take it and from there, they will be diverted to dead ends or program termination point.”

“Dante, we are up against the magnanimous developer of his sick program; that was with hints of sarcasm there.” Hugh Capet sniggered. “We were the best and up against some of our better peers, and that brought our game to do better. They try to outdo what we did but we will win.”

“Avarice here and that is a sin.” Dante reminded the other. “We have survived and moved so fast because we remain humble in our quest.”

“I know the score here, Dante. I been here longer and will make it out before you do.” Hugh Capet voiced his confidence. It was then the warning went out. “Just who are you? Dante may be your designation but which division are you from? Intelligence? Covert? Or Dark Ops? Empire? Or Federation?”

“I am --- who I am. I am not any of those. I was from the Volunteers.” Dante defended himself. “I am here to ---”

“A hacker then --- God, we hate and love you guys. You disrupt our works and at the same time, bring out the better of us to fight you.”

“I am not a hacker. I am a ---poet, and here on the orders of ---"

Dante was interrupted by Virgil.

“Dante is a soul misplaced here. He is not a hacker but an academician. I am here with him to get out. We are not any of those you mentioned. Now that you did, I am curious to know your objective.”

“My task is mine, and nothing ---” Hugh Capet was then interrupted by the warning call.

“Harpies! We are found.” The warning came from Nicholas. “Run!”

Dante leaned in the shadow of the ledge overhang. He had fled on his feet; virtual run with leaps with the harpies screeching over his head. He had not looked back but kept his focus on escaping. It happened so fast after Nicholas's warning. Two in the group were snatched off within the warning alert; grabbed by the harpies who resembled a demon in tatters for a cloak, and the dark hood over the face, with the talons on the hands and feet that needed some trimming off. That was not the eerie part; the screeching was loud and irritating.

“Help!” The third one snatched off the surface screamed but the harpies were swift.

“Nicholas!’ Hugh Capet called out to the other.

“I am raising the defenses---” Nicholas had stumbled over the uneven surface. He fell forward and the harpy was diving towards the soul. It suddenly veered off when the orb appeared in between it and the soul. The orb released off a stream of sonar that deterred the harpy off.

“Orb ---- Virgil, it's back.” Dante who was behind Nicholas called out.

“I am busy--- saving your butt. Run faster or ---do whatever needed.” Virgil who was without the sonar tool did the best he could. He ran intervention into the harpy system. It was an intrusion attack and while running, he was adapting the hack tools. He segregated the routines and went for the data packs. He hit the core strands and move to the first of the relaying intersections. He got to the controls and then altered the schematics.

“I got it! Initiating the intervention.” It was not a second too late for three more of Hugh Capet’s group to go into the flight, and then termination. It was then Virgil transmitted the new codes and then harpies in the air went screeching off. The damage was however done.

“I lost six of my group. I am down with Nicholas and Peter. Darn it, Dante. Your presence had jeopardized my effort.” Hugh Capet had reached Dante and took space next to him.

“I did not ---” Dante defended himself. “You were ---”

“We were there to leave this place. I would have found the means to terminate this prison but you ---”

“I did not ---” Dante defended himself again. “You were ---”

“We go separately like before. You do what is needed while we continue.” With that Hugh Capet took off, and Virgil joined Dante.

“Hugh Capet was wrong. We did not bring in the harpies. It was his error. He went to offload his data and got exposed. The circle was not any random design but a communication link among them to analyze the data retrieved.” Virgil told Dante. “We ---”

“Can we move on now? I don’t want to do another run with those screeching demons.” Dante pushed on to leave. The last run-in with the harpies sent him back to his volunteer days; marching, and praying hard that the Federation snipers have him in range.

“We will do so—shortly.” Virgil sensed the uncertainty in Dante. “We have to settle down. We will move from the beginning again. Like the person in the prodigal role.”