Dante VII Canto XXIII Scene III

 Canto XXIII

Sixth Terrace; Stefan Bocci

Scene III

Dante was into his thoughts and found himself trailing the two constructs in the walk. He was thinking of the conversation; noir you do not converse with a construct. You discussed the issue.

“How close am I before the ---illusion will dissolve?” Dante asked himself. He knew, no he believed himself to be in a dream; an illusion of the mind. Or was it the soul but Dante questioned his very existence then.

“Maybe all this is unreal?” Dante probed his mind. “How would I know? I am a poet and words are my creation, not programs.”

“Ma dimmi, e come amico mi perdona . . . e come amico omai meco ragiona” (But tell me, and, as a friend, forgive me, as a friend, exchange your words with me). Dante heard the words spoken to him. He looked to whom was talking to him.

“What did you just say, Virgil?” Dante asked. He felt his jaw, and it was aching.

“It was not me. You were saying that over and over in your words.” Virgil looked hard into Dante’s eyes. “I could not scan you for you are --- not a construct. So, I had to wake you. I had to induce pain. You fell asleep and had to wake up.”

“Where is Statius?” Dante looked around.

“Who? Statius? He was not with us. We left him behind on the last Terrace. Why do you ask?” Virgil looked at Dante.

“He was with us. He was ---talking to you. He was your previous version. He ---”

“Stop it, Poet. You are confused. We --- Statius, were not with us. He ---”

“No, Virgil. He was with us. He fought off the harpies at the Tree.” Dante insisted on the presence of Statius.

“No, Poet. He was never with us. He came, he met you and left us alone.” Virgil explained. “I saved you from the Tree. I had the orb to stop the harpies as before. We defeated the Tree.”

“What of the souls trapped there?” Dante asked. “I believed their souls are in tree---no, it’s the leaves. The Fig tree leaves are the souls trapped in that form. When we terminated the tree, it will terminate the leaves. Those souls will be lost. It was seen when Jesus terminated the Fig Tree, as a means of those who are not with the God will be removed ---terminated. I was in the forest --- and there were trees before I arrive here. There were ---"

“Stop it, Poet. They are still there in the virtual realm.” Virgil replied. “We severed the Tree link to the server but the souls are stored elsewhere. You cannot draw the parable of the Book to the realm here. Nothing here is ever real. You know it and to --- get us --- and them out of this realm, we need to get out first.”

“No, I cannot leave them to perish there.” Dante was emotional. “I need to re-trace my journey. Maybe the start will let me know what I am to do. We could go back to Limbo in Hell.”

“Look, Poet. Limbo is the past as we had traversed that. I was from there or rather my version of Limbo. I was kept on the server as a dormant program. I know what it feels like to be dormant or in limbo. I am not going back. You are to move on. We are out of time. Every time you slipped into your rest, we lose time, and we are a clocking run. We need to move.” Virgil pulled Dante along.

“Virgil, what is time for you?  You are a construct. You are not alive.” Dante resisted the push to move. “Unlike you, we can’t --- you met Statius. Do you know of --- him? From before? Dante asked while keeping a pact with Virgil.

“Yes, I have records of him. He was kept dormant until recently but he had moved on.” Virgil sighed. “Our creator had left some of his program inside mine. But he never was with us soon after. Those programs were our link. I was more advanced in the design.”

“The living had some what we termed as memories of the past --- the ones we were with once before. Time moved us ahead and during the movement of time, the living with us will become memories. I had memories of Statius with us. You cannot deny me that memory. Show me the orb.” Dante looked around him.

“Why? The --- orb went ahead to scout the terrain. We are at the end of Purgatory and ---” Virgil was cut off.

“Recall it back, the orb. I need to --- communicate with it.” Dante pressed on. “It may tell me of Statius.”

“I can’t. The orb is my server. I am the program.” Virgil hit back. “I can’t recall the orb. It commands me.”

“I doubt it so,” Dante said. “I am beginning to doubt it all here. I am ---of the mind that all of this may be unreal. You--- me and even them.”

“Yes, Dante. That last part you mentioned is right. We are all unreal here. We are in a virtual world which we need to get out to be alive. That you have to believe in to get us to complete the task. Once we are out, then you can believe what else is there. For now, we need to move.” Virgil hit the point into Dante. “Don’t ever doubt me anymore or I will be ---terminated from you.”

With that, Virgil took on the lead once more. Dante staggered behind and looked back. He was sure he was being watched. Maybe it was his mind, paranoia had crept in or madness was in him.

“Madness---” Dante mumbled. “What should be is not and ---”

“To be or not to be—” Dante heard the words spoken to him. Those words were from Shakespeare's play in Hamlet. The soliloquy is essentially all about life and death: "To be or not to be" means "To live or not to live" (or "To live or to die"). Hamlet discusses how painful and miserable human life is, and how death (specifical suicide) would be preferable, would it not be for the fearful uncertainty of what comes after death. (https://blog.prepscholar.com/to-be-or-not-to-be-soliloquy).

Dante stopped in his walk and looked at the voice.

“You --- are Stefan. You ---- died in the forest.” Dante recalled the soul standing there. It was the Sergeant Stefan of his squad. He was with the non-commissioned officer in the forest when the other went off to look for another member of the squad. The Sergeant was not his old self. He looked gaunt and his facial expression was devoid of skin and bones. His brow and nose were shaped like the word ‘M” with the two eyes sunken into the hollow of the face like the ‘O’. It was the look of the emancipated. He was part of the group of similar gaunt-looking souls, with only their lips moving. Dante leaned to hear their words.

“Labia me, Domine” (Have mercy upon me, O God.). This is a blessing that I have received from God.” Stefan cried out in glee. He stepped away from the group who were still singing in the low tone for that was all they could utter given their emancipated state.

“Ah, strive not with the dry scab that discolors my skin nor with my lack of flesh.” Stefan wiped his brow and looked yonder at the one who was with Dante. “But tell me that truth of thyself; and who is that who yonder make an escort for thee.”

“Thy face which once I wept for dead now gives me no less grief for weeping seeing it so disfigured.” Dante was choked for emotions then.

“Am I, learned one? If you recall the lesson that I taught you. Life as a journey held a start and it had to end.”

“It was the first lesson you taught me when I joined the squad.” Dante smiled at the Sergeant. We shared some personal moments then.”

The Sergeant had taken to Dante and shared some sharing moments.

“Yes, in the war, we may die but don’t despair. When it was to end, we have to decide or it was decided for us; that we are to die for we have lived. We come here and purge our sins. We then live on in a different world.” Stefan looked to the group moving on without him. “Like them, they are to be purged of their sin. I will be too. It was in the Book.”