Omega (7) "How do you manage to afford all this?" "It's amazing how much a small investment can accumulate over a few centuries, let alone a few millennia. I've always been very careful to invest wisely, although I've lost a several fortunes in my time! The cumulative gain on capital over that time, with quite a respectable long term growth rate, particularly accelerated over recent centuries, has made me altogether immoderately rich." "If you're so rich why visit a small village like Gotesdene?" I wondered. The Unicorn chose not to answer, but turned his head round to look sympathetically at the witch in the stocks. Nobody was throwing anything at her now, but the face, arms and legs protruding through the stocks were covered in a mess of blood, vegetables and rotten fruit. Her head was dangling to one side, eyes bruised and swollen, and her hair tangled in the mess adhering to it. The Unicorn turned his head back to me, raising his eyebrows sadly while slowly shaking his head to one side. "Wherever I go," he said resignedly, "there is always cruelty and injustice. As you can see, Gotesdene is no different! "So, tell me about the Suburbs," asked the Unicorn, concentrating his gaze at me. "It's very different from here, isn't it?" "Very much so," I agreed. "People live in much nicer houses, wear much better made clothes and the streets are much cleaner. There are wastepaper bins on alternate lampposts where people throw their litter, so there isn't nearly as much filth. There are electric lighting, motor cars and no goats and oxen wandering around." "It sounds almost sterile..." "Yes, it's very clean and tidy," I agreed. "I can see that can be viewed as a great asset," mused the Unicorn. "I've heard that it doesn't contain quite the variety and spread of individuals as even places like this. And it also has no witches, I suppose?" "None that I've ever heard of. And no Unicorns or White Elephants either!" "So, why then have you left a place of such great material comfort and apparent orderliness for a place like this?" I then told the Unicorn of my search for the Truth, which had only so far led me by train to the village of Gotesdene. "I can assure you that if the Truth exists in Gotesdene, it's eluded me!" The Unicorn laughed. "Did you seriously think you might find it here?" "I was sure I couldn't find it in the Suburbs. The White Elephant said that the Truth was revealed in numerology and the four elements." "You've spoken to the mayor, have you? I imagine he would think that the Truth was something that could be reduced to a simple set of axioms. It seems to me that if that were the case, then such views would never have been modified and certainly never discarded, as they mostly have been, in favour of science and logic. I'd have thought that the Truth would be more obviously self-evident than that!" "Do you know where I might find the Truth?" "Goodness me!" Laughed the Unicorn shaking his muzzle from side to side, his long horn narrowly avoiding grazing me. "I may have lived a long time and gained a great deal of wisdom in that time. I may have done many things, met many people and seen many places. But I am not one who has ever found the Truth. If I had, I daresay I might truly possess all the healing powers attributed to me. No! The Truth is as much a mystery to me as it quite evidently is to you. But you aren't the first person I've ever met on a quest for the Truth, but known by completely different names." "Have any of these people ever found the Truth, do you know?" "Well, many of them have found something, and sometimes it's been what they were looking for, but I don't believe that what they'd found constitutes what you might call the Truth. Quite often they've had to slay dragons, fight monsters and do some quite gruesome things to get whatever it was, but the rewards of their quest never seem to have changed the world appreciably for the better. However, don't be too downhearted. There's no particular reason, I imagine, why you need not be successful where others have failed." "Do you have any advice as to where I should look?" The Unicorn raised his muzzle and looked up at the mid-afternoon sun and the oak-leaves rustling in the light breeze. He then lowered his head, kicked a cloven foot on the dry earth raising a small cloud of orange dust, and whinnied again. "Not in Gotesdene. In fact, I'd advise you to leave Gotesdene before nightfall. There's no hostelry of any description where you would be welcomed to stay and it's quite likely that one of the villagers might get the idea that because you're a stranger to the village, you must therefore be a witch..." "They wouldn't think that would they!" "Even if they didn't, they may not be particularly sympathetic to someone who dresses and behaves so very unlike themselves. If I were you, I'd look for a different place to stay for the night." "But where could I go?" I wondered, having rather hoped that I could stay at a motel or bed-and-breakfast in the village. "There are other towns and villages around here. I don't know how far you'd have to walk, but I'm sure you'll find one soon. Some are likely to be a great deal more to your taste than this Anglo-Saxon relic. There's a religious community near here. I don't know anything about it, but monks have been famous for their hospitality throughout history." The Unicorn looked towards the distance and saw a gathering of people around the White Elephant near the market stalls. "I think my presence may be required," he commented. He raised a hoof and gently pawed my leg. He wished me luck in my quest and then strode unhurriedly towards the White Elephant, his leonine tail raised high above his head. As he passed by the villagers, they bowed their heads deferentially to him, which he acknowledged with a nod of his head and a gesture of his tail. I lingered by the stone cross and pondered the Unicorn's advice. As my eyes wandered about the village and focused on the unfortunate and now unconscious figure of the witch, I decided that although his wisdom might not encompass the Truth, his advice to leave should not be disregarded. I stood up and strode cautiously across the common land and through the village gates. The road outside wound off in one direction towards the station and in the other towards unfamiliar destinations listed by a wooden signpost. I had some difficulty deciphering the names from the peculiar runic characters, which may have been Anglo-Saxon handwriting or just random doodlings. It was probably not going to take me any nearer to the Truth to go back where I'd come from, so I decided to advance in the opposite direction. I threw the last of my farthings at some very grateful peasants and while they squabbled over them, I headed off alongside the unenclosed fields towards the sun's afternoon aurora. 4 Dark shadows from lush foliage fringed the road leading from the farmland of Gotesdene to a district where only the occasional tethered ox enlivened the orderly, monotonous rows of vegetable and root crops. These were regimented by an unending line of posts supporting barbed wire fences to thwart the encroachment of undesired intruders. At regular intervals signs warned me not to leave the path nor to appropriate what was not mine. At one stage, I observed a very despondent merman tethered just like the oxen, with a sign hanging round his neck and a black hood covering his face and head. He was too far away across the fields for me to decipher the writing on the sign. The flat, grey paving stones of the road were undeniably better maintained than before, as also was the lethal barbed wire supported by posts in the grey earth, which had caught and killed the odd unfortunate song bird. It was getting late in the afternoon, but, as everywhere was so dark and grey, it seemed much later, although the sky was no less blue nor the sun less golden. It was almost ominously quiet. There were no song birds and the only sound was the gentle rustle of a light breeze through the stiff orderly lines of cabbages, swedes and turnips. Initially, I welcomed this tidier, more orderly, environment. It had evoked the care and attention I was accustomed to in the Suburbs, rather than the dirt and decay I had so recently left. However, after a few miles, I hankered for a break in the monotony or just the sight of other people. I had the distinct feeling that I was trespassing, although I'd seen no signs warning me off private property or informing me that I would be prosecuted. After more than an hour of walking between the barbed wire and the infrequent dark shadowy tree, I came in sight of a moderately large sign under which sat a hunched-up figure wearing a long black gown and a tall black hat. The sign informed me that I was in The Borough of Divinity and underneath was copious small writing that I couldn't decipher until I came fairly close. It was a list of rules and regulations pertaining to the borough. Just behind the dark figure was a signpost which pointed in four directions ahead - two indicating Divinity that were nonetheless in opposite directions, one which read The Delta and the fourth which pointed to Endon. As I approached, the figure in the cloak scrutinised me silently and curiously, while I debated which of these four directions I should take. He was small and thin and his head was shaven. He turned to stare at me, but made no attempt to acknowledge my presence. "Excuse me," I ventured after a while. "Where would you recommend I go?" The figure cleared his throat, apparently resenting being addressed. After a moment of uneasy deliberation, he informed me that one direction led to the Holy Parish of the Divinity of Christ, which was the true and rightful administrator of the Borough of Divinity. The other direction, misleadingly also known as 'Divinity', was the heretical Parish of the Divinity of Christ the Lord. The borough, especially that part under the jurisdiction of the Holy Parish, was one which took true and unsinful pride in its status as a truly Holy borough in which the Word of The Son, the Father and the Holy Ghost was maintained as law and guiding principle. It was a district that welcomed with open arms all right-thinking people who honestly practised the precepts of the Holy and Sacred Scriptures, and who had surrendered their will and worldly goods to the greater good of the One True Religion of Jesus Christ Our Lord. He didn't know from his brief acquaintance of me whether I were a Christian: one who followed the dictates of Our Saviour and not the heretical opinions of the Pope, the AntiChrist or the Devil (who are but one in their sin and heresy). Only a true Christian, however, would be welcome within the walls of the Holy Parish. His opinion at seeing my uncovered head and hands (he sniffed disapprovingly) was that I was no Christian. At least not a Christian who followed the true Word of the Lord as faithfully practised by the good Christian people of the Holy Parish. Even those of the misguided and despicable Parish of the Divinity of Christ the Lord covered these extremities and purged their scalp of the vanity of hair. If I were to have any likelihood of entering the Holy Parish I would be obliged to at least cover my hair with a hat, several of which were provided, with accompanying gowns, in a chest by his side, for strangers such as I. He advised me to cover myself without delay if I were to stay any longer within the borough. I decided it was advisable to heed the pious gentleman, and selected a tall hat large enough to cover all my hair, which I was assured would need to be removed within hours of entering the parish walls, and a long black gown which shrouded me almost to my feet. While I was dressing, the gentleman commented that I must be speculating why a devout Christian such as he was sitting alone outside the walls of the Parish, when all good Christians were at prayer or devotion secure within the welcoming confines of the Chapel and not out in the open air, imperilled by temptation and sin. He explained that he was in fact on indefinite exile from the Parish for committing the unforgivable and irredeemable sins of garrulity, irreverent laughter, vile thoughts and oversleeping. Sins for which he was pleased to do penance, awaiting a decision from the Priests of the Holy Parish, and the Lord God Our Maker who guides their deliberations, that he had atoned for his sins and could now be rehabilitated into the community. In the meantime, he was to spend his days working on the fields with his comrades - never to utter one word to them on pain of more severe punishment - and his nights here, at the foot of the sign, in contemplation of the great mercy and goodness of Our Father Who Art in Heaven. When not praying, he would recite approved texts from the Holy Scriptures and flagellate himself with the barbed wire provided. In this way God the Most Wise and Merciful would see the sincerity of his penance and the degree to which he regretted his transgressions. The practices of the Holy Parish of the Divinity of Christ were derived from the classical wisdom of the great prophet, Saint Isaac Newton, who in his religious and secular writings had divined the profoundest depths and meanings of the Christian faith as it should be practised. A faith that had strayed too far over the centuries from the original fundamental tenets as preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, under the lax and heretical guidance of the Papists, the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Anabaptists, the Mormons and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. A faith which had schismed so many times that it was only in the pure unadulterated vision of the Great Saint, who had divined the Noble Principles of Force and Motion, that it had regained the clarity and purity of Our Saviour's Own Truth. There are Four Pillars of the Faith practised by Deists, as the good Christians of the Holy Parish are known by others blinkered by liberal ungodly interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. The First Pillar (1) is that of Unquestioning Faith. Man was not created by God to question His Laws or His Desires. What is Good is what the Lord dictates. What He wishes must be Good, because all that is Good is also the Wish of God. It is a Sin to question the Letter of Holy Writ, to even suggest that there may be error, misinterpretation or inconsistency. It is a Sin to even hint that one quarter of one word of the Law as interpreted by the Priests of the Holy Parish is anything but the complete and accurate precept of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Together with Unquestioning Faith is the Second Pillar (2) which is the Absolute Observation of Ritual. When Jesus Christ commanded Christians to pray at regular and frequent times of the day, to Labour not on the seventh day - the Day of Creation - and to attend Church regularly to voice praise, these were not meant as options for Christians to follow. Rather as an ox must be tethered to prevent its escape, so too must Christians be tethered or bound to the Rituals which characterise the One and Only True Church. The Third Pillar (3) is that of an Ascetic Rejection of Material Values. Material possessions and the means of measuring them by reference to groats, shillings or florins were forbidden in the Holy Parish. A Good Christian must follow the example of Our Saviour who had no possessions of His own, as they were held entirely by the Church and in turn by God the Father. A Christian Man must not own his own ox, woman or slave. Possession is clearly the begetter of the Sins of Avarice and Greed, which along with the Five others (especially Lust), must be extirpated forever if Satan and his hounds of Hell are to be held at bay. Not only must Material Values be rejected, but there must be conformance to the Fourth Pillar (4) which is Rejection of Spiritual Corruption. Satan is everywhere, ready to corrupt the Good Christian Soul as he endeavoured so unsuccessfully with Our Saviour. Nobody can hope to withstand the Temptations of the Devil as well as Our Lord Jesus Christ, so it is an Eternal Unceasing Struggle. Spiritual Corruption is the deadliest and most difficult of the Evils to ward off. It can lead to Atheism, Agnosticism or Heresy. Doubts as to the Perfection of Creation. Philosophical debate on the nature of Morality and Knowledge. Non-acceptance of class, status, race or gender, and one's own position in the Hierarchy of Creation, a Hierarchy headed by the Priests and Angels, under which, in descending order, are Men, Women, Negroes, Animals, Monsters, Demons and Cats. All such propositions are diabolic, and only an unflinching and Total rejection of such luxurious unGodly doubts and discussion can possibly be tolerated by the Good Christian. I was not convinced that I really wanted to visit either of the Parishes of Divinity, so I asked the Exile if he could tell me about the other two destinations indicated by the signpost. He assured me that his knowledge of them was not based on personal experience, for he knew better than to risk Eternal Damnation by visiting known refuges of the Devil, but what he knew convinced him that it was better for all men, and not just Christians, to forsake these districts. In comparison to these, even the heretical Parish of the Divinity of Christ the Lord was a preferable destination. In one direction was the Insect City of Endon which must forever be Damned for four reasons that were as follows. The First Reason (and one which alone must surely give me pause to think) is that the inhabitants are not Human and are therefore in no hope of Salvation. No Animal can be Blessed - and for that reason no Animal is ever permitted into the Holy Parish of the Divinity of Christ. The oxen who labour on the fields are permitted outside its walls, but never within, only insofar as they must never speak a word on pain of death and must only be seen as Beasts of Burden, for which all Animals were Created by Our Maker. The inhabitants of Endon are all insects - and such insects! Many as tall as a Man, if not taller, and pretend to Rights and Privileges which no Animal, nor even a Woman, would be permitted in Divinity. Even insects of more moderate proportions were not permitted within the Borough of Divinity: a principle which partly inconvenienced the Good Christians of the Holy Parish in that the fertilisation of all flowering crops had to be done methodically by artificial means, but one which denied the Parishioners of much disease and all pestilence. The Second Reason is that the inhabitants do not recognise the Primacy of the One True Faith as practised in the Holy Parish. There are some Insects who claim to be Christians, but how can this be when they deny the superiority of Man over Arthropods or indeed any other Animal? It is true that the Borough of Divinity is a tiny island of Sanity and Virtue amidst an ocean of heresy, blasphemy and apathy, and in that regard the City of Endon may be thought no worse than the Suburbs, Lambdeth, Delta or elsewhere; but it is no less the Damned for that.
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