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| The Rite of Spring: Fragment 48 | ||||
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| the auditor sums up | ||||
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| The Rite of Spring: Fragment 48 | ||||
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| the auditor sums up | ||||
You will recall that early in the season of the Cock, we were alerted by people of this House serving at Midnightsfoot to the fact that both the Eye and the Foot were showing interest in the person of one Aonan a'Aonach, daughter of the Chieftain of the Rhiconaiach, a sept of the warlike Rhiconicfhearchaorusduadh. This House makes little study of matters beyond the Rim, and while I myself saw the note, neither I nor anyone else in my section realised the importance of this information. Consequently it was filed and forgotten.
It was almost a season later, on the first Stomach of the present season, that a report arrived from Gleandon, our Auditor at Horsewatersmeet, concerning the arrest of a woman for blasphemy. The woman was described simply as young, and her name was given as 'Anan'; consequently, this report was not correlated with the earlier one. My assistants asked the Hand to bring the woman into the City, as they felt this was likely to be convenient. She arrived on the second Nose, and she was interviewed the following day.
She was dressed in the clothing of the Hand, and appeared simply dirty and truculent. She affected a speech defect. She was not recognise as a foreigner. As she was, or claimed to be, illiterate, it was not possible to obtain a definite form of her name, but the patronymic a'Aonach was recorded. Apart from this, the interview was largely unsuccessful. We did not establish whether the blasphemy was intended, who the woman was, or anything else of use.
Consequently, when the report was prepared for the God for the second Ear of the Cunt, she was described simply as Anan a'Aonach, a young dark-skinned female. Later that day, while correlating, one of my assistants turned up the previous reference, and brought the matter to me. By this time, of course, the judgement had been given. I spoke informally with the Intelligencer of the Foot. He appeared genuinely appalled at my news, that she was in the Place at all, and that she was being held, but most of all by the judgement. He said that Aonan was at that moment perhaps the most critical person in the developing barbarian wars; that the proposed action would almost certainly be construed as the Place taking the part of the Coiremhiconicfhearchaorusduadh; and that this in turn would probably lead to the blockading of the Midnight and Sunset passes, which are effectively controlled by the Rhiconicfhearchaorusduadh.
I passed this information to the Ear to Heaven, who, I understand, made urgent representations to the House of the Cock. Unfortunately, while understanding the position, the Cock did not feel in a position to delay or otherwise modify the judgement.
Nothing else of importance occurred in this matter until the evening of the second Cunt. I have learned through informal sources within the House of the Cock that, at sometime during this evening, a friend of the prisoner's broke in to the House and substituted herself for Aonan. Aonan herself then crossed the river to the Guard, who were her fellow clansmen. We do not know why she did this, but it may be that she had messages to carry to them, or else was seeking refuge with them; otherwise it is very hard to understand why she should be in the Place at all. The friend, whose name is not known, was not detected until the Rite was already in progress. Following the rite, the unknown woman, together with the First of the House of the Cock, also went across the river.
The following morning, being the morning of the third Foot of the Cunt, the Ear to Heaven was summoned to the Gate, and, as you will recall, this House together with the Hand was given the task of clearing up the Doorstep, and expelling the surviving Guard from the Place. In fact, of the four hundred Guardsmen, only forty-seven remained alive. Of the remainder, bodies of three hundred and twenty have been accounted for, leaving eleven still missing. Bodies of twelve women, apparently concubines, were also found, as were fourteen live women. Neither Aonan, her friend, nor the erstwhile First of the Cock were found, either alive or dead. It is possible that this group, together with some or all of the missing Guardsmen, made their escape from the Doorstep, most probably by boat. However, there is no evidence to support this supposition.
Of the survivors, none were willing to talk. Consequently it is not possible to make a definite report of what had happened. There seems little doubt that the woman Aonach was not recognised by her clansmen, and was maltreated by some of them. This may have been the spark which started the battle, although it is interesting to note that the fighting does not appear to have started until the evening of the second Cock, just after the arrival of the pair who had celebrated the Rite. There can be no doubt that the battle was intense. However, it is not certain that it accounted for the majority of the casualties. Many of the deaths appear to have occurred in consequence of falls from upper parts of the thousand steps. But the majority of all the deaths appear to result from some sort of ritual mass suicide.
From what we have been able to piece together we believe that Aonan and the other two fled up the thousand steps to escape the battle. They were in turn followed by the victorious party, and were cornered on the top platform. There was then a miraculous appearance of the God in the form of a dragon, who drove the warriors away whilst protecting Aonan and her party.
Points particularly worthy of note in this account are, it seems to me, as follows. The person described as Aonan's 'friend' was able to break into a locked and guarded cell on the upper floor of the tower of the House of the Cock, and to facilitate the escape of a prisoner from it. This person was then able to successfully impersonate the prisoner for an extended period while in the immediate presence of people who were familiar with that prisoner. When this person reached the Doorstep, the Guard at once fell to fighting among themselves as if maddened. When this person again found Aonan, a miraculous event occurred.
My belief is that this was a divine intervention. All of the feats ascribed to the supposed friend are remarkable under any other construction. Furthermore, the antecedents of this person, prior to her freeing Aonan, cannot be traced. Finally, the God appears to be following a new and much more dynamic policy. I feel we must conclude that there is a new incarnation, and that these events were precipitated by the incarnation, for divine purposes.
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