Merit

Merit?  What does a foul deformed grotesque obscenity like Saunders merit?  Acid thrown in its dirty animal face to wipe the smirk off for ever?  It’s an animal.  It has no use for language and reason.  It has no ethics.  It is unreachable by love and mind, by human means, a brute beast.  All it understands is force, violence, authority, power. How could it object?

Truss the monster Boden up like a football and kick it around.  It’s an animal.  It has no use for language and reason.  It has no ethics.  It is unreachable by love and mind, by human means, a brute beast.  All it understands is force, violence, authority, power.  How could it object?

The vile mutt-pack, McGuckin, Plucinski, Von Barsewisch, Saunders.  Shoot them all in the spine.  Stand back and jeer at them when the psychopathic vermin scream they can’t walk properly.  Only what they did to me.

Put them in cages in the zoo.  That one might do to an animal.  But of course one would not physically harm an animal  - unless it were a snarling rabid dog, when one would of course put it down.

They are not rabid?

It is worth being exact, since no-one else bothers.  They are not being told to change their foul sexually diseased, psychopathic views.  They are  merely like any other sexually diseased psychopaths, being told to keep their filthy infected claws out of others.  If they cannot, if they will not, then of course they should be incarcerated.  Such of course are their obscene insolence, their psychosis, their conviction of their supremacy, their self-righteousness, that it clearly does not occur to them they could be done by as they do. 

So offer them counselling.  Or just leave them to slobber and jabber and whine and bluster to themselves in a corner

But they can be contained, their poison drawn.  Freedom of speech can be protected from these monstrous diseased and evil animals.  Normal sane decent human beings can be protected from rabid beasts, lunatics who fall on their knees in front of nothing, empty air, schizoids who pray to themselves for the strength to continue to be monstrous diseased and evil animals, delusional grotesques who kid themselves a figment of their imagination they call ‘god’ demands, commands they be monstrous diseased and evil animals.

The diseased and puerile nonsense they call their religion teaches them the diseased and obscene nonsense that it is evil to think, evil to refuse to believe in something invisible, for which there is no evidence whatever.  These creatures are freaks, nutters, loons.  Thus the freak, nutter, loon Murphy O’Connor.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997):
2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith"9 as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations.10

From the inauguration of Cardinal Nichols:
At the installation of the Most Rev Vincent Nichols at Westminster Cathedral, his predecessor, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, described a lack of faith as “the greatest of evils” and blamed atheism for war and destruction, implying that it was a greater evil even than sin itself.....
 
In his homily he said: “Faith in God is not, as some would portray it today, a narrowing of the human mind or spirit. It is precisely the opposite. “Faith in God is the gift that takes us beyond our limited self, with all its incessant demands . . . Some today propose that faith and reason are crudely opposed, with the fervour of faith replacing good reason. This reduction of both faith and reason inhibits not only our search for truth but also the possibility of real dialogue.”
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor went farther. Referring to the battles that will be won and lost in the effort to sustain the Christian presence in secular society, he said: “What is most crucial is the prayer that we express every day in the Our Father, when we say ‘deliver us from evil’. The evil we ask to be delivered from is not essentially the evil of sin, though that is clear, but in the mind of Jesus it is more importantly a loss of faith. For Jesus, the inability to believe in God and to live by faith is the greatest of evils.
“You see the things that result from this are an affront to human dignity, destruction of trust between peoples, the rule of egoism and the loss of peace. One can never have true justice, true peace, if God becomes meaningless to people.”
From The Times, 22nd May 2009, now behind a paywall

To the harmless civilized atheist of course belief in God may seem the principle and explanation of all moral deviations; to many, whether Christian or not, it would seem that on the contrary faith may underpin the clamourings of the limited self, claiming the forcing of its incontinent urges on others has divine sanction; it is love that takes us beyond them. 

A modest Christian education recalls 1 Corinthians:

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Oh how bloody evil to be a rational and loving human being.

Mortal sins are the serious ones.  Like atheism and masturbation.  

Loving God and our neighbor together involves both positive and negative aspects:
practicing the human and supernatural virtues (positive) for love of God as the supreme motive; and avoiding all sins, especially the mortal sins (negative) which are the cause of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death on the Cross. Hence, it is important that every Catholic knows which are the actions he or she, with the help of God’s grace and for love of Him, must avoid. Below you have a general list of mortal sins which is of great use for all. But first, it would be useful to recall the following:

In order to commit a mortal sin, the three following elements  must be simultaneously present:
grave matter, the moral object or content of the action is seriously evil;
full knowledge (or full advertence)- one knows what he or she is doing, and its serious evil content;  and full or deliberate consent – one accepts or tolerates what he or she is doing. The question arises: WHAT MATTERS ARE CONSIDERED GRAVE?

“Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother.’ The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1858).”

SINCE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ARE FORMULATED IN A GENERAL MANNER AND TO HELP PEOPLE DISCERN IF THE MORAL OBJECT OF THEIR ACTIONS ARE OF GRAVE MATTER, BELOW IS A LIST OF MATTERS CONSIDERED GRAVE – WITHOUT PRETENDING TO BE EXHAUSTIVE -, ACCORDING TO COMPENDIUM OF CATHECISM AND THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

1ST Commandment: I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.
Polytheism and idolatry  Superstition which also expresses itself in various forms of divination, magic, sorcery and spiritism. Irreligion which is evidenced: in tempting God by word or deed; in sacrilege, which profanes sacred persons or sacred things, above all the Eucharist; and in simony, which involves the buying or selling of spiritual things. Atheism which rejects the existence of God, founded often on a false conception of human autonomy. Agnosticism which affirms that nothing can be known about God, and involves indifferentism and practical atheism. See Compendium 445; CCC 2110-2128; 2138-2140

2nd Commandment: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Blasphemy, curses, unfaithfulness to promises made to God, false oath, perjury. Compendium 447-449; CCC 2142-2149; 2160-2162

3rd Commandment: Remember to keep holy the LORD’S day.
Not going to Holy Mass during Sundays and Holy days of Obligation without a just motive (e.g. sickness); See Catechism 1389
4th Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.
Negligence, infulfillment and indifference of the obligations/responsibilites towards one’s children, parents and siblings;  hatred; ingratitude; disrespect; disobedience in matters concerning the material and spiritual well-being;  negligence and indifference in the education in virtue and in faith of one’s children. See Catechism 2114-2118;2221-2229
5th Commandment: You shall not kill.
direct and intentional murder and cooperation in it; direct abortion, willed as an end or as means, as well as cooperation in it. Attached to this sin is the penalty of excommunication because, from the moment of his or her conception, the human being must be absolutely respected and protected in his integrity; direct euthanasia which consists in putting an end to the life of the handicapped, the sick, or those near death by an act or by the omission of a required action; suicide and voluntary cooperation in it, insofar as it is a grave offense against the just love of God, of self, and of neighbor. One’s responsibility may be aggravated by the scandal given; one who is psychologically disturbed or is experiencing grave fear may have diminished responsibility. See Compendium 470; Catechism 2268-2283; 2321-2326

6th Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.
Grave sins against chastity differ according to their object: adultery, masturbation, fornication, pornography, prostitution, rape, and homosexual actions. These sins are expressions of the vice of lust. These kinds of acts committed against the physical and moral integrity of minors become even more grave. Direct sterilization, contraception, artificial fecundation adultery, divorce, polygamy, incest, free unions (cohabitation, concubinage), and fornication or sexual acts before or outside of marriage See Compendium 492, 498, 502; Catechism 2351-2359; 2396; 2370-2372; 2380-2391, 2400

7th Commandment: You shall not steal. 
theft, deliberate retention of goods lent or of objects lost; business fraud; paying unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance or hardship of another;  speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others;  corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checksand invoices; excessive expenses and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation. (CCC 2409) slavery (2414) disordered desire for money (CCC 2424) withholding wages (CCC 2434) immoderate love for riches and their selfish use (CCC 2445)

8th Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Lying (in some cases CCC 2484), false witness and perjury (CCC 2476), rash judgment, detraction, calumny (CCC 2477) , adulation (CCC 2480), violation of the sacramental seal (2490) and divulgation of professional secrets (2491) See Compendium 523-524; Catechism 2475-2487; 2507-2509;

9th Commandment: . You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
The ninth commandment forbids cultivating thoughts and desires connected to actions forbidden by the sixth commandment. See Compendium 528 ; Catechism 2517-2519; 2531-2532

10th Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
This commandment, which completes the preceding commandment, requires an interior attitude of respect for the property of others and forbids greed, unbridled covetousness for the goods of others, and envy which is the sadness one experiences at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself. See Compendium 531; Catechism 2534-2540; 2551-2554 Hence, if a person knowingly (full knowledge) and wantingly (full consent) commits an action consisting of any of the grave matter listed above, a mortal sin is committed.
https://www.catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/a-general-list-of-mortal-sins-all-catholics-should-know/     
    
Where it gets nauseatingly gooey is the emphasis put on having offended God who doesn’t exist, or in other words one’s self, rather than having caused harm to something or someone real.  

Every real crime or sin has a victim, even that of the naughty people who come and take cuttings of lavender from the verge opposite me. 

Essentially and rather wonderfully vile:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

OR

My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy.

OR

O my God, I am sorry for my sins because I have offended you. I know I should love you above all things. Help me to do penance, to do better, and to avoid anything that might lead me to sin. Amen.
https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=43

Would not, ‘dear little sister, I am just so sorry I pulled your hair and made you cry, I am really really sorry’ be, well, saner.

As stated above, the absolution given by the priest to a penitent who confesses his sins with the proper dispositions remits both the guilt and the eternal punishment (of mortal sin). There remains, however, some indebtedness to Divine justice which must be cancelled here or hereafter (see Purgatory). In order to have it cancelled here, the penitent receives from his confessor what is usually called his “penance”, usually in the form of certain prayers which he is to say, or of certain actions which he is to perform, such as visits to a church, the Stations of the Cross, etc. Alms, deeds, fasting, and prayer are the chief means of satisfaction, but other penitential works may also be enjoined. The quality and extent of the penance is determined by the confessor according to the nature of the sins revealed, the special circumstances of the penitent, his liability to relapse, and the need of eradicating evil habits. Sometimes the penance is such that it may be performed at once; in other cases it may require a more or less considerable period, as, e.g., where it is prescribed for each day during a week or a month. But even then the penitent may receive another sacrament (e.g., Holy Communion) immediately after confession, since absolution restores him to the state of grace. He is nevertheless under obligation to continue the performance of his penance until it is completed.

Part of a very long piece of drivel here.

I think the word there is self-referential, about little me, nothing about saying or showing sorry to others.

Satisfaction
1459 Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm (e.g., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as much. But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.62 Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This satisfaction is also called "penance."
1460 The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the penitent's personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must correspond as far as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins committed. It can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear. Such penances help configure us to Christ, who alone expiated our sins once for all. They allow us to become co-heirs with the risen Christ, "provided we suffer with him."63
The satisfaction that we make for our sins, however, is not so much ours as though it were not done through Jesus Christ. We who can do nothing ourselves, as if just by ourselves, can do all things with the cooperation of "him who strengthens" us. Thus man has nothing of which to boast, but all our boasting is in Christ . . . in whom we make satisfaction by bringing forth "fruits that befit repentance." These fruits have their efficacy from him, by him they are offered to the Father, and through him they are accepted by the Father.64
VIII. THE MINISTER OF THIS SACRAMENT
1461 Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of reconciliation,65 bishops who are their successors, and priests, the bishops' collaborators, continue to exercise this ministry. Indeed bishops and priests, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
1462 Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline.66 Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church.67
1463 Certain particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments and the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which absolution consequently cannot be granted, according to canon law, except by the Pope, the bishop of the place or priests authorized by them. In danger of death any priest, even if deprived of faculties for hearing confessions, can absolve from every sin and excommunication.69
1464 Priests must encourage the faithful to come to the sacrament of Penance and must make themselves available to celebrate this sacrament each time Christians reasonably ask for it.70
1465 When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful love for the sinner.
1466 The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ.71 He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior, experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, and lead the penitent with patience toward healing and full maturity. He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord's mercy.
1467 Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents' lives.72 This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the sacrament.
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c2a4.htm#1460

Of course you do have to recognize you’ve done something wrong in the first place and refrain from continuing to do it.  Now, about that compensation for injuries and restoring the reputation of someone slandered.

There is the guy who thinks maybe women shouldn’t do something or other, drive HGVs, work as brickies, but he doesn’t try to force it on anyone.  At the other end of the scale is deep-rooted madness, a pathological condition, as displayed by no less than CS Lewis

The entire cosmos is defined by the reproductive arrangements of a hairless ape on the third rock from the sun, the multiverse is  not defined by chaos or order, love or mind, but what seems fitting to the heterosexual human male projected onto the figment of his imagination called ‘God’. 

As the Dutch scholar Buijtendijk has said very impressively in his book on Woman, it is only at an embryonic stage of modern 'feminism' that it was naively supposed that equality for women had to mean doing all those things that men do. This, as he points out and demonstrates very conclusively, far from involving a true acknowledgement of the positive and unique contribution of women to humanity, was a last attempt to subject them to purely masculine criteria and, therefore, a way of admitting them to full humanity only through depriving them of their femininity. The true, and the only true, way to an equality with men, which will not prove destructive of their own integrity, is not their admission to a kind of bogus masculinity, but the admission of the unique importance of what they only can do and be. Their contribution to human existence is no less important or honourable than (though fundamentally different from) the masculine contribution.
More generally speaking, in the Old Testament already and in Judaism as well, the exclusion of women from the priesthood or the public teaching of doctrine, far from being linked with any diminished or impoverished idea of womanhood, went together with an esteem of women and a legal (and practical) situation for them in society which had no equivalent in antiquity, especially in the Greek-speaking world.
Such, then, is the Orthodox understanding of the ministerial priesthood. The priest is an icon of Christ; and since the incarnate Christ became not only man but a male—since, furthermore, in the order of nature the roles of male and female are not interchangeable—it is necessary that the priest should be male. Those Western Christians who do not in fact regard the priest as an icon of Christ are of course free to ordain women as ministers; they are not, however, creating women priests but dispensing with priesthood altogether.
In our subconscious there are certain symbols and archetypes which are not invented but given. The same is true of the symbols revealed in Holy Scripture and used in Christian worship. We ‘prove’ these symbols; all we know is that God has set his (83) seal upon certain images and not upon others. We have been taught to say ‘Our Father who art in heaven’, and not ‘Our Mother who art in heaven’; the second person of the Holy Trinity is God the Son, not God the Daughter; Christ is the New Adam, not the New Eve; he is the Bridegroom and the Church is his Bride—the relationship cannot be reversed. These symbols are ‘given’, and they are absolutely fundamental.
On the contrary, if we were to substitute a Mother Goddess for God the Father, we would not simply be altering a piece of incidental imagery, but we would be replacing Christianity with a new kind of religion.(41) The male character of the Christian priesthood forms an integral element in this pattern of revealed, God-given symbolism which is not to be tampered with. Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is his Bride: how can the living icon of the Bridegroom be other than a man?
This is what common sense will call "mystical". Exactly. The Church claims to be the bearer of a revelation. If that claim is false then we want not to make priestesses but to abolish priests. If it is true, then we should expect to find in the Church an element which unbelievers will call irrational and which believers will call supra-rational. There ought to be something in it opaque to our reason though not contrary to it - as the facts of sex and sense on the natural level are opaque. And that is the real issue. The Church of England can remain a church only if she retains this opaque element. If we abandon that, if we retain only what can be justified by standards of prudence and convenience at the bar of enlightened common sense, then we exchange revelation for that old wraith Natural Religion.
It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity lays upon my own sex. I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are, in our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us. But it is an old saying in the army that you salute the uniform not the wearer. Only one wearing the masculine uniform can (provisionally, and till the Parousia) represent the Lord to the Church: for we are all, corporately and individually, feminine to Him. We men may often make very bad priests. That is because we are insufficiently masculine. It is no cure to call in those who are not masculine at all. A given man may make a very bad husband; you cannot mend matters by trying to reverse the roles. He may make a bad male partner in a dance. The cure for that is that men should more diligently attend dancing classes; not that the ballroom should henceforward ignore distinctions of sex and treat all dancers as neuter. That would, of course, be eminently sensible, civilized, and enlightened, but, once more, "not near so much like a Ball".
With the Church, we are farther in: for there we are dealing with male and female not merely as facts of nature but as the live and awful shadows of realities utterly beyond our control and largely beyond our direct knowledge. Or rather, we are not dealing with them but (as we shall soon learn if we meddle) they are dealing with us.
C.S. Lewis: Priestesses in the Church?

Given delusional fake legitimacy, a fake universal to which the views of the remaining 60% of he population are therefore irrelevant.  

On the tenuous and ludicrous basis of a book written  millennia ago most creatively annotated.

Why have I been bothered by loons?  Why were they allowed to get near me?

There is no human capacity to over-ride the hard-wiring, therefore there is no liberty. Where there is no liberty, there is no responsibility - if you are not free to choose you cannot fairly be held to account for your actions: you cannot choose if you have nothing to choose with and so clearly the notion of elected government is puerile in the extreme. 
              This is merely the quasi-scientific formulation of the world according to prehistoric religion, where independent function of heart and mind is self-will. When you have abolished or condemned all that makes us human, we are the product of our instincts and of what is taught us, empty vessels to be told what and who to be, what to say, what to think, what to do.  The mediaeval popes understood that as readily as did Hitler and Stalin: just believe.
              Like the religious zombie, the medical zombie functions intellectually working within a given frame of reference, regards it as frightening, evil and perhaps impossible to smash through the walls of this cage, question the frame of reference. Propositions are not considered objectively, on their merits if any, but regarded as good or evil, sane or mad, depending on whether or not they mesh with the assumptions that constitute the walls of the cage.
              In vain do those of us with opinions of our own claim they actually are our own.  The claim is dismissed. We are the products of our external circumstances. Freedom of conscience is not an issue because there is no conscience to be free.  Having been imbued with false consciousness or possessed by the Devil, as you prefer,  you must be reprogrammed to right thinking. Biological fundies such as Phelps deconstruct the West with their 'practical man's' contempt for all that makes us human.

Mind sits anterior to data. Mind sits anterior to data, questioning, synthesizing, comparing, creating and of course checking on the reality quotient.  The upper level of mentation, the capacity to select, order, analyse, question  and synthesize information and that faculty called imagination which breaks down what is into its constituent parts and remakes it as something new in the world,  has been denied.  Call it the upper storey.  They do not visit the top floor.  This is what I mean by the abolition of intellect (have to spell these things out for the brain-washed).  They can function, so far as they can be said to function intellectually at all, only within a given frame of reference. They are incapable of handling questioning of the frame of reference.  Indeed they are the brightest stars in the University's firmament. Mind is evident in the world.  Religious freaks call it the work of the devil and commie freaks call it insanity.  And by the Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon Six you can tell when it’s not there.  Just because you don’t have a mind, Doctor, it doesn’t mean no-one else does. 
 
HARD WIRING 
​Nothing can eliminate the hard-wiring, the instinct of the little hairless ape to be ruled by fear, to surrender to a larger baboon beating its chest: the primate pecking order.  The ape brain does not require speech and reason, only obedience and submission. 
  
But the little hairless ape is also a heart and a mind, the little hairless ape is free to over-ride the hard-wiring; it is also human.  It can be set free to be human.  Being human can be protected and upheld.  The little hairless ape can make reason mainstream in its societies, as did the Ancient Greeks.  The little hairless ape can be insufficiently terrorized and continue to function independently, deem the dicta of the head monkey irrational ravings, deem criminal and vile the simply homely custom of the head monkey of torturing or murdering any who challenge it, insist on equality of rights, insist it has an equal right to its own views and an equal right to utter them; demand the head monkey deploy language and reason, not merely its club, and give rational justification for its conduct.  
  
Or of course it can be outlawed, defined as insanity or evil.  Thus Stalinism, thus Catholicism, thus Islam, All three fundamentally equally foetid death-cults of obedience enthusiastically injected into mainstream England with the intent of course of poisoning it by the so-called Labour Party. 
All these are creatures that cannot bear human liberty, human individuality, cannot bear that when free to think people may end up thinking the opposite of their Troof.  Creatures to at least some of whose ravings no reasonable person would pay five seconds’ attention and creatures whom the vermin of the fascist fake Left have decreed we should defer to or be prosecuted 
 
The little hairless monkey can be terrorized into remaining a little hairless monkey.  The rich and powerful found that out early.  It can be conditioned to keep us in power, fight our wars for us, respect us, obey us,  it can be prevented from independent exercise of its heart and mind and get outraged when the drivel we spout is questioned.  It can be our loyal and faithful servants, lit and fig.  It can be kept at a mental age of 2, emotionally and intellectually helpless, wholly dependent on us, incapable of either self-command, changing what it thinks and feels, or self-control, controlling what it thinks and feels, throwing tantrums when upset, self-obsessed to the point of insanity, believing the world revolves it, psychopathic.  It can be kept ignorant and irrational, dismissing all fact and reason out of hand as nonsense contrary to our Troof.  It can and should believe everything it is told, it should be obedient, gullible, readily manipulated.  We are bigger and more powerful monkeys.  We can hurt it if it disobeys.  On no account should it think others are equal in rights, with the right to their own opinions.   On no account should it think it has the right to choose its own views.  We need it. We are nothing without it to fight our cause, only mad freaks dribbling in a corner.   On no account may people think of themselves as individuals, being what kind of people they choose to be, not made by us, controlled by us.  You mustn’t even ask if ‘God’ is just maybe a bit bigger than to be ‘offended’ by people not believing in him, actually does not throw a hissy fit and consign you to the fires of hell if you exercise the mind he created you with. 
 
Of course people went on being human anyway, schism, heresy, blasphemy, until finally they struck at the root of the evil and poisoned it but the mad monkey rose again, as Stalin, as Hitler, and people in the free and rational world didn’t like those mad monkeys, the religious ape-man lost his final grip on society, lost legal control of women and gays, and that of course was intolerable.  But God sent them Islam to hide behind.  Of course blasphemy is a terrible offence.  Of course religion is not mocked.  Of course the hideous offences against humans perpetrated by the sick fuck Khomeini and his regime are not even worth mentioning.  Of course we represent Jesus.  Like fuck. You think Jesus would have stayed silent about torture and murder?  Hear the bloody violins.  Oh we must build bridges.  Oh we must draw closer to the Muslim world. 
 
But that is what the filthy vermin of politicians lovingly uphold, the insane are good.  The damaged, the mad can do no wrong.  The ignorant ineducable sly dirty vicious cowardly sexually diseased IQ flatline psychopath  who believes it is evil to apply fact and reason to a series of propositions, who believes it is evil to take the piss out of a load of garbage, who believes it evil to compare those propositions to observable reality, who believes it is evil to question a load of mad sick drivel is without flaw.  Aw, they’re so sweet and meek and deferential if you just don’t upset them by being sane and decent and rational.  Give them everything they want, throw them my body, throw them my life. 
Accountability and transparency are so yesterday, that is what all the filth of politicians believe, completely unnecessary impediments to their doing what they please, as it is what the filth of UCH believe.  Of course people must do what we’re told.  Of course we shouldn’t question.  Of course authority knows best – they’re authority and they know they know best.  Of course I had to be punished.  What does breaking my body and wrecking my life matter?  I’m an evil atheist.  I’m rational, literate, educated.  Exactly what we don’t want, arguing and making trouble, some stupid bitch with a silly little arts degree babbling about mind and fact and reason and ethics.   
Angels do not drop by and begin dictating books.  People do not rise from the dead.  As a rule of thumb, that which is mad or repulsive or both is to be satirized.  But they believe it…That’s not the worrying bit.  The worrying bit is those incapable of seeing why others do not.  That which some do not question, none may question.  Yup, and the earth is flat and was created in seven days.  Crustaceans are an abomination and women were made from Adam’s rib.  To these fuck-faced brain-damaged psychopathic grotesque filth the only abominations are intelligence and femaleness. Just keep our fucking marfs shut, shouldn’t we.  The world is defined by, owned by men.

From top to bottom the Blairs, the Milburns, the Camerons the Rees-Moggses, the Corbyns, the McDonnells, the Abbots, the Linches, the Goldstones, the Naylors, the Porters, the Yongs, the Mackinnons, the D’Sas, the Lamberts, the filthy brutes of nurses and managers, they all think I’ve done something wrong, sick disgusting filth who think I should accord with the assault on my spinal fusion and the assault on my country because Ners sez, think I should understand being crippled, accept it – understand that freak filth such as they, psycho nutters who think themselves set on high to command, order the world according to their sick ravings, know best, that it is inconceivable they be publicly questioned, challenged, asked what the fuck they think they’re playing at, understand it is for the best that nothing be said or done, that I be washed down the drain while traitor vermin such as they continue untouched, untrammelled.   How desperately they all hate the free world and want to destroy it and will commit any crime to further that.  Democracy is forbidden!  Reason is forbidden! No fact, however huge, the fact of democracy, the fact of the metal rod in my back, has any significance to them whatever. 

Really, what ‘merit’ does a brute like Saunders possess.  The merit of a trained monkey on a lead.  That of course is its problem, its problem and that of its filthy masters who have systematically abused and destroyed its humanity.  The sick dirt scum filth is not my problem.  Why was such a  disgusting animal, a sick twisted monstrosity, ever allowed near me?

Above all, of course, the self-styled ‘holy’ hate their irrelevance; they are important, everyone must be mindful of them, take their ape-drool into account when speaking or writing; consider their drivelling significant and serious contribution to the national conversation.  Yup, it’s important to know they believe most of the country will go to hell for sex outside marriage, masturbation, homosexuality.  Oh they so have to muscle in on everything, not only life but death, on which they are the self-appointed experts.

Above all, they hate this:

Extract from The Anile Heir ©2006.
 
I, Ysabel Jehan Howard, hereby assert and give notice of my right under s.77 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this book.
Somewhere people were screaming and shouting but Sarat stood still as stone. 
So cold.  Hurts
Together they passed through the pain.
CLICK CLICK CLICK
I we grieve at parting.
NO and yes.  You cannot follow.
Varulin was by his side. 
“That’s it, lad.  You hold on to her….”  His voice trailed off.  Oh fuck, no!  “Get a fucking car here!”
The light was very strong now.
Leave? How can I leave you?
“You just hold her, sir,” said Varulin gently.  “That’s it.  No-one can hurt her now.”
I will follow.
NO and yes.
Baz zoomed up.
They cannot part us.
We travel now.
Everyone is screaming but Sarat stands still as stone.  Baz understood.
NO.
Sarat tried to throw Baz out of his their mind.
Baz forced them apart. 
CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK
“Fuck off!” said Baz.  “Just fuck bloody off!”
 “It’s like bloody rape!” shouted Varulin.
“Is she - ?”
“Dead,” said Baz.  “Got it?”
Sarat came to with Maya’s lifeless body in his arms in sudden silence.
He looked at Baz almost in puzzlement.
“She’s not here any more.”
CLICK CLICK CLICK
They stood waiting for transport to bulldoze its way through the wreckage.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. CLICK
 
We interrupt this broadcast.
MAYA DEAD
MAYA ASSASSINATED
MAYA  MURDERED
SHE DIED IN HIS ARMS
 
Contingency Plan (M) not Contingency Plan (S).  Essa and Cho would stay out of Kadun. He’ll need help. What else are sisters for?
 
Essa tried to get Sarat on his mobile.  No reply.
“It has happened,” said Baya.  Toss a coin.  Pray.  The music will stop.  Which one will it be?
I have four children, she thought, I still have four children.  Why do I not cry for shame?
 
Essa got Baz.  Baz handed over the mobile.
“Sarat.”
“Oh dad.”
“Love,” said Essa, “love, love, love, love.”
“Love,” said Sarat.
“Oh my darling,” said Baya. “Love, love, love.”
 
Mel rode down the hill and into the Saa’nda Senta.
“It has happened,” he said.
Mel, we’re so sorry.  Mel, all our love.
 
Mitch  would have grown wings, but Karula said no.  We offer our love, we offer ourselves but we do not go to Azt, Mitch, because we are not family. Mitch rang and Sarat said please come.
 
Scenes of devastation in Azt!  Ten dead, including Her Imperial Majesty, Maya-ban-essa.  Forty, fifty, sixty wounded. 
 
Sarat stood up.
“You do not have to go back!” shouted Paw.
“What do you suggest?  I sit here and scream?”
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. 
 
“I’m sorry, sir, you can’t go through there.”
“I am Maya’s father.”
“Sir!  I am so sorry, so sorry.  Sarat’s gone back to the – scene.”
Pietri closed his eyes.
“Where is Maya?”
Pietri sat talking quietly to his daughter.
 
Three beautiful young women ran up and threw themselves on Sarat.  Oh Sarat, my poor darling! Love, love, love, love, love!  He hugged them heedless of bemused spectators.
“My sisters,” said Sarat.
“Sarat, this is a terrible day for you, for all of us – “
“It was a pretty bad day for Maya.”
“Sure, sure, I did not mean – “
“Just shut it,” said Sarat.  “Just for once, shut it.”
“Vultures,” said Zik.
“Try feeding on us,” said Shavli.
“I don’t think we’ll ever forgive you today,” said Ven,  “How could you!”
“What d’ you think Pietri and Caluna felt like?” asked Zik.
“Maya’s mum and dad,” supplemented Ven.
Many people who have often thought that Sarat, his family and friends let the press off too easily too often have gained enormous satisfaction from this simple expression of family outrage…
 
We interrupt this broadcast.
His Imperial Majesty will speak from the scene of the blast.  .
Sarat-ban-essa-eban-Narulis, Master of Kadun.
 
I think you’d better come, sir.  Sarat’s going to speak.
Bal looked on in horror.
He is still….
Covered in her blood.
 
There is a time to mourn, a time to scream, a time to weep.  All these things I owe my darling Maya.  Most of all I owe the refusal of defeat.  They have changed nothing.  They have won nothing.   Death does not sit on the Anile throne!  To the offal responsible for today’s devastation, to the vermin in the City who back them, to the snivelling animals who cower before them, I say, you can create nothing, but only destroy.  Today you leave a trail of wrecked and broken lives.  That you call a victory.  Thus you show the world your impotence. You cannot win.  You will never win.  This I pledge to Kadun.  This I pledge to Maya.
 
Mitch caught at the airport by the meedjah raised his hand in salute.
“We do not do cowering.”
“You yourself have suffered terrible loss.  How is Sarat feeling?”
It’s like robots, thought Karula.  They are not bad people.  They have no self-awareness. 
 
Sarat arrived back and stared at the  flowers carpeting the people-space,   
“I thank you,” he said shakily.  “On Maya’s behalf, on my own.  Thank you.”
“Pietri,” said Faun.  He pointed to the bedroom.
Pietri looked up.
“Everyone needs to go home.”
Sarat blinked back tears.
“They’ve brought you flowers, my love.  A whole field of flowers.”
Pietri stood.
“We’ll leave you to sleep now.”
“I am so sorry,” said Sarat.  “I am so sorry.  I was with her.  I was going with her.   Baz forced us apart.”  Pietri opened his arms.  “She was hurting and I wanted to stop her hurting but we were already through the pain.  I just wanted to stop her hurting.   We didn’t see how we could part.”
“Oh my dear boy,” said Pietri. 
“Somewhere – somewhere else people were shouting and screaming.  It didn’t have anything to do with us.  I hurt Baz,” said Sarat with horror.  “Oh I don’t mean.  He was trying to separate us.”
Pietri went to the door and asked for strong coffee.
“The funeral,”  he said finally.
“The funeral,” said Sarat.
They talked for a long time.  After a while, Faun was summoned.
No, Sarat, said Faun, knowing it was useless.
I pledge victory, I pledge courage to  skulk in a covered car?
Sarat rang Marula and Saryulin .  Of course, they said.
You can’t be buried twice, thought Faun.  Perhaps all of it is impossible, a nightmare from which we wake when we are all dead.
Faun rang Cho.
“Or of course he simply doesn’t care.”
“I am aware of that interpretation,” said Cho.
“I’ve said my bit,” said Faun.
 
Pietri mailed Mel and told him the  unphotographed trauma of Maya’s final moments.
Mel thought of him and Cantilip and hundreds of meaningless words on the subject of death.
I think, he mailed back, not of course know, but think, it wasn’t exactly – when she finally ‘crossed over’ he’d have been left behind.  Was he going with her or keeping her here?
If they were communicating, he thought, she wasn’t ‘dead’, whatever that is.  There must be a state beyond biological – leave it, Mel, leave it.  Or you become obsessed by death.  But Papa, he won’t leave us alone. 
 
Baz looked up.
“Oh Baz.”
“Love, love, love,” said Baz.
“Love, love, love.”
“What does a man expect when he tries to come between a guy and his girl?”
“Was I keeping her here?”  
“Sarat…In that situation – not that I  know anything about ‘that situation’ – what  I think is – for a moment I couldn’t tell which was you and which was Maya.  I don’t think you can look at it like that.  You both wanted to go in both directions.”
“Yes,” said Sarat. “And no.  She – there’s a point,”  She wanted to go, thought Baz. It’s not how to put it.  You go back.  What do I know?  “When – will fades,” Sarat was saying. 
“You just are,” said Baz, “in a field of flowers.”
 
 The terror and the loss.  I’ll come back with Pietri, be in Zur in the morning.  Love, love, love, love, love.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, typed back Mel. 
 
Small, tubby and balding glared at the screen.
“We have VILE, we have PANTHER, we have the Hadin-Wadud. What does this mean?”
“Don’t follow you, sir.”
“Try harder.  How many more damn’ deaths?”
“Protection.  A line of steel.”
“You have entered a Cult-free Zone.  And the very considerable resources of our three great nations were used to ensure it stayed that way.  Meaning Kadun was a contaminant.”
“The border’s open now, sir.”
“Well done, that man.  Meaning we have a vested interest in decontamination.”
“You cannot say Vasucula sat on the fence!”
“I surely can.  I surely do.  We tighten up any on the money-men?”
“We are a capitalist economy.  There are no lengths to which we shall not go to foster global investment, maximum prosperity for all and the brutal murder of a beautiful young woman.”
“That’s what I just said.  Get the bastards.”
 
“The Anile Emperor does not plead,” said the Ciletij Finance Minister.
“In his state,” said Varchulan darling, “he doesn’t have to.”
 
Sarat spoke to Mitch and Karula.  Of course, said Mitch.  Karula hid her disarray.  Only in the safety of their bedroom did she say to her beloved: Mitch, I know this is trivial in the great scheme of things, but if I am not to make a total fool of myself and of Var-segan on what is probably the most solemn occasion of my entire life – you know I never got the hang of horses.
 
“Now we’re going to the House of Silence,” said Baz, “and we would really appreciate it if you didn’t come.”
“You here to make arrangements for the funeral, Sarat?”
“I despair,” said Mitch.  “I am not talking to human beings.  If I may quote Baz – “ Long pause.  Mitch gave his sweetest smile.  “Remove yourselves from Sarat’s path.”
“That’s it,” said Baz, oozing charm. “Go away.”
“The sensitivity of oysters,” said Mitch.
“Is that a compliment, Mitch?”
“Real fine rugs,” said Mitch.
Sarat made his way relatively unimpeded to the House of Silence.
“Bloody walking-streets,” muttered Varulin.
“If I bring the car round, we can get away after,” said Baz.
Sarat stood in front of the flame.  Where you are, there am I.  Where I go, you are with me.  We shall win, my sweet lady, my love.  They do not part us.
He lit a candle, then took out a pen and wrote on a card.
My darling Maya, I love you.  Sarat xxxxxxxx. 
“OK, let’s head for the hill.”
As they turned, they heard someone say, “Fetch a fortune at auction.”
Sarat span round.
“Who said that?”
If you remember, Mel once remarked that Sarat can emit the aura that causing him the slightest discontent will result in instant demise.
“I think you may have upset him,” drawled Mitch.
“You will not remove the card,” said Sarat.
Order? thought Varulin, that’s no order, that’s an irresistible physical force. 
“Is that clear?” asked Sarat.
Sure, Sarat, sure.  Just a joke, Sarat.  Honest, Sarat, it was a joke.  Mel’d break our necks!
“No, he wouldn’t,” said Sarat.  “I’d have got there first.”
“There sure is some fine carving here,” said Mitch.
They made it to the car and zoomed off up to the hill.
“Shit, man,” said the idiot.
“He’s bound to be a little tense.”
“Is that what you call it!  I just found out what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the Anile Emperor!”
“We’ll talk to the H-W,” said Mitch.
Sarat made his way to the Room
 “I have brought this devastation.”
“My darling,” said Saski, “no.”
They hugged..
At length Sarat sat.
What are the expressions, thought Venga.  You look like hell. You look like death warmed up. 
“This is what we’re going to do,” said Sarat.
The state occasion, thought Mel, the pound of screaming flesh.  Give them that.
“I can do that,” said Sarat.  “I can do that with my heart torn in two.  I cannot afterwards make polite conversation.  I cannot leave Kadun to indulge  my grief.  It’s desertion.”
Hass got up and put his arm around Sarat.
“I think the guy needs to talk.”
“I have a right to claim a greater grief?” asked Sarat.  “After all, I killed her.”
“Balls,” said Venga briskly.
“It is natural, darling,” said Saski, “that should be an emotion you experience, but really it is the most awful nonsense.”
Sarat shrugged: no Anile throne, no funeral.
“We have our own demons,” said Mel.  “We were told to run for cover and we ran.” Tar looked up sharply. “If I do not say that in front of Sarat, I do not say it.”
 
Seani looked at the candle and the message.
“He wouldn’t have done that if it’s Zur.”
“How can they bury her in Zur!  Bets are on Carlin.”
“Sorg all over again.”
“Won’t get near.”
“Poor bastards.”
“Plural?”
“Plural.  We watched them grow up!”
“If I just close my eyes, they’re in the Saa’nda Senta.”
“Beneath these cold heartless exteriors, we all feel that.”
“How do we convince the Aniles!”
 
It is well known Pietri has his differences with Sarat.  He must surely hold Sarat responsible for his daughter’s terrible death.
Zuri, used enough to all shades of broadcaster shooting mouth off in the Saa’nda Senta, turned on this one.
Shut it, arsehole!
Surely that is merely a truth too terrible to bear.  Does not Zur hold Sarat responsible for the death of its princess?
Ask him.  Come on, say, hi Pietri, everyone knows you blame Sarat.
Yeah, man!  You go to the hill and fucking ask him!
Do we sound as if we blame Sarat?
Maya was a person.  And a fucking brave one. 
Bloody Ciletij still trying it on!
 
The Representative of Harn at Azt presents his condolences to His Imperial Majesty. 
On behalf of the whole of Harn – Sarat’s face stopped him.  Sarat….I have to say these things.
Come back to me when I’ve got Searc.
You have proof?
Not yet.  Would you give a message to Bal?
Of course.
Tell him we’re turning the screws.
Oh dear.  Must I?
 
Aztians talking about the funeral, live on Channel One
“I’m sure it’ll all be perfect.  Can’t tell us, can they!”
Most people had quietly figured that the rate of attrition hadn’t been greater only because Sarat never ever issued a schedule.
“Thing we have to think about is what Maya would have wanted.”
“Everyone look after him, that’s what she’d’ve wanted.”
“Right!”
“Hope it’s not in Zur.”
“You gotta think of her mum and dad.”
“Maybe she’d have wanted to go home.”
“Support Sarat.  Whatever he wants, it’s all right by us.”
“Right!”
No nay-sayers? they asked in the studio.  Nobody asking to be lynched, no.
 
No, honey, said Mitch with the reserves of patience that made him such a good father.  Not like that. 
Varulin looking out of the window couldn’t quite keep his face straight. 
My lord of Var-segan is instructing my lady of Var-segan in the finer points of horsemanship.  
Ride?  They’re going to ride?
 
The Cabinet of the Republic of Harn choked.
After, counselled Bal, I shall talk to the young man after the funeral.
Shouldn’t the message be passed around?
An excellent notion, said Bal.
 
“The whole of the people-space,” said Shav.  “It has to become a meadow.”
“So much for designing for posterity.”
“Eternity,” said Shav.  “Different.”
“Sis,” said Sarat.
“Bro?”
“Shav – “
She put a finger to his lips. 
“My choice.”
“Or it is a fairground game,” continued Sarat remorseless.  “Knock down the five dollies, another five take their place, until none is left.”
“There are a lot of us, aren’t there,” said Shav.
“Don’t joke.”
“Then laugh,” said Shavli.  “People are saying – they’re edging round it, Sarat.  They love each other, don’t they.  That’s all that matters.”
“Kadun is shy,” said Sarat.  “We saw it when we cleaned out the House of Silence. There was a sort of hum of love, but no-one actually said anything.  Now I must say it.” 
“Darling, there is a time for all things.  You said it!   How many times since arriving in Azt have you used the word ‘Cult’ in public?”
 “Do you think I haven’t thought of that?”
“There were people dying of hunger.  You set out to change everything.  You have changed everything.”
“Oh yes,” said Sarat.
 
Bal pondered as he undressed.
Does this man like me?  If I were Sarat, I should hate me, but I do not – perhaps that is did not – think Sarat exactly hates anyone.  A question of the kind of guys they are.  The other matter!  Now I do not bow to the like or dislike of any man, be he prince or porter, but if I ask myself in all honesty if I do not value the good opinion of Sarat or Mel over that of Searc I have to answer myself that I should be a screaming lunatic if I did not.  Kids to feed, road-repairpersons to pay.  I really did not think they would fight dirty.  What in hell am I going to do?
Why did I not think they would fight dirty?
 
“There’s this crazy rumour going round, he’s going to ride behind her coffin.”
“Oh Sarat.  It’s too far.”
“Not from the House at Carlin.”
 
A trio of Zuri sat talking.
We could call it Maya’s song.
I think we ought to ask. 
OK, there’ll be some won’t like it.
If Pietri don’t like it, we ditch it, all right. Absolute last thing we want to do is upset Alzani-Meta.
Get our necks broken.
The story was all over Zur.
They climbed the hill.
We don’t want to intrude.  It’s about remembering Maya.
Pietri was found and faced three young men whose basic state appeared to be excruciating embarrassment. 
Support Sarat. We think it’s what Maya would have wanted.
We’ve written a song.
Well, not written exactly.
Look, if you don’t like it, it’s in the bin.
I thank you…May I see it?
We’ve got it typed out.
Finally the words were prised out of them.
Pietri stared at the page, not sure whether to laugh or cry.
I see, he said.  Maya would love it.  I thank you.  I do think you should mention it to Mel.
Thank you!  Thank you!
 
“Supposing you’re a soprano,” said Shavli. Sarat looked a bit surprised but did his best.  “You hit all the top notes.  That’s fine.  That’s cool.  Your voice dominates the stage.  But what you need to do is go higher, beyond the range of the human voice.”
“Now, Sarat, if you will just tell our viewers, and remember, there must be a hundred million tuned in worldwide, exactly what you think about death. Shall I tell them about the throne too?”
“Now you come to mention it…” said Shav. 
 
Kadun did not go pear-shaped, said Mel. The Harni pretended not to understand.  Bal said he had to protect his own in case Kadun went bottoms up.
We cannot consider Kadun stable until there is a democratically elected government in place.
Kadun cannot be stable until the Cult is annihilated.  The Cult cannot be annihilated until the City stops feeding it.
It’s natural you should be feeling a little over-wrought at this time, Mel.
Sohenoil, retorted Mel, is feeling very over-wrought indeed.  I am trying to help you guys.  I am trying to explain the bottom is about to fall out of your world.  Find a lifeboat!
You just want us to invest in AMI!  No-one can do anything, Mel.
Mel gave up.
Watch this space.
 
Her Imperial Majesty will be buried the day after tomorrow in the presence of her family and friends.  This will be followed by services simultaneously in Azt, Zur and Maona-pri to which the chief mourners will return.  His Imperial Majesty will speak the requiem.
Most breath-taking statement I’ve seen in my life, even from Sarat.  Where, Sarat, pretty please?
Ask The Girls.  Soft touch, easily swayed.
 
I need to know what time, said Bal. OK, that’s 8 in the morning with us.  People’ll be up all night watching the funeral.  Guess we just got a new public holiday. 
 
There will be services also in Gula-Toon, Wintawa and the City.
 
A smear campaign began in the City.  The Sisterhood announced a candlelit vigil the night of the funeral.  The idea quickly spread across the water. Maya’s death became a feminist issue. 
 
Shavli addressed the cameras.  .
“OK, people, you’re going to spend the night out and that is just incredibly sweet of you.  I think it’s beautiful, in fact.  If it’s actually going to be beautiful, we think you need a bit of help.  Loos, hot drinks, shelters for people who get chilled or get sick, first aid in case of accidents.  After all, this is the whole city we’re talking about.”
If it wasn’t before, it is now.
“Fortunately the family caterers are more than willing to provide anything you might need free of charge.  After all, she was their Maya.”
It took Kadun a moment to realize she meant AMI.
“Above all, of course, I want to thank you for your flowers, for your cards, for your messages, for your outpouring of  love which has lightened the load of these past few terrible days, for Sarat, for me, for all of us.  We know that Maya did not die in vain because Azt loves her, Kadun loves her. 
 
“I thank you.”
 
She blew Kadun a kiss. 
 
Kadun blushed furiously and looked in the mirror to check it had combed its hair.
 
Getting in some practice in case she has to do the job. Even vultures shut out some thoughts as unbearable and unprintable, at any rate 48 hours before the funeral. Everybody who thought thought it.  It is a measure of how far we have travelled that  Anile Empress in her own right…Voices trailed off. 
 
“We recorded  Just Some Girls Talking over Lunch,” said Jaizi.  “I really think you’d better see this.”
Yes, of course they killed her because she was Her Imperial Majesty, but why would that have mattered if she’d been some cipher?
It was the guys everyone focused on, right.  I mean, this is Kadun! 
We knew Karula had a track-record as a radical and Cantilip, well, Cantilip is Cantilip.  Mess with earthpower and you die!  The debt women in Kadun owe to Van-senok is just about immeasurable.  They never surrendered.  But we didn’t know anything about Maya.  Obviously we didn’t think Sarat’d be paired with some dumb-bun, but she didn’t seem political.
For that matter, we didn’t think Alzani-Meta produced dumb-buns, but they did seem rather political!   Maya-ban-essa, rest her soul, embodied just about everything every woman wants to be. [Laughter] OK, OK, including Sarat’s partner, or is that in bad taste!  She was just totally her own person.  She made her own decisions and she darned well died for them.  I mean, excuse me, Maya, would you like to be Anile Empress.  Thank you, no, Sarat, I have a  nice safe life here in Zur..  She risked everything, gave up everything.
She was so damn’ brave – do you remember the blast at the consecration.?
[Pause]
Well, they all are.
There is no question in my mind – of course they killed her to hurt Sarat but basically they killed her because of what she was, a tough, free lady, symbol of our aspirations, focus of our hopes.  Sarat must know that.  I mean, I don’t think anyone actually -  you kind of assumed he’d get support from Cho.  No, no!  Oh dear, I mean I’m sure Cho loves him to pieces. Sarat’s answer is Shavli, Zika and Ven and let me tell you we are rooting for those ladies!  Women will not be put down by the bastards, not ever again, and that is Maya’s legacy.
Mitch tried to read Sarat’s expression and failed.
“It’s a funeral,” said Zik, “not another round in the sex war.”
“You’re not coming from where they’re coming from,” said Karula.
“That’s rather obvious,” said Zika.
“It’s a candlelit vigil,” said Shavli.  “It’s not going to turn into a riot.”
“There is absolutely no-one in Azt who harbours or ever has harboured a single negative thought about Sarat or Maya.”
“That’s a different ball-park,” said Shav.
“How?” demanded Zika.
Sarat spoke at last.
“Let’s just say it’s a volatile situation.”
There were things Sarat thought about the Cult striking duringthe funeral shared with no-one but Cho and Faun.  Contingency Plan (F) was to be carried out to the letter, whether he remained alive or not. I can tell you now that they didn’t strike during the funeral and even that no-one expected that they would.  We didn’t rule out loose cannons. 
“It is not in us,” said Zika drily,  “to ask them to remember to be quiet and respectful in the presence of the Great Master.”
Mitch flexed his eyebrows.
“Here I go again,” decided Shavli
 
Shavli shook back her hair and settled into the settee to die for.
I’m not going to take up much of your time, but what I do have to say matters.  Hearken, therefore.
Maya in the short time she was here came to mean a very great deal to a very many people, especially women.  When we lose someone we love dearly, tempers run short. When that loss is as politically charged as is Maya’s death, there is the possibility tempers may be lost.  On the day of the funeral, two things will be paramount to me, and I want them to be paramount throughout Kadun.  One is Sarat’s well-being and the other is what Maya would have wanted.  We are all of course acutely aware that many political questions remain to be fully resolved.  They will be fully resolved.  That is Sarat’s pledge and the pledge of all of us, his family.  We are told that the whole of Kadun will be out on the streets to show its love – your love – for Maya.  That is as it should be, a day of love, a day of remembrance, a day of peace. That is what Maya would have wanted.  That is what Sarat wants.  Politics can wait until the day after. Thank you again.  Thank you for all your flowers.  Thank you for all your love. 
 
She blew Kadun another kiss.
 
That, folks, is the Anile heir.
Almost worth doing in Sarat – he clapped his hand over his mouth.  I didn’t think.
Serious offence, that, son.
We’re vultures.  We’re supposed to make tasteless jokes.
 
Eek, typed Mel.  What brought that on?
Sarat mailed him the transcript
!  I love it.
I shall love it in two days’ time. 
 
Her Imperial Majesty will be buried at the shrine attached to the Summer Palace.  Hey, but that’s private property!  Can’t no-one visit – During opening-hours, said Zulagan with bitter fury.  If you can’t reach her grave you can’t dig her up again, can you.
 
It’s like a pall has fallen on the whole of Azt as the sun sets and the vigil begins.  There must be the whole city out on the streets.  I do not think anything like this has been seen ever.  Here and there in the crowds are braziers to warm them and stalls dispensing hot drinks, but mostly there is just the flicker of candles on worn faces, the distant mournful hoot of ships on the river, and the sound of people crying.  
 
Duvi, Saryulin and Marula arrived at the Jumesit, sat with Sarat, Mitch, Karula and B and P watching the camera pan over Azt’s candles. 
This is Azt, thought Duvi, and so this is impossible.
“We should get a little sleep,” said Saryulin at last, really meaning Sarat should.
Baz went with them to find their rooms. 
Mitch suddenly remembered something, muttered excuse me, and sprinted after them.
He caught up with them, was suddenly at a loss for words.
“This place is a little weird,” he said lamely.  Baz grinned unhelpfully. He remembered.  “You have ghosts in Carlin.” Saryulin raised his eyebrows sky-high. “They say the walls of time are very thin here.  Just don’t be surprised at anything.” 
Marula shook with laughter.
“If we meet Narulis, I trust we shall know how to behave.”
“Sarat does,” said Baz.
“We could talk or read,” said Duvi after a moment.  “Darling, I am agog.”
“The stories concerning the Jumesit,” said Marula, “are extraordinary.”
“Sarat – and indeed Maya – did, do not find it a little disturbing?”
“Sarat,” said Baz, then stopped, not wanting to enter into a dissertation.  “Sarat is not – is no longer a fresh-faced youth wholly concerned with the exoteric.”
They digested that in silence and retired.
 
The singing began just before dawn, clearly a lament.  Duvi stirred, thnking it first light, but the glow was coming from a far corner of the room.  She touched Saryulin’s shoulder.  He grunted, then sat up, he too thinking it was dawn.  The girl wore a cloak of forest green.  I know you, said Duvi, despite herself.  The girl smiled.  I am Brig.  I mourn my lord.   My lady, said Saryulin.  You are welcome always at Carlin.  She smiled again and faded.   I am really rather shaken, observed Duvi after a moment.
 
Now dawn is breaking over Azt, and this most terrible of days begins.  People who have fallen asleep in the arms of their loved ones are stirring, sleeping-bags are unzipped.  The unsung heroes of this day will surely prove to be the charity workers making sure everyone gets something hot inside him.  Or of course her.  With such crowds calculation of numbers is practically impossible but most people think every female who can walk unaided is out here and some who can’t.  An old lady in a wheelchair has been reported  in the Colonnade!
 
Marula was almost entirely silent at breakfast, throughout their preparations.  Cantilip got out of her what had happened later.
 
Finally we move to the Palace from where Her Imperial Majesty will begin her final journey.  From behind the Palace appears – no, no, it’s not a car, it’s a carriage, a silver gun-carriage pulled by six silver horses – we have learned of course that the imperial family does not do black as the colour of mourning.   Now the coffin has been placed on the carriagee and the Imperial Guard line up for the final salute.  The carriage is preparing to draw away.   From both sides of the Palace come the procession, all in silver, all on silver horses.  His Imperial Majesty leads a riderless horse!   This is grace, that is style.  Would we expect any less?  He is wearing a sword!  Is that traditional?  Behind him come Pietri and Caluna Talal – everyone is wearing a sword, the ladies and the gentlemen alike!  I guess that’s one way of confronting the security issue!  Vij and Sarshi Talal, Mel and Cantilip Talal,  Hasiyata and Venga Talal.  Behind them are my lord and lady of Var-segan and my lord and lady of Carlin.  My lady of van-senok follows them.  Behind Marula Za-fenan, oh my heaven, it’s PANTHER and the Hadin-Wadud, but not, I swear, as you have previously seen our gallant defenders.  Did you know PANTHER had a dress uniform?  Baz and Paw, of course, they must have known Maya as long as Sarat did!  Little Jaizi.  As we know, Jaizi was born in Tjulsit…   .   
                                                                 Plotters Central, thought the less romantic.
                                                                 A day of peace, sir?  Challin collapsed.  This is all-out war!  Let me re-interpret Her Imperial Highness’ touching words.   The only politics will be displayed by us.
                                                                 Anyone start anything, thought Karci, and we cut your head off.  I do like that thought.
                                                                 Now the cortege is passing through the gates of the Palace into the streets of Azt.  The crowds are absolutely silent except – something is happening in that crowd.  People are starting to hold up placards: We love you.  As the coffin passes, as Sarat passes, people are bowing, curtseying, saluting.
This crowd is not silent!  It is like a susurration.  As the procession passes, most especially of course as Sarat passes, they murmur.  My lords, my ladies.  Imperial Majesty.  What is going on here is like a pact, an oath of allegiance, a vow.  It’s like an electric current.  It’s like Narulis riding by!  Is that the point?  Sure, tomorrow it’ll be Sarat, that’s crap.  Mel, you’re talking garbage…
 
Now they’ve nearly reached the Summer Palace and joining them are six cars.  Who do we think are in those six cars?  Obviously Sarat’s mother and father….The cortege is passing through the gates of the Summer Palace and the gates swing shut behind…
 
A journo crept along the wall. 
Interrupt this, said a squaddy cheerfully, and you die.
See that, added his corporal enthusiastically, that’s a safety-catch.  Now, supposing I put it off.
All righty, all righty! 
Why don’t you blokes get it?
 
Some reactions now from the crowd…
 Nobody’d have minded, lad!  I just shook me head.  Nobody’d have minded if he’d drove.
Int never seen anything so flaming brave in me life.
In yer face, you – well, never mind.
 
Now the gates have opened to allow the cars to leave and slammed tight shut again.  It looks like they’re heading straight for the airport…There is some precision timing going on here….No, no, some are clearly going into Azt…
Indeed Sarat who had felt an almost palpable relief when even his nearest and dearest and closest had gone and he didn’t have to speak to anyone and who was now kneeling by the grave reciting something (Mitch couldn’t catch the words) showed no particular sign of wishing to leave.
Mitch looked quickly at his watch.
All the time in the world.
Time passed.
Once more the Gates are opening and Sarat rides out. Following him – but this is a different set of riders.  Mitch and Karula var-segan, Falita Em- I mean Falita San-yaega-baht, but I do not recognize – I am told the other lady and gentleman are Sorg’s mother and father and here too are PANTHER and the H-W.  I am being handed an official statement.  This is for everyone who has suffered grievous loss at the hands of the Cult.  This is our answer. Oh my.  I guess PANTHER is finding this a very long war.  What PANTHER has suffered, the corruption of the throne, the flight back to Fidub…They’re going to ride all the way to the House of Silence, right? 
Right.
 
Now they’re arriving at the House of Silence and you could hear a feather drop, never mind a pin.  Really, you could not think so many people could be so still.  Sarat is – they are all dismounting and removing their swords.  They’re going in now…
 
Sarat walked through the House of Silence and took the stand.  Mel took the stand in Zur, Cho in Maona-pri.  Sarat will speak for us all.
 
Star turn.  Culmination.
 
Dear people, I thank you.  I shall not say in my worst dreams I never imagined but of course the reality.  Some have called us heedless, foolhardy.  We pay then for our folly?  We do not skulk, cringe before Death the Great Master – “ The contempt in his voice was palpable.   “And so some will say is this devastation we experience, is this ceremonial we conduct, not in obedience, obeisance to Death.”  Oh Sarat, breathed Mitch.  “We are human.  To be human is to love.  We grieve because we love, but love must conquer our grief, our fear.  We feel the pain and pass through it into love.  We are here today in love to love, to affirm the triumph of love.  Love endures.  We are here because we love Maya, not because we loved her, an ephemeral state, soon forgotten.  This flame symbolizes that love.  It is no feeble thing, readily extinguished.  It is Light.  It is power.  It is all power.  Death has no power over us.  And so there is not an ending but a change, as every atom in the flame changes from moment to moment.  Once more things are different but also they are the same.  There is no faltering in our resolution, no dent in our love.
 
“‘They came, the skull-faces, but we laughed.’  This Narulis wrote in his Journal – “  When a very large number of people gasp, it makes a noise, however quietly they try to do it.  Sarat continued.  This I say to you today.  They cannot destroy laughter.  Today we feel far from it, I perhaps most of all, but all sorrow must pass. 
 
I am here because I love Maya.  My lady is my grace and my truth.  My lady is my resolution and my culmination. To my lady I say, they cannot destroy our love.
 
I thank you all for being here.  I thank you all, on Maya’s behalf, on my own, for your love.
 
He bowed and walked slowly out.  A single flute played the Requiem.
It wasn’t quiet any more.  Too many people crying.
After a moment, Saryulin, Duvi, Mitch, Karula and Marula followed him out.  They got into the waiting cars.  It was over.
 
As Sarat drives away through a silent Azt, we move to Zur, where Alzani-Meta leaves the House of Silence.
The first crashing chords hit the screens. 
Sarat frowned.
All of us of course know Dabida’s unofficial anthem.  They’ve changed the words!  They’re calling it the ‘It’s what Maya would have wanted song’!
The words flashed on the screen. .
Does Sarat fail?  Does Sarat quail?  No, he does not, our brave Sarat!  Come hadin, come.
A roar went up from the crowd in Azt as they took up the words.
Sarat seemed in shock.
“I don’t think I’m going to escape,” he said after a moment. .
“If we go down Sertal we can get to the Colonnade.”
“Mel hasn’t,” said Sarat.
“I thank you,” Mel was saying.
“Sir.”
“We just think we have never seen anything so fucking brave in our lives.”
Pietri smiled.
“I am relieved we can rely upon Zuri to be formal and sober on all occasions.”
“Sir.  It’s the you looked death in the face and told him to go – to get stuffed day.”
Sarat has turned off.  Yes, he’s heading for the Colonnade.  Such an outpouring of affection, of, use the word , love must be a very  real support to him – he’s stopped outside the Imperial, he’s getting out.  The crowd has stopped in mid-chorus.  They’re starting to sing the imperial anthem.  I really don’t know about this, must it not to Sarat be a tragic reminder of that first jubilant night in Azt, but this is no heavy metal rendition but almost stately and every soldier present – let’s face it now our hearts are no longer in our mouths there are very many soldiers present and the security arrangements of this day – every soldier is rigidly at attention.  But what is good, what is great, what too is a measure of how far Kadun has travelled, is every soldier of every army and Sarat is I think thanking them.  Now he has turned to the crowd.  He’s saluting them and I guess he’ll stay at the salute until they’ve finished singing…OK, they’ve finished.  What now? 
Sarat said once again: I thank you all for being here.  I thank you all, on Maya’s behalf, on my own, for your love.  He got back into the car. 
Now I guess he’s really going home.  If we cut now to Maona-pri…
On this most terrible of days the ‘It’s what Maya would have wanted song’ lifts up hearts the world over, and I would hope it is not presumptuous, Cho, to think yours is among them.
I thank Dabida, I thank Kadun..  At the start of such a day it is hard to think it may end on so firm an affirmation of love and hope.  For that of course I thank  Sarat who found the words to articulate that affirmation.”
“That was some – address.”
“I am so proud of him,” said Cho.  “I am so proud of him it hurts.”
“People are saying – he just said everything.”
“Everything that matters,” said Cho.
 
“Every damn’ paper in Harn.”
Bal groaned.
“Every damn’ paper in the world.”
There is only one headline,  Seani had said.  Most of the world’s press agreed.
WE DO NOT DO COWERING.  The Azt Star made it into a graphic, a red circle with the word ‘cowering’ in the middle and a red line through it. 
 
They arrived at the Palace and vanished off the world’s radar.
“Now I collapse,” said Sarat.  “My lords, my ladies, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”
“Imperial Majesty! Think nothing of it.”
Pots of coffee were brought. 
Sarat smiled.
“I think tea for my lady of Carlin.”
“Darling,” said Duvi, “so long as it’s hot and wet.”
At length Saryulin said: “You wish to talk?  You wish to be alone?”
“At this moment,” said Sarat, “I may be beyond knowing.”
“I’ll stay,” said Mitch.
The rest wandered off to try to sleep.
“I have an idea,” muttered Mitch.  He disappeared into the kitchen, emerged to raid the drinks cabinet and disappeared again to surface with two glasses of something pale green.. 
“Get this down you.”
Sarat examined the glass.
“Poison?”
“An old family recipe.  We call it the reviver.”
Sarat downed the lot, then threw the glass across the room.
“Yeah,” said Mitch.
“I think maybe I just want to sit,” said Sarat.  “Let the screaming pass through me.”
“Just yell if you need me,” said Mitch.
Some hours later Mitch surfaced.
“Food is good.  You need to eat, Sarat.”
“I’ve been thinking,” said Sarat.  “I really don’t know how to be without her.  Have to start from scratch.”
They were 15, thought Mitch, damn and blast everything to hell, they were 15!  It’s almost like he has had no life without her.
 
“I really don’t think it matters any more,” said Cho.
“Agreed,” said Faun. “There’s just one thing you need to know before you come.”
“Sarat?”
“Sarat, I hope,  is managing to get some sleep.  The crowds are still on the streets, Cho.  Not so many,  Sure, some people have gone home.  They say they should see the day out, it’s not right to go home until midnight, a new day.  We tried to look that one up.  Can’t find anything.  I think they’re making it up as they go along. “
“What could be nicer.”
 “They got it so wrong.”
“A day behind bullet-proof glass.”
“A day behind bullet-proof glass could not have ended quite like this.”
“I really don’t want,” said Cho, “to – “ He smiled.  “Intrude.  I think this is strictly doting grandfather.”

Cho slunk into the back of the Imperial.   . 
They showed him into Sarat’s office.  Shav looked up, looking tired.
“Just running the joint.  Talk about a wing and a prayer!  His Imperial Majesty is not receiving tonight.  Everyone has just about grasped that but the world does not stop turning. . I rang Mitch.  He says Sarat’s doing just fine working his way through it.  The strain of today.  I don’t think I could have done that.”
“I don’t think he could have done it without Mitch.  Where’re Zik and Ven?”
“Selflessly I toil while my sisters sleep!  No way.  Zika was last seen in a really rather heavy-duty discussion about metaphysics.  Really Sarat, if you will say these things,” she added innocently.   “Ven said she was off to the canteen and hasn’t been seen since.”
“Tell her she’ll get fat.”
He slunk away again and headed for the Palace.
 
“I told him he had to eat.  He said he didn’t know how to be without her.”
“Where is he?”
“Sitting.”
“Sitting where?”
“If you want to be literal,” said Mitch, “he’s sitting on the step leading from the sitting-room to the bedroom.  I don’t think it matters where he’s sitting.”  He sighed.  “He’s – talking to people.  Sometimes.  This place!”
“My lord of Var-segan,” said Cho with mock severity, “your rationalism is inappropriate.”
Mitch sighed again.
“Duvi had a little chat to Brig.”
Cho laughed out loud and made his way to the sitting-room,
“Sarat?  Narulis?  How does one put the lights on?”
Sarat picked up the remote and became visible.
“My dear boy.”
“The show went on, my most intimate feelings on display to what, a hundred million worldwide.  I have never in my life felt so alone.”
“That is not the word?” suggested Cho.
“That is not the word,” agreed Sarat gravely.  “Naked.  Flayed.  I did it my way.” 
“Where is the kitchen?” asked Cho.
Sarat got up slowly.
“Shall I feel better with a good strong cup of coffee inside me?”
“I shall,” said Cho.
“There is an exquisitely concealed sink in the corner.  Like in The Room.”  He fiddled with the remote again and sat on the settee while Cho put the kettle on.  “The weight of being Anile Emperor.”
“Sarat…”  If you put on a show that tears people’s hearts open, that flays the world. . “This also – devastates?”
“Where is the next beginning?”
“This you – contemplate?”  Cho found the biscuit tin. “Eat!”
“I sit here in the dark,” said Sarat, “Not because I am devastated, although I am devastated, but because I do not yet know the start of the next continuum.”
“You know,” said Cho.
“Now I am Kadun,” said Sarat.  “There can be no errors of judgement because the poor boy is bereft.”
“You do not do badly thus far.  Coffee.”
 “My lady,” continued Sarat, “was my privacy.  Does that make sense?  A part of me shielded from the world.”
 
The airwaves continued babbling into the night.
You could say it was a statement of – of emotional unity between Kadun and Dabida, and if that seems strange because it also seemed it was never any other way. 
It is almost unbearably poignant because Sarat and Maya symbolized that unity but only by her death did it become fully real.
I wouldn’t disagree with that, but I’d say it’s also – also a change in perception of Sarat.  Who today thought Sarat some Fidubi guy!  He is Kadun, man!
It’s like all the mental barriers, the labels, just dissolved.
I think that’s the opposite of what I just said!
Maybe.
Of course no-one has doubted a deep-seated set of convictions underpinned the entire enterprise.
He’s killed Jaizal!
Dabida will not tolerate an emperor in Azt! It was another world!
I thnk it’ll take us a little time to truly get the hang of what has happened here today. 
If we turn to one of the most famous choruses in the world, ‘Come hadin come, come not alone’, and just contemplate the symbolism of Kadun singing that to the rest of the continent, which is nearly as bad as Dabida singing it to the rest of the continent, don’t you think it astonishing that those words remained unchanged?
No-one ever censored Zuri.
You mean Zur is singing that demanding some action around here?
Wouldn’t you be?
I think it’s only – only when you really understand they don’t give that – he snapped his fingers – about dying – haven’t we asked, why weren’t these kids too scared to get out of bed in the morning?
Challin abruptly turned the radio off and continued his internal dialogue with Sarat.  We are human, meaning we are animal.  Our drive is to survive.  We don’t like it at the time.  What else are we, sir?  I operate on a need to know basis.  If I am to die for you, I need to know.
 
Sarat expressed a desire to sleep and stretched out on the settee.  Cho covered him with a blanket and slipped away.
“The flowers keep coming,” said Mitch.   “As people go home, they drop them off!”
Cho said: “Asyrion in a field with flowers.”  Then: “He will be different.”
“He is different,” said Mitch.
Sarat woke just before dawn. 
“I love you,” he said sleepy but cognisant. He got up and walked over to the window.  The flowers were waist-high.  He almost refound his sense of humour.  How can I cope!  He heard Maya giggle.
 
Time for the real world.  Nothing realler, honey.  We’re dead and we don’t even know it.  Or you were, my love. and you knew it.  You couldn’t convince us we were dead because we weren’t.  What is being screamed at us is everything is whole.  Oh how does it work?  Not now, he told himself, but he went outside and  waded into the flowers to read the cards.
CLICK CLICK CLICK
“Vultures,” said Jaizi affectionately.
Sarat looked up.
“Watch it,” he said.  “She has a sword.”
There was a tremor of shock.
“You got a sword, Sarat?”
“I have a sword,” said Sarat. 
He went inside and dressed, then made a few phone calls.
 
“We understood,” observed Challin, “nothing.”
“Zilch,” said Karci, “the Big O.”
“You look shaken.”
“Isn’t everyone?”
Challin smiled.
 
“Them flowers, said Varulin.  “A word in your shell-like.”  He grinned at As. “Sir.  Think this is a ‘sir’ sort of conversation, you having been through it and all.”  Asdinan knew Varulin had lost a daughter from meningitis.  “Being also better educated, socially elevated and spiritually more advanced, as you are.”
“Me?” said As..  “Come on, I’m an infant!’
“Well, maybe I’m an embryo,” said Varulin.  “Maybe I can’t take it from the folks who hear the wheels of the universe.”
“You want to talk about death?” hazarded As.
“Yes and no,” said Varulin.  “I want – you could say I want to report to the CinC only I don’t think at this minute. There’s lots of things I want to say and I’m buggered if I know where to start.  It’s like – advice for a start.  Folk don’t want to be cool any more.  They want to sort of pledge their swords.  Then there’s the flowers.  It’s love or hate now, and if it’s love blokes want to show it only we don’t know how.  It’s like formality isn’t empty after all. People are talking about death,” he ended in a rush.  “First time in my life, like it was – that’s not what I mean.  Like it was natural, even when it ain’t.  You know folks say you go to a field of flowers.  Do you believe in an after-life?”
“I don’t know,” said Asdinan.  “I don’t know what I believe.  What I have heard, what I have learned. Even the – folks who hear the wheels,  They – can’t make out all the words.  If – if you ask me if I think Maya is in a field with flowers in some other – dimension, no, no, I don’t, I think I don’t.  I think it’s a beautiful idea and she may be – in some form of beautfiul state.  How d’you give yourself if not through obedience?”
“That’s it,” said Varulin.  Sorg’s answer hung between them.  “I think,” said Varulin, “we’re all ready to do that.”
“It will not come to that,” said Asdinan with some force.
But Varulin said: “Perhaps it should.”
As nodded. 
“Was that the first mistake, not to force an open war?”
“I really don’t know,” said Varulin.
“Were they too nice?”
“Don’t reckon they’re going to be quite so nice now..”
“But that is not the answer.”
“Now it is.  We all know what they said.  Fresh start.  Can’t prosecute everyone who’s compromised.  There’s not many compromised now.  No-one’s going to bleed if he hangs them.”
 It’s not how they do things in Fidub, thought Asdinan.  They don’t have the fucking Cult in Fidub.
“Kadun’s been going a long time,” continued Varulin.  “Lots of stories.”
“Sure,” said As.
“When she died.  I was there.”
“Yes,” said As.
“I been thinking about that a lot.  I think he was with her, if you know what I mean.  I can’t explain. I don’t know nothing.  That man was not in this world.”
 “I know they – join minds,” said As.
“So if one’s going – other’s going too.”
“Unless they’re forced apart,” said As with a sort of dawning horror.
“Baz,” said Varulin.  “I have never ever seen him lose it like that.”
“I think perhaps,” said As, “the exact stresses of that particular moment may be something we’ll never know or should know.”
Varulin grinned suddenly.
“But we should be very very nice to him.”
“Very very nice,” said As.