Chapter 40 Chapter Forty

In an instant, everything changed.Beanie led Therimon and Sifna to what appeared to be a very comfortable and cozy residence on the other side of the barricade: cushions, curtains, and a row of pots that looked like food.A slender young woman lay with a bandaged left foot.She looked frail and slightly feverish, but she gave a short, faint smile as the others walked in. Beanie said, "Don't you remember Resta 717, Therimon?" "Resta, this is Sifna 89 from the Department of Archeology. I Told you about her... Her archaeological finds prove that cities burned in the distant past... Lesta is my assistant. ’ he said to Sifna.

Theremon had seen Resta a few times during his relationship with Beanie over the past two years.However, that is a matter of another era, and that era has died and does not exist.He barely recognized her, he remembered her as a slender, pretty woman, always well-dressed and easy going.But now... now!The Resta he knew had turned into a thin, weak, and haggard girl... a girl with sunken eyes and scorched hair that looked like a devil. Had it really only been a few weeks since sunset?Suddenly, it seems like many years have passed.It's like a long period of time... several geological epochs...

Beanie said, "I've got a little brandy here, Theremon." Theremon's eyes widened. "Really? You know it's been a while since I've had a drink? That's ironic, Beanie. You're a teetotaler, and I've been trying to persuade you to take a sip of tarol... ...and now you have the last bottle of brandy in the world hidden here!' "Sifna, do you drink?" Benny asked. "A little bit, please." "Just a little for all of us." He poured them a very small amount of wine. When the brandy began to warm him, Theremon said, "Beney, what's the matter out there? What's the matter with the inspection?"

"You don't know the inspection team?" "I don't know at all." "Where have you both been since evening?" "Mostly in the forest, and then, got beaten up by some hooligans. Sifna found me and took me to the university hideaway. There, they traumatized me again. We've been here for the first two days Trekking hard on the road, hoping to reach Amgando." "So you know Amgando?" "I knew it indirectly from you," said Theremon. "I met Sherin in the forest. He must have gone to the Hermitage after you left and saw your notice about going to Amgundo. He You told me, and I told Sifna, and we set off there together."

"With Schelling?" Beanie asked. "And where is he now?" "He is not with us. After he broke up with me a few days ago... he went to Amgando alone, but I stayed in Salo City to look for Sifna. I don't know what happened to him... If I'd like to take another sip of brandy if you can spare a little, will you, Beanie? Then you tell me about the search party." Beanie poured a small drink for Theremon again.He glanced at Sifna, who shook her head. Then he said uneasily: "If Schelling is traveling alone, he is probably in trouble, not ordinary trouble. Since I am here, he must not have passed this road. To anyone who wishes to make it to Amgundo As far as people are concerned, the Great Southern Highway is the only way out of Salo. We have to send a reconnaissance team to find him. As for the search point, it is a special operation played by Xinshi. This is an official search point. There is one at the provincial borders of each province on the Southern Highway."

"We are only a few miles from Salo," said Theremon. "This is still Salo, Bini." "Not exactly. The former provincial government has disappeared, and the remaining part of Salo City has been divided up... I heard that the Flame Cultists occupy a considerable part of the city, and the forest and around the university The area is under the control of a man named Arzenor, who runs a quasi-military group that calls himself the Fire Patrol. Perhaps, you have met them." "I was an officer on the fire patrol a few days ago and this green scarf I'm wearing is their officer badge," Sifner said.

Beene said, "Then you know what's going on. The old system has collapsed... A million little governments have sprung up like mushrooms. Now you're in Xiaxing Province, down the road from here About 7 miles is its jurisdiction. When you reach the next checkpoint, you have reached the province of Liuyang. After that is the province of Godenam, then the province of Nikko, and after that is... well, I can't remember Clear, though, as long as people keep going and as long as every few days they reach a new province." "And what about the checkpoint?" Serimon couldn't wait.

"The new paranoia, everybody's afraid of the igniters. Do you know who they are? A bunch of lunatics who think it's funny what happens at sunset. They go around lighting things up. I know, eclipse night, people Panicked, and burned a third of Saro to drive the stars away. A while later, though the stars had receded, the other third was still not out of luck. It was disgusting. So, those People who are more or less sane... You're among them, maybe you're a little surprised... Everyone is being searched for ignition devices, fire materials, lighters, pocket guns, or anything else that can start a fire Will prohibit..."

"It's the same thing that happens on the outskirts," Sifna said. "That's what the fire patrol does."Only Arzanor and his men had the privilege of using fire. " "I was attacked by them when I was going to cook for myself in the forest," said Thelimon, "I guess they were also searchers. If Sifna hadn't come to rescue me at a critical moment, as just now If you save us like that, then I will be beaten to death." "Well," Beanie said, "I don't know who you met in the woods, but, here, searches are a formal ritual to deal with the same problems. Searches are everywhere, everyone must be searched, never Relax. Skepticism is universal, without exception. It is like a high fever...everyone is afraid. Only a very few elite troops like Arzanol's fire patrol can carry combustibles. At the border, you'll have to surrender your firing device to the temporary authorities there. You might as well leave those pocket guns with me, Theremon, with them you'll never reach Amgando."

"Without them, we would never have gotten there!" says Theremon. Benny shrugged. "Maybe yes, maybe no. You're going to have to turn them in if you keep going south, it's inevitable. You know, the next time you run into a search party, I'm not going to be there to send the searchers away gone." Theremon pondered for a moment. "So how do you get them to listen to you?" he asked. "Are you the head of the search party here?" Beanie laughed and said, "Search Captain? No way. But they respect me. You see, I'm their visiting professor. There are places where university staff are hated by people, you know? Kill, because, they think we caused the eclipse, and are preparing to create another one. But here it is different, here they think my ingenuity is useful... I can send diplomatic information to the neighboring provinces, Being able to make bad things work again, I can even explain to them why the darkness won't come back and why we can see the stars after 2000 years. They feel so comforted, so I settle down among them Yes. They feed us, take care of Resta, and I advise them. It’s a nice symbiotic relationship."

"Sherin told me you were going to Amgando," said Theremon. "It used to be," Beanie said, "Armgundo was where you and I were supposed to be. But Resta and I got in trouble on the way. You heard what I just said, the lunatics trying to capture the University Staff and try to kill them? Almost got caught by a bunch of lunatics as we headed south through the suburbs toward the highway. Now all of the neighborhood south of the forest has been taken over by those demented sojourners." "We've met some," Theremon said. "You know, then, that we were surrounded by a crowd. They judged from the way we spoke that we were educated intellectuals, and then someone recognized me...recognized me, Therimon, from your At that time, you were interviewing me about the solar eclipse! Then, he said, I am from the observatory, and I am the one who makes the stars appear." For a moment, Benny's eyes were blank, " Two minutes later, I thought, Resta and I were going to have to escape, and these lunatics were trying to tie us to the lamppost. Suddenly another group of lunatics came and distracted them. It was providence, I thought. They shouted, threw bottles, and brandished kitchen knives, and they couldn't concentrate on one thing for long. But as we crawled across the path between two burnt buildings, Ray Sta's leg was scratched by broken glass. By the time we got to the far south end of the road, her leg was so infected she could no longer walk." "I see." No wonder she looked so bad, Thelimon thought to himself. "We were lucky enough that the border guards in Resurrection needed a professor and they brought us in. We've been here for a week, maybe 10 days. I figure if all goes well, another week for Resta, Or two weeks, and we will be able to go back on the road. Then, I will ask the head of this province to issue us a pass, so that we can at least safely pass through the next few provinces, so as to rush to Amgando. If you want If so, you are welcome to stay with us until Resta's injury is healed and we can go to the south together. Of course, it is safer that way... You want me, Butera?" The tall man who had been trying to search Theremon in the clearing poked his head through the curtain of Binina's little room. "The messenger has just arrived, Professor. Some news from the city has been sent through the Imperial Province, and we don't quite understand it." "Show me," said Beanie, reaching out to take a folded note from the man, and turning to Theremon, "messengers have been running back and forth between new provinces. The empire, north and east of the road, is tightly bound to the city. Most of these searchers can't read very well, and the star presentation seems to have damaged the language center of their brains, or something." Beanie fell silent and began to scan the note.He frowned, pursed his lips, muttered for a while about the calligraphy and spelling of people after sunset, and then his expression became melancholy. "My God!" he exclaimed, "the most pathetic, dreadful..." His hands were shaking.He looked at Theremon with wild eyes. "Benny! What's the matter?" Biney said with a melancholy expression: "The Flame Cultists are coming this way. They have assembled an army and are going to march along the road to Amgando and wipe out the new small provincial government that appears along the road. When When they reach Amgando, they will destroy any form of government that has been re-established there, and declare themselves the sole legitimate ruling power with real power in the Republic." Theremon felt Sifna's fingers digging into his arm, and he turned to see the look of terror on her face.He knew his expression would be no different. "Come... this way..." he said slowly, "an army of believers." "Thelimon, Sifna... you have to get out of here," Beanie said, "go now. If you're still here when the cultists come, then it's all over." "You mean to Amgando?" Theremon asked. "Yes, don't waste another minute. The entire university staff who were in the Retreat are there, as well as people from other universities, and intellectuals from all over the Republic. You and Sifna have to go and warn them to disperse. If Had they been in Amgandor when the pilgrims arrived, Mondial would have destroyed all centers of legitimate government that the country might have in the future, and he would have even ordered the mass punishment of university officials... See, no matter what, I You will be given a pass to go through a few search points along the way, but once you get beyond our jurisdiction, then you will have to submit to the search, let them take what they want from you, and continue south Walk. You must not allow your energies to be distracted by refusal to search again, and the people of Amgando must be warned, Theremon!" "Then what are you going to do? Are you going to stay here?" Benny looked a little confused. "What else can I do?" "But... when the believers came..." "When they come, I'll let them handle it. You won't let me leave Lesta and escape to Amgando with you, will you?" "Oh no……" "Then I have no choice. Right? Right? I have to stay here, with Lesta." Theremon's head began to ache, and he put his hands to his eyes. Sifna said, "There's no other way, Theremon." "I know, I know. But it doesn't make any difference to think of Mondial and his men taking such a valuable man as Biny as a prisoner... and putting him to death..." Beanie smiled and put his hand on Theremon's forearm. "Who knows? Maybe Mondial will keep two favored professors by his side like pets. In any case, my situation is secondary now, and my duty is to be with Lesta. Your duty is to get on the road...to get to Amgundo as quickly as possible. Come on, I'll get you a meal, and then I'll get you some official papers to take with you on the road." He paused. "Here, you'll need this too." He poured the remaining less than an ounce of brandy into Theremon's empty glass. "Cheers."