About a certain return

Part 9

The society was carefully divided. If most of the men were working at the steel works, the women were organized so that they could defend, if needed, the settlement, being trained and armed for this. I found it funny to see then practicing their fighting training. But I got used to it rapidly. A woman had a lot of duties. One of them was satisfying the physical needs of her man. It wasn't an unconditioned submission, but a duty, as I said, imposed by the Law, and The Law was of divine origin, it was the law of the matter, of the earth, Mother Deea. The name of the Almighty Mother wasn't pronounced whenever an action was taken, but the name of a male god: Dan. It was Dan they were appealing to when they set off for work or put the hands to any other purpose: "May Dan help us", "May we get Dan's help", "Dan, help us!" Mother Deea represented the earth, a benumbed force, apparently limp, that offered food and a place to live to people, but not for free. Who, on earth, would give for free anything during the material existence of our poor spirit? Nobody and nothing. To say nothing of a great god! "Be reluctant to curse, to express any complaint that the god might fulfil for you, without offering something in exchange! The god will take something from your life, never what you are willing to give him. That's the beginning of the anguish and only the magi can save you. Or, maybe even the witch... All those seriously ill, all those ill-fated, have ignored this great and divine law. It's a world of a fair barter system..."

– It's not easy, I said. I should be very careful with whatever I say. It would impossible for me to think freely.

– The word, said Diana, has been brought into this world by the god Dan.

"The word? Strange indeed, I thought, how do the two of us manage to communicate, though nobody taught us how to get to this understanding! How come I know all the words, how to combine them, how to name the objects?" I realized I also knew the graphic signs representing the words' units.

– I can also write.

– What does that mean?

– I can draw letters, words...

– Oh, said Diana, in horror. Something like that is not possible. It's the exclusive right of the magi and the connection between him and the gods. You cannot become magi. You're a Dart. Don't tell anyone about it. It's not a truth, but a blasphemy.

This is how Diana, my occasional woman, advised me. Though small, she was well – endowed for a woman. She was wonderfully proportioned and wasn't reluctant to undress in my presence, but she even did it on purpose to awake my sexual instincts. But something was putting me off. As I said, these little people had a peculiar transparency. I looked at my body; it was opaque, impervious to light. But sometimes the light could get through them; I could see what's behind them. Not always. Only when I was concentrating. Moreover, when I touched Diana, my hand would get beyond her skin. I asked her what she feels. She said it was a very pleasant feeling, undefined, a strong pleasure but also a great fear. Dart is a clumsy person. He needs to be taught everything, in detail, must be initiated in matters of life and death. It's not easy to make love in the dariels' world. Even this act which should be performed in privacy was mediated by the god. This multitude of gods started to annoy me. They were interfering in everything, they were feeding themselves with whatever you liked the most.

"Give this to Mother Deea because she would like it too, give this to the house's dimins as they must be hungry, Prey to the sinister god Detar to subdue your enemies, set a post in front of the door to nail down the God Dan's assassins, as he was watching upon all the dariels... and moreover, if I had any intention to mate, a mating dance was needed prior to it, with shouts and incantations for Dimena, which was heard by the whole community, and if they had nothing better to do, they will crowd to look, through the house's wholes , at the most popular show, after the bathing and the organized feasts. A twisted nation! The Dariels', she told me, seems to exist since the existence of the earth. Moreover, they are believed to be countless, and representing a very important and powerful nation. And, undoubtedly, as sons of the earth, the dariels will live as long as the earth itself. However, this belief in an everlasting faith is not applicable only to isolated clans, but to all tribes. Everyone had been initiated in one art and they cohabit by exchanging products, being tied together as a chain's links. Their history is nothing but a collection of old fairy tales, jokes, advices, cods, mythology and wisdom. And above all it's their art's knowledge, guarded and hidden from the outsiders. I knew I'll be initiated in one day, as I had been brought there to help them with their work. But where did I come from? I asked Diana and I've been upbraided: "Are you in your right mind?" It was all right at that time. Did Diana know, by then, what laid in store for me? She knew something... I was fond of my little nymph. I believed she also had some feelings for me. I was, certainly, wrong. But it doesn't matter, as her wish to do her duty impeccably was so important for her, Diana being somehow marginalized, which I understood noticing how the other women spoke to her. It was easy to understand that there was a strict hierarchy in the clan or that the leaders' women had an upward on the others, concerning their personal live or the children's' education, but it's something else when even the common women didn't seem to accept her company... At the end of the day, I found out the story about the well-fated and the ill-fated births, something about the dariels' calendar and even details about their hidden existence. I was wondering whether these little men were well-meaning, if they were in the service of the Good, as it is known, that is the state of freedom, the respect for the dignity of all the living creatures and the action in the spirit of a positive vision towards the environment and the becoming... Well, does that means "Good?" It's a bit confusing... but to cut a long story short, Good is established when you are pleased and wish the same to all others. Therefore, the little restless beards weren't driven by any humanitarian messages. They were continuously laughing, amused by any nonsense and kept on staring at me as if they were breeding me to become their dish for some feast organized in the honor of one of their man eating gods. Almost all the men went to work, to a place kept secret from me until the settled day, which didn't depend on me or on the progress I might achieved in one direction or another. No. That day was in connection with the end of the preparation made by them for a long time to complete an important work. I was free to wonder around through the community's places and I have even been with the dariels in remote places joining delegations to other clans' settlements where I noticed great differences between these little men that seemed to be part of the same race. One of them had their dwellings gathered in the middle of the settlement which was surrounded by walls, others lived in houses carved in the rock and got up there with the help of a rolling staircase system and others were simply nomads. The nomads had some repulsive horses, with big eyes and ears, shaggy, with an almost human expression, curiously looking at what was going on around them. These wanderers, curriers and metal workers were knows as very fast and precise archers and even looters feared by all the other communities. Between these little men there was no good understanding, but an endless suspicion, a miserable discord and a hardly hidden disdain. It's their business! The dariels seemed nicer to me. At least they were smiling, speaking loudly and great party lovers. I had the possibility to watch the barter trade, the exchange of goods, pieces of metal, raw material, rare gems offered by my hosts in exchange for tools, and food. The smoked meat they just took was the flesh of a log-haired horse. The social organization of the clans astonished me. By example, the nomads, the azaiels, were led by Ansu, the king, the staniels had a magus as a leader, and the luciels a Great Maestro... The dariels were led, as I said, by The Father.