Kthaahthikha

XVI - 0300

On entering the palace, I found myself in a vast hall, borded on all sides by a gallery reached by a lengthy marble staricase that divided at its centre into two spiralling wings. Everywhere peopled moved to and fro, and corpses walked about bearing platters laden with champagne and and entrees. It crossed my mind to wonder where al this provender came from, but I was unable to ask Clothilde fpor she was busily-engaged in conversation with another young woman, a stunning Chinese dressed all in ink-black silk.

I attempted to mingle amidst the revellers, but everyone seemed to take me as a servant, and many were deeply surprised when I introduced myself until, gradually, they came to realise that I was a newcomer to the city.

'Tonight you will meet Maldino,' they said, and strangfe smiles would pass across their faces as they laughed into their wines. I did not wish to make any enemies, and so avoided pressing the point, but on several occasions I attempted to decipher the nature of the place. Though it was not healthy to contemplate the fact, I knew that all those about me were either corpses or inhuman - else something more than human. The very idea of it sent an electric shiver up my spine.

I took a glass of wine from a passing platter, and drunk deep. I am usually moderate but these were exceptional times. The taste was rich and full-bodied - I had clutched at a glass of claret - but I felt none of the pleasant warming that should have radiated outwards from my stomach. I sniffed at the glass, and the odour was sharp and all-pervasive as that of wine ever is. I wondered, and clutched at another glass.

This one followed the first with another pleasant taste and failure to warm me, and I decided that either I was drinking some rare and enchanted beverage entirely-devoid of the common effects of wine, else I was drinking a phantom - which seemed a far more likely thing.

I had to think, then, if all of this was phantoms. Spectres, illusions, ghosts. How else to explain the city's sudden appearance, its magnificence, its flaunting of natural laws and the deathless, otherworldy-quality of its inhabitants. Just to be certain, I downed another glass, and remained enitirely unaffected, although I had to admit it possessed the ghost of an excellent vintage.

As the night continued, the orchestra playing its musics from all across the globe, a number of figures climbed up upon the stage and, picked-out by a shaft of blue stage-light, give vent to songs that seemed to flow directly from their souls. There were ballads of the highlands sung in rich Gaelic lilts, and French ditties that touched my heart. A number of impenetrable oriental tunes, though I failed to understand any of what was sung, had such a slow, alien quality to them that I could not help but pause to listen as they drifted slow and sharp through the air. I determined quietly to myself that I would visit Japan some day.

All of this took place amidst a forest of silk bunting, suspending hanging outards from an enormous chandelier that hung from the centre of the hall, dripping glass like water from a stalactite. All around the room burned gas lamps and candles, and it was these that gave the hall a warm glow. It somejow counteracted te chill hues that were projected by the revellers, who could be quite disorienting such large numberd with their constant shifts between hyper-realism and suffused brilliance.

I spent the better part of my time, once I had realised the nature of the place, sitting in an armchair by the fireplace and listening the young man with a beard, who went on and on about something to do with the ways in which language can infect ones view of reality, and conversely perfectly-harmless words were growing ever more sinister as the world changed around them.

But even this wet blanket was quite playful in his diatribe, and I do not believe athere was a serious person in the place. Of coure, it appeared that spirits could grow intoxicated upon this imaginary wine, and it was a most excellent wine indeed. Songs and strains of music filled the air, great impromptu dances were formed and fell apart, and a number of people came up to introduce themselves to me as it becmae clear that I was a new figure in the town.

In stark contrast to the villagers, very few people seemed at all interested in outside goings-on, and I am sure that the most heated inquiry I was subjected was that of Clothilde, and her two questions pertaining to America and France.

As the evening rolled on, however, there was no sign of the much-vaunted guest of honour. I had been assured - and continued to be so - that I would be introduced to Maldino before the night was done, but I was more than a little apprehensive about the affair, although I was also filled with a great deal of excitement about the idea. Very few of the people whom I questioned seemed wither to know anything about the nature of the place or willing to disclose it, and i grew very eager to discover just what, exactly, was the relationship between corpses and servants, and between that Artic reach and this lavish phantom settlement.

But for the time being I ate and drank, and grew gradually hungrier, until I finally asked one of the servants for actual food and was brought a bit of meat and some wild berries. Meanwhile, everyone - myself included - was having a marvellous time, and so entirely failed to notice when Maldino came into the hall.

Some daft bint has been inaccurately-recording the twenty-four hour numbers on my post-midnight posts. I must see about going through a new agency.