Chapter Thirty Two
Hundreds of service bots milled throughout the crowd, setting up tables, chairs, plates; pretty much anything that would be needed for a typical feast. Wagons stuffed with food collected from the Tärkein were placed at the edge of the square. Hunters and gatherers immediately began hauling out the food supply from the wagons, giving the flour, wheat, and berries to the bakers and all the poultry to the butchers – including Eeloy.
Bakers began preparing breads, cakes, and pretty much every pastry known to man in the bakeries that surrounded the square. The smell of seasoned meat cooking drifted through the air. Some of the citizens took the liberty of helping out with the decorations, attaching yellow and red paper lanterns to string and stretching them from one side of the square to the other. Dancers began rehearsing up on the stage while others scurried around to find something to help out with.
Ellie and I were overseeing the work, the Empress talking rapidly as we did so. “There’s gonna be a separate feast up in my palace just for those who participated in the Tascaque,” she said with delight. “I ordered my service bots to begin working on it immediately. So while all the citizens are down here in this cramped square, we get an entire feast to ourselves . . .” She started rambling on about how the meat was prepared much better in the palace, and about a new pastry her cook had invented, and about how it was made with Efaque’s most precious fruit . . . it went on and on.
I found myself daydreaming halfway through her speech, and when I caught her staring at me, I asked, “What?”
“I was asking you a question.”
I rubbed my eyes. “I’m sorry. What did you ask me?”
The Empress shook her head and looked out at the chaotic scene before us. “I asked, where do you think the funeral should take place?”
I looked down. “Does Efaque city have some sort of graveyard?”
She nodded. “Yes. I believe some service bots are preparing the corpses – I mean, Recaro and Kate – for their caskets.” She stopped a service bot that was wheeling by us. “Go find the service bots responsible for the funeral and tell them to bring them inside their caskets to the graveyard. I want it done in half an hour. Go!”
The service bot said in its monotone voice, “Yes, your highness,” and left.
“Don’t you ever feel sorry for them?” I asked.
“What?” The Empress asked.
“The Service Bots. I mean, they have to do most of the work around here. Do they get any breaks?”
The Empress laughed as if I were telling some sort of joke. “Breaks? You’re out of your mind! They’re robots. And if I feel sorry for them, it’s only because they’re the dumbest creations Efaque has made.”
“Why do the citizens hate them so much?” I asked quizzically.
The Empress sighed with a smile. “Because, they’re so laughable, Darrel. Not only that, but they are well below us human beings. Of course, you of all people, would know what it’s like to be superior to everyone else.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “But . . . I practically killed Kate.”
I heard Ellie scowl beside me. “It’s not your fault!” She grabbed my hand. “I don’t know how many times I have to say it!”
Although I knew she was right, I still couldn’t bring myself to say it. I was there, and I didn’t save Kate. Sure, maybe I didn’t murder her, but wasn’t it vaguely similar to man slaughter? I mean, I “accidentally” killed her, right?
The Empress nodded and put her hand on my shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault.”
I looked at her with surprise. The Empress had never said anything so comforting before. I then stared at my feet with guilt. I just wanted the feast to be over with, then hopefully the surgery would end.
That’s when a question popped into my head. How long has the surgery been going on for? Let’s see . . . if one hour in the real world equals one day in the dream world . . . and since I had spent a full three days here, it means that the surgery has been going on for three hours.
I groaned. The doctors said it would be a six-hour operation, which included the recovery time. Three more hours, or days, to go I guess . . .
I looked around with a sudden appreciation. I knew deep down that I would miss Efaque City, this Dream-Ellie, and heck, even the Empress. But I wouldn’t be waking up for another three days, a long time from then, so I tried not to worry about it. I just knew that I should at least enjoy whatever time I had left in Efaque City.
I walked up to the stage, leaving Ellie and the Empress behind in an awkward silence. I ordered the dancers to stop rehearsing and flicked on the microphone, docked on a black stand. “I need your attention.” Everybody stopped what they were doing, turning to the stage to see what the Lucid had to say. “We will be holding the funeral service at the graveyard! I assume you all know where that is, so everybody put down what you’re doing and start heading over there!”
After a brief hesitation, they did as they were told, slowly filing out of the main square. The bakers and butchers who had been cooking their food temporarily turned off their stoves and extinguished the flames in the ovens and followed the crowd.
I caught up to Ellie and the Empress. “Come on.”
The graveyard was a flat piece of land opposite the high mountain. It was filled with dozens of cherry blossom trees, mowed green grass, and two fountains filled with jasmine water. Two graves were dug out side by side, newly carved graves sitting right behind them. One read Recaro S. Compatia, followed by some verse from the Eludica, the Bible that explained everything having to do with the Lucid (me), and the other read Kate R. Jaclyn. Eeloy had mentioned how he was planning on saving a spot next to his daughter’s grave.
Some people wept, others couldn’t care less. Two caskets made of polished wood were carried by teams of service bots. One of the caskets was placed (to put it more accurately, it was thrown) into the Recaro’s grave. The other was thrown into Kate’s. I just hoped that the service bots hadn’t mixed up the caskets with the wrong grave.
I looked up and at the moon, dozens of stars surrounding it like some sort of angelic halo. A couple of men dressed in black began pouring dirt into each grave with shovels, grunting as they did so.
“Goodbye Recaro,” the Empress said solemnly. “Goodbye Kate.”
With my hand around her waist, Ellie cried into the crook of my neck, mourning for the soul who had taken care of her after her family had died. I couldn’t even imagine the pain she must have been going through. “It’s okay,” I whispered over and over in her ear as if it would make a difference.
A group of young girls – around the ages of seven or eight – began singing a song in Hungarian. Then, just like that, the funeral was over.
People began to leave the graveyard and head back over to the main square so that they could continue preparing for the feast.
~Rest in Peace, Recaro~
~Rest in Peace, Kate~
