“Please, Censor Smith,” Miyagi says, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “You are blowing things out of proportion.”
Censor Smith is walking across the stage towards Professor Miyagi. “You are using misleading historical records,” he shoots an accusing finger at Miyagi, “in an academic seminar no less, and it is me who is blowing things out of proportion? Unheard of!”
Miyagi keeps waving his hands down, and speaks in a calm, soothing tone, “I assure you, Censor Smith, that was the true Century Blasphemy, word by word.” He looks up at the white-and-blue section of the amphitheater where half of the GIA students are standing, hands in the air, shouting words of support for their Censor, while the other half exchange words of outrage. “People, there is nothing controversial here, the sources are plentiful, and well preserved.”
“Which sources?” Censor Smith asks with a challenging tone.
“The radio broadcast, of course. We have independent, matching copies from the archives of several stations across the world.”
“You mean across Hansasia.” Censor Smith says the word like it were suspect.
“I’m sure you have your own reproductions stored in Townsend University’s archive, but of course I’ll send you ours for good measure.” Miyagi turns to Ank. “Could you please take care of—?”
“We don’t need your tampered recordings,” Censor Smith says before the Neanderthal woman has time to confirm.
“Tampered?” Miyagi’s eyes widen in disbelief. He seems lost, without words, his eyes locked on the Censor’s.
“And very deftly too. Changing just the one word or the other, very tactical; and effective. You made it look like the Century Blasphemy was directed against the entirety of aws Head, and not just the corruption surrounding Marjolein Mathus.”
Miyagi is replying something, but Ximena cannot hear his words anymore from up here, since all students, even the Lundev section around Ximena, are now throwing loud opinions over each other. The auditorium has split into a cacophony of dozens of heated discussions.
“Hey, GIA,” Sky—the pretty South Asian girl on the front bench below Ximena—has turned and is shouting straight at her. “What’s the mensa talking about?”
Ximena still feels too aggravated to speak. Especially to a sassy Lundev brat that dares to argue about the civilizing of the Americas with Cody, an American scholar through and through! How daring ignorance can be.
“Her name is Ximena,” Mark says. “And Censor Smith is saying that Professor Miyagi falsified the Century Blasphemy.”
“I know what he said,” Sky says, frowning at him. “And I want an explanation.”
“Perhaps you should ask him yourself,” Mark says. “Leave her alone.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” Ximena says with an icy voice. “Who do you think you are?”
“Ouch!” Sky says, and laughs out loud. “Nice one, GIA!”
Mark blinks at Ximena. “Sorry,” he finally says. “Didn’t mean to—”
“The Century Blasphemy,” Ximena is leaning now forward, staring down at Sky, “the true one, was explicitly—”
“The true one?” Sky replies mockingly. “So you’re also saying that Professor Miyagi is bullshitting us?”
“Let her speak, Sky,” Mark shouts, and gives Ximena an encouraging nod. “I also want to understand.”
Ximena glares at him, and then at Sky. “I don’t think you really want to hear the truth.”
Sky snorts and rolls her eyes.
“I do,” Mark says. “I really do. Please.”
“Fine,” Ximena sighs, and gathers her thoughts. “Everybody knows—or so I thought—that the Century Blasphemies were a call against the Joyousday, not against aws Imperia.”
“Well—” Mark begins.
“Let me finish!” Ximena says, a warning in her eyes. “Of course there were also lines in the countdown that condemned aws Head, since it is aws Head that administers the Joyousday. But the true Edda van Dolah only denounced the corrupted section of aws Head, not all of it!”
“Which corrupted part?” Sky asks from below. All the students in the immediate proximity are silent, following the conversation with great interest.
“The Hanseatic Imperium, of course!”
“The Hanseatic Imperium?” Sky says from below. “Edda didn’t give a shit about—”
Ximena ignores her. “There was this one line in the Century Blasphemy, in the true one, mind you, that said: ‘The Imperator kills you!’; and another one was even more explicit: ‘Cleanse aws Hansa!’”
“Aws Hansa?” Sky spreads her arms in an exaggerated gesture. “What are you talking about? Aws Hansa is not mentioned anywhere in the Century Countdown.”
“Not in the revisionist version we just heard!” Ximena says, her eyes continually jumping between Mark, Sky and the other listeners. “That’s precisely my point. And what does it say instead? It says: ‘The Pontifex kills you!’ Not the Imperator, no; the Pontifex, Goah’s Mercy! And instead of calling to cleanse aws Hansa from corruption, Edda here is apparently calling to cleanse aws Imperia!” She chuckles humorlessly, shaking her head in disbelief. “So minimalistic, so surgical. A couple of tiny changes in the wording, and suddenly Edda van Dolah is denouncing the entire aws Head hierarchy in the six Imperia of Goah, including Townsend!”
The listening students initially stare at her in silence, like they do not understand, or do not know how to react.
Mark finally clears his throat. “Please correct me if I’m wrong, Ximena. You are saying that Edda van Dolah was not really opposed to aws Head?”
“Not to the true aws Head, no!” Ximena shouts, standing. “Why would she be?! But look at her life,” Ximena gestures in the air as if there were a scene still floating there, “plagued by the corruption of Quaestor Mathus and the rest of Hansasia’s aws Head.”
“Hansasia?” Mark exchanges a glance with Sky.
“I mean Hansa, sorry. The Hanseatic Imperia.”
“I see.” Mark nods slowly and looks again down at Sky.
Ximena gives out a sigh of exasperation. She doesn’t like how Mark is ganging up with that bitch
