Eighth Circle

Liala liked the little town. It looked like those she had seen on television but couldn't visit because she wasn't allowed to leave the palace except to go to sea. That didn't stop her from being a celebrity. People knew all about her. They watched her wildlife programs on television. She was a fairytale princess who lived a fabulous life in a magnificent palace with noble blue-haired people called guardians.

Books were on sale with cartoon pictures of her. The stories were fun but they always had a hidden message. She was the beautiful heroine who helped the guardians save the world from evil. Other books showed handsome Crispin doing the same thing.

There was a festival in town. For two days, the bars and restaurants were packed with people in fancy dress. There were hundreds of Liala and Crispin lookalikes. They were the most popular but other members of the royal family had their fans. Older ladies dressed as the queen and the younger royal cousins were popular amongst the children.

Older men preferred to dress as guardians and some looked very convincing with their flowing gowns and blue hair. The chancellor was a favourite together with a shadowy character known as the Lord High Executioner. One handed out presents and the other carried a big sword like those that were used for executing criminals in the old days.

The town was prosperous. Houses were made of stone and had television dishes on their roofs. Many had gardens. Liala recognised cabbages and a few other vegetables but there were none of the tropical plants she knew from the palace gardens. Here it was winter. In the palace everything was enclosed and it was summer all year round.

It was like taking a trip back in time. The guardians had a huge collection of movies, made before The Fall, and Liala had seen some of them. Allain said the town looked like the towns in the movies because the guardians required everyone to live as their ancestors had five hundred years ago.

If the guardians were to be believed, everyone lived in peace and prosperity in those far-off days. Everything was well organised and no one did anything to wreck the planet with dangerous inventions.

Allain said children were taught about The Fall in school and brainwashed into thinking that the world would descend into chaos if people were left to do as they liked. The schoolbooks didn't say that people were once free to travel and didn't have to go around with an identification chip embedded in their bums.

They were in town on a reconnaissance mission. While there, Liala planned to get her hair dyed back to its original colour. Allain had arranged an appointment with a local hairdresser. He figured that she could pass herself off as a Liala lookalike and not attract suspicion.