There is a gallows before the stage; the knight passes behind it and the hanged man calls out. The knight is dressed in armor like that of a fish; it shines in brightness like a mirror
X: Who goes there? I cannot see.
B: I am a man to be hanged. Cut me down.
X: Why ought I? If you are to be hanged, you must have committed a crime.
B: I have been lead astray; the crime is not my fault; besides that it was meagre and of poor character as crimes go.
The knight pauses and shifts and thinks.
X: I am not a shepherd; I am not a judge; I am not an appraiser of the quality of deeds nor qualified as an evaluator of character.
B: None-the-less, cut me down, lest I die.
X: It would be unbecoming of myself – bound to justice – to free those who have been condemned.
B: And are you not charged to unjust things? I am hanged by my own innocence; not by my own crime.
X: Then hang.
Rotation of the noose to the edge of the left stage center. The white curtain is raised on the left half. The throne room is lit in silhouette:
X: I have received your summons.
V: Who goes there? I cannot see.
X: I go there.
V: I see. Yes, I have summoned you to fetch my daughter; she has wandered into the staircase up to the heights above the world.
X: The stairs are far and dangerous. Am I virtuous enough to climb them? Is she at the top, or within?
V: I do not know. The scouts and runners have long since departed; they have not returned. It is winter and they may never return.
X: Indeed, it is dark outside, and the cold is endless.
V: Yes. Still, you may be virtuous, whether she is atop or beside. Perhaps she has fallen and been broken at the foot. Would you be right to follow my orders as your liege?
X: I simply must.
V: That then is virtue. There is a witch by the steps. Go there. She will provide you with charms and with the means to ascend.
X: Do you know this witch? Is there some passphrase by which I should purchase her favor? V: Begone and fetch her.
The knight bows and departs. The curtain is raised. Three pillars and no houses; this is the town. There is a man and a woman stand, concealed behind two pillars. The knight marches through and stops behind the third.
X: Is this the first town?
M: Do you wear armor?
X: I would like to purchase provisions. I head for the staircase.
W: He’s an idiot for speaking of where he goes.
M: He’s an idiot for going where he speaks of.
X: Indeed; but I am on charge to go none-the-less; and have right to take what I need, though I have coin.
M: Why not slay us, then, and take what you need?
X: Only blood remains, and it would be against my better nature. Would you rob me for my armor?
M: No, because it would be cold.
W: We have meal, and bread. And wine and jerky. Do you have a pack? A horse? By what means will you carry this?
M: That’s beside the point. It will be much coin.
X: How much?
M: As much as you have, and then some.
X: I only have as much as I have.
M: When you return, pay us the rest.
X: I will, on my word.
The knight reaches into the helm of his armor and retrieves a coinpurse. He hands it to the woman behind the pillar. The woman hands him a large bag from behind the pillar. Only her hand is visible.
W: On your word, and by the coin, we will have your suit of armor, and the food within.
The pillars are removed. There is no man nor woman.
The dark forest in which the knight walks into. It is near to the edge and the stair. He suddenly stops and stands in silence for a few moments. He draws his sword.
X: Show yourself. I will smite you. I am an agent of the King, by which I have authority.
? (Singing): And weave the wind and stars still shine. Rivers run and warm the sap-sod trees Above, above, the high-loft noble songs Bend through air and darkened warp to drizzle down on us beneath
X: Show yourself!
There is the sound of rustling bells. The witch is a woman covered in chestnut-bells; drenched in thick hairs and tall and faceless. Long armed she stretches out a hand and there is something within.
? : And brittle blade? Cast aside? It’s not needed. It would go in the snow
?: Cast aside, cast aside. Buried in the brittle snow.
She shakes her arms at him and rattles.
?: Is it a charm? Is it a hex? Is it a talisman? Is it real? Is it magic? Is it fraud? Will you go to the door with forged invitations? Up the stairs that have no end? Falling, falling.
X: Are you the witch?
?: Pretty shine? Are you the witch? I cannot see, come closer. Look at the mirror. Cast it aside. Will you climb?
X takes the mirror. The witch vanishes. He is alone in the forest. It is a small mirror on a chain, about the size of the palm of the hand. It shines.
X hesitates as if to look around. It is gone. He continues offstage.
The gallows is still here.
He continues to the staircase. It stretches up, forever. There are bodies around it, at the base, bloody bodies frozen. Knights and white dressed brides shattered to pieces; ropes and nooses lay scattered about. There is nobody about.
X: Will I climb?
There is silence and no response but wind. It is dark and cold.
He steps past the many bodies and begins to climb. He continues to climb for about four minutes, occasionally stopping and eating.
The stage darkens momentarily.
His armor is frosted and darkened. It has been many days. He is very high above the clouds. He is hauling the bag. He sits on the stairs, facing away from the audience. His face is not visible.
He reaches into the bag and begins to eat a piece of meat. It is the last thing in the bag. He drops the sack and it flutters down out of sight. Before him is a grand gate; a white slab of marble without marking or crease.
X stands before the gate and does nothing for a moment, before approaching and feeling it. Is there a gap? A handle? There is nothing there; it is featureless. There is no pattern to the marbling; there is no indentation or extrusion – there is nothing at all unique about any piece of it. He looks to the side and sees nothing, he looks to the other and sees nothing. There is simply the gate at the top of the stairs.
X: Open. Be gone. Be opened by the authority of the King.
The gate remains closed. There is nothing but a gentle wind; and it is quiet. X fiddles with the mirror. Though he faces away from the audience, light is cast from it into the crowd.
He presses – after a moment – the mirror into the surface of the gate. The veins of the marble run dark. His armor is tarnished black. A curtain falls over the stage and when it is removed the stage that was an infinite expanse of white is black; the stairs are gone, the gate is gone. There is an open hole.
===
It is dark in here; the only illumination is the mirror; it glows like a spotlight. The gate is gone. The knight is in a dark expanse with great, square pillars of dark stone, massive and distant.
Men walk in endless lines through the stage, there is a great cloud of figures veiled with square opaque cloth, marching through the dark. The knight stands between them, obscured from the audience, who only knows where he is by the light of the mirror.
X approaches one figure.
.: Dark.
@: Noisesome
%: Empty
X: Name yourself.
The figures ignore him and march, continuing offstage, and continually replenished by more that wander in-stage from the left, around the gallows.
X: Answer me! You!
He takes a step towards one, but the figures continue, weaving between the tremendous flagstaff graves.
He shifts the mirror around in the dark.
Finally, he seizes one of the figures; the entire line stops behind the now captive body.
X: I seek a woman.
#: …
X: Do you not understand me? I seek the princess of… of our kingdom.
X shakes #, who remains silent and limp.
#: …
X: It’s cold.
He drops the man; he lays still and does not move. The other ones continue to walk past and step over the discarded body.
X waves the mirror around and runs from marching man to marching man.
X: You! You, answer me. Answer me!
There is no reply.
X: The princess. You, tell me of her!
He grabs one of the men and throws him into another file; they stumble and regain their footing.
It is cold and dark and empty. They continue to ignore him and eventually he gives up and falls to his knees.
X: It is impossible. I must turn back. There is nothing for me in this land.
He begins to wander against the bodies. Inwards and inwards.
There are long waves; like tides of dark dust without bones. Without bodies, the long waves of dark dust go so far away. And he wanders past broken pillars and the spaces where trees were once. And he comes to a gate and there is not a dark robed figure there. She is dressed like the women at the bottom of the stair; she is dressed as a bride; she is dressed in veil stained red like a cut open carnation. She is before the second gate; it is somewhat ajar and made of dark stone.
Y: Knight? X? Is that you? Have you come to save me?
X: Is that you, Her? Her, that I was charged to save?
Y: Can you see me?
X: I do not know what I am supposed to see.
Y: Me. You are supposed to see me. Do not look beyond me; only gaze on me. Only me, you ought to take home. Save me. Save me. Save me.
X: What is that behind you?
Y: Do not look, take me away from here.
X: How ought I to know that you truly are the one I was to save?
Y: Look upon my hands.
She holds up her hands
Are these not the hands you guided when I was so young?
She stands and moves towards him. He moves away
Look upon yourself. Are you not the knight my father charged to watch me in the gardens when the world was colorful and bright?
She moves towards him again. He steps around her, towards the gate.
Are you not able to see my face? Can you not recognize the eyes that admired you and watched you as you trained? Can you not recognize the voice that sang so sweetly for you on autumn nights? The golden hair that you braided in summer?
Remember me. Do you not? Am I nothing?
X: …
He looks past her. He takes a hand as if to raise the veil. He stops.
X: I do not know you.
He steps by her and it as if she is gone. She sinks and lays. He looks through the door.
He stands still for a minute. It is utterly silent. The marching and wind ceases. The sighs cease.
X: I see.
He drops the mirror.
X: I understand.
It is pitch black and dark. He picks up the princess’ body and carries it in his arms.
He walks through the broken pillars. He marches past the black tides and through the crowds of searching worshipers and finds the gate. He exits and is at the height of the stair. It is white and short. He climbs down to the bodies, dragging the princess.