Tuesday, May 19, 2020

The Altar at Preg

The Altar at Preg


Stopping for the night in Elta, we consumed an early dinner of conger and rice, a local favorite, and retired early so that we could rise with the sun and visit the Altar of the Preg. We wanted to arrive before the expected deluge of visitors clamoring for seats on this the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Restoration of Faith in the Healing Powers of Star Gazing. The inundation by Gazers of this holiest of sites in the world of collected interpretations would break all previous attendance records.

Prior to the outbreak of, maligilitis, in the early part of the century, the denizens of Eluthia County regularly sacrificed virgins at the Altar of The Preg. (The altar sits atop a hill south of North Tinsdaly.) The ritual, the sacrifice of a male virgin in honor of Theseus, came to an abrupt conclusion when the son of a wealthy land owner, next in line to bear the brunt of the ritual—so to speak, confessed that he had indulged his libidinous longings long before he’d visited a cold storage facility to ensure his role as a progenitor. (At a fertility festival in another province, he’d enjoyed a couple of sips of a philter and had engaged a woman without a filter or any other protective devices.) Fearing the discovery of an heir not apparent at that time and a protracted legal dispute, R. Paltry Howell, then the mayor of the township and President for Life of the local chapter of the Nights of Phaedra declared the annual sacrifice a pagan ritual and deemed it harmful.

Los Animales, a group of cartoon aficionados dedicated to establishing territorial imperatives in a world they feared was going to hell in a hand basket, because they said so, planned a demonstration at this year’s gathering and the size of the group meant any available overflow would be viewing a televised replay of events. Nonetheless, with representatives of the Order of Amigula standing arm in arm at the perimeter of the festival, the local constabulary believed order would prevail. 
©2020 Ed Touchette

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