Chronicles of the empire of Dark Men : The dyke

Between the death of the former engineer-priest responsible for the dyke in the country
and the arrival of the new it spent several months
which were a blessing for the inhabitants
as they were no longer obligated to care for the maintenance thereof,

like the laws of the empire demanded.

It must be said that for numerous years,
The former engineer-priest required no more of them this chore,
Confiding in the solidity of the dyke

And in the fact that the computers-palmists had made build this dyke
Several centuries previously
In a time when the storms of the sea of ashes
Were far more violent than at present.

It was said that the height of the dyke had been established
So that it surpassed of one and a half time
The highest wave known for the sea of ashes.
This wave had been provoked by an earthquake of strength 14 on a scale of 17

and by several explosions in the heart of nuclear stations

Which formerly before the torrent of fire due to the war
Supplied the electricity to the world at that time,
Nuclear stations of which the molten heart had aggravated the disaster,

increased the effects of neverending winter

and reduced to a sea of ashes the most part of the ancient civilization
with its treelike machines
which organized the life of humanity.

Gradually, the survivors had gathered in the few areas spared

and once the winter ended after centuries,
a new civilization was rebuilt under the direction of the Dark Men
Who organized all these independent communities isolated

into a vast empire where the machines had been banned

and scholars and other researchers in the caste society established,
relegated to the low castes those who were not allowed to leave their village ;
as for the physicists who were engaged in nuclear physics,

they had become outcasts likely of all bullying.

The surprising was that nevertheless, they existed always,
Such is deep, and the wickedness of the men, and their bad will,
And their promethean curiosity.

It's thus without pleasure that the inhabitants of the country

saw him coming by road from the crossroads of severed hands
The new engineer-priest.
A man who appeared to them very young
and therefore, thought they, without experience, that it would be easy to manipulate.
The town was obliged to provide him a refuge
and all that is necessary for everyday life.
Although the number of inhabitants exceeded 5000,

the load, in addition to the chore of maintaining the dyke,

they seemed out of proportion to their means.
Consequently the arrival of this new engineer-priest was very unwelcome
if we can afford to say so.

But the residents were aware of the penalties

which had fallen on the countries which had refused to host a engineer-priest,
either which having welcomed him had got rid of him by murdering,
allowing for the slowness of the communications in the empire

And the slowness of the investigations carried out if we can speak so

when a engineer-priest did not give any more signs of life:
death for all men, slavery for women
and placement of children in foster care who were unable to have children,

because cases of infertility were still very important despite their gradual decline.
So a young engineer-priest, small-sized what removed its authority,
especially as he was suffering from a stutter, he was deaf
and extremely nearsighted, which required him to wear glasses with thick lenses

which gave him an air of frightened toad

accentuated by his headphones to amplify his hearing.
He seemed exhausted
because he had to travel from the regional capital on foot,

his status does not even allow him to have a slider with articulated sailing
Like other officials of the empire.
He had spoken to a woman wishing her, as it was appropriate,
multiple pregnancies,

finding that she was still young enough to procreate,

because in the empire, although the situation improved,
for a term pregnancy aborted 3 or 4.
She had turned away without answering and fled in tears.

He certainly was not supposed to know she could not have children,
but he would have had to suspect it,
at least one in three women being still sterile at the time, in the empire.
He had even remained speechless, is to say his inexperience.

Indeed he was fresh out of school engineers-priests,

it was his first post
and as he was not out of the final exam in the boot
that is to say, among the 1100 first ones

he had been entitled only to a posting in the country

the least interesting for the promotion of his career.
 A suspicious passerby had reported him the way to City Hall
that he had reached,

after multiple bends and many new demands to his road,

The city center being a kind of kasbah
Where houses seemed to have confusedly been cast
By an architect weary of playing with his game of forms and cubes.

The mayor did not have time to receive him, he was in conference,
in fact he was lounging in his office
enjoying a creamy chocolate
prepared by his devoted secretary and even beyond.

A subordinate municipal employee had told him

that people did not expect him so soon,
that it was always so, for the country
to be treated as negligible amount,

consequently nothing was planned for his accommodation or for his food
and that initially, he will have to manage alone.
Neophyte as he was, he had not dared to protest, let alone to threaten.
He had returned after asking where he could find a hostel.

He was laughed at.

Hostel, the village did not have,
who, foreigner, came to town, nobody!
There was no use to a hostel and then there were none!

If he wanted to find accommodation, he had to visit the widow Sandrakhan

Who formerly rented a room.
Where did she lives? He had asked.
The employee had answered that it was too difficult to explain.

He would have only to ask the passers-by according to his peregrination!

He had thus left the city hall and had at the end of several hours been able to reach his destination;
The widow Sandrakhan living in the other end of the town.
He had tried to eat, but there was no slightest cheap restaurant to do it,

In any case, he had not noticed it on his road.

He had had to content himself with his thin reserves.
It was almost dark when he struck on the door of the shanty of the widow Sandrakhan.
A voice from beyond the grave shouted:

- Who's there ?
- Thththe en-en-engineer offff the fffffifth ca-ca-category
res-res-responsible fffffor mo-mo-mo-monitoring thethe dy-dyke offff yyyour coun-country,
he replied.

- What do you want?

Always with this voice from beyond the grave which would have had to put him the flea in the ear.
- I I wwwish to-to rrrrent you a room ffffffor night
- I rent no more room
 - Bbbbut I I was ttttold that...
-You've been rolled in flour as sardine keg, althought priest-engineer whom you are !
- But ...
The widow Sandrakhan appeared on his doorstep

as he was about to retrace his steps.

He cringed, while she cried with her voice from beyond the grave strangely melodious:
- The beautiful quality of normal human that here is!
The backward movement was due to the appearance of the widow Sandrakhan

which belonged to the caste of non-standards

initially caste of misshapen,
that after a long struggle, the non-standards had obtained
that people do not call it more caste of misshapen:

She was very big because of disproportionate legs

Which supported a trunk consequently seeming very short with an abnormally narrow waist.
She had arms also long and hands with seven webbed fingers.
Her bright white hair wrapped her almost completely.

- So handsome young man stammering,

we look for a room.
she leaned on the jamb of the door by swaying in a manner
that she wanted, seemed he, suggestive.

- Yyyessss Mmmmadam
- I can perhaps make an exception for you and help you out,
the morons of inhabitants of this town having wanted to make you a joke.
- A-a-a jo-jo-joke?

- Yes, they know pertinently that I have no room to be rented!

- Thththat is to-to ssssay?
- That is to say that I have a room to be shared
- Yyyou are sssstreetwal cour-cour-courtesan ?

- We can nothing hide you beautiful specimen of normal human being!

- I I I cccan not, gi-givennn my-my-my fffffunc-ffunction...
- But if you can, I am not of a prohibitive tariff !
- It-it-it is nnnot a ques-question of mo-mo-

- I do not please you handsome boy?

- Nnno yyyyes
- No or yes?
- Y-yyess nnno you-you do not dis-dis-displease me..

- Then? Come on in! You have to be hungry!

She had seized him with one of her webbed hand
And had forced him to enter.
He was surprised seeing a very welcoming inside furnished with good taste

Where some works of art paints and sculptures indicated an acute artistic sense.
She noticed his astonishment and said:
- I am a painter and sculptor at a time, but that does not allow me to assure my daily
 hence my other occupation.

- I I I un-un-understand.
- Okay I'll make you a snack.
She prepared him a meal which he found appetizing,
it must be said that he would die of hunger.

He found her conversation full of wit and of comments somewhat heretical,

but as he thought he would be only for one night, he did not worry about it.
Before in high places they learn that he had spent the night at the widow Sandrakhan
a lot of water would have gone under the bridge.

Despite his willingness to respect the ethics of his job

which forbade any kind of sexual relation with the inhabitants,
the widow was persuasive enough so he forgets it.
Really, she was an expert in this domain,

It should be noted that his knowledge in this one was limited

nevertheless surprising the reactions from his body
he was not mistaken in this conclusion.
The next day, the widow Sandrakhan, knowing him better decided to help him,

especially since it was for her to catch out these morons of inhabitants
as she was wont to call them.
She accompanied him back to City Hall
by having noting him that these morons of inhabitants were forced

to provide him an accommodation and to assure him the working and living conditions
the best at the risk of the gravest penalties.
Mostly, she spoke for him
And obtained the comfortable accommodation which they owed him

And all other advantages to which he was entitled.

She took a malicious pleasure in doing so
And when he asked her how he could thank her,
She asserted him that it was already done twice :

He had been a thoughtful lover, the previous night

And he had allowed her to savor a certain revenge on these morons of inhabitants
Who while treating her as if she was a nobody
nevertheless resorted to her tariffed services.

He immediately went to work.

He felt that he was overdue.
Installed in his housing
that the widow Sandrakhan had promised to decorate by some of her works

that she would make him choose

He bent over the plans of the dike before leaving for his first inspection.
It was thus a very former work,
Compound of a first wall of Cyclopean stones,

Strengthened by a second wall of big stones which braced itself against

 As well as of the third of smaller stones,
Finally of a very wide earthen wall.
The set was 11 meters high and 40 wide.

The biggest known wave historically had reached 5 meters.

The safety margin seemed irreproachable.
The ancients had worked well.
He had only to continue in their direction.

After careful study of plans,

he took the road to the dyke.
He reached it after a brisk walk at the end of five kilometers.
He saw to appear the dike at the bend of road.

It appeared to him less impressive than he expected.

As his approach, a certain uneasiness took possession of his mind.
In some places it seemed damaged, if not shattered,
but mostly he felt that it did not reach everywhere the height indicated on his plans.

What had happened?

His predecessor had he neglected his duties?
The rumors had raced that it was really so!
The proof was that he was popular in the country

what was rarely the case of engineer-priests in charge of the dykes!

When they had wanted to transfer him
had circulated a petition calling for the abandonment of this project of transfer.
Usually it was the best way to be transferred, but it had not happened.

It is necessary to believe that the influence of the mayor was big!

In fact, much rather, as this post had no prestige
As it was difficult to find volunteers to occupy it,
As this small town and this part of the country seemed not very threatened by any wave,

It had been decided to reach the request of the petitioners,

As far as it was not bad to show that the Dark Men
Were accessible to citizens requests.
When he arrived at the foot of the dike

the engineer-priest saw his fears increased.

The condition of the dyke showed conclusively that they had neglected to maintain it
and this not only in recent months,
that is to say since the death of the previous engineer-priest

but for several years.

He sought an access ramp to the top of the dike.
Normally there must be every 500 meters.
He had to walk two kilometers before finding one and yet it was partly crumbled.

Painfully, he managed to reach the top of the dike.

His fears grew when possible:
at long he could see that some blocks were disconnected from the wall
and lain in front of it.
 He sought the rope that normally allowed to go down the embankment.
Again, he saw that there was none.
even walking several miles to the dyke,
He found none.

He glanced into the distance. He guessed in the mist what he thought being the sea of ashes.
Before him stretched out of sight a desolate landscape of grey earth
Where here and there appeared the stump of a petrified tree
which continued to throw towards the sky its violent protest as much as useless.

He had seen enough! He hurried back to town.

He went to see the widow Sandrakhan.
She took some time to open him
and he thought he saw a furtive silhouette which left her home on the back of the house.

She did enter him.

On the table he discerned some lead ecus in the effigy of one of Dark Men.
She asked him why he was so worried.
He drew a picture of the situation in which was the dyke, that answered her question

- it it iiis -ur-ururgent thththat wowowork bbbe un-un-undertaken!

I I I mmmust mmmmobilize the ne-nenecessary mmmen!
- You'll have trouble.
- Fffor what?

- As far as I can remember, it's been years that these

morons of inhabitants in this town have not been mobilized!
- It it is nnnot po-po-possible, he said while having thus confirmation of the findings
which he had reached by his inspection of the dyke.

- I I I mmmust wwwarn the ma-ma-mayor!

- I wish you much pleasure! by waiting if you want, we will take some together ....
- Nnno I I can nnnot! I ha-ha-have nnno ti-ti-time! He was retiring.
She said: « Wait I'm coming with you to help! »

- If yyyou wwwant ...

They went together to the town hall.
The mayor Mayor donned an amazed air.
He seemed to dive into the archives of the work and said that everything was in order:

The village had supplied well the number of statutory men for these!
- Hold! See for yourself!
He handed him a file where effectively was registered all the prescribed chores!
- Congratulations Mr. Mayor! You are true to your reputation as an illusionist!

Are all your files of the same ilk? So artificial!

- Miss you exaggerate! Moreover your status does not allow you to...
- To satisfy the needs which your crane of woman does not want to satisfy!
- Miss Sandrakhan please he made suddenly imploring.

- So you know what you have to do !

 - Yes, yes! Turning to the engineer-priest
he asked him how many men he wanted to have.
The given precision , 100 men, seemed to him exorbitant,

But he did not insist by seeing the glance of "miss Sandrakhan".

An appointment was taken for the next day,
requisitioned men should equip themselves with adequate working tools
and victuals necessary for a day's work!

The next day on the main square of town, men were gathered.
They showed a dismal mine
and obviously they were not satisfied
to have been obliged to fulfill an important obligation of their duty

as pointed out to them the engineer-priest.

It was not less than to put their city, their family
Shielded from the three-year wave in the immediate
While waiting for the ten-year wave and finally the thirty-year wave.

The men pointed out that the dike had been conceived
From the most pessimistic assumptions,
What had perfectly understood the previous engineer-priest,
Who had given up all work and any mobilization of the chore.

- Ex-ex-exactly! Cried the new engineer-priest.

It it is only that ti-ti-time to get bbbback to wwwwork
to re-repair the ddddamage cau-caused by ssssuch n-ne-negligence !
Everyone went to the dyke.

Initial work consisted

to rebuild every 500 meters access ramps to the top of the dike.
The work proceeded much more slowly than previously thought the engineer-priest:
the unwillingness of men not decreasing.

The priest engineer confided in the widow Sandrakhan.

- You just require more men, as the law allows you!
- I I had nnnot thought of!
- You're naive, you have to use all your weapons!

As the village was populated by 6300 inhabitants including 2850 men

the engineer priest demanded the presence of 200 men
by threatening to resort to the possible number of 285.
The residents challenged in a low voice but supplied the two hundred men.

What did not double, as many might think, by two

the amount of supplied work, but allowed to go a little faster.
at the end of two years, all the access ramps had been restored.
Then they passed in the laying of ropes,

what turned out longer because of the slowness of the routing of said ropes
since the only factory which produced them.
At the end of six years, the placed ropes,
the engineer was able to come down along the dike and walk on the ashen ground.
 He planned the embedding of the big blocks which lay at the foot of the dike.
It was necessary to wait for the arrival of the necessary machines of lifting.
The deadline exceeded the year.
This deadline urged our engineer priest to embark on an expedition towards the sea of ashes.

He prepared carefully his journey which had to last

As maps indicated to him three days.
He widely had time before the arrival of the annual wave which was the ten-year wave
Which came to lick the dike and could rise until a two meter height.

He left early in the morning with his backpack and tent.

He had applied for a slider on which they had responded in the negative.
When evening fell on the first day,
he settled on a small berm to spend the night.

During the night he thought he heard the murmur of the sea of ashes.
This, surprised him because, according to his calculations it should be at least still 50 kilometers.
The second day of his trip at noon his suspicions were confirmed,
ashes flew into the airs,

the chewing of the sea was no longer rustle if not yet a howling.
He was obliged to put his mask. Was he going to put his protective suit.
He considered it useless, but in the afternoon,
He realized that he was not more than some hectometers from the shore of the sea of ashes

Of which he heard what had become a furious rumbling,

And that it was necessary to him to put his protective suit, what he made.
He reached the bank some tens of minutes later.
He was very impressed by the imposing and lugubrious aspect of this sea of ashes.

It seemed an immense umbilicus which lifted up itself powerfully.

Its surface glittered as if it was a tin mirror .
Sometimes a wave broke into a thousand reddening spatters.
Other times a jet of ashes sprang and dashed to the sombre sky,

missing of any presence of living beings.

He took his measuring instruments, made his calculations
And he concluded from it that the sea had advanced of more than 60 kilometers.
What was caused this phenomenon?

In any case, he had to warn the authorities

And embark into a investigation to understand this irregularity
And know if the headway of the sea continued either had stabilized.
He returned to town in a hurry and expressed his discovery to the mayor

who seemed hardly worried. He sent a message to the appropriate authorities.

Several months passed before he receives a receipt.
Meanwhile, the famous annual decadal wave occurred.
He waited anxiously perched on top of the dike.

This exceeded the normal standards of more than one meter.

His anxiety subsided a little, the safety margin seemed even wider,
 but what about for the thirty -year wave which should occur within a few years
if his calculations were right and the documents of the town hall not forged.

Finally the acknowledgment arrived with orders to continue his investigations

and to alert authorities immediately if the progress of the sea continued.
If such would be the case, they warned him,
it would probably be allowed to raise the top of the dike.

He asked to do so preventively.
He received no answer.
As for the inhabitants of the village, they refused any work other than those prescribed by law.
His popularity in the village who had never been good

because of his incessant demands and his attitude considered overly careful
declined, if possible still.
Fortunately, the widow Sandrakhan was there to support him.
He appreciated more en more her presence.

His relations with her had become regular.

He had thrown his ethics to the winds.
He was tempted for a moment to ask him to renounce her activity of hetaera as he said,
but he did not feel the right.

Anyway, thought he, she would have refused.

His first experience with her late husband seemed to have healed her
of any constant presence of a man in her life.
Besides, public malignity assured that she was not foreign to her mourning.

Periodically, he went to the shore of the sea of ashes

to check if she continued to advance towards the dyke or not.
He found that the phenomenon did not appear regularly,
as years of progress corresponded years of decline.

Finally there was there nothing surprising, the cycles of the sea of ashes were well known.
Nevertheless it seemed to him that a cycle of regression
Never returned to the shore to the former situation,
Thus the sea progressed.

His reports did not seem convincing,

he did not thus receive permission to raise the height of the dyke.
He decided to visit the capital to see the archives,
conscious than those of the village were falsified.

He had great difficulty getting permission to view them.

He received for his repeated requests,
Each time, the positive responses that allowed him to glimpse
that the authorization to consult the archives were about to be granted!

What was not the case. Thus he pushed away his return from month to month.
Without he realizes, months became years.
He thought that the thirty-year wave had had to happen.
He blamed himself for not having been there. But the damage was done.
 He would wait for permission.
Finally he reached him.
It is with some curiosity that he rushed to the archives building,
a huge pyramid neo-Egyptian.

He exhibited his permission.

He had to wait several days for verification is made that it was genuine.
Finally he received the green light.
But he could not access to the documentation.

An error of some clerk having inverted two letters in the name of the country,
what compromised his access in said archival.
It was necessary to redo a new demand of authorization.
In how long he would obtain it?

They reassured him, the delay would be shorter than in the case of the previous request.
Meanwhile, by special favor from the Director
he could consult the General Archives on the sea of ashes.
He made the best of a bad situation and he consulted these archives.

He knew well that the sea of ashes held more than 60% of the surface of the planet
both in its southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere.
The epicenter of its movements was, the experts thought,
but they disagreed on the subject,

In any case, the majority believed that the epicenter was in the ancient Middle Asia.
Indeed it is there, that there had been the biggest density of nuclear power plants
Whose heart had melted and had formed by coalescence as a pulsating star
According to cycles which provoked the more or less strong waves of the sea of ashes.

Our engineer-priest developped a theory that did not fail to worry him
but that was rejected by the experts reluctant to accept
the hazy ravings from a low-class engineer-priest,
namely that if we were really dealing with a sort of star that burned its material,

sooner or later it would collapse on itself

to become a sort of dwarf star
but through a stage of explosive growth that would make it a giant star
which would devastate everything in its path,

causing a massive tsunami

which would engulf the entire surface , may be, of the empire of the Dark Men.
As he did not receive permission
and he had finally understood that they were bothering by his insistence,

he decided to return to the country which he was the engineer-priest

responsible for the maintenance of the dyke.
A good and a bad surprise was waiting:
start with the bad, the accidental death of the widow Sandrakhan

who had burned in her house.

The origin of the fire was unclear.
There was talk of reckless, of stove badly switched off, an unfortunate circumstances.
 The hypocritically saddened look of the mayor hinted him

that the truth was closer to a voluntary elimination of an annoying witness than an accident.
He promised as well as to the memory of the widow Sandrakhan
he would try to solve the problem of this death.
The good news, the thirty-year wave remained below normal

He had therefore worried wrongly.

He was willing to agree but that did not stop him thinking.
The mayor took the opportunity to ask him to reduce the number of mobilized men
for maintenance of the dyke.

A bargaining reduced that number to 50.

Our engineer-priest accepted the reduction to be more free
in his investigation of the evolution of the shore of the sea of ashes
and in its investigation of the level of thirty-year wave.

He felt it was highest

that what they had wished to say.
His hunch was found verified.
Despite work of concealing to remove the real traces of the thirty-year wave

somewhat in agreement with the apathy of the inhabitants of the town

he discovered that the wave had reached in many places the summit of the dyke
and in at least one it had overwhelmed its summit
He drafted a report which he sent to the central authorities.

He also denounced the bad will of the mayor and his inhabitants.
Several months passed without that he receives the slightest acknowledgement of receipt
as was the rule.
He considered more urgent to take care of the rising of the shore of sea of ashes.

His findings alarmed him a little more.

The shore was still decreased, it took more than a day to reach it.
The sea level rose.
If, as he did, it took seriously his theory of a heart-star of the sea of ashes

it was evident that this heart began to beat faster,

so that the heart-star was beginning its dilation.
It was urgent to reinforce the dike to increase its height.
Now they saw him once a week to reach the shore of the sea of ashes.

He came back always more worried.

He tried in vain to persuade the mayor to undertake this work of raising
which seemed indispensable.
He decided to take him with him to check he was not lying

when he asserted that the shore of sea of ashes progressed.

This one refused categorically.
He sent report after report to competent authorities
without receiving any response.

He decided to lighten his cares by investigating the death of his friend

 who was sorely lacking to him.
He asked her neighbors.
He collided into a sort of wall of ice which froze his heart even more.

They knew nothing, she lived alone, she despised her world,
He was curious, what business was it of his,
He had nothing better to do
Than to bother them on the death of a rather disreputable person!

He searched through the ruins of her house.

The fire appeared to have been unusually violent.
Everything had burned all her works too.
He concluded that it was impossible that there was only one outbreak of fire.

He looked for clues and found them.

In three different places, he detected a outbreak of fire.
So it was a crime, they had wanted to kill the widow Sandrakhan.
Who was guilty?

It appeared to engineer-priest that this crime was collective

the whole village had conspired against the young woman to eliminate her.
He had not been there to help her.
He felt too guilty. Drops of ash rolled down his cheeks.

He had abandoned her, wholy in his obssession to strengthen the dike in a general indifference,
Wholy in the obssession of the exceptional, unpredictable wave
That his fertile imagination conceived certainly wrongly,
He ended in his guilt to admit.

But it was useless trying to persuade himself that his comments

on the progress of the shore of the sea of ashes
were more idle fancies from his mind febrile,
he could not help but continue week after week to go this shore,

to make his measurements, his calculations and concluded that he was not mistaken.
The sea of ashes was becoming increasingly threatening,
it was a danger for the humanity surviving to the great disaster,
for all the subjects of the empire of the dark Men.

Every morning he went across the top of the dike,

Came down by ropes at feet of this one
and found such or such indication which persuaded him that it was necessary to strengthen it,
that it would not withstand the next thirty-year wave

and still less the tsunami predicted by his theory.

He finally received a report of the central authorities
where it was stated that its findings were corroborated anywhere
in other parts of the dike,

it was probably an isolated event

and it was therefore unnecessary to worry.
The experts from the sea of ashes being formal
the heart of it was soon to collapse in on itself in a few centuries
 it was now in its phase of greatest activity,
and that he had to recognize that
even in the small town where he was responsible
the dyke had not been submerged.

He searched based on this report, on further investigations

to accept these conclusions
as to the harmlessness of the sea of ashes,
but the only result

was now to see him even at night get up to go to the dyke

and walk to and fro
then spread over the top exhausted,
to dive into a sleep filled with nightmares of ash

where everything was ash from the objects to the people living
and wake up with a taste of ash in the mouth.
He thought of asking for his transfer, but he could not bring himself to it.
He could not go away from this dike.

He had to watch it as much as possible,

He had to strengthen it, widen it, especially raise it.
Now, every two nights he slept on the dike
Especially at the approach of the arrival of the annual waves.

He observed them arriving under the lugubrious light of the moon,

Beat the foot of the dike, rise always higher.
How can it be done? How to alert these careless inhabitants?
How to avoid a major disaster

that men of the empire of the Dark were able to stop!

As the years passed, they always gave the number of men
that he asked for the maintenance of the dyke.
Some were willing to work in heightening of the dyke,

But he noticed with despair that this raising

Did not exceed any tens of centimeters
While his calculations supposed a raising of several meters.
He had widely exceeded the middle of his life,

He began to be paralyzed of rheumatisms,

He had more and more difficulty to come down by ropes beyond the dike.
He had more and more difficulty to reach the bank of the sea of ashes.
It was necessary to him at the moment again almost two days,

But he was certain about it, the bank had not moved back,
It is him who had more and more difficulty to move.
A new demand of slider had been refused to him.
The next thirty-year wave approached.

The height of the dyke was inadequate.

He was sure that the wave would overwhelm the dike
 and that it would rush madly toward the village which would likely be swept away.
He should at least get people to create monitoring stations,

So they would be warned enough in time to take refuge on the heights,

but of heights there was not,
thus to go away as much as possible from the dike
to be caught up only by a less powerful wave

which would have lost much of its force in spreading.

The mayor was willing to create a supervisory position.
He asked him to occupy it.
It would be equipped with a flare that would inform people taking their provisions.

The post was then set atop the dike.

He was raised to 5 meters above it.
The engineer-priest would have liked a more consequent height
but he was obliged to content itself with it.

He directed the work and once they are completed,

he settled in his supervisory position with telescopes.
Finally he moved his residence,.
he lived on the dike.

So he avoided movements which were more and more painful to him.

When the workers arrived in the morning for the maintenance of the dike,
He had already come down and ordered them work
that he considered the most important to undertake.

For them it was no longer the stranger they had been reluctantly
but a member a bit strange in their community.
The tongues had loosened...
For example, they conceded that the previous thirty-year wave

Had in some places submerged the dyke but without gravity.

In two days any traces of this flood had been erased.
They granted him that the death of the widow Sandrakhan was not accidental, but he could not get
no precision from people knowing themselves responsible for a sort of collective murder.

He thought of Leluia, she had revealed him her first name which nobody in the village knew.
A blade of pain drilled him the heart. He saw her who stood in front of him
With in her glance this mocking gleam
Whose today he was discovering all the tenderness towards him..

He wanted to avoid crying but he could not, become this sentimental old man
who had feared throughout his life a disaster to which now he was no longer giving interest,
because he knew that the real disaster has already occured in his life :
Lose Leluia .