Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [136]
And the rest of the Hall? Hard to describe it. There’s so little there that’s solid, so little you can focus on. Maybe I should talk about the way it feels, instead of trying to say what it looks like. You know those great big temples you get back in the land of the living, where all the politicians live? Think about the White House, or the House of Commons, or... well. Anyway. If you go to a place like that, you sometimes get the feeling there’s something wrong with the building, like all the bad decisions and double-crosses have been soaked up by the walls. Well, that’s what the Grand Hall felt like. Only worse.
There was a lot of empty space in the middle of the Hall, I remember that. The Celestis used to skirt around the edges, out of the way of the light (and I think the castle was lit by candlelight, by the way, although I don’t remember seeing any candles). A lot of them sat up in the big galleries they had overlooking the Hall, so yes, they kept most of the floor clear. Whenever they opened up their “aperture” and reached out for the land of the living, that was where the hole would be, right in the middle of the Hall. When the Doctor arrived –
Wait. Wait. I’m going too fast. I was talking about my non-life in Mictlan.
As it turned out, the Celestis only wanted me as a kind of domestic servant. Don’t ask why they chose me, out of all the human beings on Earth. Maybe they knew I was stupid enough to make a deal with them. Remember this, it’s important; the Celestis love contracts, and they never break deals. The Grand Hall’s the same as any other parliament – it’s got its own set of rules, and the Celestis have to stick to those rules. When you’re as powerful as they are, I suppose you need codes of conduct to hold you down, to stop things getting too easy. What I’m saying is, they can’t force their mark on you, you have to agree to it. Once you’ve agreed, there’s no escape clause. If you tried to back out, they’d treat it as a breach of the rules, and you don’t want to annoy them like that.
So, I became one of their dead slaves inside the castle. This was a great honour, apparently, because most of the dead never got to see the castle, they had to spend eternity wandering the streets. Yes, Mictlan’s got streets, although I never saw the outside. The other servants in the castle had been in Mictlan longer than I had, and I hated them for it. I hated their dull, lost-looking faces. I hated their mindless dried-up voices. And yes, I obeyed the Celestis without question, just like they did. And yes, after a while I started to look like them, as well. I tried to hold onto my identity, like I’m trying now. I kept telling myself who I was, I kept saying my own name over and over, but it wasn’t long before it didn’t sound like it meant anything.
How long did I work in the castle? I don’t know. Time’s different, there. All I know is this; I would have been as faceless as the Celestis by now, if it hadn’t been for the Doctor.
Let me tell you how he came to the castle. I need to remember that, more than I need to remember anything else.
I was in the Grand Hall when it happened, answering questions for the Celestis in the higher galleries. Not that I was the centre of attention. They’d opened up an aperture in the centre of the floor, and most of them were busy watching events out in the land of the living. They were seeing how the war was going. Their favourite pastime.
Now, this is something I’ve never understood. There was a war ready to flare up, something to do with the Time Lords, although it wasn’t my place to ask about the details. The Celestis were always watching through the aperture, waiting for the first big battle, arguing about which side they were supposed