Chapter Text
SETTING
The Theatre
(ARTEMY BURAKH? appears from backstage. MARK IMMORTELL stands at the center of the stage under the spotlight)
MARK IMMORTELL
So, Burakh, your performance was a flop. You’re unfit for the role. A cursed production! This is our second attempt...and our second failure.
ARTEMY BURAKH?
Come on, the first run was decent
MARK IMMORTELL
That is, ahem, not for you to judge.
ARTEMY BURAKH?
We gave it all we had.
MARK IMMORTELL
Whatever. You are dismissed. The bird will give you your final payment.
ARTEMY BURAKH?
Aren’t you tired of those beakheads? They’re trouble.
MARK IMMORTELL
They were the only useful people around.
ARTEMY BURAKH?
Right.
SETTING
The Theatre
The seats have been cleared for a makeshift hospital. On the first floor, four EXECUTOR shadows are visible on the wall although nothing appears to be casting the shadows. To the left of the shadows stands a lone EXECUTOR who casts no shadow on the wall.
(ARTEMY stands on the stage above an empty bed. He climbs off the stage and approaches the BACHELOR who is standing beside a stretcher with a corpse covered by a white sheet on it)
BACHELOR
They don’t trust me anymore. I wasn’t even invited to the final council.
ARTEMY
Where are the birds?
BACHELOR
Up, where else? If you mean the real ones.
ARTEMY
I meant the orderlies
(ARTEMY moves to the main doors of the theatre. The CHANGELING is on the floor, cradling her head against her knees)
CHANGELING
Turns out the birds aren’t birds at all. Want to know what they are? Lean down, and I’ll tell you… Lower, lower now… They’re fingers!
ARTEMY
Did they tell you that?
CHANGELING
Yeah. This is a direct quote: “We’re not birds. We’re fingers.” That’s why people call them Executors.
Are you tired? Want me to relieve your headache?
ARTEMY
I’d rather you relieve my heartache. It’s become so acute lately, like my heart expires.
(ARTEMY climbs up the stairs to talk to the EXECUTOR)
EXECUTOR
Want to receive your payment? Well, everyone will get paid what they’re due in the Cathedral. That’s where the final choice will be made.
ARTEMY
By whom?
EXECUTOR
The authorities.
ARTEMY
Fitting…
(A red spotlight above the stage that wasn’t there before shines on the doors to exit the Theatre)
DAY 12, THE LAST ONE,
Which the Haruspex ends with a semicolon
SETTING
The Town
The Town is in bad shape. Armed soldiers are everywhere, all wearing gas masks. They have set up camp in the courtyard in front of the Theatre. It seems that the plague has gutted the entire town. The army has set up barricades everywhere. Townsfolk infected by the plague are being burned to death. Corpses litter the streets.
(ARTEMY comes across a small contingent of soldiers led by an OFFICER pointing their weapons at a man and a woman cowering against a wall)
OFFICER
Move along, doctor, nothing to see here. Work as usual.
ARTEMY
...Butcher’s work. You’re killing people, you bastards! I can’t believe this is our military. Even invaders are more humane. Stop this circus, now!
OFFICER
You know better than anyone there’s no salvation from the sand pest. People go mad with pain. They’re not responsible for their actions.
We put them out of their misery and protect the healthy. Legal orders.
ARTEMY
You burn them alive!
OFFICER
We have our instructions, compiled by your own doctors. “Mode of infection: unknown.” It’s transmitted through air, saliva, touch, and God knows what else! We’ve lost half our men already!
ARTEMY
You deserve it.
OFFICER
Go, doctor. Stop lecturing us. If you were better at your job, we wouldn’t have to be so good at ours. But there’s still no cure.
OFFICER
Or do you think we enjoy shooting and burning civilians?
ARTEMY
Those people are healthy! Why have you seized them?
OFFICER
They’re looters. Like I said, it’s work as usual. You do your job and we’ll do ours.
ARTEMY
You should let them go...A couple less, a couple more, what does it matter?
(ARTEMY continues walking towards the Stone Yard quarter. ASPITY stands at the center of a bridge)
ASPITY
I know where you’re going. Want a piece of advice?
ARTEMY
Speak, but be quick.
ASPITY
I won’t take long.
The Town is gone - and to hell with it. But the Kin are also gone. Your family is gone. Your father remains unavenged. His path, unfollowed.
The seven children who entrusted their lives to you are dead. You are the only one left. Do you want to save your life, at least?
ARTEMY
No. You don’t know the whole situation. Not all is lost. The outbreak can still be curbed. That’s why I’m going to the Cathedral: It’s there that the decision about the bombardment is made.
ASPITY
Heed my advice. You think she loves you? Think she’s a friend and he’s a foe because he brought in canons?
Don’t talk to her first. Talk to him.
ARTEMY
Bayarlaa, Sabha. And now I need to go.
(The Stone Yard Quarter is in just as bad shape. Death, fire, disease is everywhere. Children play hopscotch next to a soldier with a rifle and a gas mask. Closer to the Cathedral, the Polyhedron looms large over the town. A spotlight roams all over the front of the imposing Cathedral
Inside, INQUISITOR Aglaya Lilich and COMMANDER Block are at opposite ends of a long table. The INQUISITOR is seated at the left end. COMMANDER Block to the right, standing, leaning on his hands which are placed on the table. The large pendulum of the Cathedral oscillates between each end of the table)
(ARTEMY speaks to the COMMANDER first)
COMMANDER
Is this the doctor?
ARTEMY
This is the doctor.
COMMANDER
What do you want?
ARTEMY
We can cure this disease. I know how.
COMMANDER
Proof?
ARTEMY
It’s...not exactly scientific. Our people have a different approach.
COMMANDER
What is this nonsense? State your name and occupation!
ARTEMY
Burakh. Three doctors operated in this town. I’m one of them.
COMMANDER
I see. Give me a reason to call off the Bombardment. You have one chance.
ARTEMY
I know how to make a serum. We’ll need time to produce it at scale, but the recipe has been perfected.
COMMANDER
No, Burakh. If you told me that you had three tank cars of that panacea and an army of doctors from the Capital ready to administer it, that would have convinced me.
As it stands, there’s no going back. It’s too great a risk.
ARTEMY
We only had twelve days! That’s not enough time!
(ARTEMY approaches the INQUISITOR who is writing a letter)
INQUISITOR
Why have you come?
ARTEMY
To confirm to you that we have the means to fight the plague.
INQUISITOR
The plague. Not the outbreak.
ARTEMY
Who cares!
INQUISITOR
We already decided everything, without you. You’ve come uninvited.
ARTEMY
What did you decide?
INQUISITOR
Who are you to demand reports from us? A backwoodsman, a self-taught doctor practicing barbaric traditional medicine.
Oh, but I know who you are. You’re the person I was very wrong to put my hopes on, the person who let me down. Out! Now.
ARTEMY
I only need one more day!
INQUISITOR
Hey you, over there! Seize this man and throw him out.
ARTEMY
Aglaya! Listen to me…
(All the lights fade out, except for a red spotlight shining on MARK IMMORTELL, standing in the path of the pendulum. Everything appears frozen in time, including the pendulum. Only MARK IMMORTELL appears unaffected)
MARK IMMORTELL
So you insist on a second attempt, huh? Stubborn.
ARTEMY?
Not a second. A first one.
MARK IMMORTELL
All right, let’s roll then. Let us imagine that the last train has not yet left the station. Just don’t be late.
ARTEMY?
Now all I need is to not miss my stop.
You are Artemy Burakh, a surgeon. You’re coming back to your hometown summoned by a disturbing letter from your father.
ON THE WAY HOME,
when it all begins
SETTING
A train carriage. It is not meant for passengers. The carriage is empty aside from some stacks of boxes
(Artemy Burakh rises from a makeshift bed in the corner of the carriage. A coffin falls out from a stack of boxes at the other end of the carriage. The lid of the coffin opens from the inside, and a man climbs out from it. He closes the lid of the coffin and sits down on it)
FELLOW TRAVELER
How did you get inside this coffin?
ARTEMY
Me? You were the one in the coffin. Why did you crawl in there?
FELLOW TRAVELER
I was hiding.
ARTEMY
From whom? Death?
FELLOW TRAVELER
Yes. And people, too. It’s a bit too early for me to show my face. A bit too early.
ARTEMY
So you’re visiting our town too, huh?
FELLOW TRAVELER
A coffin is the best means of transportation in the world. It can get you to unimaginable places.
ARTEMY
You look alive though. So that vehicle is beyond your means for now. A freerider, huh?
FELLOW TRAVELER
Just like you.
ARTEMY
No one sells tickets to ride this train.
(As ARTEMY goes back to his corner, the train suddenly jolts sideways. The FELLOW TRAVELER is thrown off his coffin as ARTEMY is hurled sideways)
SETTING
The train, but not just the train
(ARTEMY comes through after the accident. The FELLOW TRAVELER isn’t in the carriage. The door is now open so ARTEMY lights a lantern, holds it aloft and steps out.
He finds himself out on the Steppe next to a small stony mountain. It is dark outside, just after sunset. There are torches lit a little further away from the train. There are small black flakes in the air, making it look like a dark haze. The reason for the accident and hold-up is a giant bull standing on the train tracks. The bull is the size of a five-story building.
There are several bird-masked EXECUTORS near the bull. There are several more everywhere else too.)
EXECUTOR
Railroads are beautiful. They always lead to one place you can’t turn from… except when there’s a silly mistake, like this crash. Dying just to escape fate. Stupid. Boring.
ARTEMY
What is that monster?
EXECUTOR
Ahead or behind?
ARTEMY
Behind me.
EXECUTOR
That is Bos Turokh. A creature of steppe legends from which the world was created. What was he trying to achieve here? Stupid. Life can never prevent death.
ARTEMY
What is ahead, then? Why the fires?
EXECUTOR
As you can see, the blood no longer flows in this artery. There’s a clot. You’re a doctor, aren’t you? Do you have medicine with you?
ARTEMY
What clot? What are those black flakes?
EXECUTOR
How should we know? You’re the doctor, not us. Go and see. We’re only ensuring no other trains are derailed. We’ll fix yours, too, once the beast leaves the tracks.
ARTEMY
I’ll go on foot then. Someone’s waiting for me.
(ARTEMY walks on the tracks, further into the dark haze. He gets weaker with every step until he collapses)
SETTING
The train carriage
(ARTEMY and the FELLOW TRAVELER are sitting across from each other. The FELLOW TRAVELER is repeatedly rolling a pair of dice.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Want to share secrets?
ARTEMY
Why?
FELLOW TRAVELER
You can share your worries, and I’ll take them with me.
ARTEMY
Into the coffin? Deal.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Who goes first?
ARTEMY
You.
FELLOW TRAVELER
I’m worried people won’t be so happy to see me in the Town. What if they shun me like some mutt and slam doors in my face? What if my toll is too small? I could fail to meet my goal. But, maybe this is my only anxiety. Yes, I can do it.
ARTEMY
Are you an insurance man?
FELLOW TRAVELER
Not really… Your turn now. Be honest, and your fate will change. That’s how it goes.
ARTEMY
I’m worried about my father. He summoned me with a letter - a troublesome one. Something bad has happened.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Do you want to play?
ARTEMY
I’m game.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Dice?
ARTEMY
What are the stakes?
FELLOW TRAVELER
Your fate.
ARTEMY
A person can’t lose their fate.
SETTING
A house.
(It’s not ARTEMY’s house
ARTEMY opens a door. Inside are KATERINA SABUROVA, MARIA KAINA and CAPELLA OLGIMSKAYA. They flinch in surprise and transform into surprised TRAGEDIANS
In the next room, PETER STAMATIN and ANNA ANGEL appear to be in conversation. As they turn to face the door, they turn into TRAGEDIANS
At the end of the corridor, in a room lit by a red light is FOREMAN OYUN. As he moves towards the door, he becomes a TRAGEDIAN
In the second room, there is a door to a room with a bed. Curled up on the bed is a SURVIVOR)
SURVIVOR
Someone heavy… I hear heavy steps, in the dark. I can’t see you. Are you death?
ARTEMY
You’re feverish.
SURVIVOR
Water… I’m so thirsty. I need a drink of fresh water. Please, bring it to me…
ARTEMY
Where do I get it?
SURVIVOR
Outside… In the yard… Hard to talk…
ARTEMY
Wait for me.
(ARTEMY exits via the front door which was previously locked. The door opens out to a yard in which there is a barrel of water. Further out, some children sit under a streetlight. And at the end of the yard is the train
Artemy fills up a bottle of water and moves closer to the train. There is a campfire behind the train. The FELLOW TRAVELER sits in the carriage, the doors open. On top of the carriage, two TRAGEDIANS are putting on a small performance. One of them is kneeling and mining proclamations, while the other is standing and miming rejecting them)
FELLOW TRAVELER
Thirsty, fellow TRAVELER?
ARTEMY
Not me. Someone else.
FELLOW TRAVELER
There is water in a wooden barrel, behind you. You walked past your goal. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.
ARTEMY
I saw the light. I thought it invited me here.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Like a moth.
ARTEMY
But the train was in my path.
(ARTEMY approaches the PACK of children. There are three of them. They are wearing dog’s head masks. They are standing over a man’s dead body)
PACK
Each has two eyes and two ears. Most have one nose and one mouth.
Riddle me this: If eyes and ears were switched, what would be right? If noses and mouths were switched, what would be fixed?
ARTEMY
…Did you kill him?
PACK
Answer the question khayaala. You’re a steppe man. You must know the answer.
ARTEMY
But I don’t.
PACK
Then be on your way, khayaala. People don’t kill people.
ARTEMY
Is that man alive, then?
(ARTEMY returns to the house. It’s dark; all the candles have been extinguished. Each of the TRAGEDIANS has been replaced by a coffin. ARTEMY goes to the backroom. The room before it is illuminated as before. In place of the TRAGEDIANS are the BACHELOR and the CHANGELING positioned as if in conversation. As they turn to face the door, they transform into TRAGEDIANS
In the backroom, an EXECUTOR stands over the bed the SURVIVOR is curled up in
As the EXECUTOR turns around, ARTEMY is awoken by the FELLOW TRAVELER)
FELLOW TRAVELER
Bad dream?
ARTEMY
Yeah, a dream. I hope it doesn’t come true.
FELLOW TRAVELER
So you want to meet your dad?
ARTEMY
Yes.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Me too.
ARTEMY
Why have we stopped? Are we there already…?
SETTING
The Steppe
ARTEMY finds himself in a circular area enclosed by rocks. The KIN surround him, standing among the rocks. Opposite him in the arena is one of the KIN
KIN ONE
Let Mother Boddho caress your step, kholboön. You haven’t forgotten your people, have you?
ARTEMY
No, I haven’t.
KIN ONE
Do you have a good heart?
ARTEMY
Who is the judge?
KIN ONE
We hear Earth with our hearts. The heart has a pulse. So does Earth. If they sing in harmony, you hear the language of Earth and herbs. The language of warmth and cold. Look tangher, and listen. Whose words are all around? What does Earth say?
ARTEMY
It says a lot of things.
KIN ONE
A lot of time has passed. You were gone. You forgot many things. Your heart is spoiled, Khatangher. Let us see if it’s rotten.
ARTEMY
How can you see that?
KIN ONE
The fight will show. Whose heart is keen? Who hears the unheard words? You will see my heart. The Kin’s blood runs through me. I was never torn from my people.
ARTEMY
I’ll take a look.
(ARTEMY and the KIN ONE begin fighting with their fists. They trade blows until eventually, the KIN ONE yields)
KIN ONE
Let us trade hearts, kholboön. Let’s become Kin.
ARTEMY
What need do you have of mine? Isn’t it rotten?
KIN ONE
A river of good washes away a drop of rot. There’s no “me” and “you.” There’s a people, Khatanghe. Mix your flesh with ours.
ARTEMY
All right. Let it be so.
(ARTEMY exchanges his rotten heart with the KIN ONE’S good heart)
SETTING
The train carriage.
(Once again ARTEMY wakes up in the train carriage. The FELLOW TRAVELER is leaning against the wall by the door)
FELLOW TRAVELER
We’re almost there.
ARTEMY
Are you relieved?
FELLOW TRAVELER
Oh yes. Can’t wait to get there. Just can’t wait.
ARTEMY
It feels like we’re riding in circles.
FELLOW TRAVELER
Well, it was nice passing the time. Good luck with your father. I’m sure he can’t wait.
ARTEMY
I hope so. This trip has been a long time coming…
(ARTEMY turns away and looks back. An EXECUTOR stands where the FELLOW TRAVELER was standing)
SETTING
The train has stopped. The carriage opens out to the yard of ARTEMY’s house.
My dear son, Artemy,
I write to you after so many years apart in the hopes that you may find a way to return to us.
Something worries me. I fear a difficult trial approaches. I hope that your studies have proven fruitful, and that you have achieved great skill as a surgeon. Such skill might be of use here.
I remain the only physician in this town. But you know that I am growing old. I need an assistant.
I do not fear death. And neither should you. Death, to a doctor, is but a partner in conversation. The constant witness of our work—even when we succeed. It is not old age, or what comes after it, that worries me. I am instead beset by the thought that I might fail to pass on my role.
Make haste, son. I truly need you.
Your loving father, Isidor Burakh
(ARTEMY disembarks from the train, the words of his father’s letter ringing in his head as if his father is reading it aloud right now. He enters the house through the front door. As he gathers herbs from a spare room, the sound of laughter can be heard. He makes his way through the ground floor. Every time he takes something from a cabinet, no matter the item, the laughter gets louder
By the time he climbs the stairs to the first floor, and takes a vial of infected blood, the laughter is uproarious. He goes to his father’s office.
When he opens the door to the back room, there is nothing on the other side and ARTEMY falls in it)