Like breeze upon the water

{OF ETHICS AND ANARCHY} SPECULATIVE FICTION

- Akankshya Abismruta

The fall of the imperial Perumal empire marks the beginning of a new calendar in The Sentence by Gautam Bhatia. This fall also marks the proclamation of the Independent Republican City of Peruma. The reader is told that every few generations, a "violent and ruinous clash" takes place whose outcome "fundamentally alters society." These events in Peruman history are known as inflection points.

Five centuries old, Peruma has witnessed a great class struggle. In the year 398, Director Purul had flown down to the Unity bridge on the river Urai that connects the high town to the low one. The moment he stepped onto it, there was a blast. Then appeared a young man, Jagat R, who said, "In the name of the Commune unborn, die."

This birthed an anarchist revolution and Peruma was divided into the High Town and the Commune.

The violence that followed was controlled by the signing of a compromise document, the Charter of Peace And Unity, that will not be amended for a hundred years; the Pact of Forgetting; and the creation of the Confederation of Guardians.