Sudetenland Tales by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Sudetenland Tales
Page 427
The Forbidden
In the fog gray city of Lorynth, nothing burned—not matches, not incense, and certainly not candles. Decades earlier, the Council of Harmonies had outlawed open flames, citing safety, cleanliness, and “emotional hygiene.” Fire stirred passion. Passion stirred chaos. It was civic philosophy.
Candles were the most forbidden of all. Not just for the fire, but for what they symbolized; intimacy, nostalgia, rebellion. Owning one; even an unlit stub, was criminal misalignment. People were taught to recoil at the mention. Candle imagery was censored. Wax was regulated.
But in a city taught to flinch from flame, whispers of waxen contraband grew louder.
They called themselves “The Melt.” A quiet subculture; engineers, poets, chefs, who yearned for the flicker. They smuggled beeswax in coffee tins and carved wicks from old mop fibers. Some even trained their breathing to hide the scent of burnt lavender. And once a month, far from sensors and scrutiny, they gathered in the catacombs beneath District Six.
There, in that underground hush, they lit candles.