Sugarcane

[[The End|Credits]].\n\n

The [[walls|The Walls]] open out to both sides, yawning mouths, hungry mouths that whisper lipless, that promise wordless, that remember.\n\nTo the left are two mouths. One leads [[down|Stairs Down]] and one leads to an [[icon|The Liar]].\n\nTo the right are two mouths.One leads [[up|Stairs Up]] and one leads to an [[icon|The General]].\n\nBefore you lies the [[altar|The Altar]]. There is a monster on the altar.\n\n[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Doorways01-e1390688554133.gif]]

"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay\nOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare\nThe lone and level sands stretch [[far away|Beginning]]." \n- Ozymandias, Percy Shelley

Through the stupa's glass sides you can see the \n\nBeyond, a [staircase|The Spire] continues up, or you can return to the [belly of the beast|The Main Hall].\n\n[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Stupa01.gif]]

You strike a match, and the General's veils are caught on fire. They burn fast, the heat hitting your face. \n\nRevealed is a woman. Her dress is pink. Around her the alcove has blackened with the flames, the walls solidifying, calcifying. \n\nYou [[back away|The Main Hall]], from the God-no-longer-the-General.\n\n<<set $matches = true>>\n

<<if not $truth and not $nebulous>> In the alcove altar, stands the Liar. \n\nYou know this one. It watches over those whose shape is fluid. \n\nThe stranger who told you of the Liar said that lies are the only way to tell the truth. \n\nIf you [[speak|Prayer]], will it hear you? Your feet twitch, anxious to [[step away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>>\n\n<<if $truth>>The Liar is gone and in it's place stands the Warrior. This place feels like a grave, and from the alcove radiates dusty cracks along the walls. You [[back away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>>\n<<if $nebulous>>The Liar is smiling at you. This place feels warm and welcoming and you know you can be anything. You [[continue|The Main Hall]] with fear and hope in your heart.<<endif>>\n\n<<if not $truth and not $nebulous>>[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-Liar01-e1390688275784.gif]]<<endif>>

<<if not $truth and not $nebulous and not $matches and not $blood>>On the altar lies a monster. You back [[away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>><<if not $truth and not $nebulous and $matches and not $blood>>On the altar lies a monster. You back [[away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>><<if not $truth and not $nebulous and not $matches and $blood>>On the altar lies a monster. You back [[away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>><<if not $truth and $nebulous and not $matches and not $blood>>On the altar lies a monster. You back [[away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>><<if $truth and not $nebulous and not $matches and not $blood>>On the altar lies a monster. You back [[away|The Main Hall]].<<endif>><<if $truth and $matches>>It is repulsive, a construct of bones and eyes and faces, inhuman and broken. With your touch, you expel it. You touch the edge of the monster with your nail.\n\nAround you, the cathedral crumbles. It melts into air and dust and sand and the desert sky. Gone are the bones and gone are the icons. Standing alone in the desert with you is the perfect human. He looks at you and finds you unworthy. He leaves in the desert. [[Alone|The End]].<<endif>><<if $truth and $blood>>There is a being on the altar. You don't know what it is. There is nothing left for you in the cathedral. You wander for another few minutes, but the cathedral has lost interest in you. You go back into the desert, [[looking for something|The End]].<<endif>><<if $matches and $nebulous>>There is a being on the altar. You don't know what it is. There is nothing left for you in the cathedral. You wander for another few minutes, but the cathedral has lost interest in you. You go back into the desert, looking for something.<<endif>><<if $blood and $nebulous>>There is a god on the altar. It is dying and beautiful and waiting. You can ressurect it.\n\nYou place a hand on either side of the god, holding it carefully and reverantly. It turns to look at you.\n\nToo much, too much, to see the everything in the nothing. Too much for heart and mind and such a tiny little soul. You found home.\n\nThe bone cathedral rises. It lifts itself from the desert and [[takes you|The End]] with it.<<endif>>

Thanks for playing the Bone Cathedral! You can find us on the internet here:\n\n[[Hanna|http://www.hannabrady.com]]\n[[Ian|http://ianfaleer.bandcamp.com]]\n\nAnd special thanks to [[Glorious Trainwrecks|http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/]] for awesome Twine macros.

You cut your palm. The blood dances. It curls up from your hand in a spiralling vine and wraps around the candles.\n\nIt ignites them with a light in a color you cannot name. \n\nThe eyes of the General brighten. \n\nThe cathedral shudders. You [[back away|The Main Hall]].\n\n<<set $blood = true>>

The Bone Cathedral

You are a [[very long way|The Doorway]] from home.\n\n[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/OutsideCathedral01-e1390687816689.gif]]\n\n<<set $matches = false>>\n<<set $blood = false>>\n<<set $nebulous = false>>\n<<set $truth = false>>

There are slit windows as you ascend, but the glare outside is so bright, you can see nothing outside them.\n\nThe steps are uneven, deliberately different heights, so you tread carefully. [[One step at a time.|The Spire]] One foot in front of the other. \n\n

You are looking down at the stairs to keep from falling and stumble into the room.\n\nThe walls are made of glass, or the film of fly wings, or ice. The desert light is transformed into spears of blue and green and orange that take your eyes hostage.\n\nYou stand dazzled at the top of the stairs, and see at the center of the room [a stupa|The Stupa].

The Liar turns to you, and smiles with both faces. \n\nThe cathedral shudders, the walls and floor buckling with a breath.\n\nOutside, the universe is remembering something.\n\nYou [[back away|The Main Hall]], and all that remains is the Liar's smile on the inside of your eyelids.\n\n<<set $nebulous = true>>

You don't know what the walls are made of.\n\nThe material between the riblike columns is soft and warm to the touch and your fingers leave black depressions that do not fade, no matter how long you watch.\n\nThe columns have veins, like your own hand or like a halved treetrunk. When you look closely, they appear to be beating, faintly and unevenly. It turns your stomach to see and you [[step back|The Main Hall]] to the center of the cavernous chamber.

The Liar shudders. The statue dries and cracks with a whisper, leaving another, smaller figure revealed -- a man in a robe with a sword in hand. \n\nThe air is full of dust and death.\n\nYou [[back away|The Main Hall]].\n\n<<set $truth = true>>

Interred below the cathedral, you find old nightmares.\n\nChained at the center of the crypt is a perfect human. As you come closer, you realize it's a statue. Maybe.\n\nIts beauty leaves you feeling sick to your stomach, and before you know it, you are [[running|The Main Hall]] back up the stairs.

The stairs take you outside, and you cling to the wall of the spire. Wind sweeps the desert, calling for you to jump. \n\nWhen you look down at the cathedral, it looks familiar. It looks like the monster on the altar.\n\nYou [[return|The Main Hall]] the way you came.\n\n[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-Spire01.gif]]\n

The sound of dripping water echoes in the spiral staircase. The walls are dry as tissue paper.\n\nThe cathedral watches you [[go down|More Down]].

You walk into the bone cathedral.\n\nIt smells of earth and growing things. It smells of beating breathing space. The bleached yellow bones of the columns rise up to the dark and are banded in gold and rust. \n\nAhead lies the [[altar|The Main Hall]]. There is a monster on the altar.\n\n[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Interior01-e1390688225577.gif]]\n\n<<playsound "http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/TheCathedralandtheCreature.mp3">>\n<<loopsound "http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/TheCathedralandtheCreature.mp3">>

Three candles wait to be lit. Beside them lies a knife. \n\nA drop of [[blood|Blood]] will light the candle flames. But so will the [[matches|Matches]]. \n\nYou do not have to worship at this altar. You can always go [[back|The Main Hall]].

<<if not $matches and not $blood>>In the alcove altar stands the General. \n\nYou do not know this one.\n\nEven in the dim light of the bone cathedral, its eyes glow, glass orbs behind a gossamer veil. The sight is unnerving.\n\nYou look away, half stepping [[back|The Main Hall]] to the great room where at least you cannot see the eyes you feel. Beside the altar sit little [[votive candles|Fire]].<<endif>>\n\n<<if $matches>>The General is gone, and a faceless woman lives in its place. She is familiar. Uncomfortably so. You [[leave her|The Main Hall]] to her tomb.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $blood>>The General seems to have absorbed the light from your candle. It glows and pulses. You [[back away|The Main Hall]]. <<endif>>\n\n<<if not $matches and not $blood>>[img[http://www.hannabrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-General01-e1390688342510.gif]]<<endif>>

"All truth that is fixed is broken. All darkness exists in the light. The truthtellers all are liars. All infinite choices are right."\n\nYou know the words to [[speak them|Nebulous]].\n\nOr is this your prayer?\n\n[["There is one way and one truth, one light and one heart."|Truth]]\n\nThe Liar will [[wait|The Main Hall]]. You do not need to pray yet.

Words by Hanna Brady\nMusic by Ian Faleer

Deep deep in the desert.\n\nDeep deep in the dark.\n\nGone gone below.\n\nThe stairs go on and on and the rock gets heavier at the back of your neck. The walls narrow and the water, still invisible, clicks and plinks in your ears.\n\n[[Gone gone below|The Crypt]].\n\nYou could [[race back|The Main Hall]] to air and light and the smell of the cathedral. Down here it is all dry scents, like before a fire.