As James entered his first Adequacy Festival he felt to be relieved of all the bad memories of the past, and was craving for the abundant range of meats, soups and every other delicious combination of ambrosial meals, which was not very common at this part of the world, the frequent orgies, the praise of the departed, especially to those who had died at the Machine War, and the most crucial event of the festival, the Speech of the Paragon. Wandering between the grey tenements of the Upper City, he glanced at a beautiful brunette girl, who was implying the appearance of a new participant with a ruddy, charming face and an alluring pale skin, her eyes of grey shining of the desire to be accepted in this exciting new world. Her nut-brown hair was surging in the air as she dashed forward to the inner square to avoid the immense crowd’s arrival to the praise. James followed her trail by moving towards the small pathway, however he was not quick enough to catch up with her in time. Apprehending the typical howl of the ceremony, which he heard in the previous years while being instructed to retreat to his quarters, he rushed towards the alleys of the opposite direction, in order not to be late.

The Speech of the Paragon had merely started when James arrived, only the first part had occured, which was the only tedious part from the audience’s point of view. A screeching elder was praising the virtues, and almost got impaled by the crowd, manifesting the desire to listen to the Paragon already.

Tyronne Blackheart was a man of elegance, he wore the best black polymer-tube clothes, with a similar red cape, His eyes were grey-blue gems shining towards the people, always watching over. Although he was very young, between twenty five and thirty, he had obtained several ashen locks of hair, his was cut short at the sides, but kept longer in the middle. His flawless pale skin reflected the sunshine, almost like the Divine of the Old World.

“I am just on time, I guess. Tyronne Blackheart’s speech hasn’t even started.” thought James joyfully, pushing through the crowd.

“Shut up prick, the Paragon is coming.” growled an elderly woman to an unsavoury punk who was screaming a mocking monologue from an old world manuscript in his illuminated behaviour. Two militiamen set off towards the punk, tried to stop him from expressing his unlikely thoughts on the Champion of Virtues by naming him a man who would not necessarily have sexual intercourse with females. Being bashed in the head, he lost his consciousness, James heard the speech started as Tyronne stepped out to the balcony of the Grey Palace.

“As I am gazing upon my audience, I feel a certain feeling towards you. I feel sorrow and desperation as I perceive the cold reality. Our enemies had abducted several of our people, leaving their corpses to rot on the ground, not hiding that they are heartless beasts, forcing their experiments on us, not respecting our families and friends, whom we must protect. We do not know what awaits us, though we have a firm grip on our armies that induced their destruction in many cases by using the advantage of the quality of being a human. We do not let our people be slaughtered like animals .We are the core of humanity, our lives are not others’ to take. We choose our own destiny. The best way to use our creativity to our advantage is to work together for every one another and ourselves by removing the flaws of the people by selecting the best warriors, scientists and engineers of the youth, turning the biting frost into the bitter warmth of the sun. Our destiny is to win the war between the good and the evil creating a heavenly paradise out of our world, destroying the wretched domes of the machines, removing the threats of our species forever. We are the ones who inherited the world and with that comes a great responsibility .In order to win this war, we have to obey the five virtues, or perish. We, you, are the core of humanity, without you all is lost. May you find strength in the virtues and focus on our sacred duty.”

James remembered the Five Virtues of acceptance, compliance, productivity, loyalty, self-sacrifice being taught at the sorting-school. It was very harsh for children who was not born for eligible parents, defined as non-direct servants of the state. The offspring were separated from their parents and were sent to these institutions, which treated them as potential workforce, nothing more. Only the officials and soldiers got to bring up their own children.

The crowds started roaring and screaming the sentence “Bless the Paragon of the Five Virtues”. Tyronne smiled, turn around, took the ceremonial spoon, and said “The Ceremony is now complete, the Adequacy Festival shall now be considered commenced!” He threw the spoon into the crowd and disappeared in the shadow of his elite guards, the Vanguard of the Virtues.