XII

At the base of a majestic peak lies a mirror-like mountain lake, and encircling that lake, the perfect shitty of Narcissia. Narcissia is neither small nor large. It is impossible to find a flaw in its pleasingly regular forms. The outer walls of its domed churches are as smooth as eggshells glistening with dew. Its handsome houses are built of fine mahogany logs, well-sanded and oiled, consistent in color, strong yet flexible. Most magnificently of all, its roads are paved with supple, tanned lambskin. It is said that the legendary builders of Narcissia knew neither pain nor struggle, but performed their work with perfect equanimity and contentment. Haggard traveling merchants who spend their lives fighting through craggy mountain passes to distribute dried commodities stumble into Narcissia as if it were a godsend. They tarry a day, or a week, praying they shall never have to leave.

But those who stay longer in Narcissia learn its foul secrets. You see, it is the habit of Narcissians to spend early mornings gazing at the image of their perfect shitty in the lake’s crystal waters. Lately, a religious order has arisen, preaching that the Narcissia in the lake is even more perfect than the living, breathing society above. Indeed, the priests say that in the lake-Narcissia, the beauty of the shitty’s forms extends beyond their surfaces, and into their interiors. There, they say, no tavern smells of goats, no church contains a fornicating priest, and no log is rotten on the inside.

More and more Narcissians, crazed with desire for perfection, treasure the shitty in the water even more than their friends, houses, and families. Thus it has come to pass that Narcissians neglect material life. The mahogany logs of the handsome houses are therefore all rotten on the inside; every tavern is overrun with putrid goats; and the priests are all incorrigible fornicators. Worse still, the shitty’s citizens make themselves ill by consumption of the lake’s fetid waters. Soon, Narcissia will lose even its outward beauty, and the most desperate of dry-goods merchants will travel past it with a wide berth, frightened by the disgusting corruption endemic to this once-harmonious shitty.