Keeping Secrets in a Thought Reverberating Hall
My protagonist, let's call her Alice, must acquire a priceless artifact, located deep inside an ancient temple.
If this were a ruin, the exercise would be academic, but the Temple was protected by the ancient and terrible power that built it. The only way in and out of the Innermost Chamber where the the artifact is located is through a vast spiral hallway. One's innermost thoughts simply reverberate across this long Hall like so many echoes. The priests protecting the place can hear these thoughts, and a single thought by the priests can activate the large golem army of statues that currently stand immobile across the length of the place.
There are always three priests in the Reverberation Hall listening for stray heretical or otherwise dangerous thoughts, each of which can activate the defenses. Only one pilgrim is allowed to enter at a time, and hall is so vast it takes 10 minutes to walk across the length of it. Along the way there are numerous mural images: admonishments to turn back if not pure of heart and purpose, depictions of thieves (covered in hay for some reason) being crushed by heavy golem fists, pilgrims worshiping the meticulously depicted artifacts in rapturous joy. There are representations of eyes everywhere, and they all seem to follow the pilgrim as she makes her way across the hall.
Now Alice does not have an army to assault the place (and frankly, I doubt the adamantine golems would be much troubled) but she needs to gain control of a particular artifact against the wishes of the priests. Since she has a replica, if she does manage to gain it and walk out, the theft would probably not be noticed for a long time, since the priests do not patrol or (out of respect) listen to the prayers and thoughts in the Innermost Chamber where the artifacts are.
How do I get Alice to gain the artifact, against the wishes of the priests? How do you avoid thinking that you are a thief, while, well, being a thief?
...well, besides the obvious way. :)
LATE EDIT: Thanks everyone for the very ingenious answers! @DanSmolinske had the most creative answer in my view, with the benefit of using elements from prior steps of Alice's saga as outlined here on Worldbuilding. @WhatRoughBeast's answer will definitely be blended in as well.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/12091. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
See the short story "Clothes Make the Man" by Henri Duvernois. In it, Tango, the stupidest of a threesome of thieves, is told to stand guard outside a home the other two are robbing, dressed as a police officer.
"All you do is walk up and down the street," Mireault said. "Easy and slow, like a real cop on his beat. Then if anyone hears us working in the house they won't get suspicious, seeing you. Keep walking until we come out, then hang around a few minutes covering us. That's all there is to it. We'll meet back here. Now you understand?"
While doing so,
Tango fell to thinking of how he had looked in the mirror. With the impressive image vivid in his mind, he straightened his shoulders and threw out his chest again. Standing erect, he tried a salute. It felt good. He grinned, oddly pleased, and walked on.
Then,
After a few more trips, he found an old lady hesitating on the corner. He saw her make two or three false starts to get across and each time nervously come back.… Tango held up his other arm majestically, as if halting a horde of roaring trucks. With infinite dignity they crossed to the other side. It was a pretty picture indeed.
"Thank you so much, officer!" she said.
"Please madam," Tango said, "don't mention it." He paused. "That's what we're here for, you know," he added.
A bit later,
when, halfway down the block, two figures came skimming over the garden wall and landed on the pavement near him, he was in no mood to stop.… While Mireault and the Eel stared at him in sheer paralyzed horror, he stuffed the shiny whistle in his mouth and blew a salvo of blasts loud and long enough to bring all the police in Paris.
"Crooks, robbers!" he bellowed. "I arrest you. I arrest you in the name of the law!"
So if you want your character to not have any thoughts that she's a crook, have her pretend to be something else, to the extent that she has herself convinced.
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