How It All Goes Down
The Clock of the Time Dragon
- We're not sure what a "Time Dragon" is, but color us intrigued.
- Turns out, Frex isn't as bad of a guy as we had feared. He stops to chat with some townsfolk and asks for a few women to stop by and check on Melena while he's gone.
- Frex then stops by a tree to read some Letters of Exposition – letters from a fellow minister concerning the Clock of the Time Dragon.
- The Clock is basically the main act of a sort of traveling circus sideshow. The Clock itself is like a gigantic cuckoo clock (it sounds like the really big, elaborate ones you can find in Germany), and the dwarf who runs the show uses the Clock to tell people's "futures."
- This makes it sound classier than it actually is, however.
- Frex's fellow minister describes in his letter how one of the Clock's shows depicted a man having sex with a local widow and her daughter in a seriously kinky threesome.
- So the Clock is basically immoral and trashy, and the Unionist ministers are freaking out about it.
- To make matters worse, the Clock show inspired a small riot as the audience set upon the unfortunate locals depicted in the show.
- Now the Clock is coming to Frex's turf, and he's determined to stop it:
Frex was aware that the Clock of the Time Dragon combined the appeals of ingenuity and magic.... If his congregation should prove vulnerable to the so-called pleasure faith, succumbing to spectacle and violence – well, what then? (1.2.14) - Frex is determined to "save" his congregation and stop the Clock show from sparking a riot.