The other two departments were
below the others, being differentiated between by the names Left and
Right, the Left being the governmental offices, and the Right the
military headquarters, providing protections both civil and foreign
(this was, incidentally, the beginning of the expression of the terms
Left and Right to denote ideological preferences, but I digress).
Uniform in all the fortress was the architecture, it being a strange mix
between elegant and gentle arches and curves and brute practicality, for
while the ceilings were high and open, and the walls wide, they were
rendered homely by their plain surfaces and the absence of small
triflings, conditions that were necessitated because of its identity: an
impregnable fortress containing a highly organized and self-sufficient
governmental society, each citizen having a particular duty for the
common good, and each kept from an unfarcical personal identity by the
means of a statist society.
From the lower, governmental offices we went up a flight of stairs that
wrapped round and round a tower-like tunnel, and soon reached the
departmental portal. Once there, we took the northern tunnel, which
opened into a large hall that stretched on almost endlessly, with hordes
of tunnels branching off to the various agencies.
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