Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:54:11 +0200
From: A.K. <andrej@andrejkoymasky.com>
Subject: "The Free Commune of Silvana" 3/6 (Historical - fantasy)

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THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA
by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006
writen on March 7, 1995
translated by the Author
English text kindly revised
by Bill

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USUAL DISCLAIMER

"THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA" is a gay story, with some parts containing
graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion,
family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better
not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't
care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my
welcomed guest.

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CHAPTER 3 - The Very Right and Serene Commune of Silvana. The Commune
first war. The freedom

On 4 Fr LIV (1099) under Horse regency and Slim captaincy, Sunsweet and
Mountain Castles were built. When completed, the walls united the four
castles. Then construction was started on the building of Finegate and
the flight of steps leading from this gate to Flowerfield.  Also a
revision of the Statute was done. On 1/4/3 Se LV (1103) we have the
definitive drafting of the "Very Right and Serene Commune of Silvana
Statute". This is the first time that the name of the territory appears
in its entirety and it is evident that at this point the community feels
juridicially free and independent from all the neighbouring potentates.
Moreover the Statutes contain only the fundamental laws, separating
these from the common law which was in the "Regulations".

For the first time appears the role of the Defender, who with the Rector
and the Captain sits in the new body known as Regency. The Rector is
elected by all the Companions twenty years or older, the Captain by all
the family heads, that is by the Forum, the Defender by all the soldiers
on duty in the various castles, be they Companions or Friends. Each is
elected for a twenty year term. If one of them retires or dies before
the end of his office, his substitute is elected, always for a twenty
years term.

The proof of the importance of this date comes from the fact that in the
same year, a few months later, the neighbouring powers raised a total
block of the territory borders - nothing and nobody can enter or go out
from Silvana. This leads to a war, the first that the Commune fights.
The war ends in favor of the Commune, that as a result acquires some new
territories as reparations for war damages. Richton surrenders Frontier
territory, Kindton gives Mines, Cottageton surrenders the two
territories of Stony and Sunny, and Breadmount gives Drainage. The
commune territory will remain unchanged after this war forever; it will
never gain nor lose territories. The politics to defend these
territories without attempting to get new ones, will be one of the
elements guaranteeing for generations the freedom of the Commune.

But on 2 Le LVII (1147) the Lords of the neighbouring territories, as a
means to undermine Silvana independence, bring a suit against the
Commune at the Great King's high court, demanding that the Commune also
pays taxes to the Kingdom. The King sent Strongray as his minister
plenipotentiary, at the head of two thousand infantrymen and fifty
cavalrymen. The Regents, warned in time of the plenipotentiary's
arrival, ordered all the gates closed and went down, alone and unarmed,
wearing the "State dress", to Drainage at the boundary with Breadmount.
Here the three alone block the road to the officers' and soldiers'
cortege.

Strongray dismounted his horse and went to talk with the three Regents,
who told  him, "We don't want a war. If you prove to us that the Great
King has the right to receive our taxes, we will pay; otherwise, you
will leave us in peace". Strongray was convinced to pass the boundary
accompanied only by ten officers and ten armed horsemen, leaving all the
others beyond the boundary. So they went up to the Cliff, passing
through the Finegate.

Strongray was in admiration of the beauty of the fine gate, of the Cliff
facade, of the powerful fortifications and finally of the interior of
the Cave. Here the Regents had him sit on a kind of wooden throne put on
a lower level of the triple stone throne, but they sat on normal seats
at his same level. Therefore they demonstrated to the plenipotentiary
that the Commune had never paid a tribute to any town, city, temple, or
Lord of the past or of the present for about a thousand years.

The experts thorougly checked all the documents shown to them and found
them to be valid and truthful. But the plenipotentiary was not yet
satisfied, "You say you are a free and independent people, but what is
this freedom? I want to question common people, not you monks. Bring in
front of me an illiterate for each of your built-up areas, so that I can
ask them questions."

The Regents accepted at once. We have the chronicle of that occurrence
and the answers given by the Commune people.

The King's plenipotentiary, minister Strongray, sitting on the throne
prepared for him in the Great Cave, asked of the people gathered and
chosen by his men, "Tell me, what does freedom and independence mean to
you?"

Lamb from Livewaters answered, "The Commune men never paid a tribute for
fifty generations, neither to foreigners nor to a man of the Commune."

Guide from Temple said, "We who live here never paid a tribute to any
living being, nor to gods or lords, and now we don't pay either, because
when our mother feeds us at her breast we know that in the Commune we
all are equals, young and old people, Friends and Companions, and nobody
is superior to another."

Sensible from Borough said, "For all the time of my life I never saw a
man of Silvana Commune bowing in front of another man, nor paying him a
tithe, or tax, or tribute of any sort, and also my elders said they
never saw such a thing."

Rufled from Woods said, "For all the time of my life I always heard that
we all here are equal and free and independent because so said our
Master Silvan."

Cockerel from Garden said, "Amongst us there is no slave or servant and
no man is forced to serve or to obey another man other than the
shift-leader of the work and only during the work time. None of us is
committed except to the Statute and to the Regulations. Also the Regents
are bound by these, like me. This is what it means to be free, equal,
independent."

Porter from Serene answered, "Man is born free, therefore he is not to
be submissive to the will of another man for any reason. I came here
freely to answer to you, and freely I will go out from here when it
pleases me."

Morning from Lilvalley answered, "Man is born free and owns what he
needs and for this he has to respond to nobody besides the Awakened
Prince, on the day he will be in his presence."

Nicegift from Weir said, "The free man gives his food to the traveler,
his roof to the refugee, but nobody can claim his food or his roof."

And last, Charming from Silvana, a young soldier, said, "As a soldier I
obey my chief, as a son my father, as a man the Awakened, as a Friend
the Statute and the Regulations; other than these I don't recognize that
anybody has the right to tell me what I have to do or not to do."

Then Strongray stood up and said, "You really are a free, proud and
strong people. I will tell my King that you don't belong to anybody and
that to anybody you can't belong. Therefore no tribute can be asked to
you. May all the gods always protect you."

He gave the Regents a certificate of his decision and, gathering all his
men, went back to Royalton where he came from. Before leaving he left as
a goodwill gift his mantle of white silk quilted with gold.

Then the Regents gathered all the population and declared that day a
solemn, perpetual holiday called "Perpetual Freedom Day". On the
Drainage border was erected the Memorial of Perpetual Freedom, where in
the bas-relief can be seen the three Regents stopping the king's
plenipotentiary. The Silvana flag, sky-ble with a gold sun, was hemmed,
to remember that day, with the white silk of the King's
plenipotentiary's mantle.

On year 1 Le LVIII (1166), as the Forum had become too big and was
mainly formed by old people, it was reformed making two changes - each
family had to choose amongst its members being between twenty and sixty
years old, a representative to be their family-head; moreover each
borough elected each year a certain number of representatives
proportional to its inhabitants, to form the General Council, composed
of sixty members, all chosen amongst the Friends - 4 from Livewaters, 5
each from Serene, Lilvalley and Weir, 9 each from Temple, Woods and
Garden and 14 from Borough.

And last, in imitation of the neighbouring territories, Silvana had
their Lord. He was chosen from amongst the Companions, was considered
the successor of Master Silvan, therefore he was seated on a tall
throne, under the Founder's statue; he was elected for a ten year term.
He was chosen from amongst the Companions being between twenty-five and
thirty-five years of age and had to be the handsomest of them. But,
differently from the Lords of the surrounding territories, he didn't
have any real power, he was just a symbol. He was covered with honors,
dressed in a splendid way and he presided over the Regency, the General
Council and the Forum, but without the right to vote. He was therefore
very different from the Lords of those times, even though he had all
their symbols and name.

Moreover the army, formed by swordsmen, lancers and archers for a total
of 671 warriors in permanent service, got uniforms of different colors
according to the castle they belonged to; each army was commanded by a
lieutenant, each castle by a guardian and all together they elected,
like before, the Defender.

It is of the following year a report written by the great priest Proud
of Royalton, and we don't know how it ended up on Silvana's archives as
it is addressed to the "Great King" of Royalton, where he describes the
"Very Right and Serene Silvana Commune", overlooked by a "very tall and
steep stone", crowned by four castles "solid and strong and impregnable
and well guarded", surrounded by "a wide and very delightful territory"
where there were eight "wall protected villages". He describes in great
detail the Finegate, and also the Road gate on the south, the Main gate
on the east, and the Valley gate on the north. He also describes the
"very delightful cemetery that looks like a garden with very beautiful
statues of white marble resembling chiseled ivory". The fact that in his
letter he doesn't describe anything about what is inside the city walls
makes us understand that he didn't enter, or was not admitted, inside
the built-up areas.

But this report is interesting for another aspect - it concludes with a
consideration: "It is a real pity that a pearl of such a great beauty
doesn't adorn Your crown, but this virile and proud people, for always
free and independent, this small but strong and gentle territory, never
knew a master and never will know one, as long as the gods will be
respected in Your lands." It almost seems, as we will see later, a
prophecy.

In this same year there is found a ballad in rhyme, composed of not less
than 9,999 tercets, narrating the love of a Companion for a married
Friend. In summary the story is as follows:

"In Woods borough lived a young man, twenty five years old, named
Resolute Furrows, a basket maker, married with Violet Well from
Lilvalley. They had three small children. Each morning Resolute climbed
up to Flowerfield to decorate with flowers the grave of his ancestor
Furrow. And every day a young Companion, named Third, twenty years old,
went down to Flowerfield to decorate the grave of the Founder.

The first time Third saw Resolute, he became infatuated with him, but
when he knew he was married, he thought he had no hope to be united with
him. Notwithstanding this, day after day, his passion was becoming
stronger and deeper. At first they just greeted each other and each time
Third felt his heart jump in his chest. Then they also started to
exchange a few words and Third was happy just to see him, and sad when
they had to depart.

Third almost couldn't sleep any more; he was totally fascinated by
Resolute, by his nimble and sound body, by his luminous smile, by his
deep and sweet voice, by any of his moves and words. He desired him with
all his being, and yet he knew that he could never have him. The more he
repeated to himself not to think of him, the less he was capable.
Therefore he started to intensely pray to the Awakened Prince, the
Founder Master and all the gods of the sky, of the earth, of the waters
and of the elements to succour him.

He decided to pretend not to see him, but Resolute greeted him and asked
him what was up, and if he was ill. Third answered no, everything was
fine, but when he went back to Silvana, he went to bed and was unable to
leave it from then on. Resolute, not seeing him any more for some days,
decided to go to the Cliff to ask news about Third - they told him that
he mysteriously fell ill and nobody was able to understand the reason
and no treatement seemed of any effectiveness.

Third was languishing, grew weaker and weaker in spite of the
affectionate and diligent care of the Companions. Particularly a
Companion who was of his same age and was his friend, named Prudent, who
assisted him night and day.

"Third, my sweet friend, what is wearing you out so much? What is making
you grow dim like a wick burning out little by little?" he asked him,
but Third didn't answer.

Meanwhile Resolute went every day to ask for news of him and always left
for him a sweet fruit or a rare flower. Until Prudent guessed there had
to be some relation between the Friend's visit and the Companion's
illness. Thus a day Prudent asked Third, "Tell me, my sweet friend, what
is there between you and Resolute?"

"Nothing, I swear", the young ill man answered in a whisper, but a tear
shone in the corners his eyes.

"You can trust me, I'm your friend, I will never betray you, you know
it". Prudent insisted, but Third didn't tell.

Until a night, in his delirium, Third murmured, "Resolute, my sweet
beloved one, I'm dying because we cannot love each other."

Thus Prudent received confirmation of what he had guessed. He didn't
want Third to die, but on the other hand he well knew that such a love
was not possible, therefore he didn't know what to do. So, in the middle
of night, he went out of Silvana and asked the armigers on guard at
Finegate to open to him and allow him to go down to Flowerfield.

Reaching the Master's grave, he lay down on it and prayed to him, for
the sake of the love that united him to Deer, to enlighten him and not
to let Third die. He prayed all night long, until dawn colored the sky
pink behind the Cliff. But he didn't get any answer to his prayer. He
sadly went back to the Cliff and went to watch at the bedside of Third.
The youth didn't recover consciousness and his body was trembling all
over, shaken from time to time by deep moans.

On the following night Prudent went again to pray on the Master's grave,
until dawn, but again he didn't get an answer. He went there on the
third night and cried for a long time, as it seemed that Third was very
close to death. When the moon came out, he saw a man coming, thus he hid
himself. The man was Resolute, and he prostrated himself in front of the
Master's grave and said, "Silvan, father of us all, Third is dying and
nobody knows the cause. Why? I feel I'm in love with him, even though I
know I'm not allowed to, and therefore, for the love that you left us as
a bequest, I pray you, take my life, but let Third live! My wife will
find another husband, another father for our children, my life is not
important. Take my life and give it to Third!"

Then Prudent went out of the bush behind which he was hidden and said to
Resolute, "I heard your prayer and am deeply moved. You love Third and
offer your life for his. Also Third loves you and he is dying because he
cannot reveal to you his love. I too prayed the Master to rescue Third's
life; who knows, possibly if we pray together, the Master will enlighten
us and let us understand what we have to do to give back life to Third."

Resolute, who didn't know that Third was in love with him at that point,
was moved and said, "Yes, let's pray together and we won't stop praying
until the Master will enlighten us."

They laid down on the ground, one at the left and the other at the right
of the Master's grave and started again to pray in their hearts, with
all their strength.

On that same night, the Lord of Silvana was not able to fall asleep. He
then walked on the glacis until he was above Finegate; when he looked
towards Flowerfield he saw, distinctly illuminated by the moon, a
Companion and a Friend lying down at the sides of the Master's grave. At
that time of night, those two, in that position, made him curious.
Therefore he asked the guards to open the door for him and went down to
the Master's grave.

When he reached it, he saw an amazing thing - the head of the Friend was
surrounded by a light-blue halo and the head of the Companion by a
golden halo. He tried to call them, to shake them, but it was totally
useless - they were alive and yet felt nothing. Then he kneeled in front
of the grave and prayed.

And a very light luminous mist appeared on the grave and took the shape
of the Master who, smiling, said to him, "Didn't you understand my sign?
What means the light-blue color?"

"It is the Companions' color..."

"And who has it around his head?"

"The Friend, and... and the gold, symbol of our freedom, is around the
Companion's head... But I still cannot understand."

"They have to swap their roles and everything will be solved." the
Master said.

"Everything? What?"

"Look and you will understand." the Master answered and the Lord had a
vision of all the vicissitude and understood.

All was back to normal and the two rose up and saw the Lord and greeted
him in amazement. He told them about the vision that the Master sent him
and what was the solution of their problem. Both rejoiced very much. The
Lord made them undress and exchange their clothes. Then, with them, he
went down to Woods, to Resolute's house. Here they found Violet, waiting
at the door for them.

The woman said, "A dream woke me up. I dreamed that I had to lose my
husband and that I would have a new husband... but I see that you are
still alive, Resolute."

"Yes, but you see that I'm wearing the blue habit. I came to tell you
that I have to divorce from you. But if you accept him, Prudent, that
you see here, will be your new husband."

"He seems to be a well-mannered and handsome person... so, my dream was
right."

Prudent told her, "I will love you and will love your children and if
you want, we will have more children."

"So be it, then." the woman answered.

"Tomorrow come to the Cliff and we will annul the previous marriage and
celebrate the new one. Now I leave you with her, Prudent; be a good
husband!" the Lord said.

Then Resolute, after saying farewell to the woman, to Prudent and to his
three children, went up to the Cliff together with the Lord. Once there,
the Lord took Resolute to Third's house. "You will spend the night here
with him. Tomorrow morning you will be officially accepted amongst the
Companions. But you already are one, as so decided the Master. Now, go
and give back life to Third."

When the Lord went out, Resolute undressed completely and slipped under
Third's blanket, embraced him, caressing and kissing him, warming his
cold body with his body. Little by little Third stopped trembling, then
opened his eyes and saw the smiling face of Resolute.

"I'm with you? Is this a dream?" he asked with a feeble voice.

"No, it's real; I came to give you my love." Resolute sweetly said to
him and kissed him on the mouth very intimately and for a long time.

Third, thanks to that kiss seemed to gradually recover his forces,
pressed against Resolute, embraced him and finally they started making
love, both feeling the joys of paradise. They united, giving one to the
other several times with great passion and only when they heard the song
of the morning lauds, they understood that the sun was already rising.
Then, even though reluctantly, they wore their blue habits and went to
sing with the others.

Also Prudent with Violet and the three children arrived. Then the Lord
told all the reunited community the vision he had, and he declared
annuled the marriage between Resolute and Violet, freed Prudent of his
bonds with the community and celebrated the union between Prudent and
Violet, committing to their love the three children. Then first was
celebrated the admisson rite of Resolute, and soon after also the union
rite between Resolue and Third.

The long poem concludes with two songs - the first one narrates
Prudent's love for Violet and the three children and also tells about
the three more children they sired. The second one narrates the beauty
and happiness of the union of Resolute and Third, describing in
realistic and yet lyric terms how they made love.

What is interesting in this long and beautiful poem is mainly the
concern of the possibility of changing status among adults, and it is
not described as something exceptional - even though it is the Master's
vision to solve the problem, nobody opposes, nobody finds it weird, the
rites are clearly preexistent.

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The second Silvana war. The secret archives. The complete educational
system

Life in Silvana proceeded quietly until, with the bordering kingdom in
dissolution, the various local Lords proclaimed themselves Kings and
started wars to extend their territories. Little by little the Texts of
Richton enlarged their territory at the expense of Powerton, Braveton
and Kindton, while the O'Villas of Breadmount conquered Cottageton. The
two new kingdoms were now bordering and the O'Villas entered into war
against the Texts for possession of Powerton. The war lasted for more
than one generation, that is from 1 Le LXIV to 4 Le LXV (1290-1313).

Silvana tried to stay out of the conflict, but soon the war moved onto
Silvana territory, because a group of soldiers of one or the other
party, crossed the frontiers of its territory when, being in difficulty,
they were chased by the soldiers of the other army. Weir was sacked.
Thus the Forum asked to be at a war ready state to protect its
boundaries. Silvana troops were amassed along the White river marking
the boundary with Richton and Powerton territories, and they  built the
great wall of Weir, closing the valley, and two small castles - Woods
Castle and Frontier Castle.

The task of the Silvana army was to not allow entrance of armed soldiers
on its territory, driving them back with their weapons. If they asked
for asylum, they had to be first disarmed, undressed of their uniforms,
then hosted if they considered themselves refugees, or taking them to
another point of the boundary chosen by them and allowed to go away,
free. This policy at times led to armed clashes of small numbers, which
were always won by Silvana warriors, who kept their frontiers safe.

When at last the two Kings decided to make a peace treaty, Powerton was
in the hands of the O'Villas. The two Lords asked Silvana to act as
mediator for peace and they went, with an escort of only ten knights
each, up to the Cliff. Genius O'Villa King of Breadmount and Right Texts
King of Richton, after signing the peace treaty, released a declaration
of gratitude, extremely important on a historical level, because both
the Kings declared that "The Very Right and Serene Silvana Commune is a
free and sovereign state, an independent nation, a territory inviolable
in its present boundaries, marked on north by Swift river, on east and
south by White river and Drop river and on the western side by the ridge
of the hills being on Sunny, Stony and Mines territories, where the
boundary is marked by white stones. These boundaries, solemnly ratified
by this document, will never, ever be changed."

In the same year when the peace treaty was signed, the Regency decided
on the building of the secret archives behind the great statues of the
Awakened and of the Founder. The two huge statues sit on a paralleliped
of raw rock, five meters tall, six meters deep and four meters wide.
Under it is excavated an L shaped gallery leading to the center of a
long corridor, parallel to the back side of the Great Cave, on which
opens seven halls - one at each end and five on the side in front of the
entrance. All are excavated from the raw rock. The walls of all this
complex are decorated with very fine homoerotic high-reliefs, a
collective work of the Companions. All along the corridor they show
scenes of love preliminaries, on the extreme left hall scenes of oral
sex, and in the other six halls scenes of anal sex. It is a
representation that exceeds in beauty the famous stone Kamasutra of
India. In all are represented on the walls exactly one hundred and four
couples and twenty-one more on the ceilings. From the documents it
appears that all this hidden complex was destined from the beginning as
the secret archive and treasure deposit of the commuity.

The basement of the statues of the Awakened Prince and of the Founder
Master, hiding the entrance, was covered by high-reliefs hiding an
ingenious mechanism to allow access, that luckily was never suspected by
the invaders of the small state and that therefore the rich archive and
treasure are preserved, untouched to this day.

In year 5 Le LXV (1319) the census of the population reports a total of
2767 people. It was felt there was a need to establish an accurate
educational system. The difficult task is entrusted to the Companion
Able of Good, as he often traveled in the nearby territories and visited
several kinds of schools. Able laid out the educational system following
a pattern that for many generations remained practically unchanged - the
children from their birth to four years old, the age of the Seed, will
be reared by their families; then, from five to nine years old, the age
of the Leave, they will attend a school to learn reading, writing and
reckoning. They will spend the twelve hours of day in the school and the
twelve of night with their family; from ten to fourteen years old, the
age of the Flower, they will live inside the school and learn history,
sacred scriptures and how to make love; from fifteen to nineteen years
old, the age of the Fruit, they will live for the twelve day hours with
their family or the Companions, and for the twelve hours of night at
school, where they will study.

The Flower age is the central one, where boys and girls will understand
if they are inclined to become Friends or Companions. The choice, in
fact, will be made when they reach their fifteenth year of age. Before
puberty they will learn to touch each other, then after puberty they can
have complete intercourse amongst themselves, be it with their same sex
mates or with the opposite sex, so that they can understand which is
their way.

New schools are built, one in each borough, and teachers are assigned to
each - 50% will be Companions, 25% men-Friends and 25% women-Friends.
For the first time in this project we read also of possible intercourse
between two women - it is not that it didn't happen before, of course,
but only now it is told in an explicit and clear way.

This will lead soon to the request to also found the Companion-women
group. The documents of the debates amongst the Companions are really
ineresting. In year 4 Se LXVI (1323) the first decision is made
concerning this request, saying: from now on the community will be
divided into brothers and sisters and the name companion will be used
only to designate who is united in a couple. Moreover fraternities will
also be open outside Silvana's main borough, in the various Castles of
the commune. The task of these fraternities is taking care of the
schools and of the rites. Each fraternity elects for five years a father
or a mother. Thus is formed the Little Council that will work with the
Regency for all the order problems.

This compulsory educational system rapidly leads to the diffusion of
literacy skills of all the population. This in a time when the
neighbouring populations were 90% illiterate. The new schools in this
period have a population of about 135 full time students and 270 half
time students, therefore they required 270 beds, of which about half
"mixed" and common, and then another half "separated" by sex and
individual.

To our present culture it could seem weird thinking that children under
fifteen years of age were sleeping all together and had sexual
intercourse with their own or the opposite sex, under the eyes of their
mates. But it is this that gave them a simple, pleasurable and serene
vision of sexual intercourse. From fifteen years of age up, on the
contrary, sleeping and making love in individual cells allowed the
youths to develop also affection in a personal way, a basic component of
the physical relationship.

If in fact a person does not have difficulties showing their physical
desire and can live it in front of others as well, but that same person
has then a natural decency to show their affection, because this doesn't
involve him/her only physically, but on a deeper and more inimate
spiritual level.

To the children it was also taught how to avoid unwanted pregnancies
when they had complete intercourse with the opposite sex, and also the
rules of sexual hygiene. The teachers and the other adults could not
sleep with nor have sexual intercourse with the students before they
reached the fifteenth year of age.

This system of sexual education seems, therefore, extremely efficient
and balanced. A proof is that, after this reform, the "sexual crimes" in
the Commune territory are drasticly reduced, as well as divorces or
changes of status.

During the Flower age, at the attainment of puberty, there was a small
ceremony performed where hair was untied and cut short. At the passage
to the Fruit age, with another simple ceremony, the students abandoned
the children's short tunics and wore for the first time the clothes of
adulthood.

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CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 4

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In my home page I've put some of my stories. If someone wants to read
them, the URL is http://www.geocities.com/~andrejkoymasky/ If you want
to send me feed-back, please e-mail at andrejkoymasky@geocities.com

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