The contrast touched everything with unreality.

And then the gap filled, and he began to comprehend his position.
It was no longer absolutely a riddle, as it had been in the Silent Rooms.
At least he had the strange, bare outline now.

He was in some way the owner of the world, and great political parties were fighting to possess him.

On the one hand was the Council, with its red police, set resolutely, it seemed, on the usurpation of his property and perhaps his murder; on the other, the revolution that had liberated him, with this unseen "Ostrog" as its leader.

And the whole of this gigantic city was convulsed by their struggle.