Balance
[/i][/b]“Greetings.”
- “Who are you? Why am I here? Do you know who I am?”
“Of course I know who you are, child of Trace.”
- “I also do have a name. I demand you to tell me your name!”
“A name is something you put on a tombstone or on a piece of paper. A name only represents a meaning of simple identification, it does not tell what you are. And my condolences for your father, he fought well. And your mother Flora of course, she was the reason your father fought for.”
- “What do you know about them? Why are you a female wearing a blindfold?”
“Am I a female wearing a blindfold? That is something new to hear. My sibling Neutral was fond of masks, maybe that is why your mind also makes you see me as a female with something on my face. Most people can not describe me when they try to. Can you comprehend the concept of the mouse and the box?”
- “You mean about being alive and dead at the same time, and unknown until you open the box to see it?”
“Not quite. I am both dead and nor alive, inside the box and nor out of it, left of it and nor right of it, in front of it and nor behind it, on top of it, and, most mind boggling for most people, nor beneath it at the same time, without disturbing the surface the box is on or the box itself, while still being a complete single mouse. I am the balance between all those states, and that is what you can call me, Balance. Neutrals older sibling.”
- “You are not the balance! You are disturbing it! You started this war!”
“And you are correct for once. I did start this war like I have started all wars. You can never have balance when you only have one item on the scale, a victor. Everything needs a counterbalance. I am sure you know the concept.”
- “Of course I know. I am the best Templar mage there has ever been, I am three times as powerful as my father ever has been. Light and dark, fire and water, hate and love. Those kinds of things.”
“Oh you ignorant little child. Your father was very powerful with both kinds of magic, and your mother was quite sensitive for magic, and those two individuals combined made you the way you are. One plus one equaled three this time... But you are also a mistake, a terrible accident my sibling Neutral has created, but it turned out… quite interesting. It really would disturb the balance if I took you out of it, and that is the reason why we are talking, you can be useful... And now a lesson about the balance and counterbalance... You know, there is only light and absence of light, and fire creates water vapor. Too much light can blind you, too little light and you can not see what you want to see, an optimum amount of light is a balance. Too much water can extinguish a fire, and too much fire can get out of control, and water is not enough to douse it again. There is a balance between those things and many more... But there is no such thing as love and hate, that is all seen from your point of view. You see what is on the other side of the scale, and you make that your enemy. I see the whole scale, with both sides.”
- “But you are not here to talk about scales and balances, are you? You speak a lot, but you don't say very much. What do you want?”
“I am here to teach you. I want you to choose a side. You are a child from two kinds, Human and Keidran, and you united them, and also brought peace for the Eastern and Western Basitin. Quite impressive given your age, but that is not what I want. Yes I have started this war with uniting the Merfolk and the Reptilians against you, but they are far too destructive, far too powerful to take on alone as united. I am Balance, and I always choose the losing side, to aid them close to victory, but not quite. As soon as one of the two warring sides gets the upper hand I interfere, and restore the balance again.”
- “But what does that have to do with me?”
“You are special, a lot of people admire you. I want you to choose a side, Human or Keidran, and make them join the enemy. Both kinds have their weaknesses, the Reptilians really respect the fighting strength of the Keidran, but they have far too much confidence in them if they choose their side, they make them fight, and they get overrun. The Merfolk on the other hand respect the Human ingenuity, but they do not see the Human pride. You need cooperation, but the Humans are far too vain, and think they can do it alone. I am sure you can see where that will lead. In time it will be a battle with multiple fronts, but none of the kinds will get the upper hand, and that will give the Basitin time to rise again, only to be divided again, but you will not live long enough to see that. Divide but never conquer, that is my game.”
- “I can't lead an entire kind to their doom, can I?”
“You will not. At most you will get sixty percent of the population of a kind behind you. It will never be a complete eradication. The time when your father met your mother both Merfolk and Reptilians were legends, and now they thrive. Things change, fast. I also have to act fast, because my sibling is almost fully recovered, it claims to be neutral, but it already has chosen a side, its own. Your final task is to stop it, or at least slow it down enough to let someone else rise to do that.”
- “How?”
“Don not let it control you. It wants this planet for itself alone, it wants the equation to be zero, to remove the scale with the carefully maintained balance. But I know that is a very bad idea. Your father has defeated it with his love for your mother. I know my sibling wants you for your power to abuse it, and I want someone to fight for you in turn. Lady Nora.”
- “A Dragon? You want me to mess around with a Dragon to make her love me?”
“She is a shape-shifter. Maybe she can turn herself into a beautiful… goat.”
- “Hey! That was… well… let's say I have the alcohol tolerance of my mother!”
“Alcohol brings out the true nature of people. Don not deny it, for every ten normal people there has to be one pervert to balance it. Battering ram or scapegoat, I really don not care about gender, although Lady Nora is more at the receiving end of love, but love is blind, and she is a shape-shifter after all, she does not need pink strap-on accessories to turn her male if you want her to. Your father also has had her... Your father, who was also odd because he chose a Tiger Keidran in the end, a species that was considered inferior at those days by Humans. Keidran were slaves for the Humans, but he loved her, and my sibling really got things complicated. Before that it was all fun and no babies between the species. Well, fun for the Humans at least. You are the first of your kind, and now I want you to end your kind. Only pure Human and Keidran again, nothing in between.”
- “And what if I refuse?”
“I already told you the outcome. Zero left.”
- “Make Lady Nora love me... But... How?”
“That is up to you. I can only talk, I do not want to touch the scale, I want the groceries and weights to climb on them themselves to find a balance, and I am here to convince them.”
- “That's not an answer. Can you at least give me some hints to seduce Lady Nora?”
“See, you are already interested. The prospect of a nice and willing white goat in your bed is tempting, is it not? Alright, first thing you have to do is get her to safety. Her current resting place on the Basitin island is not good for her. She is a being of magic, and after Natani destroyed the tower that place became some sort of magical drain. Move her to the Dragon nest close to the West Sea, she can recover there, while you can do your other work.”
- “I've seen her. She is huge. Moving her will be next to impossible.”
“You are the fifth most powerful mage there has ever been, and you think something is impossible?”
- “I don't think that, I know that. I can't use magic there, because of the drain. The balance there is zero, white magic creates black magic, and black magic creates white magic, and those nullify each other. I can't move her.”
“Fifth most powerful ever in the magical field, but very limited in your thinking. I'm glad you understand the concept of white and black magic, and they are balanced within you as well. Your father had more trouble with it, he was whacked from white to black when his first true love Saria died, went totally white again when my sibling Neutral took his memories away, and slowly went black again while he tried to defend the ones he loved. He even killed more people than before my sibling took his memories away, but that was not enough in the end. I'm glad you were there to restore the balance again. So young, and already so powerful. Fight white magic with black magic, and fight black magic with white magic. The balance tips in your advantage when you are stronger.”
- “Yes... my father was powerful.”
“And so are you, and not only with magic. With a snap of your fingers you can command thousands of people to build things, and yet you limit yourself to your own magical capabilities. Think.”
- “My father used a crate to ward off Neutral's initial attack with my mother... Of course, if you can't use magic you have to use physical things. Lady Nora is close to the sea, and if we build huge cranes and a ship we can transport her. And once I am beyond the sphere of influence of the magic-drain I can use my magic again.”
“You are smarter than you look. But I do not want too many people to know it. Use the second architect to make the plans for the tools you need, and then kill him. Take the plans to a secluded place, get the materials together, and use your magic to build it all by yourself. Use your magic to move physical things. And no magical shortcuts, because if those fall away because you get close to your destination you will get problems you can not solve alone.”
- “Now I start to understand Neutrals point of view. Why would you need others if you can do everything yourself?”
“That is the problem. It wants to eradicate everything, but it does not understand that making the equation zero also means and end to everything, including itself. The equation of this world does not have to be complex, but it may never result in zero.”
- “But why do you want to eradicate my kind?”
“You are a zero in the equation. Something multiplied by zero is also zero, something divided by zero is infinite, and both of those factors disturb the balance. I want to remove the multiplication and dividing factor you and your kind are, and bring it back to the old adding and subtracting, adding or subtracting a zero does not do anything to the equation.”
- “I don't understand.”
“You do not have to. You are a tool. You are a hammer that keeps hitting nails without the need to understand why and what you are building... Merfolk-created tidal waves or Reptilian-created earthquakes are things I want to prevent, the Human-Keidran society can only take the blow of one of those, but not both happening at the same time. At this moment you and the enemy are almost equal in strength, but they are gaining fast. I want to disrupt that before you are eradicated, and my sibling starts to divide the Merfolk-Reptilian alliance, or worse, abet them to fight the Basitin.”
- “But what about the other Dragons?”
“I do not know. I think my sibling spares those for last, make them survive and fight each other for his own entertainment. My sibling is insane, but not stupid. Lady Nora is the only Dragon who seeks out contact with others, the other Dragons probably wait until the storm is over, and then come out to see that everything is destroyed.”
- “But you also want destruction?”
“Yes, that is correct, but not eradication. I want the equation to be simple, but not zero. Felids, Canids, Vulpines, Humans, Eastern Basitin, Western Basitin, Merfolk, Reptilians and Dragons. Nothing more, and nothing less. Only less in numbers.”
- “That is still a lot of species... How about we only leave the Humans and Keidran alive?”
“You fool! Why not only leave the Felid and Canid Keidran? Or why not only leave the Humans and Dog Keidran, and eradicate everything else? Do you know your place in this world? Do not question, but do act.”
- “And what if I won't?”
“You heard me. Tidal waves and earthquakes, total destruction of the world you know. You will lose this war if you do not do as I say. Pick a group, make a short disruption to the balance, the pans will rock, a lot will fall off, and balance will be restored again. The pivoting point of the balance is not very strong, if that breaks everything will fall. Something has to be removed from the scale to prevent that.”
- “Why me?”
“Are you really that stupid? You were a mistake, and now you are an opportunity I have to take.”
- “You sound desperate.”
“That is only because I know how much time it takes to restore balance again, or find a new balance. If you have a plan for balance it is all so much simpler.”
- “So there is no bigger plan? There is no such things as destiny?”
“From your point of view there is, but I only plan for eons, not for eternity. Plans can fail, you as a Templar must know that. It is a good thing you try to eradicate the past, forgetting past mistakes so others can make them again. How much of the knowledge is left about the towers and the flaws they had?”
- “Not much. But that was more thanks to Human vanity, store all the knowledge in a single place and think that is safe. But somehow I doubt that will be forever. I'm convinced you have that knowledge as well, and I am certain that you will use that knowledge for some disruption again in the future.”
“Of course. Like I have done some times before. Your predecessors you know from your history lessons were not the first ones to fail on that scale. You know, what you now know as Whitefield once held a huge pyramid of mana crystals. The little incident with the tower that almost killed your father was nothing compared to what happened to that. It is the reason why Keidran are only sensitive for magic, but hardly can use it and have to rely on mana crystals. In you their true power is unlocked again.”
- “Can you tell me something about the past? What do you know about the Marble Tower?”
“Tell you about the past to prevent you to make the same mistakes in the future? No, I won't teach you about the past. You have to make your own mistakes, and repeat history. It will never be a complete repeat, because there always are little differences, but basically you people will always make the same mistakes, over and over again. It usually takes seven generations to forget.”
- “Then can you give me some hints?”
“That is something I can do. If you paid more attention to what I already have told you, you might actually already have learned something. I have given you a choice, Keidran or Human. What is the Keidran flaw?”
- “Their pride… No, their fighting skills. You talk to fast and so much, it's hard to follow you.”
“Sorry… And you are almost correct. The confidence that the Reptilians have in the Keidran fighting skills. The Keidran need good commanders, and the Reptilians will forget that.”
- “And it's Human leadership that makes them strong. I understand... You know, I really liked the Keidran classmates I had. They indeed weren't the best with magic, but they can be much stealthier, are stronger and faster than the Humans. Compared to them I was clumsy and slow, and compared to the Human classmates I was dumb.”
“You are a perfectly balanced teenager. Do not emphasize your weaknesses, but your strengths. You are stronger than a Human, and smarter than a Keidran. Keidran always were the stronger ones with magic, but I have given the Humans that advantage, and since you have a Human father and a Keidran mother you are the best of both. Even better.”
- “I'm some sort of you? Balanced?”
“That is correct, and that is what makes you perfect for your task. You are a barrage with a blunt sledgehammer where a single poisonous dart would have been sufficient to kill. You put on a show, and that is what attracts the attention. People don't want boring bureaucrats as a leader, but someone who dares to slam his fists on the table. You get the job done with a lot of noise, while others continue to think about how they can complete their task.”
- “Can I talk to others about this conversation?”
“Of course you can. I even would encourage you to do just that. That would attract the right people, who will start to pull on you to get you to their side.”
- “Then I think I'll better keep this a secret.”
“Go ahead, your choice. You must know that I do talk to both the groceries and the weights on the scale. You must not think that you are unique, I do talk to a lot of people, although mostly I do not introduce myself, I just talk and give them hints about what they can do to improve their own lives, what they could do to cast away the burden of slavery and other things like that. Never mind the man behind the curtain.”
- “So you are just like an ordinary man?”
“Or a woman, or a piece of paper on a billboard or a thought. I have no real power, only influence. This world is a boat, and I am at the helm. I have no control over the wind, current and waves, but I still can steer the boat in the direction I want it to go.”
- “You're giving me a vague order, and you just let me do it?”
“Of course I am. How does a river know where the sea is? How does a tree know where to put its roots and leaves? Sometimes it is best not to think too much about it, but just do, the Keidran way. Your Human side can give you the justification when you need to think about your actions.”
- “So I can do whatever I want?”
“I would advise you not to do that. You are close to your graduation, and doing something stupid is… stupid. I know your father wanted you to become his successor, and you will be. You know how popular Emperor Keiser is.”
- “People despise him and his rules.”
“Yes… Trouble is, he is quite invulnerable to poisonous darts. Be the sledgehammer this time, and take his place when the time is right. He used to be a nice guy, but after the death of Natani he even became worse than your father was after Saria's death. I think the world must be glad Basitins are incapable to use magic.”
- “He destroyed almost all knowledge about magic. Belan Keep and my bookcase are the last two places that hold some. And there have been a suspiciously amount of fires near my room when I'm away. I'm glad the protection spells were the first spells I learned.”
“Don't forget Heywood. But today people you do not like live there. But the good thing is, forgotten things will be rediscovered again. That is a cycle that never ends thanks to Continuity, another of my siblings. He says that a wheel is a perfect balance, and that a wheel the world keeps going.”
- “Who are your parents? Do you have other siblings?”
“Mother Nature and Father Time. The most famous of my siblings were little brother Evil, or Chaos as he is also known as, and little sister Good or Order, and of course there still is Neutral, or Ephemural as it calls itself. Continuity and I are twins, and the oldest of the children, but we interfere the least. Most of the time we let our younger siblings do the work, but this time it's going to get out of hand with the disappearance of Evil and Good, and Neutral as the one remaining of the triplets they were.”
- “You, Continuity and Neutral are genderless?”
“Yes… Being a gender would not be very… well… let's say it's better this way.”
- “I understand. It's still odd, I see you as a woman, and the stories I have heard make me see Neutral as a man. A man with feminine characteristics, but a man nonetheless.”
“Females are far more gentle. Neutral is not. That is what makes you think I am a woman and Neutral is a man. I want equality in the end with enough weight on the scale but not too much, Neutral wants a complete zero in the end.”
- “But I see you. Female figure, nice hair, good looking robes, even the blindfold looks good, I almost can't see the border between your hair and the fabric, they are the same color. No sharp contrasts on you because I can't see your eyes. And your skin. So pale, but still so healthy looking.”
“That is a trick of the mind I create. Most people see me as a blur. I am extending my hands right now. Can you count my fingers?”
- “I… Yes… No… What?… That's impossible... I can clearly see your fingers, but I can't count them.”
“Did I really extend my arm to let you count my fingers?”
- “Now I'm confused. I saw your arms, I saw your hands, I saw your fingers, but now your arms are hidden by your robes again, and I am convinced you didn't move.”
“Because it is a trick of the mind. I am not really here.”
- “This is all a dream. Soon I will wake up, and this is all over.”
“You wake up, this what you call a dream is over, but the future is not. The future you will create. I have to do the work of my younger siblings myself this time. Roll the dice, toss the coin.”
- “Let Fate decide.”
“That is indeed the youngest of our family. Everybody likes that little runt, but I don't. When I think everything is in order and in balance it gets someone lucky, and that destroys everything again. But this time it is the only time I want it to show its ugly face. Because there are only two paths that lead to the same destination, nothing can interfere with that. There is no way in between. The path behind you slowly crumbles, and you have to walk on. Choose your path. Hesitate and you will fall.”
- “Imagine… I won't do what you want.”
“Then I will just shrug and wait for the next. Time is getting thin, the hourglass is almost running out, but there are still a few generations left if you decide not to do what I asked you. The next one I can ask even might be a Dragon. Or even a spore of a fungi, if I put all my strength in putting it at the right spot of a beam of a very important building.”
- “Are you really that powerless, that you barely can move a speck of dust?”
“Yes… And do not try to use your magic in here to defeat me, it will only destroy your own mind.”
- “I'm not that dumb.”
“It is a pity you ca not apologize to that first victim of that incident you created. And the people that were sent in to clean up the mess, not knowing that the chaos was not over yet, but only just beginning.”
- “But that was an almost perfect spiral of white and black magic!”
“Yes… But the trouble was in that 'almost' part of it. It was spiraling out of control. You blame Emperor Keith for the destruction of the knowledge of magic, but the Templar West College was the largest library on that subject, until you destroyed it by accident. It affected various phenomena, as far as the ruins of Wolfwatch Tower.”
- “They were known as the Howling Haunted Ruins of Wolfwatch Tower for some time after that. But I resolved that again.”
“After you were haunted by the ghosts of both Laura and Alaric and some others. You were lucky, there were some people who got their deceased mother-in-law back.”
- “There also was Saria. I can understand my father was so grieved when she passed away. She was really a nice woman.”
“Did you know that Lady Nora stirred in her sleep after that incident? She also has felt it. ”
- “Hmm... Does she know I caused it? She was attracted to my father's magic after all.”
“I do not think so. She is weak, and she was asleep. You are something completely new, she might not even know what is happening right now. She might know you exist, because she knew your mother was pregnant with you. But I do not think she has noticed your magical aura when you were in her cave, it is very weak when there is an overwhelming amount of magical... noise... to mask it. It is like trying to listen to a voice you have never heard before in a screaming crowd, and you do not know who is talking to you, and you are sleeping.”
- “Sounds terrible, and yet it's a good description of how I felt in that cave. It was an overwhelming silence. I know what I can do with magic, but it indeed felt like being in a crowd of talking people, and you only hear was some water dripping in a busy kitchen on the other side of the building.”
“Do not overdo your metaphors… My time here is almost up. Soon it is time for you to wake up. You will forget me, but you will not forget what I asked you to do.”
- “I thought we're outside of time right now? Aren't we?”
“You thought you could have some pleasant dreams after I have left? Too bad I only can exist outside of space, although I am confined to this world. I can observe everything here at once, but I can only be at one place at a time to interact. The mouse and the box, remember? And time for me flows like it does for anyone else. I am here right now, I know everything about the past, but I can only make predictions about the future. The future is not set.”
- “You don’t know from what direction the wind will blow, you don’t know how big the waves will be that hit the boat, and yet you steer it in the direction you want it to go.”
“Indeed. I want it to reach a port, and from there I want to travel to the next destination. I do not want it to end up like The Lucky.”
- “That ship sank with a huge amount of mana, didn’t it?”
“Yes… But now the mana is gone. Taken by the Merfolk.”
- “How do you… Oh right, you observe everything.”
“And I have given some hints to some people. Thanks to that mana the Merfolk rose to power again.”
- “I am not mad at you. You told me you always choose the losing side, and make them win again until balance is achieved. It… is good. Better that way.”
“I'm glad you are not mad. It is indeed time for me to go, big day for you tomorrow, final exams. You know what subject.”
- “Heh… of course I do. Calculus. It's supposed to be a simple exam at the end, but I find it hard. Making sure that both values on the two sides of the equals sign are indeed the same. Pretty complex, but I think it's child play compare what you have to do.”
“Indeed. Your numbers are fixed, I have to take deaths and births into account, and the mood of the population after a defeat or a victory… You know what you have to do. Let's hear it, see if you understood me.”
- “Tomorrow I'll do my final exams. In a few days I will have my graduation ceremony, and I will be a full Templar. I already have some respect from others, because of what I have done in the past and my father. I will use my influence to let the second architect make plans for huge cranes and a large ship to transport Lady Nora to the Dragon nest between Llansanfrayd and Camp Hollow to let her recover. I will seclude myself, and build it all by myself. It will be hard to get there, because of the Reptilians there who control the mountains. Due to my inexperience I have to figure out whether I let the Humans join the Merfolk, or the Keidran the Reptilians to betray them in the end, but that won't be a problem, I can follow my Keidran instincts. Letting them make huge mistakes that will cost a lot of lives, but my Human reason can justify it. In the meantime I have to kill Emperor Keiser, kill the Human-Keidran hybrids, and woo Lady Nora, although I can not understand the why of that.”
“Neutral will try to get into your head, and take over your body and the power you have. I am not sure about his tactics, he could use you as you are, a person of power and influence, or he could use the raw source of power you are. You are the fifth most powerful mage that ever has existed, the rest of the world is not powerful enough to stop you. Not even the Dragons. It's good to have the second most powerful magical being alive at this moment to protect you in case you let your guard down.”
- “I understand. Alright, I have to stop your sibling Neutral, and figure out where sister Good and brother Evil are, they need to be on the scale again playing their game of balance, or there will be no scale left.”
“If I had hands I would applause, but you understand me completely.”
- “Thank you, final teacher… I have one more question for you. What are you going to do when balance is restored again?”
“I am going to take a rest. Like I always like to do. Until the scale is too crowded again. Goodbye.”
- “Sounds nice. Can we meet again?”
“Only to help you or let you make terrible mistakes.”
- “Sounds fair. Goodbye.”
