Noah and his group rode ceaselessly across the Utheric countryside, heading northwest towards Rorik and Lumestada. The land was infested with ravenous creatures and bandits, but none could stand a chance against the five travelers, each a capable fighter in their own right. Shannon’s strength and skill with a blade had grown by leaps and bounds since her days with her tribe, thanks to Noah and Valia’s teachings. Valia, while abstaining from using magic, was still an expert sword master and slew her foes with grace and ease. Noah traveled and fought with the headband in his hat always active, no different than continuous weight training, and his powers flourished because of it. Bojena continuously proved her strength as a former gold-rank knight, and though she was not the most talkative traveling companion, her silent distrust and disdain of Noah seemed to wane as they worked together.
The biggest change was Seraph. After reconciling with Noah, he was a new man, free of fear and doubt. He still shouldered the guilt of his past misdeeds, but unlike during the tournament, there was determination in his endeavors and hope in his stride, now walking the path to redemption and a bright future. He fought bravely against monsters and marauders, having regained much of his confidence without the stain of arrogance. Noah continued training him in combat just as Tarnas had and mentored him in the other disciplines needed to live properly. They sparred each night when camp was made, and whenever Noah assigned him a task or order, he’d quickly fulfill it with a loyal and respectful “yes, sir.”
The journey was going well, and they were traveling at a good pace. There was only one problem: having Seraph and Bojena around at all times made it difficult for Noah to spend quality time with Valia. She was used to having her moans heard by the neighbors in Colbrand and Sylphtoria, but now that they were traveling with others, she seemed more conservative in her affection. Thanks to his projection training, Noah could proficiently conceal himself, as well as Valia and Shannon, but she remained skeptical, wanting to avoid a repeat of events. Without four walls and a door, she wasn’t in the mood.
On the other hand, Shannon would do whatever he told her, but unfortunately, her window for pregnancy was open, and Noah didn’t want to take the risk. He wished he had remembered to bring some Whore’s Root for their journey. Over the millennia, he had learned how to detect ovulation in women. It was a skill that took a great deal of time and patience to hone, and had used it to keep Shannon from getting pregnant since they met, so this was far from their first bedroom sabbatical. She put her oral skills to work any time they were alone, but it just wasn’t the same.
After over a hundred lifetimes, Noah knew how to control his libido and resist the primal urges of his body, but that didn’t mean he could remove them, or make them any less annoying to deal with. However, there was a solution to this issue, and the fact that they were away from Colbrand meant he now had the opportunity to check on an old investment. It was time for a booty call.
One night, as they were making camp, Noah activated Duska’s beacon to summon her. There was no telling where she was or how long it would take to reach his position, but the control would tell him when she got close. He kept the signal going all night with no sign of her, but when he reactivated it the following evening, he knew she was in the vicinity. Once everyone fell asleep, he dosed them with succubus powder to keep them unconscious and out of the way, and left the camp.
In a wooded area, he sat on a tree stump and waited. Finally, she arrived. Just like before, she landed ungracefully, but after all of the stimulation he was giving her, her legs were devoid of strength. At least this time, she had cleaned herself up before meeting him.
“Please, Master, I can’t take it anymore. It’s driving me crazy,” she begged while on all fours. Her eyes were swimming and dilated, her cheeks flushed, and her body trembled as pleasure radiated from her clit due to the mark beneath her stomach.
“It’s good to see you, Duska. I can certainly imagine how exhausting it must have been, that infernal tingling going nonstop, and no matter what you do, you can’t bring yourself to orgasm. Sorry, but the mark won’t let you cum without my permission. Do you want my permission?” She nodded her head and whimpered. “Turn around. Present yourself to your Master.”
She obeyed him, turning her body and flashing him her ass like a beast in heat. She shuddered as he stroked her labia, drenched in arousal. “My, my, you’re just dripping in anticipation, aren’t you?” He inserted his fingers, swirling them around inside her. She then softly whined as he worked his thumb into her anus, grabbing her like a bowling ball. “You’ve tightened up since the last time I saw you. Don’t worry, we’ll change that.”
He then removed his fingers and replaced them with his tongue, eating her out from the back as he had with Bella and giving both openings ample attention. What little strength Duska had was stolen from her by the intensity of Noah’s technique. Her hatred for him, her misery for being enslaved by this man, it all seemed to melt away as his tongue made itself at home inside her. He didn’t do this the first time he violated her. Back then, it was nothing but the pleasure and pain of his brutal thrusts rearranging her guts. This time, he was drowning her in bliss, and the orgasm she had begged for arrived with many friends.
“Master! Master!” she moaned as she climaxed again and again, filling Noah’s mouth with her sweet Profane nectar.
“Was that love I heard in your voice? You’re learning to take pleasure in your new role, aren’t you?”
“No,” she mumbled, too ashamed to look at him.
“They always do.”
Noah then unsheathed his manhood and gave Duska no warning before ramming it deep into her asshole. She cried out from the brutal penetration and proceeded to moan as he began his thrusts, moving so fast and hard that she questioned whether or not he was really human. Everyone at the camp was drugged, but still, Noah cloaked the two of them in his mana to conceal their actions.
He pulled Duska’s hair like a leash as he hammered her back door, with his cock shoving her voice out of her mouth like a golf club sending a ball flying. Duska remembered this brutality well, the oppressive pleasure that broke her mind the first time. Reduced to her master’s cock sleeve, she could do nothing but try to endure both the pleasure and the pain he inflicted upon her, try to enjoy the climaxes he forced her to experience.
Noah only paused to empty himself inside her, with Duska moaning as she felt his hot seed flood her asshole. Part of her wanted to think that he was done, that she had given him what he wanted and he’d be merciful to her, but after the first time, she knew it could never be that simple. She was right, as Noah moved onto his back and pulled her on top of him. Somehow, he still remained hard, and returned his cock to her backdoor.
With his hands under her knees, he lifted her legs into the air and resumed fucking her, driving straight up with such force that she thought his manhood would come sliding into her throat from below. The semen he had dumped inside her frothed and foamed as he whisked it up like scrambled eggs, flowing out of her ass and down his shaft. What he said about how tight she had become, and how he would to fix her, now seemed genuine. After this, she couldn’t imagine her asshole returning to normal.
“Play with yourself,” he growled in her ear while grabbing her controller. He activated it, driving her wild with added stimulation. “Play with yourself the way you did before, when you were trying to resist the mark. Show me how you do it, and don’t stop until you squirt.”
She quickly obeyed, stroking her pussy and swirling her fingers around inside, all while she could feel his cock rampaging in her anus, separated by a wall of flesh that felt as thin as paper. She continued to moan at the top of her lungs as she played with herself, with her mark augmenting all of her senses. It was all she could do, the only way to properly voice the overpowering wave of pleasure coming over her. Once again, she endured a mind-shattering chain of orgasms, with her hands working frantically against her will to increase the euphoria further. Tears streamed down her face, and she screamed as she released a fountain of liquid lust, soaking the ground in front of her. Noah finally stopped his thrusts, with Duska continuing to cry on his lap. He turned her sideways, holding her in the princess carry.
“Hey, it’s ok, just let it all out. I’m here for you,” he said tenderly, rubbing her back. Despite all the trouble and anguish he had given her, how he had stolen her freedom, her dignity, and even her venom, she obeyed, not as though he had ordered her, but had given her permission. She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried onto his shoulder. “That’s a good girl. Everything’s ok, you’re with me.” She didn’t even know why she was crying, nor why it felt so good. And this man, this man who tormented and enslaved her, why was it, that at this moment, she felt so safe with him?
After a couple minutes, he picked her up and sat down on the tree stump, now with Duska straddling his lap. He lowered her onto his cock, burying it deep in her pussy and making her shiver in bliss. This time, he was slow and gentle, raising and lowering her, his manhood so hard inside her, but his movements so soft.
“Kiss me, kiss me like you love me.”
Duska wiped away the last of her tears. “Ok, ok,” she gasped.
She held him close, their lips meeting like the ocean lapping at the shore, their tongues swirling in a helix. They continued like this for a while, Duska having never known Noah could be so sweet and gentle. He felt less like her master, and more like a caring lover, and deep down, she wanted to continue feeling this way. Eventually, her hips began to move on their own, and she rose and fell of her own volition as her flesh craved further pleasure from him.
Meeting her growing enthusiasm, Noah upped the intensity, stirring her up and moving her with more vigor. He gave her breasts the attention they deserved, massaging them with his tongue and teasing her nipples with his pulling lips. His mouth against her flesh, something that had disgusted her when he first took her, now made her blush and whimper in joy.
They continued fucking for hours, with Noah switching back and forth between tender and rough. When he dominated her, she’d instinctively submit as he had trained her. His physical strength was immense compared to hers, and there was nothing she could do to resist him. If there was a position he wanted her in, he didn’t tell her; he simply forced her into it, with her bending to his will and unable to defy him.
His thrusts, so powerful, pushed her to the brink of her endurance as he taught her the limits and secrets of her flesh. The way he pulled her hair or gripped her horns, which had originally hurt and embarrassed her, now offered some small comfort. She felt that without the extra hold linking them, she’d simply shatter into a million pieces or melt into a puddle against the force of his shoves. Giving in, allowing herself to be used by him, and accepting her role as his property made it far easier than the first time.
Then, when he was gentle with her, she felt like she really would melt. The way he held her, the way he kissed her, the way he stroked her hair and whispered in her ear, she felt like they were making love on their wedding night. His smile, tender and caring, made her avert her eyes in embarrassment, afraid of him seeing how her heart was twisting. Yet the softness of his movements did not equate to weaker pleasure. If anything, he was more precise, knowing exactly what to do to make her moan, to bless her with indescribable pleasure. The way he seemed to know exactly what her body wanted and needed made it feel like the two of them had been together for years. This man, who she knew nothing about, was so familiar and knowledgeable about her flesh that it astonished her.
He had broken her mind the first time, and now, rendered malleable by thought-erasing pleasure, Noah reshaped it to his benefit. He had to kill her hatred of him with all-consuming euphoria, to outlast her grudge and replace it with an addiction to his touch. Where she was resistant, he crushed her, and where she was vulnerable, he caressed her, expertly bending her further and further to his will. Eventually, the fire of passion was reduced to a bed of embers. Noah lay against a tree with Duska massaging his cock with her mouth, dutifully cleaning him of her essence and his seed. He gripped her horns as she worked, feeding her with his mana as his semen rolled down her throat.
“You’re such a good girl for me,” he said.
Duska paused. “Thank you, Master.”
“So, tell me what you’ve learned since we last met.”
Duska sat up and then bowed before him. “Please, before I do, I beg you to hear my request.”
“Very well, go ahead.”
“You said that the rest of the Profane needed to be killed, but you would let me live. I don’t care about the others, but I’m begging you to please spare Mistress Helena. She’s… she’s like my….”
“I understand. If, in the aftermath of the final battle, when the Profane’s plans are smashed to pieces, she should slip away to live in exile, then I could see to looking the other way.”
“Thank you, Master. Prince Lupin is being held at the Andromeda Estate in northern Vandheim.”
“Andromeda Estate?”
“It is the mansion of one of our elites, Mistress Andromeda, an elegant and powerful Profane with beautiful white hair. Her servants maintain everything, and she offers shelter to all Profane who need it. Mistress Helena and I… and Leanne… spent a lot of time there. I saw him there when I returned. He appeared to be in good health and well taken care of.”
“Good to know. You’ve done well, Duska. What can you tell me about what the other Profane are up to?”
“They’re focusing most of their efforts on building their strength in Handent, conquering beastman tribes far to the north and west. They want everything to be ready before they move against the other nations. However, I’ve also heard that something is going on in Vandheim, focused around the capital city. I don’t have many details, but supposedly… Zyrga’s remains have been found across the sea, and they plan to move them to Vandheim for something.”
“Even as bones, Zyrga still has cards to play in this game. This is very troublesome. I’ll have to head to Vandheim once this current mess is finished. Excellent work, Duska. I’m proud of you.”
Duska blushed. “Thank you, Master.” The words got easier to say every time.
“Now, you should have someone to help you soon: Bella, the Profane who killed Uther’s king. I’ve sent her to infiltrate their ranks and discover the secret of their mobile base.”
“Bella, that’s right. Mistress Helena said she was approached by a fiend with that name, a girl with extraordinary power. I still don’t know much about the mobile base, but she should be there.”
“Well, I told her to find you. I want the two of you to work together and, if you can, lay the groundwork for rescuing Lupin.”
“Yes, Master.” This time, her words were hollow. The budding affection he heard in her voice before seemed to have withered somewhat.
“Duska, are you perhaps jealous? Worried that I like her more than you?”
Duska became indignant, with the last tiny shred of her pride and hatred making its final stand. “Never! Why would I care who you like? You’re just the bastard that enslaved me.” The red of her cheeks and averted gaze made her rebuke fall flat.
Noah pulled her close and kissed her. “Don’t worry, I have several women, but there can only be one Duska. A good master takes care of his slave, especially when she’s been a good girl.”
“Yes, Master,” she said, still trying to pretend she didn’t care.
“Thank you. Now, you should get going. Find Bella, and we’ll meet again.”
“I will, Master.”
She stood up, bowed before him, and took flight. Noah watched her go, one of his most valuable assets. Just like he had told her, all of his victims, no matter how much they fought and resisted at first, inevitably learned to love it.
----------
No one in the group had any idea they had been dosed with succubus powder. They carried on the following day, unaware of Noah’s relationship with Duska. The fact remained that he needed to find a way to leak Lupin’s situation without raising suspicion, but for now, all that mattered was getting Seraph to Lumestada. Using his harkonen gem, he also kept an eye on the situation in Colbrand, which was deteriorating rapidly.
Galvin’s megalomania and persecution of the beastmen were going just as Noah had predicted, and the city was turning into a war zone. However, as already agreed, it was too late to turn back, and even if they did, they’d be returning empty-handed. They had no choice but to continue their journey, heading ever closer to Rorik. After almost two weeks on the road, some supplies ran low and needed to be restocked.
“This village, Pand, is under the control of the church,” said Bojena, pointing to a map. “We can stop there and get everything we need.”
“Under the control of the church, huh? That’s a scary sentence if I’ve ever heard one,” Noah replied, rolling it up.
“While they may not be fond of you, they won’t make a fuss so long as I’m around, so you needn’t worry.”
“It’s not myself that I’m worried about.”
Following Bojena’s directions, they made a slight detour towards Pand, but their arrival brought no comfort. They stood on the main road into the town, their tongues in their throats at the sight before them, with tears rolling down Shannon’s cheeks. Several beastmen hung from the branch over their heads, swinging in the breeze with the flies and carrion birds relishing their sun-cooked flesh. Their tails hung limply, their animal ears crusted with blood. From their clothing, they appeared to be slaves and travelers.
GODLESS HEATHENS
The sign was placed above their heads, a reminder of the endless feud between worshippers of different faiths. Colbrand wasn’t the only town that was persecuting beastmen. Bitterness and resentment towards them had been burning for ages, and Galvin simply poured fuel onto the fire.
“We should go. We shouldn’t be here,” said Valia.
“Please, we can’t just leave them there. We have to bury them,” Shannon pleaded.
“As you wish,” said Noah. “Bojena, cut them down.”
“It’s not our place to interfere with the laws of these people. These are criminals, and they have been put up as a warning,” she replied indignantly.
“How can you say that?!” Shannon screamed.
This had been building for days. Any time Shannon said something, Bojena would disagree with her. At its heart, the issue of the beastmen oppression was about religious differences: the spirits vs. the gods. As a devoted member of the church, Bojena was raised to believe that anyone who didn’t worship the gods was a monster, and that beastmen were the enemies of mankind.
“It is not a sin to kill an animal, and that’s what these are! They chose to turn away from the gods and embrace the lies of the spirits!”
“Enough, Bojena. Cut them down.” Noah hit her with a heightened order, his voice booming in her ears and making her wince. With a scowl, she formed a wind ring and flicked it at the tree branch, severing it and dropping the bodies to the ground. “Ok, we’ll give them a quick burial and then move on. We don’t have time to—” Noah was cut off as Shannon suddenly took off in a gallop, nearly tossing him out of his saddle.
She rushed into the village, and before Noah could tell her to stop and ask what she was doing, he figured it out. The sounds and smells in the air were unmistakable: screaming and burning flesh. Shannon followed her senses into the village, where the townsfolk had gathered around a bonfire and were cheering. In the center of the flames, a woman was tied to a stake, being burned alive.
“My Lord!” Shannon exclaimed.
“I know!”
The crowds parted as Shannon forced her way through, everyone afraid of getting trampled. Reaching the bonfire, Noah conjured several metal spheres from his ring and cast them into the flames. The enchantments activated, the inscribed runes glowing as bright as the fire before sucking them up like a vacuum cleaner devouring dust. The bonfire was extinguished, leaving a mountain of charcoal steaming and smoking.
Despite the danger, Shannon leaped up onto the remains of the fire, burning her hooves and legs on the charred wood. Noah knew even before he reached her that the woman was dead, but for Shannon’s sake, he cut her binds and pulled her up into the saddle. She had been seared near to the bone, all of her skin and hair gone.
The villagers shouted in outrage from the interruption and excitement for their new sacrifice. They circled Noah and Shannon, armed with sharp farming implements and a violent sense of justice. Noah reached for his sword, ready to cut down anyone who got too close.
“Stop right there!” Valia shouted as she and Seraph rode through the crowd, forcing them to part. They halted in front of Noah and Shannon, ready to defend them.
Shannon reverted to her human form and turned to Noah, who was holding the burned corpse. “Give her a potion!”
“Shannon, it’s too late. She’s gone.”
“No! I can’t give up!”
She conjured a potion from her ring, but just as she was about to pour it into the woman’s still mouth, she stopped and looked at her, realizing what Noah said was true. Seeing the damage she had suffered, what the flames had done to her, even if she was still alive, a potion wouldn’t be able to save her. Her final breath had already been spent. Shannon dropped to her knees, sobbing, and Noah crouched in front of her, laying the woman down.
Enraged by Shannon’s tears, Valia faced the angry crowd. “What is the meaning of this?! What has this woman done to deserve such a horrific fate?!”
“She fornicated with the beasts! An abomination was growing in her womb!”
“Kill the beasts! Kill them all!”
“God is with us! The flames of Byrnestoir will cleanse us of heathens!”
A priest stepped forward, pointing the finger of judgment at Noah’s group. “You have no right to interfere with us doing the work of the gods! We must be purged of sinners and degenerates! Those who side with the spirits side with the Profane! That girl with you is a servant of evil!”
Valia pointed her sword at him. “Take one step closer, and I’ll put the fear of God in you myself!”
Bojena then arrived, riding on her horse in a nonchalant saunter. “Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down. We did not mean to interrupt your good work. We just came for supplies, and we’ll be on our way.”
Shannon wiped away her tears and looked at Noah. “Please, My Lord, do something, say something.”
“It wouldn’t matter. We can’t change their minds. I’ve tried to do it from podiums, lecterns, and sacrificial altars. I could lecture them, I could scold them, I could try to educate them, but they’ll never admit they were wrong, never admit that they hurt an innocent soul. They’ll hide from the truth, wallow in their sense of justice, and convince themselves that everything they do is for the greater good and everyone that they hurt deserves to suffer and die. You can’t change human nature.”
Seraph then turned to him. “But I admitted I was wrong. I admitted to my crimes. You changed me, so you can change them.”
“Please, just say something. For her,” Shannon pleaded.
Noah sighed, got to his feet, then turned and faced the priest. “Are you the one who told these people to kill this woman? Did you give the order to hang those people outside the village?”
“That is the will of the gods, and as their loyal subjects, we must fulfill and obey their orders! This is how we redeem mankind and return to the gods’ loving embrace!”
Noah chuckled. “Redeem, huh? And did the gods tell you to do this?”
“The gods spoke to me and told me what to do!”
“Sure, they speak to you, whatever you say. But how did they do it? Did they appear out of thin air, standing before you as I do now? Did they come to you in the middle of the night as beautiful specters, handing down their declaration? Were you taking a shit one day and suddenly started hearing voices in your head? Or did you just decide of your own accord that this is what the gods wanted?”
“Silence, disbeliever! You mock our faith because you have none of your own!” an old man shouted.
“On the contrary, I do believe in the gods. Having communed with the spirits of nature, I am very open to the idea of the elemental deities existing. If you all want to believe in the gods, go right ahead, but believe in your version, not someone else’s. You’ve been taught to follow a story that has been told, altered, and changed repeatedly across the millennia by countless different people. I don’t doubt the legitimacy of the gods, I doubt the legitimacy of their so-called messenger,” said Noah, pointing to the priest. “I’m still waiting to hear exactly how the gods communicated with you and told you to burn this woman alive. Go on, tell me. Tell me the exact method the gods used to convey their intentions.”
“I don’t need to answer to you! My heart guides me along the divine path!”
“Oh, so your heart tells you what to do. You aren’t actually following the gods’ orders; you just assume they will agree with your decisions. That’s about what I expected. So if he didn’t receive any actual instructions from the gods, what about the rest of you? What made you decide to do this? What made you decide that this woman deserved to die? What made you decide the people hanging from that tree deserved to suffer?”
“She colluded with heathens!”
“She tainted the blood of our village with her sins!”
“The beasts seek to replace us!”
The voices were many and furious.
“But the gods themselves didn’t tell you they were heathens, did they? Lumendori didn’t come down, immerse you in his divine presence, and then declare the blood of your village was tainted. A bolt of lightning didn’t reach out from the sky and carve a warning in the mountainside that you were being replaced. No, you simply garbled together all the hate and vitriol you heard from others and used that to base your decision-making.”
“And who are you to question us?! Who are you to speak on the gods’ behalf?!” a woman shrieked.
“I am not speaking on the gods’ behalf. I can’t, no one can. That is the point I’m trying to make. The Word of God cannot come from the mouth of mortal men, that is my belief. If the gods are all-knowing and all-powerful, then why do they need you to do things for them? And if they need you to do things for them, why can’t they just tell you themselves? Sit on the ground.”
He heightened his voice with mana and it rolled through the crowd, making them shudder and bend their knees out of instinct, with some going all the way and sitting down.
“See how easy it was for me to transmit that message to all of you? I left nothing to interpretation. Are the gods not capable of such a simple feat? Why risk their plans going wrong by giving vague hints to just one man in your village? This priest before you, he claims that the gods speak to him, but every man like him says the same thing.
What would happen if there was another priest here from a different village, claiming to hear the gods’ voices and saying that what you’re doing is barbaric and that this man is wrong? Would you believe him? Or would you side with your priest because you know him better? But I want you to consider which is more likely. Is he truly a divine messenger of the gods, blessed with their holy oracle and sent here to deliver you to salvation? Or is he just another man, having no more idea what he’s doing in life than the rest of you, and is spouting what he’s been told to believe and whatever makes sense to him?”
Noah’s words were starting to sink in. The sneers and angry scowls were being replaced with the pained looks of ontological shock. The villagers, furious and demanding blood just minutes ago, were finally starting to ask questions.
“I say this not because I know the gods want or think, but because no one can. Consider what it truly means to be the messenger of the gods, the power and authority it gives this man over your town. Because you listen to him, he controls your beliefs, defines your view of the gods, and you obey his every command because you think they are divine will. His control over you is so powerful that he convinced you to burn a pregnant woman to death. What else could he get you to do, simply by saying the gods ordered it? For all the horrors in this world, the crimes people commit against people, all the sins and mistakes each and every one of us commits on a daily basis, would you really trust a human being with that kind of authority?
If the gods exist, do not trust anyone who claims to understand them, for they seem to believe that the gods are small enough to think and act the way mortals do. Can you imagine a worse insult to the gods than to say they’re just like us? That they’re just as broken and flawed as we are? If the supreme creators and rulers of the universe actually do exist, they would be beyond your comprehension. You could never hope to know what they want, what they do, or what they plan for, any more than ant could know you. To claim you can understand the gods is the greatest hubris, second only to declaring yourself a god.
So shame, shame on all of you; not for murdering a pregnant woman, not stringing people up simply because they were born, but because you had the audacity to think you could understand the gods so well as to know what they want you to do without them telling you. I know I never could. They’re too great and vast for me to ever comprehend. For some reason, you seem to think you can. I am Noah, the Wandering Spirit, and that is what I have to say on the issue.” He then turned to his friends. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ll get supplies at the next village. But first, let’s give her and the others a proper burial.”
They left the village without the things they needed, instead carrying several bodies. Out in the wilderness, they buried the remains in a beautiful spot, hopefully, a place the poor souls would be grateful to have. Bojena was silent; whether she was biting her tongue to avoid an argument or being respectful wasn’t clear. As Noah moved the final bit of dirt onto the last grave, he felt Shannon tugging on his sleeve.
“Thank you, for what you said.”
“Whether it actually changes anything will remain to be seen. Frankly, I’m not that hopeful.”
“The world is cruel, I know that. It’s full of violence, crime, and injustice, and every day is a fight for survival, but what truly hurts me is when it all goes unspoken, ignored, treated as something we’re just supposed to accept, and we’re considered strange for trying to make it better. When there is a body in the street that everyone simply ignores, when there is a travesty that no one cares enough to mention, when lies are spread that no one bothers to correct, that is what makes me curse this world.
I can accept that not every innocent life can be saved, that every hero can’t have a statue and a holiday named after them, that every evil act can’t be avenged and punished, but I can’t stand the thought that their lives, their suffering, their deaths should be forgotten simply because that’s the way things are, that the horrible acts done to them aren’t worth acknowledging and condemning.”
“In this world, everyone is inevitably forgotten,” said Valia. “Their contributions are buried under the sands of time, the people who remember them succumb to death, the books that bore their names turn to dust, and so on. As an elf, I’ve met countless people who changed the lives of everyone around them, only to be forgotten just a few short generations later. At best, they’re reduced to simply a name with a few recorded achievements, but who they were, what they thought and felt, the lives they truly lived, they die with them. For everything I’ve done in my life, the respect and prestige I earned, I will inevitably be forgotten.
Sometimes I wonder if we’re not supposed to remember the dead, but instead forget them. Maybe that’s the way they rest in peace, when their name goes unspoken, their achievements and drama unwritten. Maybe that’s when they can finally, truly, close their eyes, let go of their earthly business, and move on, unbothered by the memory people wouldn’t allow to die.” Valia looked at the grave of the burned woman. “Maybe when her pain is forgotten, when she’s not remembered for what she suffered, she won’t have to carry it any longer.”
“All my life, I wanted to be remembered,” said Seraph. “I wanted to be remembered for the great deeds I dreamed of accomplishing, the great battles I’d win, the adventures I’d go on, the trophies I’d return with. At the gala two years ago, I told Lupin that someday I would kill a basilisk with one blow and be remembered forever, while he and everyone else would just be names in a book on a shelf.” Seraph paused and wiped his eyes, realizing that was the last time he spoke to his brother. “I wanted to be the one and only, a warrior incomparable to anyone else, not just another portrait in a long line of dead royals. I thought that if I could have that, that spot in history all my own, unforgotten, then my life meant something, that I meant something.
It wouldn’t matter who my father was, where my strength came from, or my title. I would be me. That’s all I wanted to be, just me, not the prince of Uther, not even Light’s Emissary. I’d simply be remembered as Seraph.”
“And what do you believe in, Noah?” Bojena asked out of the blue.
“You know what I believe in. It’s all pointless. Nothing matters. Why? Did my speech back there get you thinking about your own life?”
“Do you want me to say it did?”
“If it didn’t get you or anyone else thinking, then it was all just a waste of breath, which just proves my point that everything is meaningless. So go ahead, say what’s on your mind.”
“I was raised by the church. I was cared for, educated, and trained by the clergy. During the day, I would hone my skills to defeat the gods’ enemies, and at night, I would read ***********ure and philosophy until the candle burned low. I dedicated myself wholly to the gods, to the message, the mission, and here you come and tell me that it was all a big mistake. How am I supposed to feel about that?”
“Are you insulted because you think I’m wrong, or scared that I might be right?”
“My life is not meaningless. Every breath I take, I do so for the sake of the gods.”
“Because that’s what you were told to do, to believe. You know, I’ve investigated and joined countless faiths. I’ve worn every kind of religious attire, performed every type of ritual, and read every book, all in the hopes that I might find some inarguable meaning. I’ve done great and terrible things in the name of the divine, all out of that same desperate need for meaning that you have. I hoped that if I wholly immersed myself in every faith, I might find God and my curse would be broken, or at least explained.
Have you ever flagellated yourself for your gods? Ever lit yourself on fire to burn away your sins? Ever hacked off a limb as an offering? I already told you before about when I was crucified in the swamp and how it wasn’t my first or last experience getting nailed to a piece of wood. I did it to myself on a couple occasions, begging for God to hear my prayers. Do you know where my faith, devotion, and desperation got me? Nowhere. No matter what text or custom I followed, what god I praised, or what atrocity or altruistic act I committed in the name of my religion, I never heard the divine Word. I was never touched, never enlightened, never freed, after lifetimes of work and sacrifice. How am I supposed to feel about that?
You stand before me, saying you devoted everything to your gods, as if your late-night reading sessions were supposed to impress me or somehow prove that your gods are precisely as you imagine them. As someone who has devoted multiple lifetimes to the divine, believe me when I say you haven’t done shit. You threw away your life, your freedom, and your independent thought for a bunch of old men and their own interpretation of God, each of whom was tricked by other old men into believing another interpretation, and so on and so forth, back to the dawn of sentient life. But I won’t chastise you for believing. It’s human nature to seek meaning. God knows I spent enough time chasing that high, no pun intended.”
Noah paused for a moment. “A long time ago, I was bored and decided to start a cult, thinking it would be fun. I told people I was a god in human form and used my knowledge of past lifetimes to convince them. It felt good for a bit, finally being able to tell my stories, but the people I attracted were all idiots. You all believe me because this is a world of magic, of immortal beings fighting demons. Here, my background makes sense. In other worlds, it didn’t, and the sane would call me a fraud while the insane worshipped me. Do you know how much it hurts to have only crazy people believe you? That stings.
They believed me because I gave them something to believe in. I gave them the concept of something beyond the senses, behind the curtain. They were desperate for anything that would bring a little wonder into their lives, let them think they weren’t insignificant specks in an uncaring universe, that there was some kind of divine plan in the works they had a place in. That was all they needed to hand over all their money, their possessions, everything in their lives. I didn’t even need their stuff, but I took it anyway because I was curious about how much I could accumulate from them.
The church gave you the same promise, and just like my followers, you handed over everything you had, even your life, to believe it. You’re so brainwashed that you just stood by and sided with the people burning a pregnant woman to death. Face it, Bojena; you got screwed.”
Noah decided to stop there and not tell them what happened afterward, how the government cracked down on his movement and tried to put a stop to it. Valia and the others would disapprove of hearing how he convinced everyone who followed him to commit suicide, just to see if they would. He told them that the government agents were tools of the Devil, trying to silence him and cover up the truth, and they just mowed themselves down. While authorities were wading through the sea of corpses, he slipped away with all the money. In the lifetime after that, he tried again, using everything he learned from the first round, and managed to build a massive religious organization that had churches in countless nations and over a billion followers, all of them as foolish as their predecessors. They didn’t need to hear that.
For the rest of the day, little was said among the group due to both the lingering sorrow of what they had witnessed and the unspoken tension of their talk at the gravesite. Bojena was nursing a grudge towards Noah, having challenged her beliefs, and she didn’t need to say anything for him to sense it. That night, as they sat and ate a quiet dinner, Noah finally broke the silence.
“Why did you save Alexis and Sophia during the Profane attack at the arena?”
Everyone stopped eating, waiting to hear her answer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“They recognized your magic, slicing through a winged fiend as it was swooping down to kill them. You saved them. Why? Why would you intervene to help them after they brought down the church?”
Realizing he wouldn’t let it go, Bojena set down her bowl. “Because though we stood on opposite sides of the issue, I respected them. They fought for what they believed was right, what they believed was best for the people. It wasn’t out of greed, fear, hatred, or selfishness, but simply what they thought would make the world a better place. I still condemn Cyrilo’s literature program, but their intent was purely noble. Naïve, maybe, but noble. Besides, anyone the Profane tries to kill is automatically my ally.”
“A nice sentiment. They also told me what you said when you fought, about how people needed to be kept in the dark for their own sake. You don’t seem to have a lot of faith in mankind. I’m curious as to why.”
“We humans are a fallen race, an eternal reminder of how the splendor of the Enochians was wasted, how the gods’ love was wasted. People make so many mistakes and inflict so much cruelty on each other, blinded by their greed, their anger, their lust, their fear, and it makes monsters of us.”
“You mean like the people of that village who burned a pregnant woman alive?” Bojena didn’t answer. “Roroaka, the dragon that brought me to Colbrand, said that the Enochians engaged in many wars between each other and against the dragons. He said that the angels, the supposed children of the gods, annihilated the dragons on sight. Maybe violence isn’t a sin engraved into us, or a fault marking the failure of man. Maybe it’s unavoidable, simply the consequence of existence. Our lives, our thoughts, our very being, can’t help but infringe on others.”
“Are you going to tell me I’m wrong as well? That I’m dooming mankind by keeping them in the dark?”
“On the contrary, I think you’re completely right. Knowledge and education bring destruction. You were telling the truth.”
This shocked Bojena, and even Valia and Shannon were bewildered. They both had watched Noah strive to inform and educate people in Welindar in all subjects, and he was famous for his lecture on sexual health at the Knight’s Sheath.
“You… you really think I’m right?” Bojena asked.
“Well, except for the need for faith and to venerate the gods and all that, everything you said about mankind was correct. You said that the books that Cyrilo published would form the foundation upon which humanity would build a monument to its own supremacy, but that monument would inevitably fall and crush everyone. I’ve seen that monument countless times. I’ve seen the various forms it can take, and you were completely right.”
“But you always say that education and knowledge are important!” Valia interjected.
“They are, because humanity can’t remain stagnant for long. It is human nature to grow and advance, to build bigger and better, to learn and improve. You can try to slow it down, but it’s impossible to stop. But as our power over the world increases, so does the severity of our mistakes. In the pursuit of prosperity, safety, luxury, and glory, we pollute the world, destabilize the climate, drive species to extinction, and engineer horrors.
I’ve seen it happen so many times. I’ve seen forests erased to make paper for bureaucracy. I’ve seen literal mountains of garbage floating in the oceans, poisoning the water just so that people can enjoy the convenience of their little plastic-wrapped snacks. I’ve seen artificial intelligence and manmade automatons go from tools to making people’s lives easier, to cracking the whip as humans are herded into slave pens.
As technology and knowledge advance, it becomes easier to sustain more people, commerce, and industry. The population explodes as the dangers that thin the herd become a thing of the past, and the challenges that restrain us become minor chores. However, the more you increase the human population, the more you increase human suffering. In worlds where the population is measured in the billions, there are more people suffering than there are people alive on this world. There are more poor people, more sick people, more injustice and torment. With education and knowledge, you can save someone from a horrible fate that killed countless people before them, like curing an illness, and allow them to live on and have children so their countless descendants can experience the anguish of poverty and dystopia.
Kaisen believed that people are at their best when they live like animals, and frankly, he was right. When the population is low and technology is primitive, that is the ideal stage for humanity as far as the world is concerned. When the only fires are for cooking, the only pollution is bodily waste, the only roads are hunting trails, that is when people live in sync with nature instead of destroying it, when they are too weak to threaten to the rest of life. Shannon, your tribe was at the perfect level of development. You had minimal negative impact on the environment and maintained a steady population, with a rich and artful culture. As far as the world is concerned, it’s the beastmen who have the right idea of how to live, not the mages.
So you’re right, Bojena. You’re right about mankind’s inevitable downfall by its own making. Humans always destroy themselves unless something does them in first. Your mistake is thinking you can stop it. Like I said before, it is in the nature of humanity to grow and advance, and while institutions like the church may try to quash education and knowledge to maintain the status quo and ensure their continued dominance, they can only hold that power for so long. Curiosity is a force that may slow, but never cease. Inevitably, someone starts asking questions, starts studying the world around them and noticing the patterns that those with their heads in ***********ure don’t see, starts looking beyond the barriers that the powers that be have erected around them.
Humans are forever ignorant, and will forever strive to escape it. Perhaps that is mankind’s redeeming quality, the desire to improve, even when good intentions lead to unfortunate results. The desire to make a better world and help people with the fruits of our labors always leads to destruction, but it can’t be stopped, and you shouldn’t try to stop it.”
“So, do you have faith in people, or don’t you?” Bojena asked.
Noah sighed. “I don’t like using this word because I don’t think it actually exists, but I consider people to be increments of chaos, and chaos can either be bad or good. With every person you meet, it’s a new gamble, a roll of the dice. Are they toxic and abrasive, a scourge upon your life? Or are they kind and helpful and give you hope for tomorrow? That’s the chance you take with them, and it’s never a sure bet.
To be fair, the good people, the people who follow the rules and help each other out, you never notice them. When a society works the way it’s meant to, and everything is running smoothly, you naturally take it for granted. It’s only when people act out, they misbehave, they break the law, that’s when you actually pay attention. Nobody remembers all the nice people who say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ They only remember the one prick who says ‘fuck off.’
I’ve seen humanity at its best and worst, and this is what I’ve come to realize: you can trust a person, but you can’t trust people. A long time ago, I encountered an intelligent race from another planet, who wanted to study humans before they made contact, and that’s what I told them. I warned them that they were better off engaging with people only one at a time and on their own terms, individuals they could build a rapport with, and not to associate with humanity as a whole, because they would always be disappointed. Are humans good, or are they evil? I honestly can’t say. All I can say is that they are interesting and shouldn’t be underestimated.”