Written by Knowledge
Edited by waterpear
Revision and edit by Knowledge
-------------------------------------Mountain Cave overlooking the Neverending (Everfree) Forest--------------------------------------
Two travelers sat in a cave upon a mountain for multiple reasons. First, they needed to get out of the rain. Second, it was late, so they needed a nice, dry place to camp. Third, they wanted a high vantage point in the morning so they could plot the next leg of their journey. Lastly, if the wanderings tomorrow proved fruitless, they could return to the mountain easily in the sea of trees that was the Neverending Forest.
Of the two travelers, one was an unicorn filly named Sophia and the other was the warrior buffalo Andrea. They ignored for the most part the piles of ancient gold doubloons behind them which marked that this cave had once been the home of a dragon. Instead, they decided to talk about a third fellow traveler who was out in the rain, singing mournfully to the valley below.
"Why does my parent sing like this?" Sophia asked her companion in the common language of animals while pointing to person in the rain. The buffalo considered the filly's words carefully.
"You would not understand," Andrea replied.
"What do you mean I wouldn't understand?'" Sophia curiously inquired. The buffalo responded by pointing at the blue polka dots that crowned the filly's head.
"That is why. Your mind has been poisoned, young one. You are incapable of understanding things like this. Especially because Ei Rikr is what ze is."
Andrea had referred to both to the disease which had robbed Sophia her ability to feel the most basic emotions and to Ei Rikr being a horsefly, which is a shapeshifting species fueled by the passions of others. Horseflies, being asexual in their basic form, go by the gender neutral pronouns ze and zir. The filly's disease was like some twisted joke when one considered Ei Rikr's needs. Feeding the horsefly was one of the reasons Andrea had to accompany them. The other was to take a break from her real job.
Yet the mysterious disease had left the filly with one thing and that was the drive to learn and understand, which prompted her next request.
"Tell me about Ei. Ze has never told me about zirself."
The buffalo looked at the horsefly and frowned. Ei Rikr had long avoided telling Sophia zir backstory for fear of what zir daughter would think of zir and the war plagued continent that they left on the other side of the Neverending Forest. Andrea came to the conclusion that this fear was meaningless given that Sophia was incapable of hating her adoptive parent.
"You deserve to know. But I warn you, my words are from my perspective. Many will take issue with my words, even Ei Rikr."
Taking a deep breath, Andrea began the practically legendary tale of the ignorant schoolmaster.
"Long ago, during the time of Fleece's golden age, Ei Rikr your parent was born," Andrea began.
"Ei Rikr spent zir early years as a young stone carver, living with a family of sheep as if ze was one of them. I don't know what precisely happened, but Ei got exposed, and zir parents and the rest of the sheep thought Ei was some kind of wolf demon. They called the newly discovered horseflies the 'Wolves in Sheep's Clothing' or something like that. Anyways, Ei Rikr had to run away from Fleece alone and with no prospect of returning to zir life as a stone carver's son.
"For the next century, the fleecians and eventually all their neighbors on the South Continent started hunting horseflies. All the queens were killed with most of their horseflies. Only a hoofful who had never known their queen like Ei Rikr survived because they did not sacrifice themselves to protect the hive. With no queens left and their naturally ageless lives, the remaining horseflies remained as testaments to what fear and ignorance can accomplish. There are still queens on Zebrica, but all of them refuse to travel to the South Continent out of completely justified fear that we would kill them.
"Anyways," Andrea said, trying to shift the subject of extinction. "During this period, Ei Rikr wandered the South Continent, which, I think, at this point had been sealed from the fabled North Continent by the sudden, cataclysmic growth of this forest during the Age of Chaos."
"And no one until now has sought to travel across it because of its fabled monsters, bad weather, and endlessness?" the filly asked innocently, interrupting.
Andrea nodded.
"Let's keep focus on your parent," the buffalo requested. "So during this journey, Ei Rikr blended in with each culture ze encountered, trying to avoid the hunters and a repeat of what happened with zir parents.
"After the horseflies were forgotten except by exaggerated stories, the countries turned against each other. During this time, Ei Rikr decided to take a stand against the violence. Some think the young Ei Rikr was merely motivated by collecting more love--war being bad for the love market if you get what I mean. Personally, I think it was because Ei Rikr has always been an idealistic idiot. Ze would have probably said something sooner if it would not have meant instant death. But then again, I don't really know what ze was doing during those wanderings in detail.
"Well, having seen the world from the perspective many different cultures over the course of a very long time--horseflies being basically immortal green fire and all, Ei Rikr went to work to figure out how to solve world violence. The younger horsefly concluded that the issue was bindings, which could include anything from simple promises to complex ideologies. For example, if the status quo was sexist, then a myth, would be created to justify, reinforce, and perpetuate that sexism as a binding. Even of the most noblest of bindings, Ei Rikr argued, carried blame. 'Every time the Bound claim a virtue, they create an Unbound plagued by a vice. The endless war between Us and Them escalates the more moral our bindings become,' ze is fabled to have said."
Sophia attempted and failed to stifle a yawn. It was still raining but they could tell that the sun had set.
"I am sorry. We should probably get to sleep soon," Andrea suggested.
"I want to know what Ei Rikr thought the alternative was," Sophia stated plainly, shaking her head in order to stay awake longer. Andrea accepted only because, unlike the filly, the buffalo would not have been able to fall asleep with Ei Rikr still singing. The buffalo hoped it would end soon, but she knew the ancient horsefly needed to mourn the past like this occasionally. The uncontrollable bursts of green fire from Ei Rikr's body indicated it was a particularly painful remembrance.
"Your parent took all this 'insight' and concluded that the solution was to methodically doubt everything, including doubt itself. Ze thought that no one with this doubting mindset could commit atrocities. People would just live together because they would have enough time to sympathize with beliefs contrary to their own when they doubt themselves. People who had learned to doubt conventional thought were called lovers of wisdom or philosophers because they did not claim wisdom but to merely seek it in others."
"That is nonsense," the filly said. "Believing nothing is just as wrong believing whatever you want. That is why philosophers invented science and logic. We can know the truth."
I grew up with a binding, so I don't quite agree," Andrea responded. "Despite that, I must admit that the old horsefly was right in a sense. It is pretty hard to commit yourself to killing a whole group of people if you don't believe they are evil. It was always the zealots that do the craziest things for their ideologies."
Sophia was dumbfounded by this but did not press the issue, so the warrior continued the story unimpeded.
"At this point, no one remembered what horseflies were. Ei Rikr dropped zir disguise and started to have dialogues with anyone who would listen. This had the unintentional consequence of people thinking that ze was some wise teacher and follow zir. These followers gave zir the name 'Ei Rikr,' which means 'Ever Ruler.' 'Ever' because your parent has the potential to live forever as long as people are willing to give love to one another, and 'Ruler' because they saw zir as their new leader. Despite Ei's protests against any claim that ze was wise or capable of teaching, a movement had grown in the wake of horsefly's travels. The followers became the first philosophers, or people who love wisdom. They emulated Ei by estranging themselves from their home countries and cultures through questioning all things sacred and dear.
"One of these philosophers even revealed themselves to be a fellow horsefly, and Ei Rikr, never having spoken to zir own kind out of fear of being caught, quickly decided they should regard each other as siblings. This other horsefly goes by the name of Corvo Nevermore. Corvo soon became Ei Rikr's greatest ally and critic in philosophy movement at the end of the dark ages."
Sophia's eyes flickered at recognition of the name. "Ei often speaks of Corvo. Ze says Corvo has already made it to the Northern Continent. Ei also says we will get to the Northern Continents soon as well, but I have been waiting all my life for these promises to be fulfilled."
Andrea looked down at Sophia. "I will not lie to you. I doubt you will ever see either Corvo or the Northern Continent. I fear this journey is only the madness of an ancient mind overcome by grief."
"Then why did you agree to this journey?" Sophia wondered.
"Because I owe the unbound old codger."
With a short break, Andrea continued the story. "As I was about to say, Corvo was Ei Rikr's closest friend but also zir biggest critic. It was because of Corvo's influence at the time that philosophy turned to finding the truth after all the doubt to counter the 'If I know nothing, everything will be just fine' of Ei Rikr. Even Ei eventually adopted many of zir adopted sibling's principles and methods, formalizing them in logic and science. This is the philosophy as ze taught you."
Sophia took a moment to digest this new information. Ei Rikr had taught her a few things, but most of it she had to teach herself. Her parent often refuse to answer questions related to the Academy and zir past. She was certain that ze was hiding things from her, but she could not fathom why.
"Shortly after they became family, they decided to settle down and build a city for those who shared their way of thinking, which they called Academy. Immediately after its construction, the other nations opposed its existence. If they were not too afraid of committing war resources to nonthreatening city that was well-defended by ancient horsefly magic, the Academy would have probably been destroyed in its early years. Instead they merely isolated the city from trade."
"This isolation had a negative effect on the horsefly's siblings relation as neither could agree about the future of the Academy in relation to the rest of the South Continent. On one hoof, Corvo was content ignoring the nations and their squabbles, having grown callous of their politics and their wars. Ze would rather just focus on promoting technological advancement and improving the material conditions of the those who resided at the Academy. Corvo focus on the external earn zir the title 'The Outer Philosopher of Change' despite the fact ze did not care about the outside world. On the other hoof, Ei Rikr sought to reunite with the rest of the world through a willingness to change ones mind. EI Rikr focused on mental magic, trying to help people through problems philosophically. One of the ways ze did this was by creating a spell that caused all the people in an area to become lose their passions and act reasonably. This earned Ei Rikr the title of 'The Inner Philosopher of Change.'"
Sophia had definitely seen those titles referenced in her books. More importantly, it made sense as there were a clear distinction between Inner and Outer philosophical traditions when reading philosophical texts. While the traditions dealt with core problems of philosophy with many of the same tools like logic, they came from opposite directions (the mind to the world as oppose to the world to the mind). Often they reached conclusions that contradicted those of the other tradition leading to lengthy arguments about which tradition was superior.
"There was almost a thousand years in which the eternal horsefly siblings developed philosophy together without interference. Wars happened elsewhere, away from the Academy, and the philosophers played no part. Their heads were in the clouds thinking abstract nothings as the rest of the world burned. Then about fifty years ago, rumors of the advanced technology developed at the Academy reached the ears of the leaders of the surrounding nations. Curious of how they could take advantage of this technology, the nations sent scholars and diplomats to negotiate an exchange of knowledge.
"Ei was obviously elated at the prospect of finally having nations interested in what they had to say. Corvo wanted to bar them from entry. Ei dismissed zir sibling's cynicism, believing that the world cannot change for the better if the Academy doesn't show others an open heart. Ei Rikr was very willing to give away Corvo's technological inventions to these foreign scholars as a way to help nations change for the better."
The buffalo took a moment to consider the irony that Corvo who didn't want anything to do with the outside world would be the cause of the nations coming to their land.
"It was at this time that Corvo abandoned the school, unwilling to see the inevitable result of Ei Rikr's idealism. I don't know if they left on friendly terms, but I do know that Corvo and zir students fled to this forest in search of the fabled Northern Continent. As everyone knows now, Corvo was right. When the antelopes of my country Bufgium found a way to turn the fractal home-building technology into weapons, they tested them on us buffalo.
"Ei Rikr was devastated from the deadly re-engineering of zir sibling's technology. Ze was unable to remain aloof of international affairs. Instead Ei Rikr dedicated zirself to rescuing innocents from those who used the Academy's knowledge for war. It was from this interfering that I became indebted to your parent. Ze and a small following of young philosophers infiltrated the country and gave many of my people the means to escape the slaughter. When Ei found me, I told the philosopher that I wanted to help with the rescues. My parents had taught me to be courageous, even going so far as to name me Andrea. With my parent's warrior bindings, I proved to be a strong ally for Ei Rikr and the other philosophers.
"Your parent let me join without hesitation, giving me many opportunities to exercise leadership. I didn't realize at the time that the toll of Corvo abandoning Ei Rikr had left your parent with a weaken resolve. In only ten years, I became in charge of almost all operations as Ei Rikr faded into the background. Eventually, the philosopher secluded zirself at the Academy, becoming more isolated than ever before.
"Then came the Great Academic Purge. Several nations had taken offense to my more direct ways of interfering. These nations in temporary truce staged a coordinated attack against a common enemy, the Academy. In one day, the school of the two eternal siblings fell. I had been returning from a successful mission when I heard what had happened. My team and I rushed back, seeking to save as many as I could. I returned to find only your parent, husk of zir former self in the wreckage of what took a thousand years to build."
Andrea looked at the horsefly mourning in the rain, seeing unsettling parallels with the husk she had seen back then.
"After that, I took your parent with the refugees to the only place left untouched by the war--the Neverending Forest. I had to fight for all their safety here as you have seen. Someone has to keep the manticores in line. Your parent was a pain to care for during those early years. Fortunately, someone came along to fix that."
"Ah...Who was that?" Sophia half-asked and half-yawned. She had a good idea who the buffalo meant, but she was in a listening mood.
"You, of course," Andrea said in as cheesy and lighthearted manner possible. "I still remember when Ei Rikr came back to camp after finding you abandoned in a field of blue flowers. Ze kept doting on how beautiful you were and that ze would find your real parents as soon as ze could. It was the next day that ze suffered a similar poisoning as you did but to zir eyes. This was unfortunate not only because most of a horsefly's power is in zir sight but because ze loved looking at you very much."
"That is how we both received our condition," Sophia said, realizing it for the first time. Ei Rikr had never told her how ze had become blind. Another secret ze had kept from her.
Andrea continued to watch the horsefly, whose blind blue eyes had hid the poison's mark well. "Well, it is that disease that will prevent you from realizing why what I told you makes your parent stand in the rain and sing."
Sophia rubbed her crown of blue polka dots, disliking how they stopped her from having emotions and understanding them in other people. She would have reflected more upon her misfortune, but she could not stay awake any longer. Sleep quickly enveloped the filly. Andrea on the other hoof had to deal with the remainder of Ei Rikr's singing.