When I awoke the sun was once more out in its morning glory, at the
height it assumes at about the 9 o'clock hour, and the room was warm and
cozy because of it, as it shone in through the glass walls. My first
sensation upon waking was one of peace and bliss, the feeling
experienced when you wake up late to a nice warm resting place,
especially so when all the rest of the world is hard at work and you are
not. I breathed in the air deeply and contentedly while stretching my
arms, legs, and back in a most relieving fashion, and then turned
towards the table in the center of the room, from whence I smelled an
extremely appealing smell, that of a hearty breakfast.
As I did so, however, my joy was sent to a bitter, premature death, for
there sitting at the table and smiling sardonically at me was the King,
arrayed in all his pomp and splendor with his powerful pose, which,
while it had impressed, and even to a point overwhelmed me, before, did
no such thing to me now, for I was fresh with indignation at the
exclusion of the humanoids across the sea from the paradise of Daem.
He saluted me in a polite manner, and I him, though there was little
affection behind it. Then, without any more ceremony, I sat down and
began to eat, repulsing any attempt of his to start a conversation with
persistent vigor, until I had finished, when I stood and demanded where
exactly I was to make my toiletry. He laughed and said that he was
wondering how long I would last, but as I was still too unpleasant to
respond with any familiarity, he showed me to a little room that was
tucked off of the side of the bell that formed the entrance to the domed
chambers of the upper tower. The top of the tower itself was a half
complete sphere, while the room only occupied the upper half, so that
the bottom was divided between the entry way and the toiletry room. I
spent a few moments grooming and washing myself and preparing for the
day, and then rejoined him in the room. He was still sitting on his
chair and I took the other. The meal had been carried away.
He began the conversation by saying, "My dear Jehu, I must apologize for
keeping you in this position, but you must understand that the outcome
of this war is very serious, and I will not risk it to your
sensationalism."
"Sensationalism!" returned I, "Is that how you would describe a touch of
humanity?"
"What do you mean?" he questioned, apparently interested in what I said.
"Well," I began, regaining myself, my former indignation being exhausted
by the spirit of my opening comments, and my normal sober reasoning
returning, "I have been observing your society, which you suppose to be
enlightened, but I have seen some things, which, I am afraid, are
evidences of the opposite."
"Go on,"
"For one, your common folk engage in the most violent entertainment. I
saw a vicious game being played not far from here, in the plaza below.
There were two sides, and they rushed at each other in a rage and
clashed when they met until one side tackled the other. This went on for
some time, the evident point of the sport being to gain points by making
it so that one of the opposing players cannot get up at the end of a
round. It was so brutal that I was disgusted and could watch no more."
"Yes, I see what you mean," the King replied, "I myself would much
rather that such games would be forsaken, but the people really enjoy
it. I must remind you, as well, that your society had the same type of
thing, as did every other before it. It was football for you, gladiators
for the Romans, and so forth."
"But I thought that you had no traditions? That you were more
enlightened than those of the past? You can hardly excuse your
misconduct by reminding one of the misconduct of another, especially
when you claim to disclaim the errors of history, or at least, that
altered and redefined thing that you call history."
"You are right, I have to admit," he conceded, "But let me remind you
that it is a static characteristic of humanity to confuse the ends with
the means. When an intense effort is applied, the melodramatic tendency
is to honor that effort, despite its uselessness, instead of honoring
the product of the effort rather than the effort itself. But, you are
right, I admit, for we have still a few places left to refine in the
common folk."
Feeling vainglorious at my victory, I pursued him further, "I also
observed that your womenfolk wear face coverings in public, which is
most certainly a thing of the past."
"I must disagree with you there Jehu," he said, evidentially regaining
his confidence and sense of moral footing, "For even in your own time
the womenfolk all wore masks and face coverings."
I was taken aback and cried, "Most certainly they did not, your history
books may say so, but I, dear sir, was alive and would know best!"
"What, then," he coolly replied, with a sharp grin that reeked of
self-confidence, "Would you call all the messes of make-up and perfume
and other such things which they were virtually forced to wear? I see
nothing different between wearing face coverings and transplanting an
entirely new face, hair, and body on oneself everyday. In fact, our
women got together and decided voluntarily to do so, for the very reason
that if an artificial covering must be put on, it might as well be one
that is easy, for why spend an hour or more a day to change one's
appearance, when it can be done in moments with a head covering? That is
a great time saver for us. And why spend the resources to research,
produce, and market massive amounts of facial paint to cover up the face
when it is possible to put a covering on and get the same effect much,
much easier? It is only logical.
"And in general, Jehu," he pursued, warming to the subject matter, "I
find the oppression of women in your time to be quite appalling. You
seemed to think that the liberation of women consisted in transforming
them into loveless, materialistic thugs, into workaholics whose only
desire is wealth, into aggression driven beings that possessed little
shred of real humanity, into, in a word, men. I think it would have been
a much better endeavor to have attempted to change men into women."
I was taken aback by his eloquent defense of the treatment of women in
his society, and felt, I must admit, a little impressed by his
arguments, seeing as how it did make more sense to wear a head covering
than to paint on a face every morning. Still, I desired to let him see
that traditions aren't all that bad, just as they aren't all that good,
and, as I had still won one point out of two so far, I felt it safe to
move on to my main argument against his humanistic preponderance.
"You are right there, I admit, but tell me, your majesty," I said with a
slow, scoffing voice, meant to show that I had a powerful point to make,
and as if I had to go slow enough for him to comprehend the eloquence of
my speech, "Why, if you are so enlightened and progressive, so
humanitarian and merciful, why do you keep a whole race of people, of
human beings, stranded on the far shore, able to see the goodness of
Daem's plush lands, but unable to visit them? How can you justify the
keeping of people in such conditions when it is in your power to relieve
them?"
He sobered up more than he already was and answered in his most
dignified voice, one calculated to stop opposition by its very graces,
"Their plight is unfortunate, but as they are not my subjects, it is
none of my concern."
"So you knew of them, but did not care. How typical of powerful men.
What are they called?"
"Munams," he answered, "Is what we call them, though people of your time
had a different name for them, Neanderthal, if I am correct."
My intrigue superseded my conviction and I asked interestedly, "But, how
is that possible? The Neanderthals were the ancestors of men in my time,
and the men of my time were the ancestors of the men of this time, how
could they be living now?"
"Very simply, for your scientists and philosophers did not understand
the revolution of time, and what they thought was evolution was in fact
devolution. You see, when they found all the fossils and other such
evidence for evolution, they interpreted it to mean that they had
evolved from lesser organisms. Since they didn't know that time repeats
itself over and over again, ages of time being like the years of the
earth, it was actually the remains of the age before them that they
thought were the remains of their ancestors. In truth, instead of a
great comet hitting the earth and destroying the dinosaurs and many
other living beings, it was the Great Wars, the nuclear wars, that
caused all the damage. And since their perception of the events was
backward, instead of the blasts destroying the dinosaurs and the wholly
mammoths, it was what actually created them, for, you see, after the
nuclear weapons had all been used, everything in the world died, or came
very close to it, all that is, except Daem, which thrived, because of
the delcator beetles.
"There were no 'dinosaurs', only Zards, for when the radiation levels
were still high and unstable, we grew to enormous sizes, and likewise
there were no wholly mammoths, but Canitaurs. And the Neanderthals that
appeared shortly after were not the precursors to humans at all, but the
Munams, who survived on the mainland near Daem because of the corrected
atmosphere, but who were mutilated more than we by the increased
corruption across the sea. The Ice Ages, also, were not as you thought,
but instead mark the position in the last age after the doom of humanity
was played out and everything destroyed. The Big Bang, also, was not at
the beginning, but at the very end, being somehow related to the onset
of the Ice Ages. Your evolutionary theories were close, but the time
tables were rearranged to fit the facts, since time was thought to be
linear.
"That is where our main trouble lies, Jehu, for through geological and
biological evidences, even more advanced than those collected during
your times, we can tell that something happens at this very period of
history that will wipe all life from the face of the earth for a long
period of time, many thousands of years, until somehow they start to
reproduce and grow once more into what they are now. Something very
powerful happens, even more devastating than the nuclear wars, when all
the nations of the world used their entire stock of weapons. Our problem
is how to prevent it, and a great problem it presents, indeed. You see,
while we would wish to be confident of success, since we know generally
what to expect, we know through research that there have been many, many
ages before us in which the same thing has happened. That is why the
geological layers have always been found to be strangely misaligned,
with fossils from an earlier period here and with a later period there.
That is why things like tree fossils are found in coal mines, where they
shouldn't be, and why in general, the evidence found in the ground
doesn't fit a consistent pattern."
As he finished, I could say nothing, for his revelation was sobering to
me, bringing me suddenly back to the realization that our doom was
impending, that every decision I made had the potential to either bring
us to safety, or to supply the necessary force to hurl us viscously off
the cliff of mortality. He was silent as well and allowed me a few
moments of meditation to turn his speech in my mind. As is my tendency,
I looked abstractly out the window as I thought, fixing my subconscious
focus on the road that ran from the northern gate down through the city,
the road which formed half of the plaza beneath the temple. A moment or
two passed like a solemn parade of mourning, then, suddenly, or at least
quite unexpected by myself, a party of Canitaurs came walking down the
northern road, unharassed and unescorted through the heart of the city.
Since they came freely, I knew that they were not prisoners, but still I
was perplexed at how a party of them came to be allowed in Nunami at all
under such pretexts, especially as they had attempted to bring it to
ruin but a few days before.
The King saw their coming and my interest in them, and said in a way of
explanation, "There is to be a council today between the Zards and
Canitaurs, with you present, of course. Our war has rampaged for quite
some time, but we are forced to peace in light of our impending doom,
brought by circumstances outside of ourselves. We will decide tonight,
or tomorrow, what action to take. It is a grim time, you can be sure, my
dear Jehu, when Zards and Canitaurs meet in peace, a grim time indeed."
He said that very importantly, with an air of fright in his voice, as
one who knows his end is near, for both him and his loved ones. There
was another moment of silence as he reflected on the meaning of his
words, and then he rose and beckoned me to follow him. We made our way
through the bottom half of the room and down the long flight of stairs
that wound down the great tower in the Temple of Time. When we reached
the bottom, we went again into the long room with the bookshelves, the
table, and the altar to Temis. Already there waiting for us were the
Canitaur emissaries, Wagner and Bernibus.
They rose to greet me, bowing low in a deferential manner, more out of
forced respect than awe, at least on Wagner's part, and after the
customary blessing that followed, we all sat down at the long wooden
table that stretched lengthwise through the room. Wagner and Bernibus
took their chairs on one side and the King and myself on the other, he
and Wagner being opposite each other, and Bernibus and me being the
same; the King and I were facing the altar and the White Eagle that held
it.
There was a moment of silence as we took our seats, and it continued for
another moment as everyone sat in an awkward situation. As there was no
one else in the room besides the four of us, and as Wagner seemed
disinclined to begin, the King opened up our conference with the
following statement:
"Well, dear sirs, what can I say, except that I am glad that you have
finally condescended to seek a mutual agreement on the actions which are
about to ensue, and that I hope that our conference will be productive
and informative. Before we begin, I will outline the rules of the debate
and of the conference, which were agreed upon before the military action
of the recent past," here he looked at Wagner with the look of a judge
who supposes himself morally superior to the criminal in his holding,
"And by which we will still govern the council, despite the sudden
change in circumstances. The rules are as follows: The decision shall be
made by the votes of the three parties involved, namely the Zards, the
Canitaurs, and Jehu, the kinsman redeemer. A majority of two votes is
required to decide which of the paths will be taken: the Futurist or the
Pastite. As is clearly obvious, my dear Jehu, I shall vote Futurist, and
Wagner shall vote Pastite, and it is up to you to cast the decisive
vote. You are the kinsman redeemer, and for all intents and purposes,
you will be the sole decider of the fate of humanity. It is a great
responsibility, but one that you were chosen for by the child of Temis,
the God of Time. Wagner and myself will each make our cases, though you
know them by now, and then you will have all night to decide and you
will tell us your decision in the morning," thus concluded the King's
opening address.
Before anyone else could follow it up, I interjected, "But I was sent by
Onan to do his work on earth, wouldn't it only make sense for me to
choose the way of Onan?"
The King answered me, saying, "You were sent by Temis, the God of Time,
Jehu, for Onan and Zimri are his children who do his work for him, but
they only have the powers that he gave them. Onan is the only one able
to speak to mortals, for he is in the past, while Zimri is in the
future, but Onan also speaks for Zimri, because he is told what to say
by Temis, whose agents they both are as much as you are Onan's. Isn't
that so, Wagner?"
Wagner sighed in the affirmative, and when he had done so, I asked him
pointedly, "Why didn't you tell me? You led me to believe that Onan was
the one who sent me, and by his own power."
Here the King put in, "He merely wanted to prejudice you to his own
side, Jehu. He attempted to by-pass our peace treaty of long ago when he
tried to attack us and capture this very temple for his own plans. We
agreed twenty-five years ago to do it this way, because enough blood had
been shed, and no good had come from it. He violated it when he took you
into hiding, using our pursuit after his treachery as justification. But
come, in the face of impending doom we cannot squabble over past wrongs,
but must move to prevent future disaster from striking."
"What is so important about this Temple of Time, though?" I asked.
Wagner and the King mumbled together that "It was an essential part of
the restoration of Daem", but would not elaborate, saying that it was
unimportant to the present troubles. They looked guilty as they said it,
though of what I did not know. I was reminded of my indignation at their
ignoring of the sufferings of the Munams and became once more impatient
with their self-importance, so I yielded the floor and they began to
make their cases. In order to decide who went first, they drew lots, and
as the shorter was drawn by Wagner, he went first. His speech is as
follows:
"The past is constant, Jehu. It has happened and is secure in its place,
explored and known. The traditions and customs of our people are
steadfast and immovable, for they have survived the ages like a mountain
that is untouched by the weather. They have lasted so long not because
of the mere namesake of tradition, but because they work, because they
have worked thousands of times before, and because we know they will
work a thousand times in the future. What was good enough for the
generations before us is good enough for us and our children. A
tradition, or taboo, is not formed by the decision of some contemporary
council as a means to control others via social restrictions, for if it
was it would never have lasted, instead it is formed because of
experience, because when something goes beyond it the result is
temporary pleasure, the nectar of the fruits of rebellion, but when the
rebellious desires have faded, what is left is rotten and decayed.
"It brings only more desires for rebellion and more thirst for the
forsaking of traditions, and it will not be satisfied. Then another
taboo will be broken, but this also will not quench the desires of the
rebellious, who do what they do not for any independent purpose, but
only from a desire to break traditions and taboos and to be different
than their forebears. But there is no satisfaction in rebellion, only in
obedience. Obedience not to some alien divinity, not to some social
supremest, not to the blind devotion of parental mandates, but obedience
to common sense, to practicality, to morality. For a taboo is not formed
by any one person, instead it is slowly built up upon the experiences of
many, experiences which show that when one thing is done, suffering is
what follows, and when another thing is done, happiness is what follows.
Of course there are a few, isolated taboos that are based instead on
human prejudices, but that doesn't translate into the abandonment of all
the experience of precedents. What comes when there are no longer any
taboos and traditions to break? Destruction. For as is seen time and
again, the rebellion of societies gains momentum, and while their
consequences are slow in gathering, in the end they multiply and force
those societies over the edge of power, bringing only suffering and
ruin.
"And not only are the experiences of the past wielded together into that
euphoria that eludes the rebellious--wisdom--but its constant state
controls the present and the future. What men have seen in the past
leads them in their future actions, and as a result, it is not the
future that controls the present and defines the past, but it is the
past which controls the present and defines the future. What sense is
there in abandoning the mountain of wisdom that the past has built up
and leaping blindly into hazy, unknown actions and institutions? The
past is steady, Jehu, and it is known; it is the only sensible way."
Thus spoke Wagner.
It was then the King's turn, and he said as follows:
"The past is the past, not the present nor the future, its time has been
spent, its part in the theater of life is over, it is extinct. Jehu,
Wagner speaks of us as rebelliously breaking taboos that were formed by
our forefathers, but that is not true. In the present more is known than
was known in the past, they had outdated views and opinions, and their
ideologies were vulgar and unsophisticated. At present we are more
knowledgeable, more refined than what has gone before. The people of the
past waged unjust wars. They had superstition and prejudices that
clouded their visions of morality, and the product of that is a large
amount of taboos and precedents and traditions that are immoral or
meaningless. Now is the age of enlightenment, now and never before is
the future at hand, mixing with the present as we learn more and more
about our world. We are progressive, learning and growing in philosophy
and lifestyle.
"If those of the past were so upright and wise, than why are they not
still among the living? If they were so powerful, then why are they now
extinct? The past is gone, but the future is yet to come, it still holds
tangible pleasures, not memories, it has promise and potential, while
the past is only the ruins of the same. When the past is looked back
upon, it is small and immaterial, it is like time crumpled up into a wad
of memories, and a time yesterday or a thousand years ago looks the
same, for it is past, it is no more. Life is not short, but in
retrospect it seems to be, and its memories are distant, as they float
like fish in the oceans of time, lacking both definition and scale, and
hanging lifelessly around in random arrays. Every moment is of the same
length, but a moment in the past is nothing, its thoughts and emotions
are nothing, they are gone and useless to the present, while a moment in
the future is long and touchable. A thought that is past is as nothing,
and it is forgotten, for the past and the future are like a one-way
mirror, you can look forward into the future, but looking into the past
you can see only the present reflected back at you. What good are the
joys or sorrows of yesterday? They are as far removed as those of a
thousand years ago, but it is the joys and sorrows of tomorrow that loom
the largest. Why look into the past for completion, when it is found
only in the future?" Thus spoke the King.
Once both of them had finished there was a short pause, each reflective
and absorbed with his own thoughts. At last the King broke through the
still waters of the moment and sent his rippling voice across its
formless surface, which revived at once and was joined by many others,
until the outward expression of consciousness sent the waters of the
mind again into their complex and interwoven dances. He spoke in the
department of host and concluded the short session with these words,
"Now the cases are stated, though but briefly, for they were already
well-known. As planned prior to the infractions of the treaty, we will
adjourn for the night, and in the morning Jehu will deliver his verdict,
whether we undo our problem through the future, or through the past."
We all rose and Bernibus, my only friend on the island, came up to me
and warmly embraced me, while Wagner and the King conversed formally a
few yards away. When they were not looking and our backs were turned to
them, Bernibus slipped me a piece of paper that was rolled up into a
tight scroll. Seeing his caution and secrecy, I quickly stashed it in
the inside of my shirt, where it could not be seen. I was alarmed at the
momentary expression of his face, which showed that he was greatly
worried about me, and made me very interested in what the paper would
contain. His face quickly returned to its original countenance, an
impermeable barrier to his insides, and no one except myself had any
inclination about what had happened. The other two turned towards us,
and quickly made their farewells, Wagner and Bernibus departing for
their quarters, and the King to escort me back to my prison.
He took my arm in his genially, though only superficially so, for he
still had a subdued sense of distrust about him, and we went through the
door to the long, circling stairway from whence we had come. As we
ascended we engaged in small talk, the usual meaningless pleasantry,
which I assume you have probably had enough of in your experiences to
allow me to dispense with relating it, for it was of no weight in any of
the circumstances that I found myself in, and I especially was not
interested in it, as the paper given to me by Bernibus claimed my whole
attention, and filled me with an anticipation and mystery of what it
might contain. I kept up the small talk with the King merely to allay
any suspicions he might have had, though he had none. After a seeming
eternity we reached the top, and once there I stepped into my chambers,
as the King jestingly called them. We bade each other goodnight, which
was followed by the metallic click of the door locking, and the sound
his footsteps as he descended and made his way to his palace.