I waited reluctantly with my ear against the door until his footsteps
could no longer be heard, and then waited for fifteen minutes more,
listening carefully for any noises. There were none, and once I had
convinced myself that I was completely alone, I dashed swiftly up the
stairs and jumped onto the couch. My sudden movements caused the
top-heavy tower to sway slightly for a few moments, giving me quite the
scare, for I didn't realize what it was at first. But then my pilot's
instinct kicked in and I mentally calculated the height and width of the
tower and the mass of the dome that rested upon it, and came to the
conclusion that it was stable, for while a swift movement caused it to
sway, it would take a prolonged and deliberate pendulum-like motion to
cause any real damage, and even the fiercest wind would not upset it,
for it would only blow in a single direction at a time, and only a
rocking motion must be feared.
Confident once more of my safety, I took the rolled piece of paper from
the folds of my clothing and opened it carefully. Inside was a note from
Bernibus, written in a legible cursive that flowed from an obviously
educated hand. It read as follows:
"My Dear Jehu, it is I, Bernibus, your friend and comrade, who writes to
you. Wagner and myself are soon to set off for Nunami for a council with
the Zards about the resolution of our conflict. It was decided in a
cease fire treaty twenty-some years ago that whomever first came upon
the kinsman redeemer was to have a council with the other side and the
ancient one to decide which course to take, since either course needs
the support of both the Zards and the Canitaurs to succeed. When you
first came among us, Wagner seemed to break the terms of the treaty and
keep you with us in an attempt carry out our plans independently of the
Zards, using an attack plan that had been held in readiness since the
treaty, to ensure a defense if things went wrong. When the Zards
attempted to capture us upon your arrival, Wagner declared the treaty
violated, and I assumed that it was to be entirely abandoned. I was
under this impression when I befriended you, and once our friendship had
strengthened, I had no fears for you, thinking as I did that new methods
were to be tried.
"After the attack on Nunami failed and the council was once again to be
held, each having violated it equally, my fears were suddenly aroused on
your behalf. It was only then that I saw that it was the intention of
Wagner not only to destroy Nunami and the Zards, but to capture the
Temple of Time, which was the only part of the city to be left intact.
When I confronted my brother-in-law about this, he only laughed at me
scornfully and told me that I was soft, that I was a fool to put one
man's life ahead of the salvation of the whole earth. I was filled with
wrath at him and still am, but I have decided that it was better to
feign compliance and let you know by letter what it was that is being
planned for you. I am only sorry that it should come to you at so late
an hour, when I could have warned and helped you before if I had only
known. There is not much that you can do now, but still I must warn you,
for whatever it is worth, if only to prove my affections.
"You see, my dear Jehu, the Pastites and Futurists interpret the
prophecy to mean that the kinsman redeemer has come to renew the earth,
as you have no doubt heard, although there is strong evidences to the
contrary. I myself have been brought up to this interpretation, as it is
more acceptable than the alternate theories that exist, though I have
been for a time now doubting its accuracy. According to the Externus
Miraculum view, the Temple of Time is crucial to the implementation of
either plan, in fact it is the crux of them both, the one issue that it
is of as great importance, or greater, than the presence of you, the
kinsman redeemer. There is an altar in the center room of the temple, a
great diamond White Eagle that is grasping an ordinary altar in its
talons, and this altar is where the kinsman redeemer is to be
sacrificed. If only I had suspected so before and could have warned when
there was yet time!
"But there is no time now for such reflections, so I will continue. The
method of sending you back or forward in time is to sacrifice you on the
altar of Temis, the God of Time. It is not a traditional, atonement
sacrifice, nor of any kind that involves the cutting of the flesh with a
knife. Instead it is a molecular one. You are to be set on the altar and
then the White Eagle will start to spew forth either protons or
electrons, depending on which is chosen, past or future. When your
body's cells absorb all of the floating matter, they will be either
positively or negatively charged to such an extent that their
revolutions will be rapidly accelerated. According to theory, the
increased speed of the revolutions would cause a rift in the time
continuum, or in other words, would change the proportion between your
existence in the temporal and material realms and change your location
in time, thereby propelling you into the past or the future, depending
upon which was chosen, electron or proton, past or future.
"There has been much experimentation with this process, each person sent
through time being equipped with a matter-proof box that is basically an
advanced time capsule, lasting for millions of years. Into this box (or
TAB, Temporal Anomaly Box) each person was supposed to write an account
of their temporal journey and leave it on the island that is presently
Daem, at specific locations decided on for that purpose. We would search
for those boxes in the present, to see if they had been delivered. None
have yet been found, though there are other possible reasons than death,
such as a failure to find the island, or the box's removal by someone in
an intervening time. Still, I am greatly afraid for your life Jehu,
especially so after what I discovered just hours ago in the classified
archives of the Canitaurs: there was strong evidence that the process
simply disintegrated those upon whom it was tried, instead of sending
them through time. This was kept from the public, and was forcefully
forgotten by those who knew, their reason being that Temis would guide
your travel better than the others who were not called as his servants.
If it were anyone but you, Jehu, I would probably have deceived myself
in the same way, but I cannot let you be destroyed like this. You must
escape and not let them throw away our only chance of salvation in such
a way. I only wish that I had known sooner, I only wish that there was a
chance that you could escape,
"Your Devoted Friend,
"Bernibus"
For a moment I could do nothing except sit in silence and ponder over
this new revelation. After I had reread the letter twice, so as to be
thoroughly familiar with its contents, I ate it, so that if I did
escape, or was apprehended doing so, Bernibus would not be found out and
suffer because of it, though I doubt not that he would have gladly done
so. When I had done that, I ran down to the door and attempted to force
it open, but to no avail. Neither could it be picked. And even if it
had, it would have done me no good, for there were at least two guards
always stationed at the foot of the stairs, and many more between them
and the temple entrance, and even if, by some miraculous intervention, I
made it that far, that left me stranded conspicuously in the center of
Nunami. My only hope was to escape from the island completely, for I
would be found soon enough by the cooperating inhabitants if I remained
upon their own lands.
The land across the sea then entered my mind, and its degenerate
inhabitants, but that was across a wide channel that would be hard to
cross even if I had infinite time, freedom, and materials to make a boat
which would withstand the waves, and I had none of the three. What
little hope I had, then, was out of reach, lost to me like the golden
days of the past. It was then that I was overcome by despondency, the
hopelessness of my situation weighing my spirits down. It is a peculiar
trait of mine that in times of distress and in situations that seem to
have no possible favorable outcome I act rashly and without reason. You
will remember how I leaned forward and peered into the dark hole when I
was stranded on the tiny island in the sea, and how I struck the tree
with a limb on the shores of Lake Umquam Renatusum. Likewise, I again
did something which would seem illogical and vain: in my frustration, I
pushed the table that I happened to be standing against with as much
force as I could muster. It slid softly along the carpeting before
coming to a halt a few inches from the glass wall. It made no noise or
jarring of the floor, but the sudden shifting of weight in the room
caused the tower to sway once more, as it had when I had run up the
stairs to the couch.
And, as had happened on the previous occasions, the result of my
senseless actions was good, as if guided by some external force, for an
idea came suddenly to my mind that would not have been there otherwise,
an idea that was outlandish and far-fetched, but was at the time my only
hope.
I lost no time on preparing my efforts, for there was none to be lost,
and set out immediately to remove the carpeting from the floor. Upon
examination I found that it was not attached to the ground at all, but
only fastened into a wooden frame at the walls that held it tightly in
place. It stretched in a circular fashion around the whole of the room
and into the center until it came to the stairs that led downward, so
that once removed it formed a circle about thirty feet in diameter with
a three foot circular hole in its center. In case I haven't mentioned
the type of the carpet yet, which I must confess that I cannot remember,
I will do so here: it was not a traditional carpet, that form being
apparently lost after the great wars, instead it was a silky sheet-like
carpet, no more than a quarter inch thick, and in fact greatly
resembling the sail of an old clipper ship, the painting on the glass
that I saw earlier probably attesting to the fact that it had been
designed with that appearance in mind. Like its prototype, the sail, it
caught a lot of wind and acted in the same general manner.
Using the bowie knife that was built into the large frontal buckle of
the anti-electron suit, which, by the way, I was still entirely wearing,
I cut the carpet down its center, making two semi-circular pieces, each
with a moon shaped appearance, much like a wing. I based my idea in part
on the observation that the Canitaurs and Zards had apparently lost, or
disregarded, the springs of my time and instead used a hammock of
springy, elastic cords that spread across the face of the furniture.
Simply put, they stretched elastic ropes across an empty frame, almost
like a trampoline made of individual cords. This created a very
comfortable springing feel, for they gave enough bounce to render the
surface pliable, but not overly soft. Taking the bowie knife again, I
thrust it into the couch, and cut away the cushioning to reveal the
support. To my great relief, I found that it was constructed in a manner
similar to the other couches that I had seen. There were about two score
of the cords, each being between three and four feet long. These I
unattached and laid them down in a pile.
Next, I took the four main support beams for the couch, one running
along each side and two down the center in a crescent shape, with the
same curve and slope as the carpet, as they were designed to contour the
same wall. Then I disassembled the table and took from it two of its
main beams, which were about a foot shorter than their curved
counterparts. These I did not fully remove, instead loosening their
screws and swiveling them to extend outwards from the table at a right
angle, tightening them again afterwards so that they were secure.
Once that was accomplished, I went to the frame that had held the carpet
down and took the pins and fasteners which were used to secure it. These
I placed on the crescent beams from the couch, which used the same
standard size. Once I had secured the carpet sections to the beams, I
attached the couch's beams, via the cords, to the long beams sticking
outward from the table, running the ends of all the cords through
another cord that could, upon being pulled, adjust their height by
pulling or releasing, thus controlling the distance between the upper
and the lower beams, and changing the amount of slack in the carpet that
was stretched between them. I then removed the legs from the tabletop,
leaving just it and the beams together, the carpet being attached to the
beams.
Thus my plan was completed, it being, in case you hadn't guessed, a
primitive hang glider, the carpet being a sail and the beams the wings,
the whole being steerable by either raising or lowering one side or the
other, and the altitude being adjustable by raising or lowering the two
simultaneously. I felt keen joy at my skills in air travel at that
moment, and as I stepped back to admire my work, I felt that peculiar
satisfaction of having made something and finding that it was good.
But that moment was short lived, for another problem quickly presented
itself, namely, how would I remove the hang-glider from the tower and
launch it. It was far too large to go down the stairs and needed to be
propelled to a high speed or dropped from a high altitude to become
airborne. Since I had no way of propelling it, I needed to launch it
from the top of the tower, which provided plenty of altitude, but then
the problem of how to remove it from the tower arose. For a moment I was
stumped and almost admitted defeat, but then it came to me.
The tower's only weakness was in its lack of protection against a
deliberate rocking motion. If I was able to swing it back and forth fast
enough by slowly gaining speed and multiplying the momentum, it would be
possible to get it to lean far enough that the dome would snap off,
leaving the room open to the air. This was possible, though rather
unlikely. But I tried anyway.
Starting on one side I began to move from one edge to the other until a
faint rocking motion could be felt. Then I increased my speed in
proportion to the speed of the tower itself. It was a slow start, but
the momentum began to grow, and as it did each successive sway became
faster and faster. Soon it was going so fast that I began to have
unstable footing, the whole tower creaking like a tree that it is blown
by a heavy wind. The speed kept increasing until it reached its fastest,
swooshing to and fro with all of its accumulated force.
It was then that the break happened, for on one of the thrusts the top
snapped off and the upper dome was flung downwards to the ground. As
soon as it was off I shoved the hang-glider with all the force I could
muster towards the edge. At first it fell, but a few feet from the edge
its wings caught the wind and it was brought up to a stable soar, and
just at that instant I landed on it, for I had jumped right after it. I
hit with a thud and felt the craft bounce downwards a little as I hit,
but it soon regained its stability and sped on through the air as behind
me I heard a great crashing sound.
I pulled the left wing down and the glider began to turn in that
direction. Since I had launched into the opposite direction of the
mainland, I needed to wheel around completely, and as such I held the
wing down until I had done an about face towards the east. What I saw
was a striking picture: the sun had just begun to rise, and under the
influence of its soft textures the city of Nunami looked as it had
before: quaint, picturesque, and inviting. But there was a great
difference now, for the tower itself had completely collapsed under the
momentum, and its ruins had fallen down upon the Temple of Time,
demolishing it and leaving only ruins. It had also fallen on a strip of
the city, taking with it several buildings and leaving only rubble. The
King, Wagner, and Bernibus could just barely be seen amongst the crowds
that had dashed out of doors to see what was going on, and I could tell
that Bernibus was smiling at my escape as he looked at my wind sailor a
thousand feet in the air. A friend who rejoices in your advancement,
even at his own cost, is rare indeed.
Turning my gaze upwards, I left Nunami and its troubles behind me and
looked ahead to my promised land, and though it was barren and devoid of
any significant foliage, it still held something equally dear to me as
landscape: safety. The wind currents were strong and my speed was about
30 miles per hour. Great expanses of grassland sped by below me like the
memories of yesteryear, and within half an hour I found myself over the
ocean.
There is something very refreshing about the sunrise that correlated
very well with my present feeling of emancipation, for it is a symbol of
the new and fresh, and of the forgetting of the troubles of the past.
This was true in my case, at least, for I was soon carefree once more,
secure in my freedom. As the wind rushed across my body, I was relaxed
in my adopted element, air, though it was slightly difficult to keep
myself firmly on the glider, as I was lying unfastened to the tabletop.
Below me passed the ocean, looking generally the same as ever, though
paler and less alive, like a ghost of its former self, but still close
enough to bring the calm of reminiscing.
Soon even the ocean began to give way to the fast approaching mainland,
and I abandoned my restive meditations to solve the problem of how to
land. I had not made any contraptions for that purpose, having not
thought about it in the hurry to leave my prison. I decided to use a
traditional circling approach, in the same way scavenging birds descend
on their prey. When I was a mile or so inland, I began to circle about
in wide spirals, narrowing them as I drew closer to the ground. In this
way I had slowed down enough by the time I made contact with the ground
that neither I nor my craft was injured in the landing.
The terrain proved to be as desolate as it had appeared from the
distance, for the main vegetation was a weakly sprouting grass that was
only a few inches high, though not mowed or chewed down. Every few dozen
yards there was a single stunted shrub or small tree, or in some cases a
group of the same, and the spaces between these was littered with
scattered rocks and occasionally a smaller, flowering plant. The
topography of the land was mostly flat, though not in the sense of a
plain or savanna, instead it was merely a gentle slope, so that the
immediate area seemed flat, but in the distance it was seen to rise
considerably. There were also a few small hills that were no more than
twenty feet high across their whole length, but in the obtuse slopes of
the land, even that seemed to be almost mountainous. Brown was the
prevailing color of it all for as far as my eye could see, though I
cannot say if that condition prevailed inland further, since I had
forgotten the telescope, which would probably have proved a useful tool.
A slight wind blew from seaward, scattering the dry top soil about like
a cloud of gnats, though there were very few actual insects, and no
animals that I could see. The only sound that I could hear was that of
the wind howling gently past my ears. I had landed in a sort of valley,
which, though not at all deep, was surrounded on all sides by slight
hills that prevented me from getting an extensive look at the landscape
beyond. Before making any decisions as to which direction to set off, I
decided to climb to the top of one of these hills to ascertain my exact
situation, and although I was generally reluctant to start off into
unfamiliar territory, I also wanted to put as many miles between me and
the coast as possible, in case the Zards and Canitaurs came after me,
which was still a cause of great anxiety to me.
As I rounded the top of the hill that was directly east of my landing
point, I suddenly came face to face with two small people, gnomes by
appearance, one of whom I recognized as being Onan, the Lord of the
Past. He greeted me familiarly as 'My Dear Jehu', and introduced me to
his partner, who turned out to be Zimri, the Lord of the Future. Onan
was dressed the same as when I had last seen him, and Zimri was close in
appearance, though his hair was long and his beard short, while Onan's
were the opposite. Zimri wore a little blue-green frock that fit rather
snuggly but not enough to be considered tight. I started our ensuing
dialog by saying this:
"I am more than a little surprised to see you upon such good terms with
your rival, Onan," giving Zimri an inquisitive glance as I did. "I had
just assumed that you two would be bitter enemies, as your followers on
Daem seem to be, but I can tell now that that is not at all the case."
He laughed, as did Zimri, and replied, "We are brothers, and as such
there is always a strong rivalry, but at the same time there is the
closest bond. There is no real conflict between us, but only a trivial
and jovial mock conflict, the kind that means no harm and does none, to
those involved, but rubs off on others who are less informed, who take
it seriously and have a real conflict."
"What do you mean by that illustration?" I asked.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," he sighed, "I have said too much already, it
is against the rules, you know."
"Yes, yes, the rules. Tell me, though, how would you say I am doing so
far, am I at least doing fairly?"
"Of course, Jehu, you are doing excellently."
"Is it true about the revolutions of time and matter, then?"
"Yes, in fact, it goes even further than that... Say, Zimri, do you
think it is allowable to tell him about the physical and the spiritual
realms?"
Zimri said nothing, for he can say nothing, but he did nod his head in
the affirmative. Thus sanctioned by his brother, Onan continued to
speak, "Well, you know that physical existence is comprised of time and
matter, and that both of these are involved in a revolving motion, from
the minutest foundations to the largest additions. While they both are
revolving within themselves, they are also revolving together, around an
enigma which, as other of the centers, is completely devoid of the thing
which revolves around it, but is found plentifully in them. In the case
of matter, it revolves around a black hole, in which there is not found
any matter, but there are places of emptiness inside of the matter, in
fact, most of an atom is empty space. In the case of time, it revolves
around eternity, an enigma where there is no such thing as time, even as
there are certain areas where no time exists in physical existence, such
as a book. Likewise, physical existence, which is a combination of time
and matter, revolves around a place in which there is no physical
existence, namely, the spiritual realm. There is no physical in the
spiritual, but there is spiritual in the physical. Physical existence is
not whole without the spiritual, which binds it together in such a way
that gives it life, the ability to think and reason.
"There is spiritual matter in everything, but it cannot be seen or
sensed physically unless it is revealed to one by a force on the
spiritual side. Or rather, it cannot be understood unless revealed, for
it can always be seen through its effects. By this I mean that it leaves
a trace in the physical realm, like a jellyfish that leaves a glowing
trail in its wake. When the brain of a human thinks, it is not the
actual brain that is thinking, instead it is the spiritual matter that
exists in the brain, and this spiritual matter leaves a trail where it
goes of electric signals and such. When someone feels a certain emotion,
such as love or depression, it is felt in the spiritual realm, but its
traces are seen in the physical, such as certain chemicals, but these
are not the cause of the emotion, only the effect of them. It is
possible, through certain drugs, to induce varying emotions, such as
happiness or laughter, but these are not the actual emotions, only their
physical counterparts, so that while it appears to be happiness, it is
not, like the shadow of a man in a field: his form keeps the light from
striking the ground beside him, but the shadow is not him, only the
trace of him. Making a shadow like the man does not make the man, only
the appearance of the man. While the how of a situation may be inferred
through physical means, the why is an entirely spiritual matter, and any
attempt to observe life without taking into account the spiritual matter
behind it will end in the same result as evolution, as the scientists of
your day generally imagined it, but which was, in fact, devolution.
"The laws of the physical realm are called science, such as the fact
that energy and matter are neither created or destroyed in any natural
or artificial process, or that everything left to itself tends toward
disorder, or that life cannot come from non-life by natural or
artificial processes. The laws of the spiritual realm are called
morality. You have no doubt observed that when one does a certain thing,
the end result is always good, and when one does something else, the end
result is always bad. That is because there are spiritual laws that
govern life, and just as there is gravity on the earth that always pulls
things down to it, so there is a spiritual law that whenever someone
steals something, the result is suffering for both of the parties
involved. Just as it is a physical law that man must have oxygen to
live, so it is a spiritual law that when someone murders another the end
result is always suffering. Why is this, one may ask, but that is a
foolish question, or at least a pointless one, for the law of gravity
states that on the earth, all things fall downward towards the center of
gravity, there is no reason why, except that it is, for it is observed
continually to be the case.
"Since men cannot accept that there is a power over them, they deny it,
and in the process they misinterpret the various things of life as
physical things, not the spiritual things that they represent. For
instance, love: men in many "advanced," that is to say, self-obsessed,
civilizations, view it only in its physical materializations, but not in
its spiritual context. When they see the results of love, romance
especially, they do not understand that the romance is only the fruit of
the spiritual essence of love, but instead think that the romance is
love. There can be so-called romance on the physical level without its
spiritual counterpart, but it is only the shadow of love, which will
never fulfill and will never be complete, because, by definition, it is
only a mocking of the true force of love. On the other hand, true
romance is not, as some would seem to think, a certain action or set of
actions, such as the gift of a precious metal or some colorful piece of
foliage, instead it is whatever is the result of the spiritual love, for
the physical manifestation of the spiritual essence of love is not
confined to certain objects or actions, but to any that are sanctioned
with its blessings. The daily toil of a poor man shows far more love
than a lavish gift from a rich man."
When he had finished, I gave him a big grin and thanked him for his
lecture, and then asked him how it was that this did not break the
rules, but other things did. To this he replied that it affected my task
only indirectly, while the other things were all direct concomitants.
Then he asked me if I had any other questions for him, and I replied
that I did indeed have one. Which was as follows, "I know that there was
a great war directly after my departure from my native temporal zone,
and that it was very devastating in its reach and effect, and while I
know that the situation was very tense at the time, I was under the
impression that it was starting to cool down once more. What was it that
set it all off?"
"The disappearance of an American fighter jet off the coast of China,"
he replied straight-forwardly.
My interest was suddenly aroused, for that was the very section where my
squadron was stationed, and anyone who was lost would have been a close
friend of mine. "Go on," I told him.
"The Americans claimed that it was shot down by the Chinese, and
demanded an official apology. That the Chinese would not do, insisting
that they had done no such thing, and instead of the whole situation
diffusing, as you thought it would, both sides proceeded to war
stubbornly, each thinking itself in the moral superiority. But that is
as always."
"Do you have any idea whose ship it was that went down? They were all my
comrades," I said.
"Of course I know, Jehu, for it was your plane."
"But how? I wasn't shot down, I crash landed on an island."
"But you came to me and I sent you here, and since your radios went out,
they had no idea that you were safely landed."
"Still, they must have found the plane!"
"No, you know perfectly well that those islands are brought above and
below sea level at different times. After you left, the island was
brought below the water, and your plane was lost in the sea, no traces
were found."
I was confused, "Onan, does that mean that I was the cause of the war?"
"From a certain point of view, yes."
He was about to say something else to me when we saw in the distance a
group of about ten Munams coming toward us, being at that time a few
miles away. He then told me that he must leave me again for the present,
as he could not interfere directly with my mission. They bid me goodbye
and I did the same to them, and then they walked down the opposite side
of the hill that the Munams were approaching from. As they walked, they
slowly disappeared, until they were gone without a trace, for even their
footprints had faded to nothing.
During the time between Onan and Zimri's departure and the Munam's
arrival, I was left to myself for a period of inward meditation, an
activity that you have probably concluded that I am often given to,
which is entirely the case. This new revelation was very troubling to
me, that somehow I was the very cause of the destruction of humanity
during the great wars, while also the kinsman redeemer over 500 years
later, who was prophesied to be the one to bring humanity back into
balance with nature, or to thrust it forever off the edge of existence
into the damnation of the ice ages. As I told you in the beginning, I am
written in the pages of history as the destroyer of humanity, though if
it is just or not, I am not able to judge. The name of Jehu will forever
be a ripple on the surface of the waters of life, and when it is heard
or spoken, the only feeling that it will bring will be hatred and
disgust. If only mortals could see below the surface of the waters of
life, for just as the ocean can be deceiving on its surface, so can
life. Time is like an ocean, but when one looks upon it, what often
happens is that all one sees is the present reflected back in its
surface, and the eyes are shielded from what lies below, focusing
instead on the surface, which is so trivial compared to the abyss which
supports it. When one only sees the surface reflected back, then history
and its wisdom lose their meaning, and one sees not the past but only
the present. What I mean is this: if you look to the past to justify
your actions rather than to guide them, you will not see the truths
contained therein, but only what your presuppositions already were
before you looked, and your ignorance will be reinforced rather than
repudiated. Wisdom is the ability to see the past separate from the
present, but when one sees the destruction of humanity, he will see only
me, his vision being shielded from the true cause of it all, history.
The actions or inactions of one solitary soul cannot bring the end of
life, only the accumulation of the wrongs and injustices of a whole
race, the human race. Forever I will be eyed as the assassin of
humanity, and yet that is not the truth at all, for I am the father of
humanity, I am the beginning as well as the end. If you view me only as
one or the other, you do not see me at all, but only a pale shadow of my
true self. I am Jehu, past, present, and future, I am the concentration
of humanity in all its forms and reproductions, I am the creator and
destroyer of every age of this temporal maze. Why am I the defender and
executioner of the race of men? Why am I the protagonist and antagonist
of humanity? Why am I the father and the son, the beginning and the end?
Such a question is futile to ask in the physical realm, for here there
are no answers to the why's, they are only to be found in the spiritual
realm. The physical realm is left only with the how's, and it is those
which I am attempting to clarify.