Tale of Four

Lowering her hand, Alice took a deep breath and ran over to another of the Magi’s books. Throwing it open, she didn’t even bother to worry about the concerns of her body and hurriedly read through everything, as if the informaiton would suddenly vanish if she left it too long.

One hour, two, finally after four, Alice looked away from the book before throwing it acorss the room in annoyance, her face flushed red in anger. "Chesh." Looking at the black-haired girl, her lips curled up the moment Alice looked her way, "After we are done, I am burning everything this man has written."

"Why?" Chesh chuckled and watched as Alice walked over to the book she had just thrown and showed her the final page, repeating the final verse.

"If the truth points to Runes being the building blocks of the world, then who is the creator who drew them, and what did he draw with. The Lord of Creation, the Eldest One, the Heretical Gods, the Foreign Gods. All of them could be the answer, but if so, where does the Arcane fit in all this?" Alice paused, already feeling her anger boiling as she got ready to say the final line, "That is a brilliant question."

Throwing the book again, she groaned in anguish, "He knows, I am sure of it, he knows. Why is he like this? What benefit does he get?"

Chesh stared at Alice and shrugged, "Maybe he did it becuase he got bored. Or maybe he felt handing over his life’s work would be too easy without a challenge." Alice looked down at the papers spread out and took a deep breath.

"Let’s assume he was on the verge of creating life with runecraft but failed, then it would make sense. After all, being told everything rather than discovering it would give different results." With a deep sigh, she turned to the book again and ground her teeth, "But there are ways of doing it without being abnixous."

Taking a seat, she leaned against her hand and tapped her cheek, thinking about what she had just read. Like before, the entire book was written to sound smart whilst seemingly leaving out anything of worth. To a normal person, it was useless; the truths hidden inside it were only visible with deep research. Even Alice couldn’t be sure she had learnt everything the book was saying, knowing that the dead man had likely hidden secrets within secrets just because he could.

"He could have at least left his name." With a huff, she returned to her analysis. The core thought of the book she had read was both creation. Creation of artefacts and creation of life.

With a click of the tongue, she pushed anything related to creating life out of her mind. It was both useless to her at the moment and difficult to decipher. Thinking about artfacts instead, she looked down at the quill the man had created.

’Everything is an artefact if everything is runecraft. With this thought, are we making soemthing new or altering the existing? If the former, then we have achieved godhood; if the latter, we tampered with God’s creation.’

Alice narrowed her gaze. Once more, the key point she picked out from the entire book was a rambling mess, but the first sentence struck her. To a normal Magi who didn’t study runecraft, it was nothing, but having seen what the man could create and her own breakthrough earlier, she understood the deeper meaning behind his words. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

’When we create an artefact, it is about finding the correct materials to apply the rune. Then it means everything can be altered to a degree so long as the rune doesn’t change the fundamental nature of the object. To do so, you would have to destroy what you wish to enscibe.’

Alice looked past the quill down at her hand.

’If everything is runecraft, and he is correct, what is stopping someone from applying runes to their body. But how would one even go about that? For someone so dedicated to this craft, he must have tested that on people or himself if he was crazy enough.’

Clicking her tongue, Alice jumped up from the bed and sighed, "I need to go back to the cave." Her focus at the time had been on the quill and research, not the man’s body itself. The bones he had scattered to solve his puzzle bore runes that partially proved her theory, but there was a difference between engraving a rune on a corpse and on oneself. If his thoughts were correct and he was crazy enough, even if it’s only bones left, he likely carved a rune on himself at some point to prove his theories correct.

’Lets hope he was mad enough to try and draw on his own bones and not just his skin when he was alive.’

Unlocking the door, Alice first stopped to get some food, finally noticing how hungry she was and stepped out. In the distance, the sun was slowly rising as the people of HazelTown made their way to the temple across the street. Alice watched them for a moment, the hymns coming from the building slowly calling out to her. Looking towards the screaming statue, she felt a connection between the two and made her way towards it.

"Girl." Stepping outside, a priest stopped her, trying their best to smile, "Why is a Magi trying to come in here?" Alice frowned and scoffed.

"I want to go in. Is that not allowed?" The priest frowned but said nothing and stepped aside. Walking forward, she watched as the people took their seats and found a free place. Many threw her strange looks, wondering why a Magi was joining them for a sermon, but said nothing and gave their full attention ot the priest at the front of the temple, who raised his hands.

"Ignorance is a sin." The priest’s voice was low but carried across the temple, for everyone to hear, "Ignorance of the Lord’s benevolence. Ignorance of his warnings and teachings. Ignorance is a sin, one we must always remember. Praise the Lord, but fear them. Love the Lord, but never believe yourself chosen. Let the Lord be your teacher, your father and mother, but never forget they are above us."

The priest lowered his hands and looked around, "The Lord of Creation sits above all, he is the omniscient, omnipotent, the author and the eternal." The priest took a deep breath and lowered his head, bringing his necklace to his lips. Around the people of HazelTown did the same, kissing their fingers if they didn’t have a necklace, "The Lord of Chivarly and Repentance is their justice, their sword, their grace, and their forgiveness."

Carrying out the same actions, Alice watched as some people didn’t bow for the second God’s name, instead only offering a respectful nod, "The Lord of Joy and Sorrow, is their sun, their rain, their love and despair." Once more, he bowed, with another mix of people only giving a respectful nod. "The Lord of Harvest is their gift to us."

The priest paused and looked around, stopping, without saying more, knowing that within HazelTown no other god was worshipped, "Praise be the Creator and his children. Praise be the Creator and his kin, praise be the Creator."

"Praise be." Around a chorus echoed the word back to the priest as he finally opened the book on his table. Alice frowned and stood up.

"ECXUSE ME!" Shouting out, there were a few sharp gasps that someone would interrupt the priest, but Alice paid it no mind and looked out the open doors at the statue of Azwald, "Is that who he is crying to?"

"A Magi..." The priest frowned, but seeing Alice’s innocent eyes looking towards him, truly intrigued, he smiled and closed the book again, "A wayward soul. Everybody, do not fault the lost when they wish to be free of their ignorance and sin." The priest stared into Alice’s eyes, "You are correct, young girl. Saint Azwald was the one who opened humanity’s eyes to the truth of the Lord Creator when this land was infested with heretics and pagans."

"So why is he crying?" Alice asked, making the priest softly chuckle.

"For he committed a sin that would forever leave him separate from the Lord he loved. His teaching, his actions, showed us the sin of arrogance, but also the sin of ignorance. The ignorance to believe we know better than the Lord. For his actions, he was whipped and flayed, yet that pain wasn’t what made him cry but the pain of knowing he could never grace his eyes upon the Lord again." Alice’s eyes narrowed as she looked back at the statue.

"That’s not fair." Clicking her tongue, she stepped out of her seat into the aisle, "If he is crying so much, I would have forgiven him. He is obviously showing he is sorry."

"He was forgiven, but not how he wished."

"Then the Lord isn’t fair." The temple fell silent. The priest coldly stared at Alice before taking a deep breath. Raising his hand, he stopped the gathers from hurling insults towards Alice.

"This is the ignorance we speak of. The ignorance to understand the Lord’s mercy." Alice went to speak but was stopped by the priest as he continued, "Magi, I understand your teachings have guided your soul along the wrong path, and I will pray for you, but do not step into these holy grounds and preach what is right and wrong, when all you hold dear is knowledge without restraint."

"But he’s crying. Why does it matter if he made a mistake?"

"Do you forgive a murderer because he cried? A rapist, a degenerate. No, you punish them in line with their sin. Because punishment is fair and just. Humanity must strive to achieve a common good, and that good is the Lord’s teachings. Without it, there would be no justice or mercy, but chaos." Alice shook her head, feeling it was wrong.

Grabbing her head, she rubbed her hair and sighed, "If people do bad things, why let them do it. If I were God, I would never let that happen. Make it so everyone is good."

"Careful, Magi." The priest’s voice was sharp, "Your words could be considered heresy, and on these grounds, your heathen tower couldn’t protect you. For the good of your soul, please leave or sit and stay silent. Maybe you can learn the truth that way."

Weighing up the options, Laice shook his head and left. Everything she heard sounded stupid, like the dead man books. Fancy words that sounded fancy just because they could. At least with the dead man, his words were built around an art he perfected. Looking back at the temple and seeing the priest continue, she couldn’t help but shake her head at their stupidity.