“The Nyon do not understand what needs to be
done.” the man was saying. “They never will, and they have allowed
misguided ideals hold them back.”
One of the others in the circle of young
Nyon took a step forward, addressing the man in the centre.
“What are you saying, Redgarn?”
Ion felt his breath seize, and heard the
sharpest of gasps escape Vestra from his right.
“That’s …
him
.” came Qyro’s stunned
voice, standing by his left. “Redgarn … was a
Nyon
!”
Redgarn, the cloaked man in the centre, was
in the prime of his youth. He was tall and thin, and had a
powerful, radiant demeanor. His face shone with a promise of
greatness and nobility. He belonged to no known species, with no
feature of appearance distinguishing him. But his hair was deep
brown and tidy, and his features were nourished with a youthful
glow.
“I am saying only that which you already
know yourselves, my good friends,” He carried his eyes slowly over
the circle of men, pausing carefully to let his powerful gaze sink
into each one of them. “I am saying that we have been gifted. We
have been given a gift of great enormity … and that we are wasting
it.”
A slight stirring effect passed the crowd of
Nyon.
“Wasting it?” asked one of them, tilting his
head as he gazed at the one at the centre.
“Yes,” replied Redgarn in his continuing
smooth, powerful voice. “We have been given a gift. A gift of
superiority. But we are not utilising it, are we? No, if anything,
we are living as inferiors. And significantly enjoying it.”
Some of the young men looked at each other,
while others held a deadpan stare at Redgarn. Most of their
expressions had now transformed from curiosity to disapproval. But
some of them continued to look very faintly curious…
“Tell me honestly,” Redgarn’s voice crept
softer. “Tell me, brothers, is this really order? Is this really
justice?” He threw his head back and uttered a rough laugh that
lifted the peace in the room. “No. this is deception. This is
slavery.
Slavery that has come about through a blinded
delusion. And the enslaved have been held so through this delusion
that has covered their eyes, blotting the truth for millennia.”
“Delusion?” growled one of the men, stepping
forward. “Did you just imply that the great empire is-”
“I did not imply anything, my fellow
brother,” said Redgarn, dropping his tone to a pleasant, alluring
one as he faced his challenger. “I am merely exposing you to
reality. I am but an instrument of destiny. And destiny calls for
change. For justice … and for truth. And so, today, I make my
stand, to honour the truth that has gone misplaced for ages now. I
show you the truth, and ask you to search your hearts to accept it
as well…”
As Redgarn spoke, he left a silent, molten
power to linger after his words. His speech was ignited with the
brilliance of his words, capable of moving anyone who heard them.
Ion was almost half led to believe that this man truly did stand
for goodness and for change … while he quietly swayed the room with
these slowly building twisted ideas.
“And what is this truth, which you have
accepted,” asked one of them, a faintest brush of real curiosity
hidden in his challengeful tone. “And which you want us to accept
as well?”
“Only this,” Redgarn whirled around, letting
his eyes flow over the other young Nyon in a full circle. “That our
great brethren of the Nyon are not meant as such. We, as the great,
gifted beings that we are, are not meant to lie below the feet of
such woeful establishments. Of structures so flimsy they fall apart
on the merest prod.
No
, we, the great brotherhood of the
Nyon,
are not meant to work under the Kings of the empire.
We are not meant to go about with the dirtywork of the empire which
has come about only through the sweat of our toil, and through the
glow of our knowledge. The Nyon must not serve the empire,
the
empire must serve the Nyon.
”
A short, slightly rigid silence…
“Must we all blind ourselves to the sheer,
undisputable truth based on childish ideals of
equality
?”
went on Redgarn. “Must we, really? Who among us here can deny that
we are
not
equals with the world outside in every manner?
That we are unique? That we are far greater in the echelons of
creation than
them
? That we are
gifted
and that our
gifts, gifts incomparable to any other, place us in elevated
positions that the rest of mankind? Who among us can deny that we
are greater than other ordinary men … because we are
mystics
, the pinnacle of evolution of the human mind, and
the precipice of creation? Who among us can deny this? Will you
delude yourselves with the idea that all men are really equal? Will
you blind yourselves to the undeniable truth that we are greater
beings than them? Who among us can deny it?”
A faint stirring brushed past the circle of
men. They were clearly unnerved by what they were hearing. It
clearly caused a slight discord in them and the ideals that they
knew they stood for.
And yet … some of them almost looked to want
to accept what they heard, as much as they couldn’t.
“Step aside from the delusive ideals the
Nyon have been blinded to, and accept the truth. The truth … it
rings in our minds, and yet we choose to ignore it. This, brethren,
is the truth. We have been given power. We are placed at a superior
position than others. And this gives us the right, the responsible
right, to lead them. To guide them. And to
rule
them…”
As silence fell again, the air seemed to
climb with a heavy tenseness … some of the cloaked figures turned
to the others with confused and slightly trepidative looks. They
were now beginning to grow wary of what was being fed to them. And
yet, a silent sense of thrill was growing in the air. Redgarn’s
speech left a twin edged effect in the men. The fluent glow of his
speech incited a new call in them. A call that struggled for
supremacy against their conscience and their reason.
It was evident that despite their
disapproval of what they were hearing, they yearned to believe … to
follow him.
But some of them were clearly not
fooled…
One of the young men stepped forward, taking
himself to within a few feet to Redgarn. But when the young man
spoke, there was no challenge in his voice. Just a calm that gave
him an almost fluidic tone.
“I understand what you are trying to state
here. But,” The man shook his head. “The idea of establishing
supremacy
, on the basis of being greater…” The man sighed.
“Redgarn, Redgarn. This is rather intriguing. How is it possible
that those
greater of mind
, those more
spiritually
elevated
, can sink to such
low levels of thought?
”
Redgarn turned to face the new challenger,
two feet before him. The spark of anger in his eyes was gone as
soon as it had come. “Now, believe me. I do not go around spewing
dogmatic ideas just because you think I do. I know what I’m saying.
I know it to be of complete genuine brilliance. I just accept a
bold method of bringing my greater mindedness into aid for the
world.”
“But that’s where you’re sinking.” said the
other man, and he gave a short, amused chuckle. “You’re saying that
you can do a better job of ruling the world than the great empire
itself? The Kings borne of the blood of Elderon? That should imply
that if you were our King, this world would rejoice under a greater
golden age than the one we face now. I find that,” The man clucked
his tongue. “slightly hard to believe.”
“Believe what you want.” Redgarn’s voice
turned very mildly rough. “There are facts that slip the capture of
less minded. And this is one of them. If you want to continue being
less minded, go on and wipe the soles of those Kings who’ve held
our brotherhood back for millennia!”
“Kings who’ve held back our brotherhood, but
have managed to keep up peace and stability for millennia.” quipped
the challenger.
Ion sensed fury loosening on Redgarn’s face
slowly. But when he spoke, he managed to hide his anger behind the
same smoothened etiquette that his words flowed with. “All I’m
saying, good friend, is that the world was meant to be as such. It
was meant to be the way I now declare it. The pyramid of power is
built with us on top. The power to rule is our right. But this
right is not for us, but for the sakes of the people we live
amidst. Because they need our light and our guidance.”
“Well as an eye opener,” said the other man,
his challengeful tone just as smoothened as Redgarn’s. “to guide,
and to shower light upon our people, we
serve
them. Not
rule
them, and as a member of the Nyon, you must have
clearly studied the difference between them in depths. Because
ruling them implies that we are greater than them, and that is a
very sadly misplaced lie. We most certainly are not. We are equals
with the rest. And we will behave as such.”
Redgarn stepped closer to the face of his
challenger. His voice was now washed of all smoothness, and now
came as a deadly hiss: “This is how deluded you have been made to
become. You chew and digest utter humbug that the Kings weave to
keep you under your control!”
The escalating tempers now begun to loosen
control over the two of them: when the challenger replied, his
voice was teetering on the edge of an angry outburst. “We
choose
to be under their control, fool! The Nyon do not
answer to anyone but themselves … to their own conscience. And we
know what we do is but the highest nobility. The empire is the
highest nobility, and its Kings have proved their nobility to us.
If they had not, we would not serve them. We serve goodness,
justice. And your words show us that you’re nothing but a deluded,
twisted little fiend. You consider your mystic powers as some sort
of right to rule? Some kind of weapon with which you can subjugate
the world to your will?”
“We subjugate people to our will because we
were meant to!” growled Redgarn, the fury rising dangerously in his
voice. “Because we were marked by creation as greater minds, and we
fail to accept and embrace the fact that the world is less in
evolution than we are! Well, enough of equality. It’s time to show
the world that we’re not equals any more than ants are equals with
lions. Lions rule the jungle!”
“This is not a jungle,” said the other man.
“This is an empire. An establishment of men. Not
savages
.”
Redgarn took a step forward, his eyes boring
lethally into the other man’s. The first, faint traces of madness
were now seeping into his youthly features, distorting them …
turning them almost bestial. For the first time, Ion could identify
a creature that had enslaved the world and ravaged it as he looked
at the man standing in the centre, glaring at the man opposite to
him.
“If you don’t mind me pointing out,” came
the voice of one of the other men, as he stepped out of the circle
and paused to turn to the others. “We don’t have the luxury of time
to spend all day sitting here in this debate. We have a schedule to
keep to.”
That seemed to knock the rest of the
youngsters into reality as well. Together, the circle disbanded and
the entire lot of young students filed out of the room through the
door across it. As the crowd drained, two men were left standing in
the centre of the room, locked in a steely glare with each
other.
Redgarn took another step forward towards
the one who had challenged him, his eyes containing such a mighty
fury that Ion thought whatever they fell upon might sear and
broil…
“I’ve worked on this long and hard,” he
said, his voice leaving him as a deadly whisper. “And if you … or
anyone else gets in my way,” He brought his hands before the other
man’s throat, making a show of enclosing them around his throat.
“Hell won’t know fury…”
And with that, Redgarn turned, his cloak
leaping around, and swept out of the room.
The three of them stood there, watching the
man who had challenged Redgarn. Ion looked at the other two, and
saw that they had been just as intensely absorbed in the goings on
as he was.
“Well, that was entertaining.” said
Qyro.
Ion turned back to the man left in the room.
A man who had mustered the boldness to oppose a wrongful ideal … a
man who had probably died in vain, along with all the other
innocent members of the Brotherhood who had died opposing Redgarn
ages back.
But as the man sighed and turned to face the
window which the three of them stood in front of … Ion felt shock
erupt within him. And his mouth fell wide open.
Mantra was tall and thin. He had long brown
hair that fell to his shoulders at the back, and was tidy at the
front. His face bore a youthly radiance. But the glow of his
handsome features were marred by a new worry. He stared out the
window that the three of them now stood in front of.
And the voice drew over the world again, the
echo reaching it from across a distant chasm, bearing an unbearable
grief… the weight of millennia.
“I watched the tale unfold myself.” said the
voice of the real Mantra, the one speaking as the vision played.
“Watched the most tragic story weave through the events around me …
helpless. Unable to stop it.”