DUALITY: The World of Lies (40 page)

“This stretch of land you see was at that time
no different than the western side of this wall; it was all
eco-zone. That is the strength and life-force of the planet, its
wilds. But Kong could not bear to allow the famines to continue in
the Rubelian Empire and so formed this agrarian nation to relieve
the hunger on the far side of the Taiji. And here was placed this
wall, not so much as a physical barrier, but as a demarcation for
the ages of how much Occitania would give of itself to the
Rubelians. And for the past three centuries, it has served its
purpose.

“When that was done, and peace and order came
to the Arathian subcontinent, he withdrew from power entirely and
entered into new fields. Everything he touched turned to gold. If
he painted a portrait, he painted a masterpiece for the ages. When
he authored a book, it immediately fell among the classic tombs of
wisdom. He was a great man, gifted and renowned, but there was a
problem. He could not bear the ways of society. The disease of the
mind that spreads from man to man by way of platitude, illogic,
lies.... that which inverts what is good to seem evil, and evil to
be justified as goodness. Men who wish to control what they have
and justify the denial of it to others. The same poison that had
caused the time of wars he had been born into was still sewed into
the minds of men, destined to repeat the cycle. The mechanics of
Samsara, he wrote, is not that what man receives through his senses
is false, but how his mind has been programmed to perceive that
which he senses and, through that filter, perverts its true
form.

“You may be able to relate, young one. What
brought you here is what you are, a Truth-seeker in The World of
Lies. That is as lonely a path for you as it was for Kol Kong. In
my own youth, I was chosen for The Service, and I accepted my
appointment with pride. I worked my way through the officers’ ranks
to Commodore and received command over a homeworld battlegroup of
209 ships. As I rose in rank, the duties became more and more
diplomatic. And I noticed all the same human failings were
ubiquitous in The Service, and the governing organs of Arath and
the Pangea. The Order, that speaks with such flowering terms and
honors their own benevolence and wisdom, are similarly no
different. It's just an elaborate cover for their real aims of
maintaining their power and position. It seems the smarter one is,
the more they shroud themselves in lies to protect their power and
dominion over others. You've heard us in conference, Gahre, and all
the trappings of power and honor they demand. But their words
are... are...“

“Banal? Hypocritical? Sanctimonious?” offered
Meimei.

“Yes, thank you dear. Sanctimonious bastards,
the lot of them! I read the works of Kol Kong. In the end, as he
grew ever more reclusive, he took to the Pangea to practice The Way
and assimilate to nature, to leave the filthy world of man behind.
And it's said that the Great Sage passed through Tulan in those
days and wandered into the Mountains of Immutability never to be
seen again. That was more than three centuries ago. I, having read
his works and feeling them connect to my living soul, resigned my
military post and traveled to Tulan determined to search out The
Mountain Sage and become a disciple of his divine
wisdom.”

Gahre was moved to speak. “Honored One, you
know I am of Tulan bordering those mountains, and I think I have
proven myself an intrepid explorer, but it is a known fact they are
an unnavigable domain. This sage, he was surely a great man indeed,
but still a mortal man, and so likely did not survive there. And
even if he had, the measure of a man's years cannot extend into a
third century, much less a fourth!”

“Gahre, my son, I swear to you, he lives. I
feel it! The master chose to segregate himself from the world of
man. Such was his wisdom and genius, nothing could that world offer
him. All it could do was take and take of him. All genres of
literature, all fields of art and science, all doctrines, even the
Dharmas… they blend together and become derivative of one another
then ring hollow to a man such as Kol Kong. The Master draws from
the Great Void where all concepts are unified and undifferentiated,
and he gives them to the world so that it might be nourished. But
the common man, he delights in the worldly, seeks the worldly and
falls prey to his own senses, to lusts and greed which are never
satiated. There is no other way out of The World of Lies than The
Great Way: to give up all worldly claims and desires and to provide
to the world as nature does, with no thought of reward. Thus The
Sage has hidden himself away so that he may live in accordance with
these principles of nature and be protected by them. The Sage, my
son, is no less than the caretaker of this world, the heart and
life of it. But to find him, you must overcome his defenses, which
are mighty indeed. I failed in this journey, but not entirely. I
struggled through those lonely mountains, treacherous step by
treacherous step, amid visions so horrifyingly real that they drive
a man to insanity. I had to give up everything to find him, even my
own life. The torment and bodily suffering became too great for my
soul to bear, and I turned back. When I did, there was the village
spread out before me in an instant. Safety, civilization, material
comfort. And then something happened that was not my doing but the
master's through me. I ascended, Gahre. I rose meteorically to
staggering heights, into the leadership of The Order, and then to
the head of it! And it did not stop there. Everything aligned in my
path politically so that I rose too in the ranks of the Arathian
governance into its council, and from there to its Chancellor. In
five years time, I found myself seated at the summit of every
governing body on Occitania, all unified at long last under my
administration. The Master, who I sought so that I might rise above
the sophistry and evils of the world of men, instead placed me at
the pinnacle of it, and I work its grimy wheels in service to
him.”

Gahre was processing a lot of information: the
ways of the machine world, the true history of this world and
Indulu's remarkable position in it. Dead or alive, this Mountain
Sage did indeed hold weighty influence over the world as its leader
clearly venerated him. He further reasoned that if the Mountain
Sage lives, and he were to find him and be his disciple, he would
have authority over Indulu, and by extension, the entire world! He
quickly dismissed the prospect. Who would want that kind of
responsibility?

A loud jarring melody broke out from Indulu's
watch. Apparently watches could play music as well. How clever that
was, Gahre thought. Indulu spoke into it, and it spoke back in
words he did not understand, probably Arathian language again.
Their tone carried a clear sense of urgency as Indulu continued
talking to his wrist. As he was doing so, Indulu paced to the
eastern edge of the wall looking about, when a white bean-shaped
pod suddenly levitated up before him and hovered over the wall,
giving Gahre a start. Meimei touched his arm reassuringly as it
landed. A door, where there appeared to be none, opened downward
revealing an interior with seats and more machine devices. There
were two men inside, soldiers perhaps, in impeccable shiny uniforms
and talking into the gadgetry of their helms.

“My apologies, I have to handle something.
Meimei, keep the young man company til I return,” announced
Indulu.

“Yes, Uncle.”

The seamless door of the pod closed as soon as
Indulu entered. Gahre tracked its departure watching intently as it
rose above the parapets and then suddenly whooshed off at great
speeds into the horizon and over it.

Meimei sat down on the stone pavers and warned
him to not be startled as she projected another light picture with
images and voices that she flipped at with her hand to produce new
pictures with new voices, over and again, in rapid procession
before saying, “System, close display” -and it all vanished as
instantly as it had appeared.

Gahre took a seat across from her. “What is
happening, child?”

“Uncle Indulu just got a com from one of our
security agents. They were discussing something about a terrorist
attack on the borders of the Anarchies, which you probably don't
know, but they are distressed chaotic lands in the center of the
subcontinent. Maybe the Cybergenetic FreeMen Group again, I'm not
sure. I can't find anything. It's probably being suppressed on the
networks for “purposes of public order” or whatever.” She rolled
her eyes.

“That sounds quite serious.”

“Pffff. It happens,” she shrugged. “May I
touch your hair?”

“As you please, girl.”

She stroked at his long dirty mangled locks,
and then drew her hand back with a shriek. “Spider!” she
exclaimed.

Gahre grabbed that section of his hair and
pulled it before his face to examine it. A big black tree spider
was indeed nesting in there. “How long have you been hiding there?”
he asked as he brushed it away nonchalantly.

Meimei jumped a bit, spinning her head all
around, as if the spider might come running back to bite her. Gahre
laughed.

“You're so filthy!” she exclaimed.
“You know, I've never seen a man like you. You are very strong. And
you would be quite handsome if you were cleaned up a bit... or
a
lot
. You're like
that eco-zone you just walked through, crawling with icky
organisms. Tics and spiders and heaven-knows what else. How do you
stand it?”

“You learn to adapt,” he told her plainly. The
pigtailed doll of a girl had her big brown eyes focused entirely on
him now. Seeing into them, Gahre sensed there was something much
more exceptional about her than his initial impression of the
childish temerity she projected of herself. There had to be. Indulu
would not have taken her as his apprentice otherwise.

“Is it true you ambushed the bandit Har Darox
and apprehended him and his men?” she asked.

“Aye, young one. I'm surprised you’ve heard
tell of it.”

“I follow news of the Pangea, what I can get
of it. You are a hunter?”

“Aye, since I was younger than you, I learned
to fell beast, an indispensable art that has kept me fed on this
long journey.”

“There's no hunting on this side of the wall.
We have eco-zones. Some you can visit, but hunting is strictly
forbidden.”

“Yes, we have similar rules in my village. Of
course there is always poaching.. not that I advocate it as a
general rule, but with ill considered hunting bans where creatures
like fishers are making a nuisance for people, sometimes it's
acceptable to break the law, you know, if it's an ill-considered
one like that.”

“Oh, there is no poaching in the Arathian
eco-zones, dark stranger. The animals are all tracked by machine,
and the entire zone is surveilled perpetually around the clock. You
would be apprehended before you even pulled the
trigger.”

“In this machine world, one does not need to
hunt or farm or craft, yes? So what trades do folk take
up?”

She smiled. “What I do is attend lessons and
lessons and lessons morning to night. I'm surprised my brain hasn't
exploded yet. And, honestly, sometimes I wish it would.”

“I don't think that much schooling is healthy
for a child. As schoolboy in Tulan I attended four or five hours of
daily lessons. School lets out in the early afternoon so that we
may attend sports or chores or play, or attend the work of the
family business. And of course, in the sowing and harvest seasons,
there is no school as we are compelled to work the
fields.”

“God, I wish were in a Pangean school,” she
mused. “I guess I should thank you. Uncle pulled me from my lessons
today for this. You must be very important, dark
stranger.”

“No, child, I'm surely no one of great
significance. I sought out a truth that was hidden from me and
drove me mad with curiosity. Now here today I've found it. Indulu's
tale has further opened my eyes to this new reality.”

She leaned to whisper, although there was no
one else about. “You know why he told you that tale, don't you? He
wants you to seek out the old ascended master. No one else is brave
enough, not like you! You've crossed the world as no one before
ever has, with stoic determination and no fear of death. But I'll
tell you something of Uncle... he's not really my uncle, you
know?”

“I gathered that when you described your
lineage. He is your master?”

“Yes, but that's a secret.”

“One I will keep, child. The man is dear to me
as well.”

“Good. Then you must tell no one of how he and
his inner circle saved you in the Sea of Sand. His political
opponents would hammer him mercilessly for interfering like that.
It would be a scandal for him.”

“I see. Then I shall keep that secret as well,
clever one.”

“Well of course he could not just leave you to
die. What were you even thinking? Did you not know the span of
it?”

“Not in accurate measurement. It was just
deemed 'endless' which I did not believe.”

“You know something, dark stranger? Indulu is
more embroiled in that world of corruption he laments than anyone I
know. He and his Rubelian counterpart, a Machine Lord, are the old
order of our time. I just tell you this so you understand rightly
his role. It is that of keeping the status quo at all other
cost.”