He opened and walked out the door
The light from the large windows overlooking the vineyards made him squint temporarily and his eyes felt sore. Sara and the older woman were no longer standing there and there were two ways they could have gone. The way they had arrived at the room or further into the complex. He decided to head further in, even if they went the other way, he was feeling confident.
He found it odd that what he had just seen and what he had just done to what he had seen didn't seem unnatural at all. He had absorbed the life of a flaming monster through his eyes and it was normal.
He paused a moment, the tightness in the chest of an oncoming destiny was gone, he felt relaxed, calm and centered. Destiny had finally arrived.
She watched him enter
His pupils were pin pricks like the morning after a big night out, but his skin was glowing and there was an air of power around him, an aura of greatness. He had passed the test, otherwise he would not be walking with such grace, he may not be walking at all.
He hadn't been the first to apply for the job and is unlikely to be the last if track records are anything to go by. She had lost two already, two that were taken, two she still felt the pain of at all times. she had learned to live with the pressure of it though, learned how to use it as a source of strength. Their loss would not be in vain.
With the glow of the skin and the confidence in his gait, he looked much more impressive than he had before but the suit he wore was now little more than scorched threads. He looked at her as he entered the lounge area and flashed a smile, his first. She had seen his smile before but this was the first time he smiled fully as if a weight had been lifted off his chest. She knew that feeling well, it will pass, but with that smile, she felt something else also.
She watched them both
She had been doing this a long time and was still unsure if he would make it through unscathed yet, the experience seemed to have left no scars, if anything, he was stronger. Antifragile, strength drawn from the pressure.
She had seen it once before, but that had been from someone with a much more experienced resume than Max and, it had ended badly. When it comes to power, few handle it well and she wondered just how much potential he could extract and how it would change him.
She saw Sara's expression change as he smiled and understood. If she had been a few millennia younger, her heart might have fluttered a little too. She knew better than that though, life's inevitability always collects at some point or another.
It was time for her to remove his blindfolds of illusion and learn the truth of the world in which he lived, that all he had known was not as it seemed.
He stood smiling and looked at them both
"My name is Justine. Please, Sit."
She waited until he was settled and comfortable before beginning her story.
"You play chess, do you not? You need not answer, just listen. The board is checkered into alternating squares that each bind and are bound by those squares adjacent, but each is connected to four similar to itself at the corner points. There is the light and the dark pieces that travel the board in different ways, with different powers, different strengths and weaknesses.
Imagine a board so large you cannot see the sides with squares that keep stepping down in size, the closer you get. Even at the microscopic, the atomic levels, the squares exist. And at each layer, pieces are at work battling it out, seeing who will be victorious, which will vanquish, which will be vanquished, which will evolve and move to the next square.
Have you ever played against yourself? I know you have but how can you win? How do you beat yourself when you already know the moves you will make? If one is being honest, it is an impossibility is it not? You need not answer, just listen for now.
Imagine on this infinitely complex board with an infinite number of potential pieces and an infinite number of possible evolutions, you were trying to beat yourself. You were trying to get to the core of who you are and find the winner in an impossible game. The purpose of this is to discover who you truly are, to pit yourself against yourself until that point where there is only one possible move forward at all times, no option, just one. And you are playing at all levels and on all squares simultaneously.
Can you imagine that? Unlikely, but that is what is happening. This is a simulation, this is a game but there will never be an end for if there is, the board collapses, it is game over as every move possible would have already been made.
People are confused. They think there is an eternal fight, good against evil. This is not the case. Good and evil are in a symbiotic state, there is not one without the other. It is a simple relationship with differing views of how to play the game in order to reach the same point. We are not playing against each other, we are playing against it, and we are it.
It wants to end the game it started, for life to continue to exist, we cannot let it. This battle has raged for eternity thus far, the simulation has always been but it need not always be. This is confusing is it not? To know that what we fight for is relevance within an illusion?
What you have discovered today is that you are not a pawn in the game, you are an armoured piece, a warrior. What kind you are, we are yet to find out. Do you have any questions?"
"Yes. When do we start?"
"You do not want to know what side of the relationship we are on?"
"Does it matter?"
"No. We have already begun. As have you."
He did not need to ask, he already new the answer
Taraz
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