I have no recollection of how long I stood there staring blankly intothe void, for the sun was hidden behind the darkened sky. I have nomemory of that period until I saw two short forms coming towards me inthe distance. They walked slowly and methodically, as if they were nothurried on by any physical concerns. As they drew near, I saw them to beOnan and Zimri, the Lords of Past and Future. When they arrived I wasawakened from the trance that I had fallen into, and I gave them aslight bow, for I was still standing upright. The look on their faceswas one of sorrow, for no matter how many times they had seen thedestruction of humanity, each time it brought only fresh, poignantsorrow.
Onan was the first to speak, breaking the silence with a long, hopelesssigh, "My dear Jehu," he said, "This age has come to a close."
I could say nothing, for Bernibus' face was still gazing at me in mymemory.
"Do not be saddened by grief or guilt, Jehu, for it is what has alwayshappened. It is not your fault, for the events that you have witnesseddo not have their roots in your time or in this one, but in the veryfoundation of the world. It is not your actions that caused this, butrather the accumulated momentum of all the ages of humanity, for theyare history, and history reigns by influence. There were no rightchoices and no wrong choices for you, for the power of the kinsmanredeemer is not in himself, but in the way that those around him reactto what he signifies. In every age before this you have done the same,as you will in every age after this as well. You were humanity's lastchance, yet it is not up to you to change their course: it is up to themto change their own."
Here I raised my head from its dull droop and looked questioningly intohis eyes. "What do you mean," I asked, "That I did not prevent it in anyof the other ages? How could I exist in any other age but this?"
"Then you do not understand?"
"Why else would I ask?" I faintly smiled.
"These are the Ice Ages, the end of an age of history. Every time thatthe temporal continuum revolves around eternity, it has a new age, muchlike the years of the earth as it revolves around the sun. When theatomic anionizers went off, they did on a large scale what they weredesigned to do on a small scale: reverse the poles through an extremeelectric charge, by injecting countless solitary electrons into theatoms. But with so many of them exploded at once, they did this to theearth itself, reversing its poles. It was a theory at your time that thepoles reversed about every 170,000 years, this is because that is howlong an age is.
"When the earth's poles were reversed, it brought all to desolation,excepting you, for you were protected by the suit. But while this is theending of all life on earth, in a way it is also the beginning, for yousee, Jehu, you have just witnessed the Big Bang. In a few days, at thelongest, you will die yourself, for there is no food or water for youhere, but inside of your anti-electron suit, your remains will beprotected. Slowly the earth will regenerate, and when conditionssuitable for life have been once more returned, your suit will be blownagainst a rock somewhere and broken open. From that little hole, theatoms of life, your life, will escape into the atmosphere and grow andevolve until they become like what things were before you were born.Then the process will be repeated. You are not only the one whosymbolizes the destruction of humanity, but also the one who symbolizesthe rebirth of humanity. You are the beginning and the end, in a sense,a descendant of yourself, simultaneously the father and the son. Youwill be born again through your own descendants, and will once againbecome the kinsman redeemer. It is your destiny, there is no other way.You are the White Eagle."
"You only confuse me more, what is this White Eagle?"
"Do you remember when we first met, in the Chambers of History? On thedome of the ceiling there was a sculpture mural, and in it was a WhiteEagle, holding many lords and ladies in its talons while it soared farabove the lands, and those on the land were worshiping it. You are theWhite Eagle. You hold all of humanity in your hands, for you are thefather of all men, they all descend from you, including you, yourself.You were the White Eagle, for the altar had no power, the power was onlyin you.
"Those who worshiped you were those who worship time, in either of itsforms, past or future. Those who worship the past recognize theinfluence of history, and they understand that there are taboos andtraditions created through mutual experience. These traditions reign inhumanity by keeping men from actions that lead to pain and suffering.But they do not understand that while it influences mankind, the pastdoes not control them, for it is gone, and it will never come again. Intheir strict keeping of traditions, they focus on the physical act ofthe tradition, while neglecting the spiritual principle behind thetradition. If you keep only the physical form of the principle, you havenothing.
"On the other hand, those who worship the future neglect the past andthe valuable lessons that it teaches. They believe that there is somemoral advancement that places them above those that have come before,they believe that the people of the past were blinded to the truth, andthat the revelation of the truth in the present supersedes thetraditions of the past. But they are wrong as well, for humanity ishumanity, and those of the past were no more ignorant than those atpresent. The people of the past fell into the same traps as the those inthe present, and both suffer the same consequences.
"While one group remembers only the physical display of the spiritualtruth, the other rejects the spiritual truth because of its physicaldisplay. Those who worship the future break taboos because theyrecognize that the mere physical manifestation of the truths is nottheir entire essence, but they reject the spiritual truth as well. Whentaboos are broken, there is nothing gained, but everything lost, for thephysical traditions at least lead to the knowledge of the spiritual lawsto those who seek such wisdom. One taboo is broken, but as there is nosatisfaction in the breaking of taboos, every one of them is broken insuccession. Then there is no limit to the immorality that is left tofreely roam the hearts of men, and when immorality, the breaking of thespiritual laws, is widely propagated, there is spiritual suffering. Whenthis spiritual suffering begins to accumulate and is translated intophysical suffering, the people see what is happening, how their verysociety is crumbling to ruin around them. Yet instead of recognizing thetruth of what is happening, they see the traditions of the past as thecause of their problems, and continue to make their plight worse. Thisdownward spiral continues until at last we find ourselves where we arenow, at the end of an age."
"But what else is there to do?" I asked Onan, 'If both the past and thefuture lead to ruin?"
"The answer is in the present, my dear Jehu, for if one focuses on thespiritual laws that bring good or evil, and acts according to them,instead of their physical counterparts and manifestations, then thingswill thrive and become prosperous. What is evil brings evilconsequences, and what is good brings good consequences, over time. Theends define the means, just as the fruit shows the tree to be eithergood or bad. These spiritual laws become known and remembered, not whythey are so, but simply that they are so. No one can question why, formorality is observed through its effects, just as science is. Whenpeople observe that one thing brings good and another bad, they rememberto stay away from the bad things and cling to the good. Over time theseevolve into taboos and social restrictions, not meaningless lawsenforced by tyrants for their own reasons, but rules that are observedby all because the are the laws of the spiritual realm and governphysical life. But when the people forget what the traditions represent,then all is lost, and either of the two paths that present themselveslead to ruin."
"But why do not men see?"
"Because they are rooted too strongly in the physical realm, and cannot,or will not, see the spiritual. What they see as happiness is not thespiritual matter that is happiness, but the physical actions therepresent happiness. What they see as love is not love in the spiritualsense, only its manifestation in the physical realm. When they see thehappiness that comes from a spiritual connection, they seek after it.But they do not seek after the actual essence of the spiritualconnection, yet after its physica
l counterpart, marriage. This they takeand defile, and when they go through the physical actions of thespiritual marriage but forsake the very thing that makes it bringhappiness, they are left without any real sense of satisfaction, withoutany real happiness.
"You must understand that the physical manifestation of the spiritualforce is not the spiritual force at all, only a bland deception. If youonly focus on what you can see directly, than you chase after only therepresentation and not the object desired. If a bird is flying throughthe sky at noontime, casting a shadow on the ground below him, and a mancomes along, and in the hope of catching the bird chases after itsshadow, it is evident that he will never catch it, for when he doesreach it, he will find that there is nothing there at all, only theshadow of what it was he desired. So it is with the spiritual!"
"Yes, I think that I am beginning to understand."
"Excellent. If only I could tell you more, but I must go, my dear Jehu,for Father Temis is in mourning for his children, and I must go tocomfort him."
"I thought that you and Zimri were his children?" I asked.
"You are all his children. He is patient, ever so patient, but stillthey fall by the wayside, too caught up in their false perception torest in him. Fare thee well, Jehu, may you be blessed ere you must die."
And with that, Onan and Zimri turned and walked away in the otherdirection, never to be seen by me again, in this age. I took a lookaround me, and could not bear to remain any longer in a place of suchill remembrance. Turning slowly and despondently to the westward, Ibegan to walk over the lifeless mass of what had been the ocean not toolong ago. For how long I walked, I could not tell, but in due time Ireached Daem, though it was no more hospitable than the mainlands, forall was laid to ruin by the Big Bang, all was equally devoid of life.
When I came to what had been the center of the savanna, I came acrosssomething that had survived the blast, being unearthed from its previousburial hole by the force of the anionizer's explosion. It was a two footby two foot box, made of a strange metallic substance with an intricateetching along its top. Written there in its center were these words:
"Temporal Anomaly Box, Number 12, Location: Central Savanna"
I took the lid off carefully, though it was in perfect condition and Idid not need to treat it so, and looked inside of it. There was anotebook and a pen there, both capable of producing a large of amount ofenduring text. This was one of the boxes that had been taken backthrough time in the experiments of the Zards and Canitaurs, designed towithstand any conditions, and to hold its contents for countless ages,until they should be retrieved and studied. I sat down on the ground andbegan to write my story down, in order to assist whoever takes the jobof kinsman redeemer in the next age. I knew that it would have all beenforgotten, so I made sure to carefully record it, for it could mean thedifference between the life and death of humanity.
This was only hours ago, and now I have reached the end my tale. If byany chance you come upon this in some subsequent age, I beg you to takeheed, for what I have written will surely come to pass once more ifsomething is not done to prevent it. There is nothing else for me tosay, for this is the end of my story, and within the next day I willalso pass over to the spiritual realm. What, then, can I say to bringthis to a close, for this is neither the end nor the beginning. Isuppose all that can be said is this:
DEJA VU (THE END)
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