Monday

What is there to say about monday? Not much.
I dance on Mondy nights, but it's still a monday. At least this one isn't as bad as some other mondays.

Torn
29

Nearly all of the first year was spent just in comparing the data that they had gathered. Much of it was similar between the groups, but a good deal was different.

Unfortunately the data that was different still did not answer the questions that were waiting for answers. More questions were generated, and yet no answers seemed to fit.

The data that had been brought in was analyzed until all were sick of it, and yet no definite conclusions could be made.

Once all of the data had been determined to be inconclusive the mages moved onto the next stage of the investigation. The separated into specialized groups, each group taking a closer look into one problem area. More data was gathered in the space of one year than had been gathered in the decade before the mages decided to meet.

Even still, the data collected did not lead to any conclusions as to why the energies were being depleted.

Finally the mages assembled in a grand council. Together they were able to boost one of the members to one of the higher realms. That member was able, after some time, to get some of the answers that they had been lacking.

It was from this grand council that we learned of the highest realms, and the intentions of those on the highest. Unfortunately the information was slim and the mages still had to work what they learned from the higher realm beings into the information that they already had.

Working the information together and being able to draw definite conclusions was what took the rest of the five years.

The mages didn’t want to tell the people what they had concluded, but the people wanted answers. They wouldn’t leave the mages alone until they were told what the mages had discussed.

***

“Information has a way of traveling. Even beyond the borders of those first treaties people knew of what the mages had found.

Elves, being long lived, haven’t had enough time pass for the prophecies to fall into myth. Humans, however, don’t live long enough to have kept the prophecies in recent memory. For them it has worked its way into myth, and into their religions as well.

Do you have religions here that tell of the end of the world? Of a grand battle of good and evil?”

Julius had been talking for so long that for a moment Maureen didn’t even notice that she had been asked to respond.

She thought back to the times that she had actually looked at the bible, back to her childhood when she occasionally attended church services.

“I’m not a scholar of religions, and it has been many years since I even pretended to practice one myself. But I do seem to recall the foretelling of a grand battle between good and evil at the end of the world.”

“I’m not horribly surprised, for reasons that I will get to later.”

“So why do you ask?”

“Because that is exactly what the mages predicted.”

***

Beings from higher realms tend to eschew those from lower ones. Luckily the mage that was sent up found a being that was willing to talk, at least a little bit. He was told of the two on the highest level, locked into battle to determine the fate of creation.

He was also able to get a little more information.

Most people have a direct opponent. One-for-one. You determine your own strengths and abilities by the choices you make, and how you live will determine how you fare. The strange thing is that most people don’t actually meet this opponent. Small choices can destroy the chance of the two ever meeting.

A natural balance is kept in this non-meeting. Neither side is getting stronger because those of the other side are being killed off.

Now this didn’t explain why some of the energy streams had turned so dark. Even then the mages were well aware that the majority of creatures lie just on either side of neutral, neither purely good nor purely evil.

Just before leaving the mage the other being dropped one clue. Neutral parties don’t engage in war.

The single mage didn’t immediately know what to make of the strange statement. The assembled council figured it out soon enough though.

The tiny scrap of information that had been given was enough to tie all of the other information together.

The mages first re-examined the pull of the dark energies, and found that they were being diverted in very specific patterns. The energies were being used to make those who were evil more so. Eventually there would be creatures born that were only capable of evil.

But the mages also saw that in the diversion of the dark energies were being created beings that were increasingly light. Just as before, nature was maintaining a balance.

The mages also saw that this was a slow process. It would take thousands of years for the divide to become large enough to actually spark violence.

The mages also saw that even given an infinite amount of time most of the creatures would still be in the neutral category. This led to the prediction of a few rising to lead on either side. Those few are charged with the tasks of surviving their own battles, and then leading others in the war.

***

Julius stopped, and took a deep breath.

“What war?” Maureen asked, though she felt that she already knew.

“The war that will decide the fate of creation. The war between good and evil.”