Knowledge and Justice
I always think a society needs healing if everyone looks in the same direction and sees the same thing because perceptions have been controlled. On Earth, they told tales of glass slippers that saved lives, of ripe apples that poisoned. The lies about the sleeping beauty and the kind princess waiting for her handsome, strong prince on a white horse were designed to captivate little girls and flatter little boys. This must have been Earth's wildest perception operation.
In Elysian, too, attempts were made to mold young minds into certain patterns, but not through fairy tales as on Earth. Royal children subjected to a real test either waited for someone on a white horse to save them or learned to ride their own horse.
No child in Elysian ever waited to be saved.
As my horse galloped, my hair fluttered in the wind, carrying a few magical words along with the wind's howl. Simultaneously, the voices of the nobles resonated in my mind:
"I am Noyan, the third generation descendant of Adika, the Reaper of Elysian; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Amila, the third generation descendant of Amera, the Climate Spirit of Elysian; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Arya, the third generation descendant of Davina, the Guardian of Ravi; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Renan, the third generation descendant of Ruha, responsible for sowing emotions; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Ova, the spirit of earth, water, fire, and air, the third generation descendant of Hamera; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Darya, the third generation descendant of Verena, the servant of the Great Forest Avar; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Iris, the third generation descendant of Atis, the master of the veil; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
"I am Lara, the third generation descendant of Mavka, the Magic Envoy of Elysian; I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
After the ceremony with Alven and Şafak two days ago, the heirs of the noble families of the last generation visited me at my throne and introduced themselves. Before going to Bilun, I needed to learn about Şafak's role in Elysian, that is, the magic she could perform. This information I learned about an hour ago was leading me to my dear sister.
"I am Şafak, the third generation descendant of Feza, I express my gratitude to the Holy Spirits that allow me to communicate with beings on Earth, and I offer my respects to you, our beloved heir."
When I entered the path of knowledge, I slowed my horse. This place was in worse condition than I had thought. The branches and dense leaves of trees blocked the sky, preventing sunlight from reaching here. It was dark. The dirt path was rough, muddy in places. Weeds had overgrown, covering small flowers.
I dismounted and whispered magical words into my horse's ear before setting it free to return to the palace. As the horse trotted back the way we came, I began walking down the path of knowledge. The air was filled with the smell of rotten fruit and ink.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, papers began to flutter towards me. My steps halted as my eyebrows furrowed. I clenched the fabric of my long dress in my palm. Narrowing my eyes at the dozens of flying papers, I noticed they were written on. The papers flying past me seemed like pages from a book.
With small steps, I continued walking. With each step, the number of torn pages flying towards me increased. The smell of ink gave way to the scent of books. But it was a different kind of book smell; it didn't bring peace, nor did it make you feel like you were born into a new life with every word.
The reason I couldn't find peace in the book smell might have been this dark path cursed by the sun, but as I walked, women holding candelabras appeared on both sides of the road, spaced a meter apart. Their entire bodies were covered in writings, as if a book had been copied onto their skin. However, the words that were clear on their foreheads became blurred as they descended, the ink running down. So much so that their white strapless dresses were stained with blue ink.
I swallowed hard. As I hastened my steps down this increasingly eerie path, I wondered, what kind of knowledge was this that filled me with fear? My palm clutching my dress was sweaty, my fingertips cold. I wrinkled my nose. I could have teleported myself, but I didn't want to. I needed to see the state of the path of knowledge, to understand why Bilun was in such bad shape.
Though I believed knowledge was undervalued while being human, blaming the ignorant who resisted enlightenment, since coming to Elysian, I had pondered why knowledge wasn't valued here. Actually, the answer was simple: some wanted humans and my people to remain ignorant so that those with money could stay powerful. What needed to be solved was who these people were and where they were.
Eventually, the women stopped holding candelabras and began holding candles instead. The candlelit path revealed a lonely road where a fifteen-year-old boy stood in the middle. Lifting his chin, he fixated his gaze on the emptiness behind me. He seemed to shut himself off from all external stimuli, robotically tearing pages from a book and scattering them into the endless road. The book's pages he struggled to tear apart seemed infinite. Knowledge wasn't running out. As I passed by the boy, I allowed a wistful smile to grace my lips. At least knowledge was still infinite...
The light-bearing women were absent in the continuation of the road. However, this part of the road wasn't as dark. Sunlight penetrated slightly. The leaves of the trees were red. The road was quite muddy... Mud sticking to my boots began to weigh me down, making me wrinkle my face in annoyance. Grumbling, I took off my boots, throwing one to the right side of the forest and the other to the left.
Dragging my feet through the mud for about two minutes, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl appeared before me. I stopped to catch my breath, my attention fully on the girl. She bent down and dipped her hand into the road's mud, digging as if searching for something. She pulled her hand out of the mud along with a book.
The book, with a brown cover, appeared impeccably clean despite emerging from the mud. The sun directed all its light onto the book. The girl's colorless eyes looked at the book as if seeing it for the first time. The book's color slowly reflected in the girl's eyes. Now with brown eyes, the girl flipped through the book, examined it for a long time as if trying to figure out its purpose, and suddenly laughed with joy. Bouncing on the spot, it seemed she had figured out what to do with the book. Finally, she lay down and placed the book under her head. The color the book had gifted to the girl's eyes disappeared. She closed her colorless eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
This
place was worse than I expected, Bilun was in a worse state than I thought! I didn't want this. Although we were considered rivals, we needed each other. To offer knowledge to my people, I had to strengthen Bilun. To strengthen, he had to share his knowledge with my people.
Blinking at the girl, I saw the people of Elysian in such a state for the first time. The path of knowledge was producing ignorance for the first time. I carried my astonishment in my steps as I continued walking.
When I saw the tree of knowledge, whose roots spread throughout all of Elysian, in the middle of the road, I stopped. Men and women with red skin lying under the tree were the bodies of wise spirits. The knowledge flowing from the minds connected to the tree's roots spread first to Elysian and then to the entire universe through this tree. A young man in his twenties, wearing a stained, yellow dress, robotically swung his axe at the tree of knowledge. His gaze was empty.
I shook my head disapprovingly. What I saw on the path of knowledge provided enough clues about Bilun. Instead of continuing, I teleported myself.
"Paraiso kolasi," I said, and moments later, I was face to face with Bilun. Her long, blue dress was made of silk. Lace adorned her waist and arms. Her open, yellow hair waved down to her waist. A brown owl perched on her shoulder. I knew the owl was Bilun's symbol.
"Welcome," she said with a slight smile. We were in a large cave surrounded by bookshelves. Contrary to my expectations, the ceiling was high, but because the long shelves reached up to the ceiling, the cave looked like a square room. Sunlight, seeping in from an unknown source, illuminated the cave.
Pointing to the table in the center, she said, "I was preparing tea for you, please sit." I couldn't help but grin. Finally, I could have a proper conversation with one of my siblings.
She took the owl from her shoulder, allowing it to fly off. The owl disappeared through the bookshelf. Bilun then teleported away.
I sat on the wooden chair. A few seconds later, she returned with a blue, porcelain teapot. "Let me guess..." she began. "You're wondering how I ended up like this?"
I nodded affirmatively, reinforcing my agreement with, "Ever since I arrived..."
"I was the strongest. It was a power given to me by fate; I was the eldest. I was raised with this consciousness, sibling. Every morning when I woke up, I was first taken to the throne room. Even as a tiny child, they whispered in my ear that I would own that throne."
After pouring the tea into porcelain cups, she sat across from me and continued: "Then one morning they said; you're no longer the heir, prepare, you're going to Earth."
"They said the same last sentence to me," I interjected mockingly.
She chuckled sarcastically and turned her gaze over her right shoulder to the large bookshelf. "They said it to all of us, but none of you would feel what I felt."
I swallowed quietly. I had never considered the disappointment she experienced. Probably, Bilun hadn't considered how we were treated as royal children who weren't heirs either. Being selfish was too easy for all of us.
"I didn't take your right, Bilun," I said seriously.
Her gaze returned to me. She spoke passionately, "The throne was my right."
"It's not my fault that our father chose such a method to select the heir," I defended myself.
"Then step down from the throne and give it to me?" She raised her eyebrows, speaking with utter seriousness, prompting me to roll my eyes.
"The throne is mine because I earned the monarchy," I replied, taking a sip of my tea.
"You didn't earn it, sibling, our father put us to this test because he didn't want me to ascend the throne."
I laughed. Was her high regard for herself because she was the oldest? "Elysian doesn't revolve around you, Bilun."
Laughing and shaking her head, she said, "Come on... When our father sent us to Earth, he already knew I couldn't tolerate incompetence, that Hesna would be swayed by a jewel, and that Eva would steal immortality. He conducted this test to choose between you and Felin. Because he knew neither of you would be influenced by anything. He only sent us after you as a formality, so it wouldn't seem unfair." Her mocking laughter increased. "What justice, though..."
I shook my head dismissively. "Don't make excuses for your failure, Bilun."
She took a deep breath, her gaze fixing on her steaming cup. "This failure cannot be excused," she murmured. Suddenly, she lifted her gaze, piercing mine like a knife. "But this is not my failure, sibling, I haven't played my game yet."
I met her gaze without flinching as I took another sip of my tea. "Then why are you in this state?" I asked calmly. Our tones and the emotions we experienced changed too quickly. She was unpredictable and erratic. Like knowledge itself.
"It's not because of my mistake, but because of Eva's success."
Greed, hatred, and vengeance strengthened as knowledge weakened... The weakening of knowledge, in turn, killed justice. Actually, I was aware of this cause and effect relationship even while on Earth. Even more so, I remembered a sentence from another human aware of this, a sentence I couldn't forget: "I was guilty because I was smarter than the people around me."
*Stefan Zweig – Chess
"You didn't try to stop her, did you?"
He nodded affirmatively. "My goal is not to be the strongest," he confessed, whispering his true aim was the monarchy.
Clearing his throat, he continued: "After returning from Earth, as time quickly passed, consumed by fate's bribery, I deliberately didn't oppose Eva. My father had weakened against Eva. He was only symbolically present..."
He stopped talking and looked at me, probably guessing we had had a conversation because he thought my father favored me. Yes, there had been a conversation, but not because he favored me; he spoke through the body of a guard because he trusted me.
Unable to deduce anything from my neutral expression, he slightly raised his eyebrows, his jaw tensing for a few seconds.
"What about Hesna?" I asked. "Didn't she fight Eva?"
He raised his eyebrows, this time with surprise shining in his blue eyes. "Don't you know how Hesna returned from Earth?"
I furrowed my brows, a myriad of possibilities swirling in my mind. The possibilities that Eva had collaborated with Bilun and was trying to deceive me in a planned manner, that Eva had deceived both Bilun and me, or that Eva had told the truth...
I was about to ask what happened when he cut me off, "I won't discuss Hesna with you. Learn from her."
I needed to set aside this issue for later and focus on Bilun. Without taking the last sip of his tea, he asked, "Shall I continue?"
I nodded, granting him permission. "Eva first infiltrated the tainted bodies and crushed the
virgin souls. Those crushed virgin souls grew with a desire for vengeance. They succeeded in their quest, but they couldn't escape becoming the people they avenged. They took out their anger on the innocents, creating a generation that hated them. Thus, Eva found a way into every innocent soul. She created a cycle. The evil crushed the good; the good became evil out of vengeance and crushed the new born goods, raising a generation full of hatred towards them."
He looked again over his right shoulder at the bookshelf, sighing. "This has been going on for years, and this order is killing both justice and wisdom. That is, the path of knowledge is in this state because of Eva."
"You just watched." I blurted out. "If you had intervened, Eva would never have become the strongest."
"If I had intervened, you would have come to a perfectly functioning system as the heir." He stated plainly.
"Look at you, trying to avoid a challenge by doing this. How are you a representative of justice? Is this what wisdom is?"
"Wisdom is a matter of patience, sometimes even enduring ignorance. I am waiting with patience to bring absolute knowledge and unshakable justice."
"If this is your justice, it's worthless. Now I understand better why justice is in such a state on Earth."
"My relationship with Earth's justice is non-existent," he quickly said. "I temporarily left it to humans."
"Then it seems humans are managing better than you."
"Hmm..." he murmured. "Actually, humans are irrational beings, sibling."
"Meaning?" I asked carelessly. I couldn't stomach him sitting and watching disaster unfold; I didn't know what I would do in his place, but being so indifferent just to secure the throne was very wrong!
"Meaning... Being irrational, a bad person can see themselves as good, can legitimize their wrongs." I nodded in agreement. Every action always had its justifiable reason. "By holding myself back, humans are now administering justice," he continued.
I squinted as I considered his words, and as he straightened his shoulders, he concluded his speech. "When I take the throne, justice will come to Elysian and thus to Earth. A weak link like humans cannot turn something as sacred as justice into a toy."
I exhaled in frustration. "Bilun, don't do this. When I am monarch, you will rise greatly. I will take every step with knowledge, love, and justice. I want you by my side."
He laughed. After a long look into my eyes, it was clear he wouldn't agree. He solidified this with, "I think it's time for you to go."
"I want to stay," I said with determination. I couldn't give up so easily. I had to talk to him and try to convince him.
He raised his eyebrows and laughed. "Then let me show you your room," he said, placing his hand over mine and teleporting us to a room without waiting for my consent.
A bed, a mirror, and a wardrobe were placed inside a cave. Illuminated by a copper candelabrum, this cave was my room for the night. While I examined the rough cave walls, "Good night, sibling," he said, leaving the room.
I collapsed onto the bed and watched the dim light flicker. Doubts about love and loyalty, the battle for knowledge and justice, swirled in my mind. I closed my eyes, surrendering the chaos of my mind to the infinity of sleep.
