Chương 568: BECMI Chapter 567 – An Understanding

"You do not seem surprised to see me," the brawny old man said from where he was sitting on a stone, a flat rock set over a small but energetic fire, and a freshly filleted trout cut up and ready for eating, with parsley, onions, salt, pepper, and sage all at ready to treat the fresh flesh. Sama surveyed the clearing once perfunctorily before stepping down into it, unafraid.

"And you have confirmed that we can sense Immortal energy in our lands," she replied smoothly in return.

"Tell me, were you going to march one of the ancient legions of Eon across our lands if I did not show up, General?" He looked up sharply at her.

"Well, now, better informed then most," he muttered sharply as she sat down across from him.

"General Xenodias of the Eonic Empire was one of the great military strategists and thinkers of the past, building a great foundation for those who cared to look at the history of his achievements in expanding the Empire. All lost to the rot and moral decadence of its Senators at a later time, of course." His expression was shadowed under the utterly fearless heavens-blue eyes fixated on him, but he only grunted in response.

"True enough. In time, all things pass, even empires."

"Why have you come to Eisfall, General?" Sama asked him directly.

"Tek has already been informed you are here, and I am sure you know we don't like your ilk here."

"I am here to ask as one soldier to another… Can we deal with these Gods of Heaven?" he asked her directly, choosing not to beat around the bush as he sprinkled herbs on the trout, added olive oil to the combination, and the fish hissed and spat as it began to cook.

"They literally have nothing to say to you and your fellow Immortals, General." Sama inclined her head, her gaze unblinking.

"I assume you've managed to work out what they want without needing to meet them, so coming to some formal arrangement is merely a bit of ego-salving at this point. They have no need to meet with you, and given that they would hold to an agreement far more firmly than would you, they have no desire to nail things down that way with you." He grunted again, a carafe appearing in his hand, a goblet in the other.

Sama snapped her fingers to bring forth a goblet of his own as he gestured at her, and she held it forth to be filled with a pale green vintage. Sama sipped it, lifting one eyebrow in appreciation.

"Definitely made by an Immortal with too much time on their hands," she nodded, smacking her lips.

"Tell me what you know of their desires." He glanced away as he ordered his thoughts, hiding his discomfort with a mortal giving him orders.

"There's been a great deal of discussion of this among the Hierarchs and Eternals, of course. The first order of business is not to interfere with the deposition of souls these gods are calling to their realm. Indeed, that seems to be the single highest purpose they are holding to, which almost makes them agents of the Sphere of Death.

"Yet they have complete apathy towards other souls heading to the Underworld and let them go without challenge. Thus, they are taking only moral and high-minded souls, for reasons unknown."

"Or a very simple reason. A reward for a virtuous life should be a reward, after all," Sama scoffed at him.

"So simple a reason?" the General had to ask, a bit surprised.

"Does it need to be complex?" was her only response.

"What criteria do they use to establish a virtuous soul, then?" he challenged her.

"That existence itself denotes they are a Good soul, of course. Do you think they would presume to override the dictates of Creation?" Sama almost laughed at him.

"You are referring to… Alignment colors?" the General asked, almost scornfully, but not quite, realizing something deeper was inferred here.

"When the Alignments speak, Creation listens," Sama smiled at him, the ferocity of her eight canines drawing his attention.

"Tell me, o mighty Immortal… do you know of any Immortal, anywhere, who is beyond the Colors of the Alignments?" Her eyes danced with schadenfreude for him and his peers.

"Conceal them. Try to disguise them. But can you so much as change what the true Color is from world to world?

"No. You don't have the authority or the power to do so. The gods in Heaven don't have the power to do so. The Old Ones don't have the power to do so.

"The gods in Heaven heed the Alignment of Good, and move to give Good souls the reward they have earned for a virtuous life. The particulars of those virtues need not be known to or even much supported by them as individuals. Creation has spoken, and the souls that come to them are worthy of Heaven. No more, no less."

"Law. Chaos. Evil. Good," the General murmured after a long and thoughtful moment of contemplation.

"They have enough power that even beings as powerful as these gods acknowledge them?" He sounded doubtful. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Indeed. That you can't feel their power only indicates you're much lower down on the scale of power than you think you are." He watched her down her wine, extending the carafe to pour her more silently.

"We can also see that they are lethally committed to keeping involvement of higher beings out of the mortal world," he went on.

"Those Immortals who have… come up missing, and often their Home Realms with them, had a history of intervening directly onto the mortal world."

"Oh, you did notice that. Interesting. Yes. You might have noticed that the gods aren't intervening directly on the Mortal Plane unless they are provoked by Immortal shenanigans. But if you are doing shit on the Mortal Plane, you are open season to be wiped.

"If you have a lot of Sin on your soul, they'll wipe you away like dust off the mantle. If you're just an ass, they'll be an ass right back to you and see how you like the ash in your mouth." He flipped over the sizzling trout slowly, ordering his thoughts.

"Immortal Law is intended to do much the same," he pointed out.

"Immortal Law is an agreement among a prominent percentage of the existing Hierarchs and Eternals, enforced by them. It has neither profound weight nor relevance, and effectively just sets the minimum standard of stealth and discretion that must be employed by Immortals seeking to circumvent it, like every Chaotic and Entropic worth their existence.

"The gods will be reactive in response to the exercise of Immortal Power on Nown and other worlds, but they will be VERY reactive, indeed. Offing Immortals permanently is actually part of their jobs. The fact you don't have the power to defy them should be a clear warning sign, which naturally many will simply seek to get around." The Immortal grunted at that.

"Living on a razor's edge around a great power who can come down on you for inscrutable reasons is not a good life, Sama Rantha," he pointed out.

"Says every mortal about every Immortal, and every peasant about every king and great hero and monster ever," she snorted right back at him.

"Welcome back to lack of invincibility and fear of consequences, General Xenodias."

"It is not a pleasant feeling," he noted wryly.

"Immortals… do not fight one another like we did as mortals. We used mortals for that purpose."

"I would note that if some of you and your kind had the power of the gods, you would probably have expunged or enslaved ninety percent of all the other Immortals," she scoffed right back.

"If you are wondering why the gods don't use Immortals for the same purpose, the main reason is that there are very few Immortals who cleave to Heaven's standards. They are aloof because they don't want to deal with you and your petty plans and schemes. Of all the Immortals that we are aware of in the hierarchy you espouse, there might be four who the gods appreciate enough to work with?

And those have the typical egotistical view that they are the highest Good, not that they are mere instruments of a tiny part of it."

"Such humility?" he grunted in disbelief.

"Did you read Dama Adama's Scripture? I do not doubt you would have found much of interest if you did," Sama asked archly, and he reluctantly nodded.

"You return the honor you are given. If those you deal with are arrogant and proud, you are entitled to be arrogant and proud in return. If they are humble and wise, return humility and wisdom to them."

"Like they did with Oroyosam?" he had to ask. The fall of the Immortal of Peace was widely gossiped among the Immortals, with winks and knowing nods and also undercurrents of anxiety.

"Oroyosam was of Axiom," Sama spat sharply.

"He argued for slavery, for caste systems, for divisions between the magical and not. He advocated bloodless conquest, and forced conversion to a common doctrine and rulership. Rebels fighting against their conquerors were to be subjugated, and if brainwashing was needed, it was acceptable to keep the peace.

"While common ground and agreements between elites were his preferred and most enlightened methods of bringing about peace, the foundations of his philosophy completely lacked any sympathy or compassion for those with lesser power trying to better their roles in life. It was as much a crime to fight back against corruption in the system as was the corruption itself.

"His delusions to himself were seen through by Heaven, and he was solidly of Axiom, his pretentious seeming to higher morals built on sand and shit. He thought of himself as the highest-minded and most moral of Immortals, and Heaven wanted nothing to do with him.

"That he has been forced to see his shortcomings is not setting well with him, I understand, but that is his problem, not Heaven's."

"Well, learning he really was a patronizing, sanctimonious, and hypocritical arsehole was not news to many of us who had to put up with him," the General agreed, eyeing his trout closely.

"Thinking he was better than everyone because he didn't want to fight with anyone."

"A common mindset among Immortals is that their way is the obviously best way. It amuses Heaven to no end." Sama Shaped two plates out of the stones there, and handed them over one by one. The old warrior silently slid the trout off the stone and onto the plates for each of them, knives coming out to cut and impale the flesh for each of them.

"Sometimes feasts are great, and sometimes the old and simple is best," the General grunted in satisfaction as he ate a leaf of the trout's flesh.

"Each of the gods of Heaven has things they are very, very good at, and want others to follow. They also acknowledge that not all beings can or will want to follow their paths, trying to make them do so is a complete waste of time, and as long as many as possible can come under Heaven's umbrella, that is a Great and Good Thing for them to make happen.

"Thus they support one another with great enthusiasm. Not even those factions of Immortals who've gathered themselves into ersatz pantheons do anything close to the same. They are rivals seeking advantage, banding together against other rivals, and often little more," she pointed out to him, eating with her black-nailed fingers like a cat, graceful and deadly as her nails sliced the trout with ease. He did not argue the point, enjoying the cooked fish for what it was.

"I trust I am not one of the four," he said wryly.

"Your ruthless in administration and joy for conquest is well-known, General. It is Axiom who loves empires, not Heaven. You would conquer Heaven and subjugate it to Immortal Law if you could," Sama pointed out neutrally. He did not argue those words.

"I would like to speak with this Dame Adama if it is possible," he requested, with neither humility nor pride.

"She leaves a single Avatar among mortals to help keep them on track. If you are willing to speak to Her, She will listen," was all Sama offered, and the General nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself…