Chương 114: Interlude: The Truth Untold: Life within Life

Excerpt from "The Truth Untold — Life within Life" by Tony Vinly Part One: Introduction I have seen Life. I have seen true Life. The me that is truly me is a lie. I am not one, but many. Every piece of me is alive independently. Every breath I take brings life into me, and every breath I release carries life away. I have spent my entire life believing that I was a single creature, a single being, a single soul. I was wrong. I am not a person. I am a colony. Millions upon millions of tiny lives inhabit this body.

They live upon me, within me, and around me. They feed, grow, reproduce, and die, all while I continue to believe that I am the one who lives. At first, I believed them to be insects. I was wrong about that too. They are smaller than insects. Smaller than dust. Too small to see with the naked eye, yet they are everywhere. They cover my skin. They fill my mouth. They live within my blood. They have made homes in places I never knew could contain life. And I am not their master. I am their world.

Just as an ant colony is made of countless ants, so too am I made of countless lives. The difference is that the ants know they are separate. I did not. I have spent months watching them. They move with purpose. They consume. They divide. Some fight one another. Some cooperate. Some die without ever knowing that I exist. Yet they are part of me… or perhaps I am part of them. I no longer know which is true. Perhaps the greatest lie ever told is that a living creature is a single thing...

Perhaps there is no such thing as a single life… Perhaps every living thing is merely a world filled with smaller lives, and those smaller lives are themselves worlds filled with smaller lives still… If that is true, then where does the individual begin? Where does it end? And if I am made of millions of living creatures, which one of us is writing this book?

Lira's Margin Notes Had I read this book the traditional way, rather than absorbing the content all at once using magic, I probably would have dropped it after the first few pages, thinking it was a bunch of nonsense. I understand why this knowledge isn't widely spread. This man has gone completely mad. Part Two: My Origin For a noble, I grew up poor. Being sickly and weak, the path of knighthood, like my father before me, was denied to me.

Still, I wanted to make something of myself, so I managed to convince my liege lord to let me use his Eagle Eyes primer. I was the third son of a knight, noble enough to be allowed to learn magic, but not important enough to be granted access to the Royal Academy. Using that spell, I started categorizing insects and even discovered a few species hitherto unknown to the rest of the scholars.

After a few correspondences with other entomologists, my publications were brought to the attention of Royal Scholar Alexander Waxillam Nurad, who invited me to join the Royal Scholars. He even offered me lodging in the Royal Academy and granted me some money for further expeditions. More importantly, he let me imprint the Life Watch spell, a Tier One spell that was an adaptation of the Eagle Eyes spell, adding the incantations for Life and Clarity. With that spell in hand, I was set to make the grandest discovery.

Lira's Margin Notes To think that Grandpa Waxy was the one who set this man on the path to discovering this revolutionary new knowledge, yet even he had failed to understand the value of these writings, considering no one is advocating for their validity, and they are left rotting within the Royal Academy's shelves. Part Three: The Inception Point It was on that auspicious day that I was set upon the path of this discovery.

I was in the outer fields, a stone's throw outside the city walls, observing the behavior of bees from the Royal Apiary when I saw something that would change my life. One of the returning bees had something attached to its back. The Life Watch spell allowed me to enhance a living creature at the center of my vision. So long as I kept the creature within my field of vision, I would see it as though it were the size of a cow. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

And upon the cow-sized bee was a rat-sized mite. Yes, even this seemingly small creature had a parasite akin to lice living upon its carapace. Had I not been granted the Life Watch spell, I would never have seen the creature, not even with the Eagle Eyes spell. Which made me wonder: would the mite creature have an even smaller mite creature living upon its own shell? And if so, to what depth could it go?

Lira's Margin Notes I must say, seeing a small creature with an even smaller creature living upon it wouldn't automatically lead me to the thought that there must be an even smaller level to this. I suppose that's the difference in genius between him and me. Part Four: Rejection I returned to the Royal Academy with the mite safely secured inside a jar and showed it to my peers.

I was applauded for discovering a new species and even granted money to research the species further: what it ate, how it reproduced, and whether it was related to ticks in any way. But when I told them my theory of even smaller life, it was dismissed and rejected by most of my colleagues. Their argument was simple. After focusing the Life Watch spell on the mite itself, the cow-sized mite did not have a rat-sized mite of its own. I argued that not every bee had a mite, so not every mite needed to have a mite too.

This was not convincing to them. I was told that life could not get that small. I was told that I needed to find a mite on a mite before I could start making theories about what might exist beyond it. And so, for the next five years, I spent my time looking for this elusive mite, to no avail. I found mites on flies, mosquitoes, and beetles, but nothing smaller than the original mite, and never a mite upon a mite. I thought my theory was doomed until I had an idea.

What if, just as my Eagle Eyes spell had failed to see the mites, the Life Watch spell also failed to see the even smaller creatures? That meant I needed a better spell. Lira's Margin Notes I applaud his tenacity. I doubt I could remain on task for five years on a single subject. Had I failed to create a healing spell within three months, I would probably have moved on to something else. Part Five: Archmage I did it. I did it! They call me a liar.

They tell me no one can create a spell while knowing only three cantrips and a single Tier One spell. When I cast it in front of them, and the mana reacted, they still didn't believe me. They called me a cheat.

"Your fake spell starts with the incantation for Eagle Eyes," they said.

"You are not the first to fake being an Archmage," they said. But I did it. After meditating on my magic, the incantations, and years of using both Eagle Eyes and Life Watch, I managed to create a new spell. I call it Small Life Watch. By removing the word for Clarity from the Life Watch spell and adding the word for Small before Life, I created a spell that allowed me to see even smaller life. And I was able to see them everywhere. They are everywhere!

Lira's Margin Notes I know that the Eagle Eyes spell's incantation was: Pika. Cipos. Syneth. Mind. Amplification. Interpretation. Meaning the Life Watch incantation was: Pika. Cipos. Syneth. Kalaba. Velar. Mind. Amplification. Interpretation. Life. Clarity. Then the new spell's incantation must be: Pika. Cipos. Syneth. Picos. Kalaba. Mind. Amplification. Interpretation. Diminution. Life.

Since both spells are internal, and the first half of the spell is just Eagle Eyes, it is possible to pretend that you have cast an advanced Tier One spell when in fact you have only cast the cantrip. I suppose his peers would rather believe he cheated than believe him an Archmage. But I, who have similarly created spells, don't find it odd that someone who has cast a spell non-stop for five years was able to imprint a modification onto it. Part Six: They Are Everywhere I saw them. You have to believe me.

I saw them. They do not have eyes to see, no ears to hear, and no mouths to scream, but they are real. I saw them. I saw them. They are real! The first one I saw was larger than the rest. It lived in stale water and swam with multiple limbs. But after seeing that one, I was able to go deeper and see even smaller creatures. And they are everywhere. They are all over my skin. Inside my mouth. I made myself bleed, and my blood was full of them. No, it was made of them.

Looking even further, I saw that the walls that made up my body were also connected living things. I call them cells. And they are the building blocks of life. At least, they are the building blocks I can see. Maybe I can go smaller. I can definitely go smaller. I have to go smaller. I have to. I have to. I have to. I watched them. I watched them nonstop for years, and I understand everything. Humor theory is a joke. They keep bleeding poor people and call themselves physicians. No. No, no, no!

The body is a fortress made of living cells. Invader cells make you sick, and soldier cells inside you fight them off. Your blood has two castes of cells: white knights and red peasants. The white defenders fight off invading cells. The red peasants rebuild the walls and maintain the building. The cell walls need the red peasants to survive, but the white knights... The white knights are the real heroes. I saw them. I saw them eat one of the invaders.

I bled my arm over some stale water and watched them fight, and win. Though they died soon afterward, since they cannot live long while separated from me. Did I kill part of me? Goddess, what have I done? Did I kill myself? Each time I pricked myself, I killed hundreds of my tiny selves. White knights fighting off invaders. Red peasants closing the walls. I am a monster. I am a monster. Goddess, help me.

Lira's Margin Notes As long as I can prove that the "life is a fortress theory," I can probably create a healing spell. Meaning I need to create the Small Life Watch spell first. Would seeing what he saw make me crazy as well? I highly doubt that. I am a pragmatic person, and I know that a book is made of paragraphs, paragraphs are made of sentences, sentences are made of words, and words are made of letters, and each letter is made of small dots of ink. Life being made of tiny lives isn't too shocking for me.

Honestly, I am more surprised that no one else discovered it first. Part Six: Conclusion By Alexander Waxillam Nurad This book was edited and published posthumously. Tony Vinly died of blood loss after bleeding himself daily for a year. He was barely lucid during his final days, and half of his writings were illegible. I tried my best to honor his legacy by leaving everything as close to the original as possible, though much of the text had to be cut because it was completely incoherent.

I share his findings with you in the hope that, buried somewhere within his madness, there may be a kernel of truth. To anyone who reads this and wishes to follow the same path, tread carefully. Lira's Margin Notes Rest in peace, Tony. Your knowledge is much appreciated. If I can publicly vindicate you, I will. Though I hardly know how to do that.