TALES FROM THE CITY OF MARIA

[AiOS]

TALES FROM THE CITY OF MARIA (June First, RL Reckoning)

 

“His name is Giordano Bruno.â€

 

“Who?†Oleg craned his neck trying unsuccessfully to look over the slowly moving crowd as it snaked into the giant antechamber of Maria’s Scientific Humanist temple.

 

It wasn’t until he and Jenna had reached the temple’s massive iron doors that he could see a fire raging in a pit near the center of the antechamber. In the center of the fire there stood a marble statue of man bound to a stake. It had long been blackened and pitted by the fire. Its face frozen in pain, crying in eternal agony.

 

Jenna could sense Oleg was nervous about attending the ceremony, she smiled and squeezed his hand. They followed the crowd as it moved toward the pit.

 

Oleg watched as people reached out and touched a high iron gate separating them from the flames only to pull back quickly. Jenna leaned in and kissed him, “It won’t be that bad.†She lead him upto the gate.

 

Oleg looked at her hand in his, she had a small dark mark on her middle knuckle. He glanced at the hand of an elderly man near him and realized the man also had the mark. Looking around he saw nearly ever Athretvar had such a mark. The only people without one seemed just as nervous and interested in the burning statue and fire as he was. Tourists, he thought, like himself.

 

He had met Jenna only two nights before on his very first night in town. They had fallen in love almost instantly as the young often do.

 

Oleg was a political-science undergrad from Siberian Nova Scotia on a brief break from school. His parents splurging on an “educational semester†in Athretvari to immerse himself in the language and culture before starting his real studies back home.

 

Jenna reached out and touched the gate with her middle knuckle. She pulled her hand away quickly rubbing the dark mark, a burn, “You dont have to touch it, it’s really hot. We do it to get a small sense of his suffering. He is one of our religion’s greatest saints. Burned for professing that the sun was an ordinary star just like the other stars in the night sky, and that those stars too had worlds similar to Earth in orbit around them. Of course, it would take centuries to prove him correct.†Jenna seemed truly saddened.

 

Oleg couldn’t look away from the man’s eyes. They seemed to stare back at him as if pleading for Oleg to untie him and save him from the flames. He decided to reach out and touch the gate thinking to himself as he looked one last time upon the statue’s crying face, “If you only knew.â€

 

-----

 

Jenna handed Oleg a plain, thin white book with many colorful ribbons inside serving as bookmarks. The cover simply read,

 

These Are the Books of Calculations and Conversations

He opened it and began to read from the beginning, curious of the Athretvar origin story, if they had one at all...

 

I AM I.

The First Equation is Written.

The First Query Posed, and the First Answer Defined.

Thus I Am One.

The First Dimension is Measured.

And All that Be From One and All that Be Part of One.

Thus,

All Dimensions Are Measured.

 

I am All.

And,

All is Our Name.

Thus We Are All, and Part of All, and Of All, and From All, and To All.

The Second Equation is Written.

 

We Are the Being of All,

And All that Be Of that Being.

Thus are We the Being that is the Beginning.

And All Being that is since the Beginning.

And the Being that is the End.

And,

Matter is the Name of Our Being.

The Third Equation is Written.

 

We Are The Motion of All,

And All that Be Of that Motion.

Thus are We the Motion that is the Beginning.

And All Motion that is since the Beginning.

And the Motion that is the End.

And,

Time is the Name of Our Motions.

The Fourth Equation is Written.

 

We Are The Knowledge of All of All,

And All that Be Of that Knowledge.

Thus are We the Knowledge that is the Beginning.

And All Knowledge that is since the Beginning.

And the Knowledge that is the End.

And,

Force is the Name of Our Knowledge.

The Fifth Equation is Written.

“Oleg. Oleg.â€

 

He looked up to see everyone standing around him. Jenna motioned for him to stand.

 

The preacher stood before a great round stained-glass window of a golden sun disk just as the real sun was setting behind it. Oleg had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

 

The preacher raised his hands, “We are the Flesh of the Universe, our God. We are its muscle, its bone, and its mind. Onto us is given the power to be and move within God, and to give God definition. Glory be onto Humanity, the Children of God.â€

 

He opened a large white book, “Let us turn to the black ribbon, and read from the beginning of the left page.â€

 

Oleg tore his eyes away from the sunset and opened the book again, pulling on the black ribbon. He wondered why the preacher hadn’t simply said which chapter and verse or page to turn to when he realized there were no page numbers. Jenna giggled and whispered, “The author purposefully didn’t include page numbers, chapters or anything like that. He, or she, no one knows who wrote it, apparently didn’t want any part of the books to be taken out of context and so tried to make it difficult to reference just a page or section.â€

 

Oleg flicked the black ribbon.

 

Jenna smiled, “That’s what the author wanted, not the preachers.â€

 

And after Adam did tell Eve of a tree within the forest, that had beneath it a great beast lying without life, and that in its mouth he did see a part of the fruit from the tree. He told her that it had ceased to live after having eaten the fruit of the tree.

 

Many days later Eve did come upon the same tree within the forest, and there were the bones of the great beast lying beneath it. And from the jawbones of its mouth did grow a sapling.

 

Eve looked near the sapling and there saw another fruit from the tree that had fallen and watched as a small worm did emerge from the ground and began to eat at the fruit.

 

And then Eve thought, “If this worm does eat of this fruit and still lives, then the fruit from this tree must be good.â€

 

Eve picked from a fruit from the tree and bit into it, and she did not die.

Oleg looked up at the great stained-glass window and was temporarily blinded by a bright flash of light. He could hear people starting to panic when suddenly the entire temple exploded inward.

 

On June first, RL Reckoning, a nuclear device was detonated by terrorists within the great city-state of Maria, killing 92,108 people.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Tyro Leif

[Prince Hunter of Bavaria]

The DeustchReich is horrified by this events. Nuclear Radiation teams are here at your disposal. The DeustchReich will assist you in any way possible, these terrorists will not escape with free reign, they will truly regret their decisions. The Bundeswehr is here to help with military strikes if needed, The Deutsch Red Cross has begun an aid campaign. The DeustchReich flags will be lowered to half-staff all day. The DeustchReich knows first hand the affects of Terror attacks and will help in anyway possible