The Final Emperor’s path saturated the cosmos, nudging every individual towards order. But in the end, due to his soft touch, they were still individuals. As individuals they could choose, and as humans, many inevitably choose rebellion. They were an incredibly small minority, for harboring thoughts of rebellion, thoughts of chaos, meant bearing an incredible weight as the world itself tried to correct their actions. But those brave warriors resisted with an iron will, and for their resistance they paid the ultimate price. Death. Not merely of the body, but something much more profound. Death of one ideals, death of one's mind, death of one soul. It is not enough to merely execute them, for martyrs merely empower the flames of rebellion. No, you must destroy them utterly, in mind and soul. And when it's done, release them once more, made anew in the blazing essence of pain. My family led that rebellion, empowered as we were, and we watched many fall. It always seemed distant to me, a faraway event. Until my mentor was remade. Then I snapped. And the cosmos shook in my rage.
“Can we move on to something more interesting?” Kyoko whined.
Merlin raised an eyebrow, “Something more interesting, eh?”
“Yeah. This is too easy…”
They sat in a massive hanger, absolutely stuffed with half finished contraptions and scrawled diagrams. Ten year old Kyoko had tipped his chair all the way back, effortlessly balancing it on only two legs. Merlin’s violent eyes were thoughtful as he stroked his chin. Despite his advanced age, well over a hundred, Merlin looked like a young man in the prime of his life, a state supported by technology that would have him looking like that till the day he dropped dead.
He let out a sigh, “I’m not sure I have much more to teach you, Kyoko.”
Kyoko scoffed, “Come on Merlin. I know you have something. You always do.”
Marlin let out a laugh, “Fine. Fine. I do have something for you. Though not to teach you.”
“Bu-”
“Boy,” Merlin laughed, “I literally have nothing else to teach you. I’ve been trying to tell you for a month.”
He glanced back to find Kyoko's face falling. Merlin chuckled inwardly. It was amazing how, despite his immense physical and mental ability, he was somehow a child in the overwhelming power of his emotions. He reached into a sealed locker and brought out a metal tube, slowly taking back to the table. Gingerly he opened the tube and removed what appeared to be a paper scroll.
“Instead, from now on, you will be joining me in my research.”
Kyoko’s face lit up like a supernova, and Merlin winced as a wave of overwhelming joy struck him. All of a sudden he wanted to dance, he wanted to scream, he wanted to live.
“Kyoko,” he choked out, voice strained, “Control yourself.”
The overwhelming wave ceased to be. “Sorry.” Kyoko muttered, abashed.
Merlin sighed, “Good job containing it. But if that happens again we might need to revisit the control exercises.”
Kyoko groaned, “Those we’re so boring!”
Merlin chuckled, “Then I recommend you control your emotions.” He motioned towards the scroll, “Anyways, this is what we are going to be studying.”
Kyoko poked it curiously, “What is it?”
“It's a painting.”
“Of what?”
“A river.”
“What river?”
“The Silver River.”
Kyoko frowned. “You never mentioned that river.”
“I didn’t, because I didn’t know it existed until I saw it.”
Kyoko’s frown deepened, “Where did you get it?”
Merlin hesitated, “...I stole it from one of the imperial vaults.”
That got Kyoko’s attention, “You raided one of the imperial vaults!?”
Merlin groaned, “Here we go again.” he muttered, then raising his voice he responded, “It was a necessary risk!”
“Why didn't you bring me!?”
Merlin blinked, then started to chuckle. The chuckled grew and grew until he was bent over roaring with laughter. Kyoko was not amused, as he watched his mentor laugh.
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Finally, Merlin collected himself. “Sorry. Sorry. It's just… that was a new response. Most would have called it reckless, despite my advanced age.”
“Well, it was pretty reckless.”
Merlin glared at his protege, who stared back with a perfectly innocent face. He sighed, “Fine. It was a bit reckless. But it was necessary.”
Kyoko poked the scroll again, “For a dusty old scroll?”
Merlin sat down across from Kyoko. “We fight the empire, resisting its control. But we’ve forgotten what we’re fighting for. We’ve forgotten what we stood for in the millennia before the Final Empire. We’ve forgotten our past.” He motioned to the scroll, “This is the solution.”
Kyoko looked at it doubtfully, “That scroll?”
“Yes. I glanced at it briefly. And in the time before it knocked me out, I managed to glimpse at its essence. It is the Silver River and it remembers.”
Kyoko raised an eyebrow, “How is a painting a river? And who the heck uses paper anymore?”
Merlin raised a finger, “First, it's not paper. I have no idea what it is, but It's impossibly strong, and second”---he raised another finger—”I have no idea. But I know it's true.”
Indeed he was right, that painting reminded me of a time long past, when the First Empire still ruled and a young boy sat on the banks of a river. The painting he had created had stayed with the river for millenia, and when the river was finally destroyed, the painting absorbed its essence, its memory. And became something greater. It's a testament to Merlin’s strength that he managed to gaze upon it without losing his life.
Kyoko poked it again, curious, “Let's look at it, then.”
Merlin caught his hand, “Ok, but this painting is powerful. I’m going to need you to support me.”
Kyoko gave him an affirming nod.
With ginger hands, he opened the scroll and gazed upon it.
At first glance, it was a simple line, but the deeper one looked, the more complicated it became. First a line, then a river, then a story. In the surging currents, Merlin saw the beginning of humanity. He saw Adam and Eve and he saw their children. He felt Octavian’s cold bloated corpse, swept away in currents unseen. He tasted the iron tang of blood, spilled in desperate struggle. He heard the passionate words of a man condemned. He smelled the ash of a burning empire. Scenes came in flashes, each a promise of another story, yet the second Merlin focused on one, it was swept away on hidden currents. It was maddening, the brief flashes of humanities origin. Merlin struggled to stay above the currents, struggled to reach the surface. But the river seemed endless, carrying the origin of humanity in it as it was. Every man was a world unto himself, and the river remembered those worlds. It contained them. And it showed Merlin.
He held on for as long as he could, but he could not carry the weight of a million worlds. Not even with Kyoko’s supporting presence.
He felt himself slip to the ground as blackness claimed him.
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Merlin sat at the desk in his cramped apartment, nursing a massive headache. He had expected it, of course. One did not glimpse at the origin of their species without consequences, but regardless it was painful. Kyoko, of course, had been fine, merely worried for his mentor. The boy's resilience was astounding.
And what he had seen was… inconceivable. It had been a time of lawlessness, chaos, and yet they had all been so… free. And that river… echoes of it still battered his mind and he could feel that he’d barely pierced the top layers. He did wonder where the first humans, Adam and Eve had come from. To the Silver River, they had just… appeared.
Merlin sighed, and rose to his feet. So many questions and so little time. He wondered who some of the people he saw were. He focused, recalling images from the chaotic rush of the river. A dedicated prophet, anointed by the divine. An ancient emperor, forged through war. A human torch, burning himself to bring freedom back to the masses. The last one gave him the most hope. Empires had been toppled before, so why couldn’t they be toppled again?
He reached the kitchen, grabbed a pre-made meal and sat down to eat.
As always, he found his thoughts drifting to Kyoko. The boy was a miracle, a genius beyond compare, if a bit immature. Merlin had always found it strange that a genius like him could find himself overcome with emotion. A mind such as his should have made him cold as reason overwhelmed emotion. It was a problem Merlin himself had suffered, at least until Beth. He shook his head, clearing the sad memories. Right, Kyoko. The fact his emotions still held control indicated their impossibly powerful nature. The boy burned with passion.
The human torch of yore had burned, but he was a candle to Kyoko’s star.
Indeed, Kyoko was limitless, but he was even more pure in soul than the rest. He was a union of Angelica's purity and the nature of a limitless. Honestly, he was terrifying, even as a child. A child with both power and focus, if he ever ascended he could eclipse even me.
The shadows danced in the dim lighting as Merlin ate, contemplating the events of the day. Slowly but surely, his thoughts began to drift, as they tended to do those days. He was old, no getting around it, even with the body of a young man. Honestly, sometimes he wished he could have his unaltered body, in all its ancient glory, but alas, his duties demanded something more… robust. Beth wouldn’t have cared either way. He frowned as another wave of sadness crashed over him, but he indulged himself as he let the wave sweep away to another time.
He had grown up beside her, spent every shred of time with her as children. The second he became a teenager, he had realized she meant far more than a mere friend, but he had kept it in, afraid of losing her. He remembered when they were 16, they went to the festival
She had approached him, beautiful in a yellow summer dress. Gold speckled brown eyes lit up playfully as she asked him if he wanted to walk with her. He remembered her wild brown hair, free from its bindings. He had kissed her right there in the street. It was awkward at first and then all at once passionate. He grabbed her hand, and guided her dazed figure through the festival.
More memories bombarded Merlin.
Their first day of university. Working together in the labs. A proposal underneath a starry sky. A wedding in the depths of a star. A happy home. A funeral.
Merlin flinched, snapping out of the recollections.
Right, they were gone. Killed by the empire he desired to tear down. He snorted, suddenly feeling the need for a strong drink. Accident, yeah righ-.
His head snapped back around to a small light blinking on the corner of the table.
He froze, blood turning to ice.
They had found him.