Simone Boule looked at E still with the same affectionate smile, although the air between them was standing still, like they were having a deathly “stare duel” and it didn't dare to move... After a while, she was the one to give in, understanding the need of the young man for clarity.

As she started to explain, both E and the air sighed inwardly with relief. (lol)

-Well, let's say you are right, it is not something simple that I can explain in two words though, are you willing to listen to me until the end, even if some parts of my story might be a little disgusting or heavy?

E received a pop-up of the situation, in a quest form, asking if he wanted to listen to Simone's story. He accepted it and nodded.

-Alright then. Let me see, where to begin... humans! That is what we are, here. Colonizing a planet, without too many cares, with a lot of pretence and madness. Some would say it is the human way. The humans have been always able to do and think horrible things through history.

-Massacre, war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, holocaust, extermination, pogrom: these are just some of the words I can come with on the top of my head to describe massive killings of people. All violent types of killings. With the passing of the ages, humanity generated powerful men, and “jobs”, so that they could kill indirectly without even having to look at who they murdered.

She looked away for a moment, like recalling some unpleasant things, then continued

-The reasons for killing were many; more often than not very silly: love, hate, power, money, rage, envy... Petty stuff, really. A good reason for a kill is even more rare than a good human being. Still, at the end of the 21st century humans had silently decided that killing people for whatever reason was less interesting than actually living.

-Hate and all other “motives” still existed, with men finding plenty ways to make each other miserable, but with always less and less deaths. Jumping to a more scientific setting, without any more massive deaths, we all too soon realized how much our world was to be considered as a closed system which, in all of its aspects, tries to get balance.

-Without death, and with increasingly longer life-spans, humanity almost entirely lost the faculty to procreate. Some of us were just happy to call it entropy, the invisible hand that shakes the cosmos looking for the lowest energy status of balance.

-Now, some might say that the concept doesn't apply, because entropy is originally a thermal phenomenon, but for many of us it did. We tried to look at death for the first time with a detached, scientific approach as something more than what we considered it being as mortals.

-At the beginning, people killed each other and died for all kind of reasons, with births being higher; soon though both became less and less until... We had no births and no deaths.

-We lost the capability for procreation, yet we died, just slowly, of extremely old age. Balance at times means death, sadly. After all, what was this if not life trying to get to a low energy balance?

Her face hardened for a second, almost bitter

-On Earth some immortal creatures always existed, some jelly-fish which never died, unable to reproduce. We had become like them, simpler beings, in a sense.

-Many scientists of all sorts of fields kept on studying this “social entropy” tying it more and more with philosophy, ethic and even religion. The results of those studies, which I was a part of, were not important, but made us understand that ultimately entropy is neither good or bad, yet it is both and still more... More important, it is real and no matter what we did, universal entropy would always win.

-Everything, sooner or later naturally deflated... Everything eventually went down, to put it simply. Overpopulation was the real problem, at that time, so we had to do something. Ideas for colonizing other planets had to be brought to fruition pronto, but they were not as fast as necessary.

-The situation grew really desperate, to the point were people, entire families at times, were being paid for volunteering to die, receiving money in exchange, which they could leave to whomever they wanted, hoping that sooner or later, with lower numbers, humanity might naturally find a different kind of “balance” and maybe, find back its ability to procreate.

-Killing, was once more humanity's big solution. But, at the verge of the 23rd century, came the Awakening.

-All beliefs were shattered, magic was a reality and... All that came with it too, including new births. The new balance was found within chaos.

-Humans abandoned Earth through fiery portals in large numbers, leaving only 30% of its original population on it. We all could begin again, and humanity rejoiced because of this. It was probably a drunken epiphany due to the celebrations, but some of those involved in our death study, decided to create a secret society with the purpose of further studying and challenging universal laws, called Entropy.

Simone laughed and shook her head with resignation

-Scientists don't have the best brains for giving names, I know, not even when they become mages. They just become bigger nerds.

-Anyway... As a part of Entropy, I take on the moralist and good side, at least right now. As you might have heard, I was a warlord back in the day, we could say that has been my more degenerate contribution to Entropy.

She took a moment to evaluate what she had said, E looking at her with a complicated, serious expression but not saying anything.

-With time, Entropy has become bigger, stronger, wider, yet mostly unknown to all other races. We now largely study magic really, though death related and universe related studies still remain at our core.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

She was done talking.

E remained silent for a while, weighting it all up, trying to get the shape of what he was pondering.

-So, bad and good were both necessary... Otherwise planets could die?

-To a certain degree, yes.

-See? There was a way to say all of “that” with simpler and fewer words.

-Young people... so lacking in patience.

They slowly started laughing.

-Well...

She turned out of breath after a while... For some reason she couldn't stop laughing.

-Weeeee... okay... Thank you E, it had been quite a while since my last hearty laugh.

She had told him everything she thought humanity was, all of their insanity and struggles and he had not shrunk away with disgust. More importantly, she realized, that was really the first time she had spoken about it in those terms in a long while and it felt good. It felt to her like a huge weight had been removed from her shoulders, like explaining it to that particular Rokian had been an important milestone long in the coming... it was weird... yet nice.

-As we were saying though, I am trying to implement the “good” while several others are the “bad” on this planet and I am not given the option of knowing whom of them is doing evil under the Entropy banner, nor I want to. It is sad though.

-What? Thinking that bad is necessary?

-Indeed. In fact, I don't really think it is anymore. Which is why I am defending the good. Problem being there is so much bad on this planet it is impossible to just attribute it all to Entropy...

-What do you mean?

-Do you know who were the original inhabitants of Havenrock?

-No.

-Criminals and crazy people, those judged not worth or needed in a new world environment: the rejects. When they found out they were going to be left on planet Earth, where they would always be looked at as deranged society outcasts, they all banded together and managed to abandon ship in secret, choosing a planet in a far away galaxy, out of the major circuit, not mapped or touched by the big interplanetary guilds.

-These people are a ton of bad, then?

-Not the way you might think. You see, at times social entropy is not a bad thing: I mean, who wants to live in a totally criminal society? No one, not even criminals! Nobody likes going in the streets and getting mugged at every step as a social costume. No one enjoys being robbed at night in their own houses. Those kind of crimes almost entirely died out, and pretty soon too.

-Makes sense.

He answered nodding with crossed arms.

-Silent wars on the other hand, are still going strong, underground, through political and economical channels, which is revolting to me. We could have left our love for currency back on Earth if you ask me. Human nature, I guess?

-What do you mean?

-The passion my people have for getting money without really doing anything to earn it and love for power that only benefits themselves. Incidentally, this is why I want you.

-I am afraid I don't follow.

-We need to take this society rulers down to their titled knees. People came here being burglars and robbers, and those who still are, think themselves worthy of picking new fancy titles. They have themselves called barons, princes and senators. I would like you to make this people's life impossible until they fall apart; I want to target the untouchables of this planet, together.

Before even considering Madame Boule's proposal, E stopped for a moment and asked

-Uhmmm, what do I get out of this?

-For starters, I could teach you and Mr. Pope to use real magic.

-So you would like to employ him as well? I won't lied, that kinda makes this feel better.

Simone caught a glimpse of relieve and immediately a creepy “fat cat” content smile coming from the Rokian.

-I get the feeling you are more complicated than what I originally prognosticated.

-You have no idea Simone, but who am I to refuse a job? I would love having a contract signed and such, but I get the feeling this is not the kind of job you get an insurance for. So, when do we start?

-Immediately, if you want. Say, before you have created a party, right? Invite me into it.

-Okay. Party invite Simone Boule.

Madame Boule received a party invitation, which she accepted, together with the Aw-k meta-enchantment; later she would change its color to a pleasant lavender with pearly white letters.

She stared at the meta-enchantment with eager interest.

-This meta-enchantment is way more advanced than anything I have ever seen. Where did you get it?

Her scientist and collector souls were both on high alert.

-Afraid I can't reveal that. Nothing personal, but I am not too certain myself.