Balmore felt many things all at once. His feet were sinking slightly into a boggy peat. The air around him was chilled, but not cold. It made him aware of the distinct lack of clothes on his body and every inch of his skin exposed to the world. The world was bright, but he didn’t feel any level of discomfort that would normally come from a transition from darkness. His nose picked up the geosmin and petrichor of the ground around him. From what he could tell he stood now in a prairie of sorts, with the most significant lifeform beside himself being the tall tufts of grass and knee-high purple wildflowers that formed a vast sea before him. He started walking, and as he walked, the prairie stretched out before him, seemingly endless. He didn't know where he was going, and he didn't feel the need to go anywhere in particular. He was content to simply walk and enjoy the beauty of the prairie.
After a while, he came to a small hill. He climbed up the hill to look out over the prairie. He could see for miles in every direction. There were no roads, no buildings, no other people. Just the prairie and the sky. The lack of human interference with nature wasn’t an unknown visage to Balmore as they had made a concerted effort to reduce the footprint that humans held on the earth after the population reduction. One could travel just out of the town where he grew up and find the same base scenery devoid of human development. The difference here was that this landscape was never soured by the touch of man. It was perfect, designed from the ground up to be exactly as it was now. There was no story of strife, growth, or reclamation imbued into the bones of this land. It simply was as it is, as it should be.
Balmore sat down on the top of the hill and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath of the fresh air and let the sun warm his face. He felt at peace, and that nobody could take away that peace. He was proven wrong almost immediately as he felt an old and wrinkled hand grab his shoulder with a fatherly gentleness.
“Hello Balmore, it’s time to begin your test don’t you think” said a leathery and worn voice behind him. Balmore was filled with a sense of calm as he regarded a rather plump man with a jolly expression. His bulbous cheeks were pressed up over his eyes in a content smile. The man’s hands came to rest on his large belly as he sat down beside Balmore crossing his legs under himself in an impressive show of flexibility for one his size. The calm that Balmore felt was unnerving. This man gave him the same feeling as the prairie around him -- perfection. He wasn’t entirely uncertain that the man beside him wasn’t actually the prairie itself.
It struck him then, the irrationality of that thought that had stalked its way through his mind. There was a fair bit of magic and mysticism in the stories of the machines of old. Balmore had been told about computers, the internet, artificial intelligence, and other such technological marvels that could perform miracles by standard human conception. This, though, was something entirely different. He looked at this man and somehow believed that he could be a landscape. That he was simultaneously each wildflower, each insect, each blade of grass, and the dirt beneath him. Worse yet, it didn’t even strike Balmore as something odd, that might be wondrous to any degree. The idea that this man was somehow not a man did not faze him at all.
“Come now young man, those questions will be answered in time.” The old man assuaged the unspoken concerns in Balmore’s thoughts. Balmore did not like being confused, he did not like having his thoughts read so easily, and he did not like being manipulated by this ever-present calm. Yet, there was nothing he could do to wrest control of himself again, so he instead used the opportunity to give voice to the churning thoughts in his head.
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“I--” But he was interrupted by the man again.
“You will have the rest of your life to prove yourself young man, why are you so eager to leave this place? Are you so sure of your direction that you would run headlong towards what is surely unknown to you?” His hands magnanimously opened, spreading across the horizon. The fields of flowers and grass seemed to sway merrily responding to his movements.
“Now, there is some sense to your impulses - but they need tempered in the fires of wit, purpose, and reflection. Truly, all paths lay out before you now, and all are valid.” With each word he gestured toward another direction into the distance. Each time he did so the grasses and flower stalks parted to form a literal path.
“I am here to be tested though, correct? What am I to do? What challenge or questions do you have? Is this even the test?” Balmore was no longer satisfied to be a passive participant in this conversation, but yet he couldn’t bring himself to raise his voice or even to confront the man for the pervasive peacefulness of this whole interaction.
“You are, you will, you’ll see, and yes to each question respectfully. Now, look at your paths and think long and hard about where your fate lies. For this moment is eternal. This peace that I am sure by now you have noticed is an eternal one. This moment of serenity is protected and preserved by me. You are of course welcome to stay here as long as you like. There will be no castigation for such a choice -- even if you should stay here forever. I like to offer this blessing to all that pass through my gates and into my haven. I rarely find mortals such as yourself prudent enough to accept my offer, though. There is some compulsion towards the capricious, some craving for competition, and some sickness for selfishness in the human spirit. Please believe me, you will be happier here. There is a myriad of paths ahead of you, and all of them valid by the views of your peers and even the other gods. I ask though where does the need to walk a path come from when you’ve already found paradise, reached catharsis, and become eternal?”
Balmore was struck by the candor of the apparent god beside him. He was struck by a lot of things truthfully but still couldn’t muster the motivation to follow those trains of thought.
“If you decide to leave, simply walk in any direction. I will not stop you, but this blessing will be forfeit. This moment and all that comes with it will be lost to you forever.” With that the large man vanished causing Balmore to fall sideways. He had unknowingly started leaning into the man’s shoulder in a show of comfort. That stumble seemed to trigger something inside of him though as clarity returned to his mind. The calmness persisted but seemed so less overwhelming without the immediate presence of the man. Balmore still felt as though the man was with him -- and watching him judgingly -- but this feeling came from everything around him in a muted fashion that only omnipresence can accomplish.
*DING You have received the blessing of Monarch. Benefits of the blessing are hidden from you until you reach level 1.*
*DING You have received a new QUEST: Stay in paradise*
-- Reward: Eternal contentment and freedom from all forms of pain and suffering
-- Failure: Loss of blessing, Expulsion from School of Rhopalocera, and Loss of associated VITA