Chapter 46: Lore
‘Did I just tell him all that!?’
“That’s pretty fuckin cool…”
“Uhh ye– yeah, thanks…”
“Still don’t really get it. But you’re stronger than the sum of your parts. That what you’re tryna say?”
“In essence, yes. But what is it that you don’t understand?”
“What the hell is illumination?”
“How does that combine with owl wisdom or whatever?”
“...You’re genuinely interested?”
“The world’s a big interesting place, so yeah I wanna know more.”
“I haven’t seen much of the world, I only saw where I was from. So I don’t know much about how everyone and everything else works either, that’s why I wanna know.”
‘Perhaps…’
“Do the mysteries of the world pique your curiosity?”
The question was sudden and even a little off topic but Zan responded quickly and without hesitation.
“I want to explore all the corners of this world, learn about cool shit and even wanna know how things fit into place…if they fit into place.”
The girl took a moment of thought to look at Zan’s face. In that regard, they were the same too. Thirsty for knowledge and curious about the wide, seemingly endless unknown world.
Despite his strength and attitude, surprisingly he wasn’t one dimensional like most warriors at his age. Unlike a certain companion she knew…
‘It seems his head isn’t made of muscle at least…’
“Right…so you wanted to know about the behavior between an owl’s wisdom and the illumination of fire, correct?”
“Uhh…yeah. I think…”
“Is it correct for me to assume that you’re unlearned in these matters?”
“...Probably.”
“Okay…”
“So what do you know about owls?”
“Well…they have big eyes.”
Zan glanced towards Gayle, specifically her eyes.
The girl obviously felt his gaze, and she met him with a deadpan, unamused expression.
“That’s it???”
“Uhhh, they only hunt at night and…I heard they can turn their necks around in a whole circle.”
“...Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Uhh…no reason.”
“Do you really think I could do tha—”
“Nevermind. Don’t answer that question.”
Just one look at his dumb face told her the answer would be yes.
“Okay. Listen up, alright? I’m not good at repeating things twice.”
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“Alright.”
Zan met her with a “ready” face, like a student listening to a teacher. Gayle inhaled deeply, preparing a speech.
“To start, let’s discuss the tangible side of things. Physically, owls are host to an amazing assortment of abilities. While they have wings that allow near silent flight, and they wield powerful crushing legs with razor sharp slicing talons, these things aren’t what makes them special.”
“You said earlier that owls have big eyes, right?”
“Yeah…?”
“Well did you know they have incredible ears too?”
“Precision hearing, extraordinary eyesight and the magic of clear vision through murky darkness. These are the true qualities that define and separate owls from the rest of the litter, it's what makes them special.”
“Now we move to the intangible side of things, the world of ideas and concepts. From the records of my lineage, we have a sort of “belief” even though we all but think it true.”
“It goes like this, the endless infinity became aware of itself and gave birth to the universe through the power of thought. Thereby making it so that the world of ideas and the physical world are inseparable. The physical reality is but the creation, the outward manifestation of idea.”
“The documentations in my ancestry states that the qualities we just discussed such as phenomenal hearing, incredible eyesight and sight through darkness, have a direct connection and mutual relationship with the intangible concepts of wisdom, intuition, discernment and insight.”
“Early thinkers of my lineage simplify this in the way that, owls who have so many of these great abilities, are predisposed to a higher level of perception towards not just the physical world, but the metaphysical world also.”
“Their sight that allows them to see so far, correlates with the intangible trait of farsightedness and foresight. The way that their neck can rotate so extensively to cover any angle within their view, corresponds to their expansive awareness of their surroundings and the situation. Their precise auditory hearing, corresponding to their expert discernment of truth and falsehood. Lastly their ocular ability in the darkest of nights, is linked to their keen navigation through the confusions of the darkness, through the confusions of the unknown.”
“There are many more examples but these are some of the few I can think of at the top of my head.”
“Do you have any questions so far?”
“No…I think I get it.”
“You do!?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No, it's just a little surprising…” she said with doubt clearly evident on her face.
“It can be hard to understand and it’s just…even if you do, all of that is a lot to take in, you know? It would be more normal if you resisted any or even all of those ideas.”
“I look normal to you?”
“Well…you definitely don’t but…”
Although the youth was calm, there were many things that did puzzle him though he refused to admit it. The universe? From what his sister said, the universe was everything that existed. Endless infinity? What is that then? Whatever that was though, made everything that he could see and touch…just by thinking it up? The whole idea was a little mind boggling.
At least there was something he could somewhat understand though. Zan thought back to Mila’s documents and here it was again like two sides of a silver coin. One side was a world he could see, and another side was a world he couldn’t see, or even touch for that matter.
But the youth knew the other side was real. When he put energy into his eyes, he was privy to layers of the universe he couldn’t see before. That in of itself was clear evidence to prove what he already knew.
Interestingly, from what Gayle had told him about her ancestry, she provided many examples of the connection between the physical and nonphysical side of things. The ideas and connections were fascinating even if one didn’t believe in any of that stuff. Yet…from all the stuff she told him and all the things he had seen, it was more likely that it was all true.
“Talk about the connection again.”
“The connection?”
“You know, between the physical side of the things and the…not physical.”
“What specifically do you want me to inform you in?”
“Uh…just in general then, I guess. Whatever pops up, I’m just curious.”
“Hmm okay…”
Gayle quite appreciated his curiosity, it was a trait she liked in people as much as she had it within herself.
“Separate from the owl clan, there are many scholars who believe that the powers that we bloodlines have today, are because of the beliefs and notions that our past civilizations placed on many of the physical phenomena and creatures around us. They believe it was our thoughts that gave special powers to these concepts. When the humans of our era were able to finally connect and “touch” those concepts, we reaped all the benefits of our past civilization’s mental energy.”
“For example, there are people who think that the immense power of the draconic bloodlines, came to be only because of how past human civilizations imagined them to be. There are those who think that the wisdom of the owl in my very blood, was a trait completely given by those in the past who attached to them that characteristic.”
“Our clan thinks differently however. We believe that the power that runs through each special bloodline’s veins, is not the power that past humans have granted us. No…we believe in something even more alien. It isn’t the thoughts of our past civilizations that granted us power, instead, they always existed there.”
“We believe that in the spirit realm, the metaphysical energies of wisdom, perception and truth coalesced through thousands and thousands, maybe even eons of years. And when they finally reached an appropriate concentration, they manifested into outward physical forms. Physical manifestations in the form of animals and creatures…such as the owl.”
“It isn't the physical traits of owls that made us attach to them the metaphysical identities of wisdom and the such. It was the metaphysical sources of wisdom and insight that created the very forms you call owls.”
“Likewise human civilizations did not create the creature known as the dragon. Their minds merely discovered an eternal archetype, a model, created by the combination of the ever-present metaphysical and abstract energies.”
“You’re saying we didn’t make them, they made us?”
“Sort of. It’s a little more complicated than that but it's hard to explain.”
“What do you think dragons are made of then?”
“Like, you want me to assume what metaphysical traits could have formed them?”
“Yeah.”
“The element of fire is definitely deeply attached to them.”
“But you know there are ice dragons and lightning dragons out there.”
“What!? No way!”
The two slowly divulged from the main topic, though still happily enjoying the discussion they were having…
“Yeah! Apparently it's really hard for something like that to happen, but when it does the offspring are super powerful.”
“Though…often times…their lives are surrounded by misery.”
“What? Why why?”
Gayle slowly but unconsciously crossed her arms, clutching at them like they were anchors of safety and stability.
“There was an ice dragon once. The pure power of her birth brought down a heavenly phenomenon in the form of an ice storm.”
“The storm was easily dealt with by the more powerful warriors of the kingdoms but then…the clans of the draconic and ice lineages fought a miniscule war over her.”
“And yet…despite her talent and power, she never belonged to either clan. Treated miserably and alienated by both.”
“In the end, after years and years of service, she snapped, bringing destruction and ruin to both powers before…ending her own life.”