> 6 - The Antigod waged war against the gods of the Pleasure Realms, seeking the Awoken. His very claws rent the weave of worlds. His roars echoed thunderous across the heavens.

>

> 7 - For all his violence, he could not surmount the Hand of the Awoken.

>

> 8 - Slain, the Antigod was cursed with immortality, and then caged and forged into the Antigodian Greatblade. Centuries passed, the Antigod realized his mistake: he could not win against Heaven alone. He must wield the power entire of the Earth itself. And so he influenced those that would wield him, so that he may sit upon the Wheel Turner’s seat: The Lotus Throne.

>

> 9 - A billion years hence, during the Latter Day of the Law, where the teachings of the Awoken would be eroded, vexed, twisted, and ultimately forgotten…

>

> Scriptures of Fates Hitherto Unforetold, Volume 1, Chapter 1, Verses 6-9

"I don't suppose the horse is thine?" asked Vibujja as they traveled.

Raxri was nodding off, now. In part because of their intense meditational concentration, in part due to the lilting metronomic song which Vibujja sang.

Raxri inhaled and said: "Nay. The great master has the right of it. This horse belongs to the witch-master, who has graciously lent it to me to help in my overland travel."

"How generous. And in truth, having a horse for land travel is rare in the Utter Islands. It would've been much easier, faster, and safer on a boat! But I suppose the witch has no boat. Prithee, tell me: what is the witch Akazha like?"

Raxri blinked, then straightened. "Ah, pardon this servant. The witch Akazha is full helpful, though she has a tigress' temper at times."

"Ha! How interesting. I have not personally met the witch, nor made their acquaintance. But one should know that it is almost a funny cultural phenomenon for each forest to have their own witch. East Pemiwood has Akazha as her witch, you see. Many gods and spirits pilgrimage there for certain problems that require sorcery to fix."

"Even gods require sorcery to fix?"

The bidaree nodded. She twirled to face Raxri. "Yes. Sorcery is supernatural, paranormal. The gods are, well, natural, normal. Though their powers are supernatural. And in some circles, the distinction is fraught and worthless, but we are not in those circles as of the present moment."

Raxri looked up and nodded, as if considering the fact. "I see." In truth they were attempting to shoo away an incoming sneeze, no doubt a fault of the iridescent feathers that fell from the bidaree.

Vibujja giggled--a giggle like a bird's call--then she turned again. "I've seen her from afar, however. She is full beautiful, in that bladed sense. Sharp black hairs, piercing pale tones, eyes hooded and almost raptor-like, as if to hide them. Full lips, bounteous besides. Though her eyes are always so deep set, dark circles always married to them, as if she never sleeps." Raxri smiled. Vibujja continued, "She moves with the quickness of a warrior, yet is the splitting image of a wizard. Wrapped she be in her yantra tattoos, she is clean yet. When she sets her jaw she is like a man-warrior, but when she relaxes her body she stands like a woman-shaman, slack and unbound by the rules of polite society."

Raxri could've sworn Sungai looked at them. Raxri themself said: "Great one, may this servant lapse courtesy for a moment?" Raxri said these things as naturally as it came to them. It seems speaking to a godly being--or at least, what seemed like a godly being--activated some dormant mote of manners and politeness in them.

"If thou must." Though Vibujja did not look at them.

"It seems you are quite stricken by the witch-master. One has been observing them for a long time?"

"You may now return to courtesy," said Vibujja. Raxri performed the crown reverence and did not speak again.

They rode in silence for a few moments, before Vibujja returned to singing. As if nothing had happened.

Raxri was worried, of course. If the witch-master had a stalker in the form of a bidaree... what could that entail? Raxri knew there was some reason, some consequence to this, but fo the life of them they could not remember, so they opted instead to quiet down.

Eventually, they arrived at another slight clearing, though the ground was full uneven. The jungle canopy--which they were deep in now, and with the humidity Raxri had to shed their robe for a time, wearing only their tunic--broke open to reveal the haunting silvered visage of a titanic tree.

Its branches reached and bent against the heavens, keeping the firmament firm. Its gigantic roots burrowed into the earth. Raxri could see, upon its giant roots, pocks of light and torches. No doubt settlements have been carved into the very root of this titanic tree. The tree itself seemed to have wood so black it glistened, but its leaves were the color of pale gray fires. Its many leaves shone and illuminated the now soon to dusk sky.

Sungai bristled. Raxri nodded. "Yes, Sungai. Of course." Raxri looked up and called out: "Great singer, this one and this one's horse are in need of rest."

Vibujja turned around, breaking from her singing. "Hm? Oh, yes, of course. Fatigue is the purview of humans such as thee. Go on, rest. I will provide thee with a tune of succor."

As Raxri dismounted and unpacked some of the food and rations for themself and for Sungai, they said: "Does the great singer require no rest?"

Vibujja shook her head as she floated over to a loose root, sat on it, and strummed her zither. "Not until my merit is burned up or am I forcibly killed, in which case I will be reborn as something else in the latter, or something similar to a bidaree in the former... provided my karma weigh not too heavily."

Raxri nodded, pursing their lips together and furrowing their brow. "I see." They turned and gave Sungai a banana, and then led them to a small brook--this one even smaller, but enough to be drinkable water for a horse.

Then, they turned and said: "Though the great chanter requires no food, this servant feels it to be rude if they were not to offer. " Raxri held out a bundle of rice in banana leaf.

Smiling, Vibujja said: "No need either. I have offerings enough, and I can go for days without needing to eat."

Raxri made a face of understanding, and then ate the rice themself. "Truly, bidaree are interesting beings. How much life can one truly live. Can this servant become as a bidaree as the great chanter?"

Vibujja nodded. "Of course, though one cannot truly ascertain the specific being one will become upon passing..."

"Oh, then one must first die?"

Vibujja shrugged and said: "Well, in truth, one must first accrue much merit and lighten one's karma. Then one will be reborn into one of the Higher Paths."

"I do not understand."

Vibujja tapped her finger against her chin for a moment, and then said: "Here."

She sang:

"Across a billion lives dance,

Six major paths of rebirth.

Sundered they between six.

Highest be the Heaven Path,

Where higher gods dance and dwell.

Then follows the Spirit Path,

where gods of passion and earth

war and ravage and regret.

Then will be the Human Path,

where attainers of Quenching,

cultivate their minds and forms.

Then the Animal Path,

though baser, blessed they be,

for they can listen the Law.

Then will be the Ghost Path,

with hunger insatiable,

they eat until they despair.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Finally, the Path of Hell,

where beings are scourged, until

their mindstreams be free of hate,

of malice, of the karma,

inalienable until

correction arrives to claim."

Vibujja ended the song, though she kept strumming to keep the melody going. "That be the Six Paths of reincarnation. A bidaree be in the Spirit Path. Many magickal and demonic beings, some would say demigods and semidevils, arise from the Spirit Path. We have certain powers and capabilities, and many of us are immortal, just as many of us are all too mortal. We have a hierarchy within us as well, in the same way you humans have slaves and kings."

"I see. And in all of this... everything is temporary?"

Vibujja nodded. "All things must reincarnate. Even the highest gods, the Atmost, or the Shagra, must die eventually, though in their length it might as well be eternal, living as they for a billion years."

Raxri nodded again, making another face of understanding. Sungai had finished drinking now. Raxri took a swig of their own bottle gourd--with water heated and purified with Akazha's chants--and then sat down, wincing as their hips protested.

Where they sat gave them a good view of the burning silvered tree.

"Great master," began Raxri again, after a few minutes of waiting. "That tree... what is it?"

"Ah, the Godtree? A tune I have once again."

And so she sang:

"When tigers smoked still,

and hornbills talked yet,

and the dragons yet married humans,

there was a sapling planted

by the Goddess Quarunai of the Unconditional Love.

Though time beset them,

and the lions bit at them,

and the stone dogs crumbled around them,

the Thus-Come-and-Gone stayed to protect

this sapling.

They said: 'this sapling

is the last drop of my compassion,

before I shall attain the Body of Extinguishing.

Therefore, I must protect it with my corpse.

This is my final act as a Returner to the Wheel.

And it was so.

When Karunai became a corpse,

and their Mindstream attained Utmost Liberation,

their corpse melded with the very sapling

and shot into the sky like a spear.

This is as if to say: the Great Dissolution into the Eternal Body

of the teachings of the Law,

are greater than any tribulation,

greater than any firmament, or ceiling.

For it is this tree that rose and pushed the very Firmament

that malachite dome

higher and higher.

In Liberation, the very boundaries of this trichiliocosm

was expanded,

and the flying beings enjoyed greater bliss,

and the heavenly beings found that it took more effort

to meddle with the affairs of humans.

The effect was twofold:

humans were now more free to choose their own path,

for the heavenly beings could not meddle with the same ease.

And heaven for humans is more out of reach,

which is all the same,

for what is heaven but distraction from enlightenment?

The trichiliocosm continued to spin. That ever-turning spiral.

Whose travel moved for hundreds of billions of years,

so long that it might as well be eternity,

for those of lesser minds."

Raxri watched the Godtree, so blissful in its stillness. A stature of enlightenment, the immovable, sky-moving might of eventual Enlightenment. "I see. The goddess is truly of great wisdom, then, for having done so."

"Great wisdom," spoke Vibujja, plucking softly at her zither. "And yet greater love."

"The goddess Quarunai was a follower of the Law? The same Infinite Law I now wish to follow?"

"Nay. This was before the Awoken of this kalpa arrived in this grand world," replied Vibujja. "The Goddess Quarunai was a great dancer and many-headed. She was a goddess true, belonging to the greater heavens above, though choosing to stay in the earths to protect and nourish it. In her practice she achieved a form of Awakening in and of itself, and became removed from the Cycle all the same."

"This servant knew there be other faiths, there could be no doubt about that," said Raxri. "However, in full truth, this servant operated under the assumption that it is the Infinite Law that spoke the truth of things, and that it is beyond other faiths in that way!"

Vibujja shook her head. The soft tune of her zither filled the clearing with the feeling of a study hall in a temple. "O, dear Raxri Uttara. The world is much larger than thou thinketh. As the Law is infinite and eternal, it can be found in different manifestations in the world, through different cultures and different philosophies. There are very few wrong philosophies, dear child. Every philosophy which seeketh to liberate one from the suffering of this world is a manifestation of the Law all the same. Knowest thou the Tale of the Elephant?"

Raxri shook their head. Of course they didn't know. All memory was gone from them!

"An ancient king once asked four of their magisters to be blindfolded. Once done so, the king the gift of an ancient allied kingdom to enter into his quarters. A great lion, twice the size of a normal lion, with bulging eyes and a mane of cold smokeless flame, marched in. The king did ask the magisters to touch a part of the lion and then to state what they did believe the gift to be.

"One magister touched the tail and didst answer: 'A snake!'

"Another magister touched the mane and didst answer: 'Magick weaponry!'

"Another magister touched the snout and didst answer: 'A dog!'

"And another magister touched their leg and didst answer: 'A tree!'

"The king did tell them all that they were equal parts right and wrong. They were correct for those were what they did believe they held, due to the limitations of their being. How can they know any better, without some way to remove one's limitations? Nevertheless, wrong they didst answer yet, for clearly, this was a great lion-beast. Not any of the things they said the lion to be.

"The lessson that speaketh here is of the simplicity of the matter: unless there be true awakening, then the reality of the world will be out of our grasp. All the faiths of this trichiliocosm grasp at a different part of the Truth Absolute, and so achieve awakening, the removal of the blindfold, thorugh different means.

"Of course, it would be disingenuous of me to say that no faith hath ever come close. In truth, that is why I speeketh with thee about the Law! The teachings of the Awoken hew closest to true Enlightenment, and so I sing it."

Raxri blinked for a moment, still admiring the grand tree. Then, they said: "Oh, but of course the great lady would say that. Milady follows the Law. What would a follower of a different faith, or even different path say?"

At that, Vibujja continued to pluck their zither and said: "Good. You inch closer to Awakening. Keep asking, and speak with other faiths, and fall in love with other gods... only then will you find the method to true Liberation."

Right before they were about to depart, Raxri asked as they were rising to their feet to continue their trek: "So the Godtree exists to keep the sky up, and to have expanded the boundaries of this world?"

"It also grants supernatural powers and powerful imbuements to wizened sages, attainers, and cultivators. Its bark is panacea, if taken with proper ritual and propitiation. Its silvered leaves grant one wealth!"

Raxri nodded. "I see, I see. The leaf must bring great merit to the one who catches it."

"Nay, dear child, this one is easier than it sounds. Silvered leaves are common ingredients in long-life magick spells or with magick spells that grant some form of flight, due to its proximity to the sky. So selling it fetches one great a price."

"Ah, then it is more straightforward than I thought."

Smiling, Vibujja said: "Take this as a lesson, young one. Not all things abound with esotery. It is in simplicity one finds truth."

They set out again. The sun had almost vanished now, receding into its place in the Far Western Mountains of the world, where it will sleep as it performs its chthonic travel across the underrealms of the world.

As they walked, new sentient beings emerged, away from the searing rays of the blasted sun. Rari rode through the darkened woods at a brisk pace, following the faster movement of Vibujja now, who still strummed a song of safety as they traveled.

Despite this, a giant furry bearcat somehow made its way into the road, sat there, and slept. A giant, furry roadblock.

Raxri, Vibujja, and Sungai careened to a stop. Sungai neighed and stamped their hooves in protest. Raxri bent down and calmed down. "I know boy, I know."

Vibujja harrumphed, having been stopped from their music-making, and said: "Ehem, great big furry one!"

The bearcat rustled.

Vibujja neared the bearcat and kicked it.

The bearcat ruffled its fur, turned. Its large drooping eyes, balls of darkness, looked down upon the three. "O, pardon this old one. Mine eyesight is not what it used to be."

Vibujja smiled. She turned to Raxri. Raxri, not knowing any better, made Sungai trot closer and said: "O, great bearcat. This servant requires the path to be cleared so that I may travel to the mount whereupon Giant Stone Monastery rests."

The bearcat blinked. "O? But thou appearest not a monk?"

Vibujja became visibly annoyed. Raxri continued: "Your servant is no monk, great one! They are but one of the claimants of the Awoken's teachings. Your servant wishes to transcend and liberate not just themself, but all sentient beings!"

"O? What a noble goal." The bearcat yawned. "I suppose I canst move for thee... Provided one supplies your elder with some dragon fruits."

Vibujja exhaled sharply. "I cannot believe you. Can you not see we are in danger of being caught in the darkness of the night!"

The bearcat blinked, slowly and blankly. "That, unfortunately, is not within the purview of mine care. If thou wisheth me to move... then thee and thine must bring me a dragonfruit. It is so that I have the strengtht to move as well, I'm sure you did see." They gestured at their corpulent mass.

Vibujja was about to shout something out when Raxri said: "This will be done, elder! I will go, master of song. Please, watch after Sungai."

"Fine, fine." Vibujja flew up and sat down on the bearcat's great form and plucked away at the zither. "This tune resonateth across the whole forest. Should you become lost, dear Raxri Uttara, follow the tune! Dragonfruit trees can be found with no difficulty in this jungle. They look like old men with overgrown hair!"

Raxri nodded and turned. They didn't have too much light left, so they moved quickly. Uttering appeasing spells as they unsheathed their longknife and chopped away at underbrush. They heard the calming plucking tunes of Vibujja resonating from behind them. Raxri knew they could not be lost with that at the ready.

They traveled east from where they were, scything through the underbrush until they could faintly hear the sound of a river. They cut away again. They had no knowledge of what dragon fruits looked like other than the description Vibujja gave them, but they could only imagine that they were sufficiently large to be able to sate the hunger of a great bearcat such as that.

When the sound of the river became louder, Raxri became excited. Though they did not know what dragon fruit trees looked like, they hazarded a guess that they would be more common near sources of water, as most fruit trees were in their experience. Again, they found themselves questioning whether this was knowledge from their past lives or if this was pure human instinct.

They quickened their pace, cutting through and through, and eventually they found themselves leaning against bamboo that bent over the river like a canopy. The river here was beautiful, bright blue, as if illuminated by something from beneath.

Then, on the other side of the river--which was much wide, to tell the truth: half a dragon in length--a peculiar piece of foliage stood out. Leaning on its own there were the pink fruits hanging from its long, hair-like leaves curling out of a cactus-like stem and arrayed about them like an old man who has not cut their hair in a thousand years. Instinctively, Raxri knew what this was. A dragon fruit. There was no doubt about it.

"Well it's very fortunate that they're in season, eh?" spoke Raxri to no one really but themselves. It truly was fortunate for Raxri hadn't the faintest idea as to the movement of the Moons. But there they were anyway. And so, they looked for a way to cross the river. Immediately, the first thing that popped to mind was the long bamboo the bent over and almost reached the other side.

Raxri tried the bamboo, nudging and pressing down on it with their foot. They tried their full weight, and found the bamboo pliant and subservient. With a nod of affirmation, Raxri stepped onto the bamboo...

..and then a giant force hammered their side, sending them slamming into a nearby coconut tree.