Chapter 12

Learning

I carefully observe as the mana flows into the core and through the branching circuits. After this, I will have everything I need to make the tools needed to reawaken the more complex models.

There is no such need for the two older models, but the question is whether I should do it alone or with the Queen. After weighing the options for weeks, I have concluded that even if both options have their own share of problems, there are fewer risks if do it alone.

Before I change my mind again, I activate the Child. One instant, there is only a lifeless puppet, but in the next, it looks at me with questioning eyes.

I ask. “What is your designation?”

“I have none, Father, would you like to give me one?”

Father, uh? Does it come from its default dictionary? And how does it know I am male? My voice? I am told it sounds neutral…

“Who is your creator?”

“It would be you, Father.”

I was right to activate them, Mother holds a special meaning to the queen, and do not think it would have enjoyed being called this way by its siblings.

“What do you remember?”

“Father asked this one for its designation and creator. Was this one helpful, Father?”

As expected, a total loss of memories... I have no understanding of the method used to store information, but I can at least tell what it has nothing to do with the usual data storage… I still had a faint hope though, mostly because I kept my own in death.

“I am not your Creator. Follow me, your new master will be the one to give you your designation.”

The puppet obediently follows after me, and I am impressed by its lifelike movements and the wealth of facial expressions it shows while studying its surroundings. Seeing this, I cannot help but ask myself why the Queen was not equipped with the same features.

I have since long learned I cannot enter the throne room whenever it strikes my fancy and that I first need to state the reason for my visit to a court official.

“I have awakened the first Child.”

The small Korok male the throne through a small concealed door and comes back an instant later to guide me to a private room. I know it well: it is used to discuss private matters, and I have been there many times.

What was the protocol for addressing the Queen? Oh well, it is a private conversation, and it knows how my species deal with ceremony: it does not! “My queen, I have brought to you the first Child.”

No questions, no emotion, only a quick look and the ringing of a bell.

“Your designation is Autumn.” As a female elf enters it continues. “Follow this person, she will teach you all you need to know about your duties.”

“Thank you, Mother, this one swears it will make you proud.”

Why did it have to use this word?

“This one... Study well so that we can depend on you in the future.”

“Yes, Mother!”

No reaction is better than grief, but somehow, I feel robbed from my expectations. “Are you fine with that?”

“I understand your concerns but fear not, I have since long made my peace with this outcome and Children are too valuable to waste on useless sentimentality.” It tilts its head slightly to look at me, a gesture I have come to interpret as a smile. “I have already moved on.”

“I will go back to work.”

“I will visit your room later, there are matters I wish to discuss with you privately.”

“As you wish.”

<><><>

Said matters are nothing important: small talk about our past in the city, and a list of must-read books. Also, at some point during our conversation I realize something: in public events, the Queen almost always refers to itself as “we”, but in private it shifts between neutral impersonal pronouns, and singular feminine ones… recently it has mostly been the latter.

Well, the strangeness of its affectation is not my problem, and I can see where it is coming from since its people call it Queen or Goddess.

Speaking of the people reminds me of the delight with which the minister received my extra golems. It was baffling, to say the least. From what I heard, two of them will be used to help with the vault excavation starting next week. I should probably drop there and order the two golems I left there to help with the work.

It is strange to think The City is now officially part of the Queendom. The Queen had always known where it was but chose to leave it alone. The Queendom… to think there was a time when I thought the Queendom and TheNewCity were the same things… I could not have been more wrong.

According to the geography books, the megapolis is only one city – the greatest of them all – among many and even counting its vast farmland and many fortresses: it is barely a spot on the map, not even a twelfth of a twelfth of a twelfth… and that is not all, there are many countries just as big, such our neighbors to the south and south-east and the nations further south - that we know almost nothing about.

I pick a history book, my notes and continue where I left. It is hard to imagine, but Koroks, elves, and humans started as enemies…

The first to unite under the Goddess’ banner were the Koroks, at a time when they but a few a tribe of hunter-gatherer living from whatever they could scrounge up from their lakes and river habitat.

As the Queen introduced the knowledge of farming, fish farming and animal husbandry, their numbers and need for space grew exponentially. They did not use houses of stone at the time so their need for wood was great and the only sources of wood were the three great forests, of which two were occupied by the Elves.

At first, the woodland creatures kept to themselves, but the forest was more than just a place to live, it was their god, and they could not allow the destruction to go on.

It could have ended there with the Elves explaining their grievance, but during their attack, they found livestock, fish farms, and granaries in the settlement. For the magic-wielding woodlander is soon became clear that raiding Koroks’ settlements, was a much easier solution than hunting or raising their own food.

The hit and run attacks continued for a while as it was almost impossible for the few great Koroks knights to protect the vast territory from the hit-and-run from the forest dwellers.

That is where the Queen ingenuity struck again, she developed forestry as a countermeasure, and within a few decades, the villages bordering the elves’ forest were all but abandoned. Once again, it could have ended there, but it was not to be: the elves had grown dependent on their neighbor for their subsistence, so much that they felt like there was no other choice than to subjugate them.

As anyone with a lick of sense could point out, this was a terrible idea, but the Elves had grown overconfident from decades of easy victory against poorly protected villages.

The confederation of Elven tribes would soon learn that hit-and-run and full-blown conflict cannot be compared. What awaited them on the plains was an army like they had never seen, thousands up thousands of armors clad great Korok, siege engines where the eye could see and at their lead a Goddess.

Suffice to say that on an open field with no hiding place, their defeat was swift and thorough.

The Queen had no more need for the forest, but it did not trust the Elves. The sovereign asked them to surrender hostages and the proud and cunning forest dweller accepted: every child they sent was a loyal spy who would bring them information on the enemy to prepare for the next war… or so they thought.

To the woodlander surprise, the hostages were more than satisfied with their new lives, and rather than information, they brought tales of a benevolent Goddess and descriptions of a more convenient life. Just as the Queen had planned, the youth with nothing to their name were quick to renege the so-called forest god and follow their once estranged brethren.

The city elves were quick to adopt the Queen Goddess faith. Unlike their previous god who only demanded sacrifices, this one’s benevolence and powers were displayed for all to see.

For the ancient and powerful who had stayed in the forest preparing for a war that would never come, it was the last straw: they retreated deeper into the forest and cut all ties with the external world. Even today, while technically part of the kingdom, there are almost no exchanges between the ancient elves and the Queendom.

<><><>

I pause to reread my summary. The concept of war and raid are still unclear to me. I understand the concept, but whenever I try to picture it, I end up with images of animals fighting over a territory, or wyvern stealing supplies… just on a grand scale.

Still, even if I still find the idea of gods perplexing, I am starting to see parts of the hows and whys. For the elves, it was the attribution of a will and agenda to the forest, something to explain the strange happening and make themselves feel safer with that knowledge.

For the Korok, it was an individual helping and guiding through their times of need. Someone with power and knowledge beyond reason.

Finally, for the city elves, it was a choice of convenience. It was there, it was powerful, and it benefited them, so why not?

I am sure there is plenty of wrong with my explanation, and it does not even start to explain the people’s devotion to the child.

<><><>

Humans are a far more recent addition, it was they only five hundred years ago that they started appearing, as a myriad of tribes fighting over small pieces of land. Many died out, but those who stayed united through war and alliances until there were only a few kingdoms and empires left.

The Grilvd empire that stands east and southeast from here was formed about seven hundred years ago by a coalition of particularly devious tribes. Their leaders used every trick in the book to further its expansion, and it would have continued if it were not for its neighbor doing the same.

The One True God’s kingdom is the empire’s bitter rival. It lies south-west from TheNewCity and was founded by a self-appointed prophet who somehow gathered enough support to unite tribes under the banner of his religion through proselytization or violence.

<><><>

After that there is a long list of conflicts between the two – the human’s main occupation apparently – so many I do not even try to count… and the two countries have only been there for about two hundred years!

But, if they like war so much, why did they stop?

I scan the book for an answer, but what I find is simultaneously too awful and too ridiculous to accept. A dragon/calamity put a stop to war? I can perfectly imagine one crushing all three camps at the same time for fun, but I cannot imagine stopping midway for any reason. Some books claim it was driven away by the God(s) or through the strength of arm but that is ludicrous!

I could have dismissed it if it were not for the devastation laid by the beast being indicative of the real deal: no mere lesser dragon would cause this much damage… nor would it want to.

Other books offer more depictions of the creature being chased away by heroes and gods… I wish I could ask someone, but people sleep at this time of night.

A good about Undeath is that you do not waste one-third of your time sleeping, the annoying part is that everyone else still does.

I drop the history books – the contents are too unreliable – and pick one of law: let us see if I can finally make sense of it…

No, I still cannot. I understand that laws are needed to define limits and interaction in a multi-species society, but I still do not get criminal law: it is all about what people should not do, and what penalties they incur if caught… but they are all things people should not do in the first place! Acts that hurt themselves and others!

We never needed anything like that in the city, we would always do what was needed of us because it had to be done and would never willingly do something to hurt others.

Why? Why is there a need for punishment to discourage people from doing something they know is wrong? I understand that even in the city young children would sometimes make mistakes because they did not know better, but it was never intentional or done with the intent of causing harm.

What are the differences? Our numbers? We were few and most of our daily needs were taken care of by magic, golems, or children. Whenever there was a need to perform a task, anyone who was free would volunteer, and if no one was available, there was a rotation system.

It is probably wrong to compare a minuscule nation of powerful mages obsessed with research and no attachment to life to a gigantic melting pot of short-lived individuals brimming with life and desire… but I cannot understand people purposely hurting others and sometimes themselves for little to no benefits.

At least war makes some modicum of sense, it is natural for plants and animals to seek their own interest, even at the cost of others of their species… unless? Maybe this were the correlation is! What is the most common reason for fighting in the animal kingdom? Water, food, reproduction, and predation.

What are the most commonly cited reasons for war? Water, food, territory, interspecies relationship and religion... and that is about the same thing.

I get it! Even if they are the same species and live in the same place, as long as there is a slight difference, they will consider themselves separate. If I put it like this, then everything makes sense: it is not murder or theft, it is predation and acquisition of resources!

<><><>

I write down my reflections and conclusions as I would like to get the Queen and the curator’s inputs. I do not think I am entirely wrong, but I probably have overlooked some facts…

I look outside with farsight, and there is still time until morning. I am left with the two major religious books in the Queendom; The book of virtue from the Goddess’s faith and The God’s truth from the One True God’s religion.

As far as I can tell, the Goddess’s faith doctrine is made up of cautionary tales and leading examples sprinkled with random tales of Her Majesty's greatness… if one was to cut the divine references entirely, it would still stand as a proper book on societal behavior.

The other one though, I do not get. It is messy, and even my notes and charts become useless in front of the writer’s – writers? – rejection of the principle of consistency and chronology. If I were to underline every single mistake, I would run out of colors a quarter in, if not earlier.

At first, I thought the book recounted the prophet’s life, but I was wrong; by page forty the guy had already died twice in different circumstances – and no, he is not an undead – and that’s not even accounting for the age inconsistencies across the book.

Even taboos – many of which the prophet and his allies explicitly wallowed in – can be made into commandments then in taboos again! There is no lesson of life or leading example: just a bunch of contradicting tales collected by hearsay long after the events took place.

If I had to say, there are only two clear messages: First, the prophet and his followers are always right because it is them doing it. Second, devils – all nonhumans but those who are capable of replicating the prophet so-called miracles in particular – and heathens – humans who had the audacity of being born anywhere else – must either be killed or enslaved.

“I understand what the Queen said now, I do not understand religion, but I see its value as a tool to educate the people to some aspects of their respective society and knit them together.”