“MAN can not run away from its fears. MAN will not run away from its fears. MAN will never do anything that he is not supposed to do. MAN will obey. MAN will listen.”

I Dogma 7:1-3, Priest’s Codex Version

“What is the Allfather to you, appremeni?” Tomki looked at his grandmother across the coals as they slowly died off.

“You ask me what I think of the Allfather?” The woman stared at him, thinking for a second. “I think he loves us all; I do not, however, believe that he is the kind of deity—of course, I also do not know if that is the appropriate word for him—that man says he is. He is not vengeful, he is not terrifying, he is not… bad. Instead, I believe that he loves us all, as a father should.”

“So, you think that the Allfather is a loving god?”

“‘God’ is not the word for him but yes.”

“If ‘god’ is not the word for him, then what is?” Tomki questioned, with actual interest.

She looked at him for a moment once again. “I suppose that ‘Allfather’ is the best word for him. Or maybe, instead, simply father. You know, my father—your great-grandfather, never was around. Though I knew that he cared about me, he never was able to be there to show it to me or tell me it. He was a monk, and like we have talked about, he was an aglestic monk.”

“He never was there for you?”

“No, he was not.”

“I am sorry.”

“It is alright. With my faith, I am able to have my own father that is always there for me.” She smiled at him after she realized that one day he would feel the same love that her Allfather gave her.

“You are telling me that…There is… Life?”

In a massive corridor, empty of any sort of furniture or structures, along with any sort of light aside from a light that came down to the middle of the room. A beeping noise, or possibly a humming noise, came from something towards the center of the corridor.

“Where did… You find it?”

The noise came again.

“Oh… My child… Did they… Hurt you?”

A hum. A beep. Another hum, shorter than the last.

“Do you wish… For me to help you… With your hunt?”

A beep. A hum.

In front of the object that lay in the light, which, as the reader would suspect, is a robot, was pure darkness. From that pure darkness came something emerging from its shadows. A red light could be seen, shining through the inky black. With that crimson light came a looming machine from behind it. It was an amalgamation of mechanical parts, twisted appendages, spindling arms and all other assortments of things that are related to that of engineering. The creature—if one were to even call it a creature, for its heartbeat was cold and metallic—was colossal, beyond the size that any sort of man could erect. It was complex and complicated in a magnificent yet disturbing way; as no man could build this machine by himself or even with a collection of men, no man could fathom its complexity. The sight of it was horrifying, and to any human it would send a shiver down their spine and a cold, sinking feeling in their body. Though it lived in shadows of eternal darkness it cast down a gigantic shadow upon the metal ground. From it, the voice came, being that voice that spoke to the machine that seemed like the size of an atom compared to it, and now that one would be able to see the form that the voice came from, it would have brought even worse of a feeling upon the viewer. The thing tapped into fear; that primal fear. That sort of primal fear that hid itself away in the deepest, darkest corners and crevices of the human being. Fight or flight; primalness.

“Go… Go back and find it… Once again. Then… Come back to me.. Come back to me and… I will send your brothers… Your kin. Go… Go…”

The little machine bumbled, making a slight, deep humming sound, unlike the noise that it made to “speak”. It began to hover, though it rocked back and forth in the air. The machine went higher up into the air, and after a second sitting there, it sputtered off into the cold darkness; that darkness that was as cold as the colossal beast’s flesh.

“The Allfather speaks to us all,” she said as she took the hand of her grandson. She stood up and walked towards the exit of the cave. Taking a blanket, she wrapped it around herself and then after doing so she took another blanket and passed it to Tomki. “Put that on, it is too cold to have bare skin showing.” After wrapping the blanket around herself, she put a scarf around her face, only showing her eyes. “Do the same as me.” Tomki followed, and did the same exact thing as she did. The two of them stepped out into the cold, but thankfully the amount of things that they were wearing protected their skin and the rest of their bodies warm and away from the frigid.

“You see, the stars sing to us. Why do you think that they sing to us?”

“To tell us things?”

“To tell us what they know. They know that they were created by the Allfather, and because of that they eternally sing the praises of the Allfather. Even when we are here, far away from our home, the stars still sing to us. They still sing his praises. He is deserving of that eternal praise.”

“But why is he deserving of praise?”

“Because he loves us and when we do something wrong he still forgives us no matter what.”

“But why?”

“That… That is a hard question to answer. The only thing I know that is true is that he loves us and that he never will not forgive us.”

As the two of them continued to walk, a small amount of snow began to accumulate in the air which slowly fell down to the ground.

“How many questions are there that people have never been able to answer?”

“Many questions have been brought to people that they have never been able to answer, and a lot of them—because of their answers being shrouded in mystery—will never be able to be answered. Man will not be able to know everything and man will never be able to answer every question that they ask.”

“Is there someone who will be able to?”

“No man will ever be able to, but the Allfather can.”

“Is he not a man?”

“He is, indeed, not a man. He is… In everything, and he is neither a person nor a god.”

“Why is it so complicated, appremeni?”

“Complexity is beautiful, is it not? Have you ever seen a flower that seems to have such an ornate pattern to its petals that you can almost not comprehend the way that it looks? Its beauty is beyond that of a human mind, and thus a human mind can not comprehend it. Humans have only so many strengths, and with that they have many weaknesses.”

“So man will never know how the Universe was created.”

“Those who believe in the faith know, or at least believe, how the Universe was created. I believe that the Allfather made it. Some people believe that it was created by a dying god, though that belief has been so distant from humanity that it has not been a part of many cultures in a long time.”

“I do not know what I believe.”

“And that is alright right now. Tomki, do you know what your name means?”

“No, mother never told me.”

“It means ‘undecided’. Your mother was the one who named you, and she told me that you would never be able to decide on something when you were older because of how much thought you would put into everything. She was right, too. You think a lot. You never are able to get one choice or one answer.”

“I never knew that that is what it meant.”

“That is because it is from an old language, not one you know of.”

“What language is it from?”

“I almost forgot the name of it for a second. It is known as Agleih’hi.”

“Agleih’hi? Who speaks it?”

“Agleih’hi is spoken by Aglestic monks at time, but its origin is unknown. The theory is that at some point it was spoken by an ancient people that brought Aglescisim to the Universe.”

“But the origin is truly unknown?”

“Yes, the origin truly is unknown. Now, as much as I wish to continue talking to you, I believe it would be best for us to go back to our cave and go to sleep; what do you think?”

“I think that would be best too.”