ALL NOVEL Interlude - The Immortality Principle
The Immortality Principle
Erdania and Selia sat in their room, neither of them speaking. Ryun had told them everything about his life on Earth, starting with childhood and then all the way up to the time when the Framework arrived. Erdania had heard stories about the old worlds before, but only once directly from someone who was actually a Ranker. The Zenshuen Sect Head had spoken about the demasi old world once, about what life was like before the arrival of the Framework. He told them stories and what they had believed in. It was all so strange and hard to accept, Erdania couldn’t even imagine a world without the Framework. The few short years that she had lived before gaining access were a black hole to her, she remembered nothing but flashes.
Ryun’s story was far different. The world that he grew up in was filled with things that Erdania couldn’t even imagine. It was an alien world and an alien society. And his story was about a child who didn’t know what to do with his life before the Framework, and one that embraced what came after, who took the harder path and thrived. And then… then came the rest.
Ryun didn’t hold back anything, at least not according to Selia. Which Erdania chose to believe, after centuries together there was no lies between them. It was hard to even imagine, even with all the death that happens in the Infinite Realm. Somehow, imagining an entire world dying was harder. She couldn’t even grasp at something like that, an entire culture a society getting destroyed. There were remnants of the old worlds everywhere in the Infinite Realm. Through art, architecture, ideas and even knowledge that still applied. There were stories and people who had lived there, who remembered. From Earth Seven, there were only two.
She understood now the tension between Ryun and the Warden, it was to be expected.
“So,” Erdania started. The two of them hadn’t yet discussed anything regarding what Ryun had told them. “What are we thinking?”
Selia didn’t answer immediately, instead she looked at the wall in front of them, obviously thinking. Then, she sighed and shook her head. “The Immortality Principle.”
Erdania nodded her head, it was where her thoughts had gone. Both of them were old, at least compared to him. They had been raised in the Infinite Realm, surrounded by immortals. A child in the Infinite Realm was educated on many topics depending on what their future was to be. In most cases, they would follow their parents into their chosen profession. Their education would focus on the Framework, on its use, and yes, the combat. But depending on what was expected of the child, the education could be far different.
Much had been expected from Erdania and Selia. Well, more Selia than Erdania. Still, both of them had been taught the same.
The principle focuses on how one dealt with Immortals, or rather their pasts. The Grey Horde was one of the biggest examples, she had warred with almost every big faction in her life. She had wiped out many too. In the old worlds there would never be peace between her and the others. But the Infinite Realm was different, they had to accept harsh and unpleasant truths.
In order for them to be able to have functioning relationships they all had to agree to deal with one another in a different way. And so, one only ever took into account the present. The relationship that one had at the moment, the way that one acted in that moment.
Erdania and Selia had been thought how to deal with immortals, how to accept their pasts and look beyond it.
Ryun’s past was his past, but Selia’s words told Erdania that she thought that they should deal with him in the same way that they would deal with another immortal. Ryun was an immortal, but he wasn’t nearly as old. True, he was a Ranker, who had experienced something that Selia and Erdania had little context for. Still, it was hard to imagine that. Ryun to her had always seemed calm and collected. Arrogant without a doubt, but not as violent as what he described. People grew, they changed, but Erdania lived a life where those changes happened over many decades, centuries even. Ryun’s life, in years at least, was short. For someone like her, it was hard to believe that he had changed much.
Still, he had told them everything, things that perhaps he should’ve kept to himself, for now at least. But one could also admire that honesty, the directness. And if they were going to treat him the same way as they would any other immortal, as Selia suggested, then… Then they had to make decisions based on their relationship with him in the present, not his past.
They hadn’t seen him do anything like what he described, nor did Erdania get a sense that Ryun was like that now. She thought back to the tournament and his matches. He fought… with a brutality to him that she might’ve attributed to something else. He had control, restraint, but there was still something wild beneath.
She had sensed some of that when she first met him, it was what had attracted her to him. He was… her type, she couldn’t really lie to herself about that. She shook her head, Selia and Erdania had rules about people they tried to bring into their relationship. Each had things that they needed from them. Ryun fit all of the criteria that they had in the past, and all of the new ones. Then needed someone that Erdania was attracted to, who she could see herself have a connection. Selia needed someone who could hold conversations with her, who could understand the things that she had to go through as a leader. The new condition was that they were strong enough to survive being near them, and Ryun was.
Him telling them about his past was… unexpected. When he had said that he wanted to get to know them better they had expected something a lot slower. This was…
“What do you think of it?” Erdania asked, not sure how to proceed.
“I remember hearing stories about what other Rankers did after arriving here, how they had to be in order to survive. It was never something that I gave much thought. This, his past, it doesn’t matter if we are being honest, but that is just me. The question is what you are thinking?”
Erdania glanced away. She knew why Selia asked, because of Erdania’s childhood. She had seen and experienced the brutality of others firsthand. Ryun was… it was hard to equate them. She didn’t get the same feeling from Ryun that she had gotten before from others. Those who committed such acts and enjoyed them. Violence was a truth in the Infinite Realm, there was no ignoring that. Death and carnage were their instruments, but there was a difference between those who did it just for the sake of it, and those who did it because it was necessary.
She knew that there were other factions out there that enjoyed killing on a massive scale, but they were from the Sects. Built on values of family and worth, they didn’t fight wars in the same way.
Before Erdania could answer, Selia continued. “I am not yet proficient with this perk, the bond, but I can feel things from him. I didn’t feel much remorse, I don’t think that he is the kind of a person to regret much of his past. He lives in the present and looks to the future. At least that is what I got from our conversations before. He is direct, and I don’t think that he tells lies. Actually, I am certain that he doesn’t since I think that I would sense it if he did, and he had told me so before.”
Erdania looked back at Selia. “Perhaps that is for the best. Without all of the usual dancing around and trying to interpret what someone means all of this would go smoother.”
Both of them remembered their past attempts at this. They knew how easily misunderstandings and resentment could happen, poison everything.
“The only question is how do we proceed from here,” Selia said.
“We do what we planned before, just faster. Spend time together, talk, get to know each other as he said we should. He was right about that. If we survive long enough for something to happen between us.”
Their initial idea had been perhaps a bit too slow. They were used to acting and living on a different time scale. But Ryun still operated on a time frame of a mortal. Perhaps they were the ones who were wrong, who were too relaxed. They had stopped advancing and improving, and because of what? Just because they had the time to afford it. The events of the last few years had taught them that they should’ve never stopped, that they should’ve continued to push forward without stopping.
Now they were without a home, going on a mission that might end up in their death. The time that they had thought that they had was slowly running out. They needed to stop thinking as immortals, and perhaps adopt a different mindset. Time was limited.
They had decided to try to bring Ryun into their relationship for many factors. Their perk and bond being a big part of that. Erdania wasn’t quite sure what that perk all meant, Selia was still learning about it. But also, because the state of their relationship had become somewhat… difficult. A good relationship required work, it required growth and honesty. It had survived for a long time, and it will survive for longer still. But what they wanted was to be happier, to recapture the feelings that they had long ago, when they had the only third that had ever made sense for them.
Erdania did feel like Ryun could be that.
“We will get through this love,” Erdania took Selia’s hand and squeezed it gently. “We survived a lot worse. And perhaps we should stop worrying like the old Rankers who hide in their castles and fear taking a step outside. Perhaps we should just go for it and see where things take us?”
Selia chuckled and turned her hand so that her palm rested against Erdania’s. “I guess that is the only thing that we can do. There are things that I want to talk with him about. He… he has insights into advancement that I’ve never heard before. And he seems to like talking about that, perhaps starting there would be a good way for us to get to know each other? All three of us?”
Erdania nodded her head. They had both been stuck in the Evolved Realm. Well, they hadn’t thought like they had been stuck, it had been a great achievement for them to even reach it at their age. But when one saw Ryun and how he advanced, one couldn’t help but feel lacking in some regard.
“Yes, I think that is a great idea,” Erdania agreed.
They only had a few more weeks of the trip before they reached hostile territories. It would be best for them to make use the time they had left in the best possible manner.