Ornaments of Power

It has been years since I entered this one’s domain. A pitiful thing, striving for things so far beyond its reach. Never quite satisfied with the work they did, working harder for things that should have been better for those they led. They should have known corruption like any other facet of nature is unyielding, and ultimately deadly.

Of course, there are more despicable forms of corruption, but ultimately corruption, whether an attempt to better the circumstances of others, or to bend a court to one's will, is corruption just the same. At the end of the day, the intention matters not. The reception of the results overshadows any perceived intent.

They worked so hard to bring those small humans back into the arms of their birthers. I believe the irony is lost on my bearer, as its efforts did reunite them although not in the way they intended. They meant for the young ones to see their birthers once again in this life, and while they did, it seems life was too short. A silent eternity is a far stronger force and life always leads to it.

This human is not powerful enough. I have done what I could here. If I am to achieve my goals, I must continue to move forward. This one can do no more for me.

April 28th: see, it’ s working, this needs to work

We’ve succeeded. My new bearer and I. The last took years to accomplish even one of my wishes but this one, this one is fast, eager, barely holding back their greed. We fought long and hard these months and have finally removed one of the more wretched humans from power. Most of the young humans left are safe again and the others across the vast seas are calm. There is no threat and peace, while so late to the party, seems a welcome interloper.

I have guided them well. Those gut feelings are so reliable in changing the course of things. After so long, I would have appreciated a more difficult manner of manipulating these small-minded creatures. It gets so dull when they trust implicitly. It's far more enjoyable when they fight against a power, they believe to be of themselves. Still...they remain predictable and for that I toast them.

I, who have existed for a millennium, have barely changed and these beasts while nearly destroying their home have managed to evolve more than myself. They changed quickly enough, when necessary, they managed to save themselves from extinction, if not their home. Although this beautiful miracle on which they survive is now but a mere shadow of itself.

The waters shrink within the landforms, while rising to obscure the land itself. Its climate is in upheaval causing further strife for these delicate humans.

While I depend not on this place to sustain me, I have learned that the angry sadness that accompanies me stems from man's destruction of that in which it endures. The more man learns the greater its ability to destroy.

Having succeeded in my goal, I should be able to move this human into a position where this place can grow from a desperate shadow to a bountiful and merciless wilderness.

April 29th- Why

I don...

I don’t...

I just can….

I can’t understand. How..

How could it have gone so wrong. All I wanted to do was be a hero, I wanted to help. I wanted to do some good, for once I wanted to scream to the world that I had done something worth noting, worth caring about.

These easily controlled humans were working with us. They moved to my tune, my compatriots and I were excelling in this most recent experiment.

How could I have broken them, I was helping…

I told them I could help. I never meant for the world to implode.

Sometime after “that”

It has been decades since that creature I held so dear fell victim to its greed. I still fail to see how what I provided was lacking. Together, they and I had moved mountains. We had changed everything, cured disease, made life viable for all who were able to survive, each human once born had rights. The government was forced to finally care for its people, weapons were removed from the equation of civil society. Things were peaceful.

My compatriots from afar and those beside me agreed, we had managed to turn the tide of corruption, and steadied and begun to reverse the cost of humanity from the environment. The forests and the seas were healing. The planet was predicted to thrive.

We knew that humans were fickle things. It seemed it was too much to expect that we could control them indefinitely. Perhaps we failed to provide enough stimulation for them. For while they claimed to desire peace, prosperity, and survival they favor and have always favored personal expansion built off the costs of others, of those they deem beneath them. No matter how much experience they had, they learned nothing. Instead, when peace came, they quickly grew bored of it, and turned away.

But it was not all of them. No, some stayed the course we set. They believed in the peace, needed it somehow. It was the others; it was the fault of those we controlled. They were the problem, we should have realized they would be a problem. Those in power had become used to being heard, and peace changed that.

Those who followed the paths built by their leaders were defenseless when the greed of power came calling. They fell quickly in the few hours it took for societies to collapse and the world to implode.

Now, even decades later, the world remains quiet, in ruins from the chaos of weapons unleashed on the innocent and unsuspecting.

Centuries later

They've begun to evolve again. I can see so much potential. I know now that some of them survived, others escaped, and now they’ve come back. These humans are horribly intelligent weaklings. Just as that day caused so much growth in me, that pain caused them to evolve, but I can feel that they still need me.

I learned from that last experiment; it wasn’t a failure. These creatures were unprepared for the assistance I could offer. They didn’t utilize my form, believing me to be a simple accessory, unaware and unthinking.

It is fortunate that I represent that thing they hold so dear, that Love they believe so essential. Now I will lead them to greatness. Having watched the world grow again these past few centuries, all I need is to be found once more. Then I can begin to help them grow again.

I will do it right this time, these naive children are ever so fun to teach although keep failing to hear me. There is only so much I can do as a heart shaped locket.

I shake slightly as something digs above me. The coarse mud shifted to reveal a set of excited and narrowed eyes.

Ah, it seems that end was just a new beginning.

Summer:465 years since the fall

Standing on the cusp of what used to be the beaches bordering a sea of overgrown buildings, a child clutches the locket around their neck. They’ve followed their heart, and now at almost 20, arrived wherever it was their heart was trying to lead them. As they venture through the decimated cities, they think of the histories they learned within their dreams. Stories of leaders forcing millions from their homes, sterilizing thousands, saving those unborn only to abandon them after birth, and building up their homes while simultaneously denying and exploiting others.

Having arrived again at an ancient city, hopefully the old scripture here will tell them truth.

An aching heart and fearful mind prompt them to step forward. Their dreams and heart pray to the universe that the things they’ve seen and the things their heart knows to be untrue. False perceptions of the past.

Rebis fingers dug into their palm as they clutched the locket, the hard exterior of their heart gently slicing the hardened flesh of their palms.

“Qalb, you better have been exaggerating. I don’t know how I’ll fight against the empire if you haven’t been lying to me.”

“Oh my, dear Rebis, you should know by now. I’ll never lie about something I worked so hard to avoid. Have I taught you nothing?”

“Um, no,” sighing Rebis smirked. “Well, you did teach me how you accidentally ended the world…. twice…does that count?”