Moses, the Savior
Success is the only path one can take when failure is no longer an option
Elisium. Year 5L 21/14
Moses, Joseph and other survivors were discussing the two worlds and their similarities inside the meeting room of the large shack.
"So just like Arthur found Alex, there must be someone, who looks exactly like me, roaming around in this world?" Joseph asked Jacob "I am dying to meet my duplicate."
"You won't find one my boy" replied Jacob, "We are descendants of Solomon, who actually jumped from Elisium to Aden and started his lineage in Aden. As a result there wasn't any copy of Solomon left in this world. So I presume his lineage doesn't exist here."
"So there must have been two Solomon's in Aden, one that arrived from here and one that was already there?" asked Moses.
"That is a good observation. But the answer is no. It wasn't that way as well," replied Jacob, "The true lineage of Adam the first only exists in one world at a time, the brighter of the two worlds. One way or the other, it gets completely erased from the other world. When Isaac was assassinated, all his brothers and cousins loyal to him were also systematically executed. Whereas the cousins who had plotted against him were killed in the Catastrophe at the turn of the loop. No one from that lineage survived other than Solomon, who himself caused the Catastrophe and then decided to return to the other world. So my dear son," Jacob said looking at Joseph, "you won't find your copy in this world. And I think that both the worlds would be thankful that they don't have to endure two pieces like you." Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
Joseph looked grudgingly at Arthur "So you are the only lucky one amongst us to have a copy of himself." Arthur uncomfortably shifted in his chair and gave an uneasy smile, but before he could think of some reply Moses interrupted in between and asked a question that was nibbling at his mind since a long time, "You keep on saying that this world is a precise copy of Aden. Okay, I can understand as per the theory of the Dance of Two Sisters, that the world in the shadows remains underdeveloped for that loop, but still I find this world very different. The lands look barren, people look ragged, and almost everything looks different. Take for example this very settlement, The Refuge, there is no such settlement in Aden. So how is this world similar to ours?"
Jacob sighed "Well, in every single loop, everything went in accordance to the Dance of Two Sisters. But then something happened in this loop that had never ever happened before. Someone made the jump from one world to another in the fourteenth cycle, and not in the twenty first, and that person was not the Bearer of the amulet. In the earlier cycles only the Bearer of the amulet, had taken the leap. This person, Andrews the Explorer, not only did he arrive to the other world, but he found his way back to his own world as well. Loaded with the information he gathered in this world, he inadvertently triggered a chain of events that completely changed the fortunes of both the worlds."
"You mean to say that Elisium is in this condition because one person jumped and arrived in this world at a wrong time in the system of loops?" asked Moses in a skeptic tone.
"Not exactly," replied Jacob, "I am not saying it is Andrews who is responsible for this, but he was certainly the catalyst for all that has happened. It was the greed of a few people that has led to all this chaos. Just try and understand the whole process. As per the design of the nature, the Supreme Beings or the Creator, whatever you want to call them, towards the end of every loop, one person with extreme powers at his disposal, would leap from one world to another and trigger the Transition. In every loop in the past, the world into the shadows remained stagnant whereas the brighter world kept on developing. Then in the next loop, the world which came out of the shadows, with the help of the knowledge and powers of the Bearer of amulet, would catch up with its counterpart and go well past it in terms of evolution. This cycle just kept repeating itself. But in this loop, due to Andrews' little adventure, every seventh year thousands of soldiers from the developed world are travelling to the darker world. With their advanced machinery and sophisticated weapons they are wreaking havoc in this world. For the first time in history the world into the shadows is being exploited by its opposite number. It isn't stagnant any more, but actually it is deteriorating, and that too at a very fast pace. The arrival of thousands of soldiers, which the people here call pirates or looters, has completely messed the balance of nature. It has thrown the nature's magnificent system of gradual evolution of both the worlds, into a complete pandemonium. The perfectly tuned dance of two sisters has now turned into a battle of two sisters, and Elisium is the world which is clearly loosing this battle."
"You were asking about the Refuge," George told Moses, "that there is no such settlement in Aden. Doesn't the name Refuge ring a bell in your brain. This place is exactly what its name suggests. A refuge for the people who have been driven away from their homes by those looters. A majority of these people lived in the Ruins, but those goons armed with those hellish weapons, took over the Ruins and drove its residents away. Thousands of people were killed during those darkest days of adversity seven cycles ago. Rivers of blood flowed outside the Ruins. Hundreds of thousands of men women and innocent children were left homeless in that extreme weather. When those homeless settled in the outskirts of the ruins they were forced away from there as well. In every cycle they kept on expanding their territory and kept banishing our people, till this settlement became the last refuge for all the exploited. People just come to this place, with whatever is left of their belongings, build a shanty for themselves and start spending a life of misery. You say the people here look ragged. Yes, they do, because they have been mercilessly driven away from their lands. Their beautiful homes, their lush green farms and their hopes of a respectable life have been snatched away from them. They have to struggle everyday to even provide their children with two proper meals. This life of suffering has its toll on people's appearance. In fact they are much more shattered from within then they appear. "
"Not only the people in this world, but people in Aden have also suffered," said Jacob, "and we are some prime examples of that. Banished from our world for no apparent reason. And I have to say that our adversities are also somehow because of Andrews. Apparently, towards the end of every loop, the consciences of some powerful people in the brighter world, begin to decline. They try to seize power by unholy means which forces the Bearer of the Amulet to leave his world and travel to the other. Eventually these events trigger the Transition. As per the legends, this cycle had repeated in every loop, but this all happens in the twenty first cycle of every loop. The seeds of greed and envy are there, hidden in people's subconscious, but they don't start to germinate until the end of nineteenth or twentieth cycle and they finally culminate in the twenty first cycle, right towards the end of the loop. But because of something that Andrews saw here, and with all the information he took from this world, those hidden seeds of greed quickly grew into a tree of rapacity. What should have happened in the twenty first cycle happened in the fifteenth. The righteous king, our great grandfather King Samuel, was lured by a devil to taste the forbidden fruit. It resulted in him getting banished from Aden and his family getting hunted down, imprisoned and then banished, just like him. After Samuel, a family of ravenous gluttonous demons took over the reins of our world. With six cycles still remaining in the loop, they hard-pressed themselves in trying to change the dynamics of the nature's wheel. By exploiting the resources and people of this world, and by subjecting them to a life of misery, they tried to make certain that there were neither any resources, nor any hope and strength left in the people of this world for the next Transition. By drowning the descendants of Solomon, they also ensured that there was no one who actually kick started this process of Transition. To cut the long story short, the rulers in our world are trying their best to halt this Wheel of Loops. In fact they want to break this wheel once and for all. They want Aden to stay on top forever, so that they can rule it for eternity. If Transition doesn't happen at the turn of this loop, this wheel will be broken, and those demons will rule Aden forever. And looking at the way they have exploited Elisium in the last six cycles, if they remain in power for the next whole loop they are going to drain this world, not just of all the resources it has, but also of all the hope and happiness. Elisium will truly become Tenebra, the dark world, for eternity and there will be no way back for it. It will remain in the shadows forever."
George got up from his chair and came near Moses. He bent his knee to the ground in front of him "Your forefathers have kept this wheel moving and now you must follow their footsteps. I know the odds are heavily against you, as you are unprepared and you face an enemy who has been preparing to face you for the last six cycles. But you have the support and prayers of millions of oppressed men women and children with you. Remember the stakes have never been higher, because on your success depends the future of two worlds. The darkness engulfing these worlds is growing everyday. Many of us present here, might get consumed by this war and may not survive to see the bright light of freedom, but you have to lead them to their salvation. You have to succeed, son, you have to, as failing here is not an option. "
George kissed Moses right hand and said in aloud voice, "lets pray for Moses, Moses the Savior. Hail Moses"
Everyone in the room got up from their chairs, bent their knees and chanted out loud, "Hail Moses."
In a small room inside a shack, Moses was crowned the Savior.
With that coronation, the burden of saving two worlds was laid on his shoulders.
Moses looked at people around him and saw a glimmer of hope in their eyes.
He knew he can't let them down.
He was their last hope and he must succeed.
Because success is the only path one can take when failure is no longer an option