"Noel," I said, barely able to squeeze out the words. The pain in my body had returned. The fatigue, the ache. Everything that I thought had been cured by the Immortal of Desire. "What, what was that?"
Noel did not respond. Instead, she walked slowly past me until she was in front of the door to the metal room. Noel hesitated. I saw her staring down at me. She was thinking for a long time. Standing there, taking steadying breaths as something ran through her head. She stood at the door to the metal room, eyes drifting to the outside and back to me. There, far from my reach and in position to escape at the slightest sign of trouble, Noel opened her mouth. "I do not know. I do not remember much of it. It seems we were caught up in the edge of a battle between the Immortals."
"The edge of the battle?" I said.
"The Immortals do not fight like you or I do," she said. "I told you before, the Immortals use the same kind of magic that we do. Their magic is also governed by knowledge and wisdom, except they are not like us. They do not use knowledge and wisdom like we do, and they cannot gain it like we can, either. And when they fight, they do not fight with the spells made from knowledge and wisdom, they fight directly with knowledge and wisdom."
"They fight with knowledge and wisdom? Like, with abstract concepts and intangible experiences? How does that work, it makes no sense," I said.
"It makes perfect sense," she said, putting one foot out of the metal room. "Once you realize what the Immortals really are."
I blinked. My brain was clouding up because of the pain and fatigue, but also because of the suddenness of the switch back to a reality. "What the immortals really are? Is this more mythology, Noel? Are you going to tell me about outsiders and gods. Maybe explain the origin of this world, and putting your own master, that madman, on top of the food chain?"
"No," she said. "The Immortal of Madness is not my master. I am not going to tell you why I became his Ikon. It is none of your business. And no, I also do not know anything about the Immortals' origins. All I know is what they are. Cas, the Immortals don't use abstract concepts and experiences, they are abstract concepts and experiences. That is why they are so powerful. The Immortal of Madness isn't the moon, he is the very concept of the moon, the very experience of looking up at the silver disc hanging in the sky, its silver light, its soft glow. Waxing, waning, in its many different shapes and forms, everything about the moon, everything that we know, everything that there is to know about the moon, all of that is a part of the Immortal of Madness."
I frowned. Noel's words floated through my head but they didn't stick. The Immortals were concepts? For some reason, I thought of the ancient Greek myth of the creation of Athena. How she was born out of Zeus' forehead, as if spawned by his thoughts. It also made some sense. After all, what was knowledge?
Was knowledge created or was it discovered?
Did knowledge exist in the real world, somewhere out there as intangible information, or did it exist only inside one's head. And if two people knew the same thing, was that the same 'knowledge' or was it two different collections of information, nearly identical but not perfectly symmetrical copies of the same universal truth. I knew there had been centuries of debate on my old Earth about the objectivity or subjectivity of truth and knowledge. About what objectivity or subjectivity would even mean in this case, and if those two ideas could perhaps even live together. And if the magic in this world relied on 'justified true belief' as knowledge, then these questions about truth and universality were important ones. Not just for the magic and spells I could cast in this world, but also because it would help me understand this world.
"If the Immortals are personifications of abstract concepts, then does that mean they exist as universal truths or just as one answer or hypothesis? If the Immortal of Evil personifies evil, does that mean he knows exactly what is evil and what isn't, or does he only choose one definition of evil and use that to define evil and therefore himself? How does he contend with matters of moral ambiguity? Of questions about the greater good, or the acquiescence to evil, or of intention and inaction? And what about Utilitarianism? Does the Immortal of Evil obsess over maximizing pain over pleasure, or does he agree that there are higher ideals, or I guess in his case, lower morals? If they really are personified concepts, that raises too many questions, Noel. So, so many questions!"
Noel narrowed her eyes. Her body was also badly battered and she was taking deep, broken breaths. There was no way standing there talking to me like this wasn't painful for her too. Yet, why was she doing it? Why hadn't she run away? "When you learned about the fundamentals of magic, Cas, why did you not stop at that?"
"At what? At knowledge and wisdom?" I said. "Are you asking why I went further than those so called fundamentals? Why I asked what 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' meant, how we learn, and other questions about them?"
"Yes, you don't seem to have realized it yet, but the Immortal of Desire did not want you to ask those questions. Remember how we were supposed to learn from the Immortal? The Immortal wanted to become our mentor, do you remember that?" she said.
"Yes, I remember. But then Madness came and drove away the birds," I said.
"The Immortal of Desire realized that you had taken the gift of magic and made it your own. The Immortal was supposed to teach us its own spells, its own magic. What did you call it, my bubbles? This spell that I have been using against you all day. I learned that from the Immortal of Madness, but I do not understand it. I cannot call it my spell. The knowledge and wisdom for this spell does not lie with me, it lies only with the Immortal," said Noel.
I frowned. "Are you saying that's how the Immortal of Desire wanted us to learn magic, too? The way Ikon's learn spells that don't make any sense."
Noel nodded. "Yes, exactly like an Ikon. In fact, the Immortal of Desire wanted to make you, to make us, its Ikons. Yet, when you started making your own spells, it saw something else: potential. The potential to do something greater. To achieve something it had been unable to do for a long time. It wanted to defeat the other Immortals and take over this world, once and for all. To take control of all knowledge, Cas, do you see how dangerous that is? How absolutely terrifying it would be if one being, one immortal, held all of that power? The world would be at the Immortal of Desire's mercy, Cas. I cannot let that happen. I cannot let you take this book. I cannot let you learn about Annihilation."
Noel began to leave the room. I reached out a hand but there was no energy in my body and my mind was all fuzzy. I winced. What a terrible headache. I held my head in my hand and watched Noel freeze in the door frame.
"Hello there," came a voice from outside the room. A voice I recognized and was surprisingly happy to hear right now. "How are you doing, Ikon of Desire?"
Noel stepped back into the room. Her feet slid across the metal, making a strange sound that made me bite my lips again. Somebody followed Noel into the room. Somebody with a red glow and a fresh body, who could probably wipe the floor with Noel and I, considering how tired and beaten up we were right now.
"I didn't think you would break free so quickly," said Noel.
The Ikon of Evil, Alek Izlandi smiled. "The most powerful humans left to take care of you. I figured I could slip away while everybody was distracted." The demon prince looked at me. "You have your little boyfriend on his knees? I agree, I like him more when he's all beaten up like that. I think I might punch him in the face a couple of times to make up for what he did to me. You don't mind, do you?"
Noel looked at me, then she looked back at Alek. I felt a little hope rise in my chest. If the two Ikons fought each other for long enough, I could try to recover enough energy to pick off the winner after they were done fighting. It would be close, but I was confident I could at least manage a few dozen magic hands. My best hope might be to steal the Book of Annihilation from Noel during the battle. I might be able to use it to negotiate with Noel. All I had to do was goad the two into fighting, and I'd have a chance.
"Sure," said Noel, "do whatever you want." Noel left me in the metal room without a second glance. Alek Izlandi smiled and cracked his knuckles.