The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

10. HIS HIGHNESS AND HER HOLINESS (part 2)

He thought for a second.

"Magic, probably. Or knowledge, or... no, I can't decide so quickly. But definitely not something so... ambiguous. I wouldn't have even considered it."

"Well, she apparently considered it," Alu shrugged. "She didn't think about power or about serving the greater good. Alasais simply wanted to make her life easier, so she asked the Infinite for what she herself – as she thought at the time – was lacking: control over emotions and the gift of understanding the nature of others' souls."

"Did she come to regret it?"

"No. As far as I know, none of the Nae regretted their choices, although some of them, in addition to their new abilities, received a ton of other responsibilities. The Infinite called upon them to serve him, entrusting to them the fates of trillions of creatures inhabiting him."

"So there was a catch to the deal. But I wanted to ask you, what made him so charitable?"

"The Infinite wanted to change. Utter chaos reigned in him; nothing had a place or purpose," Alu frowned. "One of our priestess instructors described very graphically this... universal bedlam. The high priests of Veindor (the Nae of death) have a remarkable gift. Even if you pass one of them through a meat grinder, his soul will remain in his body and will proceed to rebuild the hacked-up carcass. The Infinite, when the Nae had just come into him, was very much like one of those priests, albeit with some reservations. First of all, despite the fact that the Infinite's 'body' was made up of a similar ground material, his 'cells' kept their capacity for life. Surrounded by alien 'cells,' which by virtue of their alien nature could not normally interact with the Infinite's, his 'cells' slowly degenerated, but carried on nonetheless... dragging out their miserable existence. Secondly, the Infinite couldn't imagine the proper makeup of his new body, since he'd never had a body to begin with. Thirdly, every single one of his 'cells' is inexpressibly precious: each one is a separate, intelligent being – with its own soul, desires, preferences, abilities and feelings, and the Infinite, unlike Veindor's priests, couldn't allow one 'cell' to die away while ordering another to split, the third to change its form and function, and so on. On the contrary, he had to come up with his own makeup, as it were, in such a way as to provide an environment for every being in him, no matter its nature; moreover, this environment should allow the creature to develop its talents and inclinations – to be itself, essentially, while not preventing others from being themselves. That and only that is what would allow the Infinite to grow, make him more harmonious. And to solve this most puzzling of all puzzles, he, who was more able to feel than to think, needed extra brains – the brains of Alasais, Tiana and Veindor, through whom he thought up the Paths and much more. Brains in the figurative sense, of course. Phew."

"What do you mean, he thought them up with their brains?" asked Anar, not allowing her to catch her breath.

"The Nae gave a large part of their minds in service of the Infinite. For example, Tialianna the individual cannot influence the decisions of Tialianna the Power – cannot create somebody's Path on a whim, motivated by anything other than the creature's best interests."

"This all seems somehow... backwards. I can't make heads or tails of it..." Anar shook his head. "I always thought that Alasais had created each one of us with a certain purpose in mind, and all our gifts – everything that makes our souls unique – are given to us so we can accomplish that purpose as quickly as possible."

"Creatures are eternally thinking that way when looking at their rulers," Aniallu spread her arms. "It doesn't even occur to them that they're not the ones who need to be laboring for the benefit of their kings and queens, but the opposite – the rulers ought to be working for their happiness and well-being."