Before Beasts, There was Time-- Book 10

Where We Stand

With Ayah translating for a sober, but frost-eyed glaring Eiden, the mystery of the hunters intention for hunting down their kind and killing their family came out.

All the grand inventions of the last century or two, in which the human race had managed to invent and discover more than they had in their entire existence cramped into a small century, hadn't been because of an accumulation of human ingenuity. Rather, it had been because of the cooperation of Ayah's and Eiden's grandfather, a denizen of light who believed himself to be alone on the planet and, in a fit of desperate loneliness, gave his power and knowledge of, not only the light, but all that he had retained from other elemental strands of his kind that had long been extinct. From lightning came electricity. From water came steam and an explosion in farming productivity. From sound, radio and, eventually, internet. From light came computers, and much more, such as the ability to learn about the atom.

And inevitably, knowledge from fire combined with that to create the atom bomb.

By then he had found their grandmother, a lone daughter of sound, and appalled by the ways humans were using his power to kill and destroy, he went into hiding. Their parents, brother and sister, who had been born amongst humans who hid the secret of their existence, went into hiding during the last days of their grandfather's life.

"But he also discovered in his tenure with the humans that they had been using the spirits of our dead for war long before he came along," said Ayah, now calmed with a mug of tea in her hands. Only the Leskov boy, Gregory, remained to listen to her talk, even though he couldn't understand a word of the Japanese. The mother had come in to herd the girl back to her chores and Yegor had yet to return with his estimate.

"Bit beasts," said Ray quietly.

Ayah nodded.

"Dragoon was in a sword," said Tyson. "And there was that guy in Europe whose bitbeast was from his family's armor."

"It wasn't just him. That entire team's bitbeasts came from weapons. Or did you forget the hokey costumes they dressed up in for the tournament? Draciel came from a shield," said Max, who had come over to slump against the couch during the story, and the Leskov kid hadn't been too inconspicuous with hiding his desire to be as far as he could from the turtle.

"Humans have been taking advantage of our ancestors remaining desire to protect their descendents since the beginning," continued Ayah, almost monotonously. "Now they wish to use this power again to do as our ancestors did: escape this world and create another. They didn't for a minute believe that humanity could find their way to eternal peace."

Tyson frowned. "That's a little defeatist, don't you think? There's always hope."

"There will always be war," said Kai. "There is opposition in all things. In order for there to be light, there needs to be dark. For pleasure, pain. Virtue and vice. Sadness and joy. For peace, there has to be war."

"Once again, you amaze me with your depth, captain."

"More like common sense." Kai stretched his shoulders and put his ears to each shoulder. His spine gave a satisfying cracking.

"He's right, it's the basis of most philosophies in the world," added Ray, who had turned his chair about from the table to face them. "In order for there to be no evil in the world, you have to take away man's ability to make a choice, because how can one choose to do good if there is no evil to choose it from?"

Tyson threw his hands in the air. "Okay, fine, whatever. But what's wrong with hoping we won't blow ourselves up? I mean, come on, a little faith please?"

Without meaning to, an old wound pushed the words from Kai's mouth.

"Faith in what? What's the point of doing good if it's so much easier for people to be selfish, greedy assholes? Haven't you seen the world, Tyson? Weren't you around for all the times we were nearly killed over the past few weeks?"