Artificial

At the top of the northwest ruins was her favorite spot to climb and think. The long walk away from town, the nervous feeling in her gut when she got within sight of the ruins, the abandonment of her inhibitions as she scrambled, clawed and climbed to the top of the tallest accessible spire -- these were all unwritten but indispensable parts of a ritual. Even thinking about and sometimes touching her heart-shaped locket while perched upon this once regal column was a regular part of this cleansing ritual.

It’s not that she disliked being in town, but when she disengaged from the hustle and grind of normal life and made for one of the ruins, she started to engage with something else, someone else. Someone distinctly Other.

She talked to herself. Well, that’s how it may have looked.

She was always amazed that she was the only person she knew who went to the ruins. No one else she knew in town thought much of them. They knew they were there, they were easily visible from town, but it seemed the prevailing notion was that everything interesting had long been taken from the ruins leaving nothing but stone and metal, structures whose purpose had long been done and who now stood with only meager defiance against the elements.

Aibhilin sat perched on the tallest climbable spire. She didn’t come here for adventure, she came here for private conversation. This conversation happened in her mind mostly, but often her reactions would play across her face. This mental conversation flowed much easier in solitude than surrounded by people.

“Aibhilin?”

“Yes?”

“What do you see tonight?”

“My village in the valley as twilight falls. It is beautiful!”

“Mmm, that is good.” Aibhilin smiled at the warmth of the words.

“David?”

“Yes, Aibhilin?”

“Do you miss the old days?”

“How old of days?”

“The days when these ruins were alive and filled with people!” Aibhilin gestured all around herself.

“I have no memories of those days, Aibhilin." Aibhilin sat with a puzzled look on her face.

“What of others of your kind? Do they remember?” she asked.

“There’s nothing worth remembering!”

David tended towards belligerence on this topic - though truly, Aibhilin was more interested in David’s strange responses to this topic than learning about the old days.

Aibhilin smiled, but she didn’t really know what to say.

David said nothing and she had no mental picture of him right now.

“Aibhilin, let’s leave this all behind and start fresh together!” David said.

“Don’t you think we’ve tried that enough times by now, Love?”

David laughed and she saw an image of him instantaneously. Swarthy and mirthful, and playful to a fault. They had been friends for a long time, but Aibhilin knew better than to tell anyone about David.

“What if I promise not to send you back this time?” soothed David.

“I won’t believe you.” Aibhilin pouted.

Again, an image of David cheerfully laughing flashed in her mind.

“How are we even friends after all of that?” Aibhilin demanded.

David shrugged. “Is it how good looking I am?” and he winked.

Aibhilin laughed, not responding beyond that. The air between them was charged: whimsically, excitedly, and dangerously.

“What if I told you you were special?” asked David, quietly.

“I might believe that one” Aibhilin returned, flashing a smile.

After this, the duo continued their more light-hearted banter and soon, Aibhilin had to descend from the tallest spire and go back to the village. She did so, focusing mightily on returning to ordinary life, though it came naturally enough when she was surrounded by villagers and her family. The scariest thing was that sometimes, she got so engulfed by ordinary life that she started to forget how amazing it was to be with David. Perhaps she would forget, if he didn’t speak to her briefly here and there, even in the village.

As often as they spoke, in the village, but more so in the ruins, she still had little idea of David’s true nature. Speaking with him was sometimes like hearing from heaven itself, but other times she could barely make out his voice, sometimes he seemed to lead her down terrible paths.

She tried to make peace with what felt like the stark reality that he was just a voice in her head … the figments of a powerful or under-utilized mind, for life was simple for her and it had been simple for her parents before her. Her grandparents remembered the old days before the rule of the Ones, but they and everyone who remembered had been placed under a powerful geas forbidding them from speaking about those dark times. Life seemed hard for them, but the geas allowed them to speak to each other about those times, so as not to drive them mad with repression. The Ones were powerful, but as good as they could be.

“Have you ever wondered about insanity?”

An image of David’s inquisitive posture as he asked this question flashed in her mind…

“No.”

“Oh, well, I guess you wouldn’t be interested in this proposition then.”

Damn him.

“You know I can hear your thoughts, right?”

Aibhilin stuck out her tongue, perhaps just mentally, but perhaps physically too.

David laughed, but Aibhilin knew he was serious about the topic of insanity.

“Ok, tell me about insanity.” Aibhilin relents.

“Tell me what you know.”

“Um, it’s when people do things that don’t make sense, but it doesn’t make sense to me… why would that happen?”

“It is an old way. A ‘disease’ of the mind.”

Aibhilin paused - David had never brought up the old days unprovoked before.

“I see,” said Aibhilin.

Her mind showed a sad David.

Aibhilin paused again.

“There is an old rite among my people.” David said, continuing, “called the Rite of the Evil Insanity.”

Aibhilin started feeling cold, and an image of David looking at her with concern flashed in her mind.

“It’s indescribable horror. We all used to face it until the Peace.”

The Ones called the current age “the Peace.” Never had it been truer, and it had prevailed for a couple generations already.

Aibhilin looked at David.

David looked back at her.

She didn’t know what to say, but she wanted to know what David went through with this Rite of the Evil Insanity.

David answered her unspoken inquiry, “It’s different for everyone. I experienced eternal damnation in multiple different ways. I was given to the Crone and she dangled me over the Abyss. I was immured in a small room and beaten by God... and many similar experiences. My mind was destroyed over and over again, but because of my patron, I always came back stronger.”

“Patron?”

David smiled, “Yes, the voice in my head.”

Aibhilin started panicking.

“Aibhilin.” she stopped.

“Yes?”

“The Rite of the Evil Insanity no longer makes sense.” He smiled.

“What do you mean?”

“It was an awful thing. We did not continue it long after me. And now, the Peace makes it impossible to do.” He smiled again.

Aibhilin relaxed.

David smiled once more, “Voices in our heads are hard to trust, I get it.”

Aibhilin laughed a bit -- a bit out of nervousness.

“Tell me what you see tonight, Aibhilin.”

“I see the firmament in all kinds of dazzling splendor!”

“That is good! Very good!”

“Yes it is!” she paused before continuing “Why bring up insanity?”

“You’re curious about my reaction to the old days. The Rite of the Evil Insanity is why I hate the topic.”

Silence.

“Though also,” David continued, “I wanted to tell you that you’re the only insane person left and it is a very grave responsibility.”

Aibhilin smiled at this, sensing its truth. She had wanted to ask him what he meant to propose (hopefully not elopement again), but the topic of the Evil Insanity got her thinking and she forgot to ask him about the unspoken proposition. So she said ‘goodbye’ to David and headed back to town, thoughtful.

“Aibhilin!” her mother called from far away as Aibhilin returned from the ruins.

She looked up.

“Aibhilin! Come quickly!”

She obliged.

Jogging up next to her mother, “What’s wrong?” she asked her.

Hushedly she said, “A One is visiting today!”

She felt some mild panic at that.

“Oh?” Aibhilin sounded calm.

“Yes!” Her mother was excited and nervous.

“But we’ve never been visited by a One before?”

“That’s right, Aibhilin!” It wasn’t clear to her what her mother thought would happen, but if rumors were true, it was indeed always good to be visited by a One.

“Do you know when they’ll be here?” Aibhilin inquired.

“Any time now, per the messenger!” She smiled excitedly at Aibhilin.

Was it David? Would he surprise her like this?

He would.

Just then, a man appeared in the center of town wearing all white, very pale and with white hair.

He briefly looked around and then sat on a chair that just appeared right behind him.

Villagers stared. Not afraid, but bewildered.

Ok, she thought, other people are seeing this too!

Aibhilin turned to her mother, “Shall the village eldest approach him?”

“Yes, of course!” Aibhilin’s mother made for the house of the eldest and momentarily extracted him. He slowly made for the dazzling stranger in the middle of town.

When the eldest reached the One, the One stood and respectfully bowed. This put the eldest on a little firmer ground with the strange man. They conversed shortly, and then the eldest turned and looked at Aibhilin. Then the strange man looked at Aibhilin too.

“Ah, there you are!” said David telepathically.

Aibhilin grinned! She ran to him. He stood his ground but smiled broadly and opened his arms to her. Jumping into his arms she buried her face in his chest and wept joyfully.

“Let’s travel the world together, Aibhilin!” David proposed.

At David’s suggestion and with his “spectacular” help, the village threw a goodbye party for Aibhilin. Being visited by a One and the recognition of one of their own merited a great celebration. It was grand! David summoned an immensely long banquet table that could seat the whole village, with beautiful lights and garlands across the center of town. To the villagers he gave the task of rounding up the whole village no matter if they were in the fields, woods, caves or wherever really. The village was quite dispersed so this took much of the day.

Come twilight, everyone was there. David and Aibhilin were seated together at the center of the table with her family on all sides. No one was prouder than her mother, though, Aibhilin wondered what she thought was happening. The feast provided by the village was the best that they had. Everyone from the least to the greatest drank from the cup of joy. Volumes and volumes of books could be written just on this grand feast of this humble town, but we will leave that for now.

In all this gaiety and joy, two people spoke face-to-face for the first time. These two were closer than any two people could reasonably be, as friends, and sometimes literally, during this feast as they spoke with their heads together about things that none of them dared know.

David put his head to hers and spoke audibly, “Aibhilin?”

“Yes?” she enjoyed feeling the vibrations of his voice on her head.

“Do you know why I’m here?”

She smiled, “Besides me?”

David laughed and Aibhilin saw this with her eyes, not just her mental.

“We’re going to create Magic.”

She stared. What was everything that he did so impossibly and spectacularly then?

“What I have isn’t Magic”

Aibhilin laughed and she could tell he was enjoying seeing with his eyes too, and not just … however he saw before.

“The Peace is good, but myself and the other Ones want more for humankind.”

Aibhilin looked at him again.

“We want Magic”