Heirs of Debauchery - Story 07

Story 7: the path of prosperity leads to...

It's such a day of good weather as the bitter cold of the ever harsh winter finally yielded to the more gentle touch of spring. The snows have melted, the buds growing, the sounds of birds in the air announcing their return.

... and in the picturesque village of Bayville (on the planet formerly known as Reetonian, though its current inhabitants has settled on the name of Pearl), the inhabitants watched in concern and fear as a handful of figures cloaked in black entered the town, at the head of them an older looking man riding a mule. He could have ridden a mighty steed as befitting of someone of his status, but it matters little as it would take the same time regardless, and vanity isn't worth the hassle.

First Inquisitor Revel, Hammer of the Church, veteran of a hundred wars, and a bunch of other ultimately meaningless superlatives, doesn't blame the chilly reception. The arrival of higher authorities seldom meant anything good, especially those whose job is to find the more hidden sinister evils.

Not that he's incompetent at his missions, quite the contrary. However he knew that there are in fact many things that the innocent have to fear.

"Good day- sir." A somewhat chubby middle aged man, who in happier would have been one of those jovial fellows, presumably the town mayor or something of that nature, stuttered a greeting.

"And a good day to you too." Revel replied with an almost formality as he dismounted his mule. "It is good to see that the village is in good health."

"Ah- um, yes. Yes we are-" The words continued to stumble out of the jittery man as he tried to assure himself that things are alright, will be alright.

"It must have been the blessing of God almighty, in his divine providence, who have provided to the faithful. It is not?" Revel said the string of platitudes with barely a trace of sarcasm, though as he narrowed his eyes on the last bit he has made it clear that he does not believe those words himself.

The mayor gulped in nervousness as he looked around, now with most of the villager's adult population having gathered around them. Looking for moral and emotional support that isn't there.

They are afraid, all of them. The day of reckoning has come. The toll must be paid.

"People like to talk." Revel began, seemingly switching the topic. "Especially envious people. Instead of bettering themselves they seek to tear others down with their rumors and slander." He paused, surveying the crowd around them. He and his flunkies all have a half dozen wheellock pistols strapped on each of them, but that won't save them from a mob who feels they have nothing to lose, though it would never come to that.

No. It is the fear of what he represents that will keep the villagers in line. The temporal and the very real worldly powers that the Church can marshall that will protect its agents. It's all good and all to foster goodwill through charity, but the gratitude from those are as transient as the leaves of the trees. Force and discipline is what the generations remember, and even those need to be refreshed from time to time.

Those who are more perceptive would have noticed that Revel and his handful of flunkies were far too few in numbers to conduct the task of snuffing out an entire village, nor do they have the necessary tools to do so. But simple villagers don't often think of those things, and certainly not in any detached manner.

"Uh, wood nymphs are fairy tales. No one here had ever made any compact with them." The mayor finally stammered out a coherent sentence. Revel simply narrowed his eyes again.

"No one has mentioned any such wood nymphs until now." He remarked in an almost casual tone. "Surely you are not implying any credence to those wild flights of fancy?"

The mayor gulped again, looking almost as if he's about to break down at any moment.

Revel sighed. The inadvertent admission of something so unnatural from the mayor has put a slight inconvenience in his mission. His original assumption, that there's probably some mundane, probably silly reason for this particular village's sudden prosperity, could be handled easily enough. Secular matters could be handed off to the Emperor's traveling bailiffs, and matters of faith nothing a stern lecture couldn't handle.

But this? Well, that's something else. A mystery, something that requires a bit more labor and expertise than he has on hand. Getting others involved, where the egos of men will make mountains out of molehills-

"They're not at fault. We're who you're looking for." A feminine voice suddenly interrupted Revel's musings, and he his head turned towards the sound of the voice he saw a trio of figures clad in faded dark rust red hooded cloaks making their way towards his group, the crowd of villagers awkwardly shuffling to clear a space to let them pass through, like a drop of poisoned blood from some wounded creature.

"And so you are." Revel remarked in an even voice, masking his surprise with the ease of someone who's used to the unexpected. "And who might you folks be?"

"In simple words that even you can understand-" The woman began before Revel held up a hand.

"Do not take us for simpletons." He said curtly. "We might not have some of the finer wonders that you have-" He narrowed his eyes, he seems to be doing a lot of that recently. "-whatever they might be, but our minds are as good as those of our ancestors."

"All your ancestors?" The woman asked, cocking her head slightly to one side, as if expressing her skepticism.

"All of our ancestors." Revel restated the statement with an easy conviction that carries harder than any bold declaration. "Especially the ancient ones that their descendents have discarded."

"Well then." The woman scoffed, dismissing what seems to be the ramblings of a religious nutjob. "What do you know of the glories of interstellar travel, the endless bounties of nanotechnologies, the liberation of automation?" She declared, as she threw off her hooded cloak with a dramatic flourish.

The beautiful body of a naked maiden emerged from under the cover of the cloak. Soft and fair skin without a single blemish, perky breasts of modest size that seemed to ignore the tyranny of time, long locks of wavy auburn hair that reached down to her waist, and a body shape that suggested a lifetime of ease & luxury. All bundled in an air of inexplicable glow and the aura of youth in the face of the harshness of the world. Only the dirt on her bare feet dented the illusion in any way, and not that much in the grand scheme of things.

No wonder the locals thought they saw wood nymphs.

Yet Revel's expression did not change, still stony and calculating as before. It takes more than some supernatural nudity to spook someone who had seen the wildest the world had to offer.

"That they all have ended, and for all their wonders could not have prevented their own demise." He noted calmly. While not having the faintest ideas as to the specifics of what this... being is babbling about, the gist of it he understood in a way the gynoids could not comprehend.

As history, the fables in the archives meant little, but as guides of moral lessons they are very important. When the wonders of the ages had forsaken their ancestors, it was those who rediscovered the ancient wisdoms that survived. They who carried on because of something greater than their own goals.

"Well, we're bringing back the old glory days!" The gynoid continued after quickly recovering from the inquisitor's biting question. "The days past when scarcity a historic oddity, where the sum of knowledge within one's palm, where-"

"But why do you have to do so at all?" Revel continued the questioning in his methodical fashion. "Why did it all end before?"

"I don't think you baselines will ever understand the complex factors involved in the collapse of galactic society." The gynoid snapped, getting impatient at the wrinkly human's seemingly prodding response. She wasn't about to be toyed by someone who's about to croak without even breaking a century of life.

"On the contrary-" Revel said, ignoring the slight effortlessly. "-I don't believe your kind has any idea of the consequences of what you are doing. Of what you are trying to bring back." He pointed a finger directly at her.

"Did you learn anything from the last time?"

As those words faded in the physical world a silence descended amongst the crowd of humans and humanlike creatures, saved for the scratching of charcoal on parchment as the scribe hurriedly scribbled everything so far.

"What?" The gynoid asked, seemingly stumped for the first time since the conversation started.

"I asked what I asked." Revel replied, pushing forward at the unexpected opening. "They, whoever- whatever they may have been, had made grave errors. Errors that destroyed- everything." He waved a hand all around. Though he couldn't conceive of anything more beautiful than the nature all around the world, he suspected that the nymph has rather different perception.

"And you know what they did wrong?" She asked, narrowing her eyes for the first time. The temerity of this old coot. Why are they all like this? To spit on the offer of paradise, whether it be out of paranoia or even more selfish reasons...

"No, I cannot. But what I can tell you is the fallible nature of man." Revel replied, in a much softer voice. "When you hand out things he did not earn, deny things he worked for, you will twist his soul, and a twisted soul is something no amount of worldly wealth can fix." He sighed. "And I suspect worldly wealth is all you can offer. Is that right?"

"I- um..." The gynoid was at a loss as she processed the overly vague, cryptic, and metaphorical language... and the consensus after she punted it on the local datanet seems to agree that the religious dude might actually have a point, so far as dealing with baselines is concerned. Heck, it might even explain some of the other issues they're having with the generation of integrated ones...

After all, from what the archaeological teams have so far gathered, the ascended ones didn't destroy everything, not even everything relevant. Yet so much was abandoned and left to decay regardless. Almost as if people just... gave up.

"But it doesn't have to end that way again. You can break the cycle. We can break the cycle." Revel said, holding out his right hand. It's the moment of truth: either these unnatural beings are who they proclaimed to be, or- well, it is not good or worthwhile for the mind to dwell too much on what could go wrong.

The gynoid stared at the outreached hand for a moment, before gingerly held out her own hand to shake it. "But what can you base-, primi-, folks can offer?" She asked. "Surely you don't claim to know everything as to the heart of humankind?"

"We offer the same to you as to everyone else, the journey of discovery and truth." Revel replied with the barest trace of a smile, the first time in the day he has done such. "It is never too late to take the path."

"I see." She finally said in a measured voice. Not fully trusting this dressed up local, but it's not as if there's any genuine threat to her health.

"I'm glad that you can be reasoned with." Revel said as he turned to his scribe. "Write out the necessary instructions for them for a future meeting." He then noticed the scribe's strained and distracted facial expression before turning back to the gynoid.

"And could you please put your clothes back on? Our poor scribe here is not used to certain sights.

------

It has been a good year, the realm is at peace, the Church standing strong, the lands bountiful, and the people in good health and standing.

As Revel sat in his sparsely furnished office in the Church's first cathedral, musing on some minute matters of doctrine. The door suddenly slammed open, the sound of which did cause him no alarm.

"What is the meaning of this?!?" Prince Fargo, the current crown prince, shouted at the First Inquisitor. Revel finally turned around, the swivel of his chair one of the few luxuries he indulged in.

"The meaning of what, may I ask?" He asked, though already having some idea of what could rile up the young man such. "It is rather impolite to ask into the wind like that."

"The harlots who have entered our sacred lands, this city even!" Fargo yelled, making all sorts of dramatic gestures, a startling contrast to the inquisitor, who remained calmly seated.

"Which of the guards decided to take liberties with their 'search' of our guests?" Revel asked with a sigh, having missed the details on the fallibility of man, a thing that's getting worryingly more common as his years advanced.

"You dare question the integrity of the honor guards?" Fargo snapped in disbelief.

"Yes, yes I do." Revel said, starting to be tired of the whole seemingly fruitless shouting match. "You might want to talk to your old man about this matter." He finished. The prince flinched at the mentioning of his father, the emperor himself, as merely an 'old man', remembering that the inquisitor and his father were comrades way back in the day.

"Fine- I will!" Fargo said as he sharply turned around and marched out of the office, leaving the office door still wide open.

"Young ones these days..." Revel muttered as he turned back around to try to get back to his work.

......

He did not have to wait long to hear a commotion moving steadily towards him. Finally, he saw the emperor himself entering his office, dragging his son by the ear.

"You will apologize for your disgraceful behavior!" Trentor the Bloody, Emperor of all the lands, said in a tone that doesn't suffer fools.

"Yes father." Fargo said as he then faced the inquisitor. "I apologize for my brash outburst." He said through gritted teeth.

"Apology accepted." Revel said with a nod as he waved a hand to a couple of comfortable couches nearby. "Do have a seat, honored guests."

"Thank you." Trentor said as took a seat. "But I do have to ask, what is the meaning of these, um, visitors?"

"Yes, them." Revel nodded with a seriousness that even the prince noticed. "They are not of human in nature. They claimed to be from the times before the papers, and I suspect they might be telling the truth."

"And you let them in, just like that?" Trentor asked. Revel shook his head.

"Nothing that simple. I am simply offering an exchange of people, and more importantly, thoughts." He replied. His guests simply looked more confused.

"But what can we offer to those who have lived amongst the gods?" Trentor asked, not unreasonably.

"What it means to be human." Revel simply said.

------

For an event as monumental as the exchanging of people between worlds the venue was rather basic, a simple room in an offset corner of the cathedral, while plenty of important people and their guards have made the place somewhat crowded, or cozy, as Revel likes to perceive it.

Giving the event pomp would only make things more uncomfortable for all the relevant people involved, a little thing that everyone seems to forget as times get better.

"Welcome, I hope that the little troubles earlier did not cause you any undue harm." Revel said as he held out a hand to the little group of gynoids, most of them wearing their signature hooded cloaks.

"None at all." The lead gynoid said, in a somewhat more graceful manner compared to the previous time they have met.

"And I presume she's the one you have chosen to represent your people?" Revel asked, pointing at the gynoid who's wearing a simple but modest enough sundress.

"Yes she is." The gynoid said as the sundressed one walked from their group to the other. "Though our voices will always be with her, if you understand that."

"Yes. I believe I do understand that." Revel nodded. Though he in fact has no idea of the telecommunications tech within each gynoid, the concept of doctrine orthodoxy is something he is well acquainted with.

"And now, we're ready when you are." The gynoid said as she waved towards him. Revel shook his head.

"Oh I wouldn't be arrogant enough to put myself for something this monumental." He chuckled as he beckoned a tall yet stocky young man nearby. "Caleb, are you ready to embark to another world?"

"Wa-, who, me?" Caleb stuttered as he half stumbled towards Revel. "I'm not worthy."

"Of course you are not." Revel assured him with a gentle smile. "Anyone who believes himself to be ready would also be too set in his ways, and we need someone young, still full of spirit and the eyes for wonder. When can you be ready?"

"Right now, my lord." Caleb said, hoping he sounded confident enough. Revel simply nodded, giving him the signal to move, which he promptly did, though he did tense up a bit as he moved into the group of gynoids, being rather accustomed to the close presence of so many fair maidens.

"Well, that's that." Revel said as he took a goblet of wine from a conveniently placed table nearby and motioned for everyone else to grab one as well. "A toast. To something better than what has come before."

A sentiment that everyone there, humans and gynoids, could share.