‘The rest?’
It ignores my question. ‘After death, Eajiz will be asked the question of how they used their affinity and what their actions bore. So, tell me why you are here?’
As if compelled, the blunt truth tumbles out of me. ‘I was named after a warrior of the Simorgh. I come as her namesake. I seek not a Gate of Heaven but the Eighth Gate. To summon the Simorgh and protect the Camel Road. Please,’ I whisper. ‘I was told the gates are accessed through the Heavenly Birds.’
It smiles solemnly. ‘The test of this life is suffering, greed and love.’
‘People will die if nothing is done!’
‘The power you seek is far beyond your control. It’s a parasite. It will destroy you. But if I am permitted to from the Heavens, it can be given as your test.’
‘Then test me!’ I beg. ‘Old warriors have used the gates. Even the Sepahbad has the gates! He has so much of power, and he masters it with no consequence. Why may I not have it?Why am I left to beg at power’s feet?’
‘I see,’ it murmurs. ‘Fighting over this life when the next life should matter instead. This life is a test. Besides, that boy mastered the gates through sacrifice, without breaking his bonds. Butyou– your bonds are broken; you abused your ties to the Divine and are becoming a Corruption. Did you not hear the warning in Stone City? Do you not know what storm is to come?’
My stomach drops. ‘It was raining.’
‘A flood,’ it corrects me, and silhouettes form in the gold mist, showing the Great Flood.
‘In every era of corruption, the Divine brings destruction. But there is forgiveness – because life is a blip, it’s a test. If mankind was to never sin, they would not exist. But when a civilisation loses all morality and the Divine sees in all cosmic possibilities that they will continue in corruption,thenHe brings destruction to hasten them to the next life. In your case, the Divine gave the pious a dream about the impending storm which will destroy much of this civilisation just as other eras have ended. The Divine warned the believers to flee to higher ground. Many of you did not heed it. You went on to fight your petty war. Many will die and the good will be martyred.’
I begin shaking, not from fear, but relief. ‘The ones suffering prayed for a storm to cleanse away their oppressors.’
‘A powerful ask,’ it agrees. ‘This is your test. You are not arbitrary; every action has a reaction that has led to this.’
And I know how to pass this test. ‘You want me to use the Eight Gates and summon the Third Heavenly Bird. To save the continent and to not let this era end; I can show that our civilisation is worth saving. People will see the bird stopping the flood; they might change their ways, like the symbolic aftermath of any great punishment.’ My head is shaking. ‘But I cannot do that.’
‘Ah,’ the angel tuts. ‘This power is your salvation or destruction. So choose.’
My hands fist and my mouth opens. ‘The flood is only doing the inevitable. True destruction is a protracted war that kills millions. Slaughter, disease, rape, uprooted nature and famine. But with a flood, our era could end. We can be subdued.’
The angel studies me, unsurprised, for of course the angels have been observing my deeds from the Heavens. ‘So, you wish for the Gates of Heaven? Why, when you do not want to protect this entire continent?’
I tremble. ‘I will use the Gates technique to save the tribes of the Camel Road. As for the rest of the continent – I will save thepeople, but I will not save thelandsfrom the storm. People who have no land. have no power. Let the flood ravage the continent. Let the people flee and cower. Let them fear the Simorgh. This flood will remind humanity that we are forsaken before we start anew. People need fear to unitethem. Is that not how the people after Nuh survived? A calamity so large, it can only be a holy omen.’
‘You despise your enemies for acting like they are god, yet here you are doing the same.’
This is my redemption.‘I choose suffering. I am not worthy of anything else. If I save all of the lands, what of the Camel Road? I would rather live in the aftermath of destruction than in a state of constant violence.’
The soldiers I met who ended their own lives, they understood the concept of sacrifice – they knew people care only when someone is dead. We are naturally reactive beings. We need to see destruction to understand peace.
But the reason peace and freedom throughout the folds of history are so astoundingly rare is because they have never coexisted. You must tear the page of one to bring the other into fruition. And I’ve witnessed freedom: it’s the groundwork laid before me, people tearing each other apart because the only freedom they knew of was violence. If taking away choice means peace, better this than none. True freedom cannot exist in the maelstrom of constant war, coerced by the soldier who holds a sword above you.
Humans are elevated above all animals. Land becomes the measurement of success. They toil over territory as if it’s endless gold. But here, above, I see what the universe is: it’s vast, it’s immense – but humans are feebly confined to that world. What happens when we are done, are other lands next? Are the oceans? Another realm, as we are doing with the jinn-folk? We are so greedy, we are pathetic. Lands will be taken, people will suffer, people will die, but I refuse to watch the cycles repeat.
I look up at the angel. ‘I ask again for the Eighth Gate of Heaven to summon the Third Heavenly Bird. Let me save the Camel Road.’
‘Be careful,’ it muses. ‘It comes with a great cost that you will not be able to bear. You were raised on stories of the flood; you were in Stone City, a once prosperous metropolis before a supernatural disaster ended its reign. These destructions that ended civilisations were not merely the Divine wiping tribes from existence – they were done by Eajiz like you, who begged for a solution and used the Gates technique to end entire eras. Stone City, the City of God’s Gates, even ancient jinn civilisations that were annihilated – these were by the Heavenly Birds led by Eajiz.’
I see Mitra attacking the Camel Road from both fronts and the world trading on its substance. I see evil normalised. I see the ones controlling its numerical values controlling the world.
The thoughts weave through my morality and empathy, pulverising them to specks of clay. And I let them. It makes me feel human and not human; it’s nice. I am far removed. Here, choosing which land to protect from the other is a blink of time.
Is this how emperors feel upon their thrones, commanding war but feeling far from its consequence? I understand the thrill.
‘Each action has a consequence, and the repercussions you face are the wages of the past. For that, the test of the gates is bestowed to you.’ It pauses. ‘Remember, it demands a steep cost.’
Uneasily, I nod. Our surroundings drip into golden tears where the silhouetted gardens and animals melt into nothingness.
