The Truth Will Set You Free

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Notes:

  1. Inspired by the last line in Ruaki's fic "Renaissance 1.3v2".
  2. I have all trust, respect, and belief in the Bible and intend no disrespect or insult. I am merely using the scripture as a reference. The Bible version is New International Version (NIV).
  3. All references to songs or poems I've written are attributed to Zelgadis in my fanfics simply because he's the only one who (to the best of my knowledge) can play a musical instrument.

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John 8:32
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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Lina glanced at her companions. Tonight, Xellos had popped up with something called a marshmallow and insisted on roasting them over the fire. Sure enough, Amelia had asked what they were, Xellos had offered her one, Amelia had pronounced it good and food, and that was how they got to now. Even Zelgadis had been persuaded to taste the sweet, puffy, white globs that one stuck on sticks.

Xellos smiled and dug into his bag of marshmallows and placed number five of a row of four on the tip of his staff, before hanging it over the fire and watch it catch. At which point he stuck the whole burning mass in his mouth. "Oya, Zel-kun, want another?"

The chimera looked doubtful, but took one anyway, burning it, blowing out the tiny fire, and bit into it, white goo dripping down the point of his sword. Goo Zel went about licking off his fingers and the hot metal. Lina grinned as she noticed Amelia's rapt attention on Zelgadis, letting her own marshmallow become a fireball in her entrancement. Xellos plucked the little nuclear detonation off Amelia's stick and popped it into his mouth, chewing the charcoaled blob happily, "Neh, Amelia, whatcha thinkin'?"

"Hmmm," she murmured absently, not taking her attention from the chimera.

"Amelia! Hello!" Xellos grinned wickedly and leaned down to loudly whisper in her ear, "See something you like, Ami-chan, or something you'd like to do?"

Zel paused and looked up, finger in his mouth, at Xellos's comment. He blushed and hastily pulled the finger out, "Hentai!"

Amelia face turned to the color of a torch and looked down, "Shut up, Xellos-san."

The Mazoku grinned and returned to his marshmallows.

Lina smiled as Gourry fought with his marshmallow, who's sticky strands were entangling him like a cocoon. Chewing on one herself, she stared into the fire, uncharacteristically deep thoughts filling her head, "Hey, guys ... "

Her companions looked up from their various activities.

"Have you ever wondered what truth is?"

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What is love? I have yet to find a being who can explain it, yet all claim it exists. Humans are weak, dying, ever afraid, ever violent, ever destructive, ever burning in their own private hells. Yet it is humans where one finds the closest equivalent to the desires and drives they label as love. Love, the epitome of all that is right, good, and just; idealized by humanity and Ryuzoku alike. Idealized by some Mazoku who spend their miserable lives trying to eradicate it's nothing existence. For if humanity loves, humanity does not feed the Mazoku.

Fools. Love is the greatest pain, the greatest torture, the greatest destruction. Love is manipulative and cruel by it's very nature, twisting hearts and souls into brutality. Wars are started over love, murders are committed over love, hatreds and plots are created by love.

I have searched the world over for the source of human love beyond it's capacity for pleasure. I have found nothing, even in all these years. Those who say they love would hurt the object of their affections, those who love would die foolishly over the ideal. Yet I have never seen this eternal human love. Couples break apart, relationships change, what was once a bright fire dulls in the passage of time, molding and evaporating in the harshness of reality. Even the elderly who love, love with a different love than in their youth. Is love ever-changing? If so, does it remain this eternal love?

I doubt it. I see the girl who chases after the chimera. Her love will pass as all love passes. I see the priestess who sighs over the swordsman. Her love, though long and lasting, is shallow and fickle, when another comes she will forget her affection for the next thrill. Is this the almighty eternal love? Is this the fanatic reason for pain? Has humanity such lust for agony that they willingly throw themselves into the infernos of love for nothing so much as a kiss?

Perhaps love does not exist at all. Perhaps it is simply the ideal that humans and Ryuzoku give for the passions and cravings of the body, for the hope that works in every human soul, lighting at the least provocation. I have seen men suffer in my grip over an ounce of hope. Perhaps love is just an offshoot of this hope.

Yet hope is an illusion, as quickly given it is snatched away. As freely proffered, it is stolen. Hope dies in the unyielding passage of time as love does, shriveling and vanishing like mist in the sun. Hope gives humanity life, so perhaps hope is simply the carnal urge to survive, given justification by the mind. Better an ideal than a desire, after all, in the self-denying, torturing, guilty human conscience.

So, there is no love and no hope. Of course, I knew this long ago. From the beginning, I think, I tested the false promises of both ideal, only to find them lacking. Or, perhaps, it was time that destroyed the ideals, as it destroys all things in it's season. As it will never destroy me.

That is the truth. There is no love, no hope, only the long, bleak, endless expanse of cold, cruel time.

Know the truth, minna-san, and the truth will set you free.

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What is peace? For years I sought this fleeting presence, fighting with my sword and strength to bring to my life and to the lives of others what I always lacked. My home was a war nation, my people, those of war. I have seen men and women die for the idea they know as peace. But peace never comes.

No matter how many battles are fought, no matter how many bodies litter a field, no matter how many souls are shattered, there is never peace. At the moment of it's arrival and the subsequent hope, some force comes to take it away once more.

As long as there is jealousy and envy, as long as there is hate and revenge, their can be no peace. As long as man lives and breathes, it will never truly exist, for man is not at peace. Ever at war with himself, ever at war with his kindred, man feeds on strife. Like the Mazoku he says he fears, he lives on the emotional life of the thrill of conflict and struggle.

Is that not what makes man man? Is this inner turmoil and outside frenzy not the very nature of man's primal soul? The greatest lie I have seen lived is in my own companion. The chimera wishes for peace, hunts for peace, searches for it and ruthlessly eliminates all in his path for it. Yet is not his actions a template of violence and conflict? Is not his soul ever roiling with hates and desires to where he could never have the non-existent peace? He loathes the Mazoku. Even if he were to find his peace, he would still hate him. He would destroy his peace to relieve his hatred.

It is simply against human nature. Man is the most violent being of all, the most ruthless and cunning. Even animals are only violent upon necessity, upon their needs of food. Ryuzoku only kill their sworn Mazoku enemies. Mazoku reek war and turmoil simply because they, like the animal, feast on it. Only man does it without motive, pettily and in anger, out of jealousy and hatred.

That is the truth. It is not in our nature to move to peace. To have peace, one must remove man.

Know the truth, my friends, and the truth will set you free.

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What is justice? Is it the measure of right and wrong? The measure of light and darkness? Of love and hate? At times I think I know and at others I don't. I know that the song that the chimera sings is truer than he knows.

He would know, wouldn't he? For he is the one to whom fate has served the cruelest plate without even giving him the reprieve of vengeance and justice. I do not know his story, but I see his eyes and there is all I need to know concealed in that single hidden scream.

What of the sorceress, surely she knows? I sigh to myself, she does not know either, she serves out judgement without the care of justice or knowledge, only as she sees fit, only as she so desires. She is perhaps the coldest judge of all.

Why can't they see the justice? I know, there is none. No matter how it is phrased, no matter how it's stated, it simply does not exist. In our hearts we deal out our retributions not by a standard of right and wrong, dark and light, love and hate, but by whim and desire. Man will still the blade for a lovely smile. Woman will hold her hand at a single tear. The judge will stay the axe for the shouts of the crowd. There can be none as long as man holds desires in his collective heart. Justice is not served by those who sit and judge, nor by the common farmer, the bandit, or the king. Justice is served by whim. The song sings true again. Fate is the ultimate justice, time the ultimate knife.

Only time cuts down the evildoer with the blade of millenniums, only fate chooses those who are wronged and who wrong.

There is no justice. Yes, I would fight for it, die for it, but I know it does not exist. It's a lie, like the lies Mama and Papa would tell me about the closet monster. I delude myself out of hope and love, out of the will that there will be peace and truth over all. But I know there can be no justice without measure. Every man holds a different measure in his soul, each a different stick he holds to judge. How can there be vengeance without the knowledge of right and wrong? How can there be retribution when a heart can be stayed or held.

Man is justiceless, man is without hold to the force of good. Even the Ryuzoku, for all their speech of right and wrong, would kill without remorse at whim.

That is the truth. It saddens my heart, but I know I must leave it to time and fate, even though I will still fight for the ideal I hold dear.

Know the truth, seekers of right, and the truth will set you free.

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What is trust? Is it an act of acceptance? Is it bound in love? Is it a power for hope? If so, why would kin betray kin and friend betray friend. Why would one's blood sell you for a profit?

Could it be that trust is merely a pretty word for faith in another? Faith that is unfounded simply because man is untrustable. That in times where it does not suit him, he will turn on anyone? The princess believes in trust, putting her well being in our hands, just as the sorceress, swordsman, and priestess do. But what would happen if one's own desires are more important, as in all men, than one's will to protect another? Tragedy and more tragedy. Trust is fickle and fleeting. I'd throw myself from a cliff if you'd catch me ... but how will I know you're there? How will I know you won't just let me fall because my fall could hurt you?

Why would you leave me stranded? I trusted you, you trust me, do we not have faith? But if the faith is based on nothing, on substance less than the wind, that faith is an illusion. All faith is an illusion because man will stab you at a moment's notice. Even the Ryuzoku would betray you for their own purposes, then proclaim it as justice and sacrifice. Which is another question. What is sacrifice?

Is it saving another at the risk of yourself? Giving of yourself for nothing? Selling one's soul for something or someone? Sacrifice is a illusion and a lie, a pretty flippant ideal that sounds with trust and faith. But all are false, sweet sirens that send man running to him doom for another who would betray him for the sheen of filthy gold. Sacrifice goes against one's nature, just as trust, but still we reach for the unattainable, unrealistic goals and delude ourselves into believing we and everyone else is worthy of trust and sacrifice.

That is the truth. One who asks for trust asks to betray and one who asks for sacrifice asks to collect.

Know the truth, humanity, and the truth will set you free.

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What is love? Love is the binding force that holds families together, builds friendships, and creates marriage. Love is the feeling of a mother to a child, of a look of nature, of a flower in blush. Hope is the knowledge that this comes in time.

What is peace? Peace is the moments respite from war, the space to breathe, the moment of acceptance. Peace is the reason for fighting, the hope for the questing, and the life of a wanderer. Peace is the summer's day, the meadow's nap, and the embrace of a loved one.

What is justice? Justice is the fuel for vengeance, the will for those wronged, the hope of those slain. Justice is the fair hand dealt, whether by time or man or random chance. Justice is the why for law and measure, the barrier to human violence, the safety for human desires. Justice is the win of the right.

What is trust? Trust is the glue that holds families together, strengthens friends, and cements love. Trust is what gives us courage to take another's hand and face the devil's bluff. Trust is the sweet net of knowledge that others will be there in your necessity and you will be there in their's. Sacrifice is trust's greatest strength, the ultimate trust that others can continue even though you cannot.

That is the truth. That there are many truths, even in the midst of deepest doubt and darkness.

Know the truth, my dear cynical, pessimistic friends, and the truth will set you free.

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