TMarkos

Chapter 59 - The Mockingbird's Call

The theory of war is one that has been endlessly-refined by some of the keenest minds in history.  More so than economics, engineering or the other sciences of society, it is war that lends definition to the machinery of state.

It is curious, then, that opinions on the matter differ so wildly.  Generals and kings alike quarrel over whether discipline or training is more important, and on the proper place to draw the line between tactics and strategy.  Definitions and cate...

Chapter 58 - The Word on the Street

The raven came upon the tortoise in the woods.  It flew down to stand on its shell and wish it a good day.  The tortoise looked up and did the same.  The raven talked of simple things and the tortoise answered, and after some time they walked in silence.

Then the tortoise turned to the raven, asking if they were friends.  The raven thought on this, for it knew all truths and no lies.  Eventually it responded that yes, it was the tortoise’s friend.

The to...

Chapter 57 - Conviction

Here is a truth: that no man acts without believing himself correct.  Even in doing something he knows is wrong, there is a circumstance invoked within his mind to excuse that trespass.  Every evil upon this earth is inflicted with the same conviction as the acts of greatest good.

Here, too, is a truth: good and evil remain distinct.  The good man performs his works knowing that he is on the path of the divine, and that no action taken in service of that truth may be evil...

Delayed Post

My work has been doing a phased back-to-office thing and my schedule has been wacky, with the end result being that this chapter needs another day or two to cook.  I will target posting it sometime on Friday, although as always it will be posted sooner if I happen to finish sooner.  Next week's chapter should release on Wednesday the 27th as per usual.

Sorry for the relatively-high incidence of these delay posts lately!  Spring has been busier than usual and life keeps in...

56 - Reaction

The office of the Star is not a simple one, for all its luxuries.  I imagine many a person bemoans their station and feels vaguely ridiculous while doing so; I find myself no exception in that regard.  My life is comfortable, my every need seen to, my opinions respected and my wishes obeyed.

There is some deprivation, yes, but it does not bother me as much as most imagine.  The real price of my soul, and I expect of any sufficiently-strong soul, is that I am not adequate ...

Chapter 55 - Hamartēma, Ataraxia

It is difficult for many men to reconcile the exhortation to love one’s brother with the reality of war and conflict.  The divinity within us is merciful and kind beyond human limits, and we hear it calling out to the divine in others even as they strive to their utmost against us.

All men are men; this is not a mere tautology, as it is a truth oft-forgotten in the midst of struggle.  Men shape themselves with their will, however; and the shape they take forms their eventual...

Chapter 54 - We Learn Things

Some of you might accuse me of that same hubris, given my temerity in lecturing this august body.  I know I have earned your contempt for refusing to participate directly in the War.  There is no lofty rhetoric I would offer by way of an excuse, because the answer is simple enough to understand - though my soul is often thought of foremost as a general’s soul, a conqueror’s soul, those are the wrong terms for it.

Used in war, it is a tyrant’s soul.  To kill, to dest...

Chapter 53 - Hand in Hand

Assets in the Strait have observed large Mendiko convoys traveling by both air and sea to the port of Estu.  At a minimum, the observed quantities of aircraft exceed our estimates for Mendiko strength by thirty percent, and estimated troop totals are at least ten-thousand.

Initiative Parasol teams shall convene in emergency sessions to discuss the strategic implications of this shift.  At minimum, this allocation of forces represents an unprecedented commitment for a punitive ...

Chapter 52 - Horizons

The asymmetry of time is its cruelest aspect.  We may look back and see the ebb and flow of events, but not forward; we walk blindly through moments, never realizing that they are the most important of our lives.  Only after long years do we recognize them for what they were - though we cannot see but the faintest glimpse of them now, through the dull haze of memory.

What would it be, to live the apex of one’s life with that knowledge?  To experience love’s first kiss...

Late Post This Week

Hi folks!  Between work, life and a surprise migraine I don't see myself having this chapter put together in proper form by Wednesday.  As a result, I'm going to put it up later - probably on Friday, although I'll put it up sooner if I happen to work faster than expected.  No later than Friday, though!  The remaining March chapters should hit on the 23rd and 30th as normal.  

Chapter 51 - Under the Oak

The divinity we bear wields us like a hammer against the world, and its will is seen in righteous action.  It is simple and easy to listen to this voice, but the righteous man must do so without regard for pain.  Divinity does not recognize the frailty of men, and shows us the path that must be taken even unto our deaths.

The test of the righteous, then, is whether one may surpass base fear and doubt with trust in the divine.  It is a noble thing to sacrifice oneself in t...

Regarding Current Events

I did not start out writing a story about war with the expectation  that it would become this relevant to current events.  I've spent the  past year or so marinating in the history of WWI and hearing about the devastation it wrought on Europe; now we are faced with an echo of that tragedy in Russia's senseless invasion of Ukraine.

Many of the posters I edit are not from the war itself, but from the extensive relief efforts to rebuild the destroyed cities and infrastructur...

Chapter 50 - Groundwork

A man grows to love the ground he stands on.  Many phrase this as a blessing, but it is a sickness of the worst sort.  It is the human impulse to accept stagnation, a comfortable lack of progress that works against the path of the divine within us all.

Land is divine, as everything is.  Unlike men, however, land may only crumble and wear.  It is always lesser than what it was, even if the progress is too slow to reveal itself over the life of a man.  Crops leach...

Chapter 49 - Lost & Found

The mockingbird alit on the man’s shoulder one day and asked him of his tools, for the others in the forest had none.  The man replied that he used the hoe to bring crops from the earth, the net to bring fish from the ocean, the hammer to build a house and the flint to light a fire in its hearth.

The mockingbird thanked the man for sharing his knowledge, but before flying away noticed one tool the man had not named.  The mockingbird turned and asked what purpose the sword ha...

Chapter 48 - Decision Point

Until further notice all domestic project budgets are suspended unless directly supporting field assets.  Affected teams shall report to their departmental heads for reassignment within Initiative Parasol.  All non-medical leave is canceled.

The covert withdrawal of irreplaceable field assets from the continental theatre is less than ten per-cent complete.  Priority focuses such as large troop concentrations and key northern-front outposts are thirty-two per-cent evacuate...

Chapter 47 - Waiting

The divine light shines through us all, but it does not pass through unchanged.  The facets of our being shape it just as our flaws distort it.  We are, each of us, prisms for divinity.  Learn to see the light you spread by observing the way your life brings good to others.  Learn to know the shape of your being by watching the patterns you cast.

You may be the hazy glass that obscures the divine, or the lens that amplifies and focuses its light.  Others will k...

Chapter 46 - Izarren Extea

Talk of reclaiming the continent dances in wide and delicate circles around the subject of Mendian, which is strange considering the extent to which it pervades the fabric of the War.  Troops conduct themselves according to the Code of Goitxea, strategies contort to accommodate a whispered word from the Mendiko ambassador.  This great War of ours is between the Safid and the Gharics, yet neither of us are the most important figure in it.

How did this come to pass?  Simply...

Chapter 45 - Compound

Each newly-ensouled individual must face a choice: given the power they now have, how best shall they make use of it?  Most pursue a trade, some seek glory, and still others prefer to withdraw into obscurity.

A handful of people come to me for counsel on this matter each year, usually those who have received a particularly powerful or troublesome soul.  Regardless of their circumstance, I tell each one the same thing: that if they wish to pursue real change, to effect substant...

Chapter 44 - Leaps of Faith

The raven and the mockingbird spoke one morning.  The night before there had been a meeting of the forest.  The raven and the mockingbird stood opposite each other, as did the hound and the wolf, as did the tortoise and the boar.  Man came to the circle and stood opposite an empty space, however.  The mockingbird asked the raven why that was.

The raven replied that men carried their opposites within them, that they hunted glimpses of each other from pools of still wa...

Chapter 43 - A Problem of Identity

I have been asked before what I believe my legacy will be, which I maintain is a nonsensical question.  Every man should live as humbly as the least important beggar, and as nobly as the hero whose path it is to save the world.

Who could tell me which I am?  Even if I think myself one, in the moment of my death I may find myself the other.  Do not live for legacy, nor for purpose.  Master being the beggar in moments of privation.  Master being the hero in moment...

Chapter 42 - Pitfalls

Do not spend your days in worry, or in doubt, or in fear.  These are born of the unknown, the truths the world keeps from man.  It is not necessary to know these truths in order to live contentedly; indeed, there are secrets that man will never know.

Instead, we are given faith.  Faith that we are all set on our path, with the capacity to walk it and the will to contend with such tests as may fall in our way.  The world is fair, at the end of things.  To individ...

This Week's Post on Thursday

Sorry!  Work was a little more hectic than I had counted on coming back into the new year, and as a result I need to push the release of Chapter 42 back by one day.  I don't anticipate needing to push any of the other chapters this month around.  Thanks for staying with the story as we tackle 2022 - it should be an exciting month for Mike.

Chapter 41 - The Names of Things

Seer, Seeker, Caller, Speaker, Ember, Sunlight, Sword and Stone

She who sees what lingers hidden, She who sees all else that’s shown

He who speaks the names of things and He who knows the hearts of men

He who wraps the world in darkness, She who brings the light again

He who parts what once was one and She who stands as one unriven

See the glory of the One in every fragment that was given.

- Variant of...

Chapter 40 - Mementos

I received a curious report today; it details a request from Ardalt to submit one of their ensouled for tutelage here in Mendian.  Curious for two reasons - the first, that they would ask such a thing; the second, that we should entertain it for even an instant.  Yet the third curiosity makes the rest fall into place.

Ardalt has found the Gardener.  They seem to have grasped the edges of it, from the tone of their request, but they do not name him as such, nor as Stanza. ...

Chapter 39 - Shadow Play

The white wolf came upon the black hound.  It spoke and boasted that it was man’s constant friend, running ahead of him morning until evening every day.  The black hound could not hope to compare to the white wolf’s natural majesty, its shining coat and eyes of ice.

The black hound replied that this was so.  The white wolf asked him - why, then, does man let you sleep by his bedside?

The black hound shook his midnight coat and looked at the white wolf with his e...

Chapter 38 - Dos Moi Pa Sto

Men are not alone in bearing divinity; it is in every raindrop and stone, every tree and beast.  In this we are not set apart from the rest.  What lifts man up from unthinking nature is that we see the divine other and know it as kin.

This is why mercy is solely the province of men.  Do not beg the sea for kindness or the storm for its forbearance.  The world does not weep at the sight of blood.

- The Book of Eight Verses, the Verse of Growth.  (New Kheman...

Okay, here's how this is going to work...

This is indeed extra chapter week!  Chapter 38 will be up momentarily.  What I'm going to do in order to reconcile the posting schedule with my writing, holiday plans and waning sanity is post one chapter today, post 39 on Friday and return to regular Wednesday posts from chapter 40 onward.  As with today, Friday's chapter may diverge from the normal posting time.  

Chapter 37 - Staring at the Sun

One of the most-researched aspects of the soul is its perceived strength.  There have been many proposals for systems of classification, standardized units of measurement, exhaustive rubrics for defining the capabilities and nature of souls.  I have no doubt that such a thing would advance our understanding of souls well past our current state; nevertheless I have opposed efforts at standard classification in Mendian each time they have arisen.

There is often a sense of betray...

Chapter 36 - Sturm und Drang

It is not uncommon that I hear voices of discontent at the lack of progress in the War.  Mine rose among their number, when I was freshly-ensouled and new to the conflict.  That we have fought for nearly a century and find ourselves trading the same denuded scraps of land back and forth each season - it feels futile, and in its immediate context it is.

What I did not realize at the time was that there is no short path to triumph, for the long conflict of the War must test us i...

Update on Extra Chapter

Just wanted to give an update on the extra chapter I've been working up for the pledge goal - I'm plugging along on it but November has been a crazy month between work and holiday stuff, so it's not looking like I'll have it before 12/1 like I had planned.  I will keep on after it and work to post it as soon as I can in December.  

Sorry for the missed estimate, and doubly so for doing it in a transitional arc!  These chapters have a lot of forward and back references tuc...