Date: 6/18/2001 - 4:45 AM {1 Year After Birth}
Location: Decayed Foundation – Dream Land (White Room)
Perspective: Kaiser Everhart (Avatar Age: 10)
I placed The Feathered Heresy onto the stack of completed data.
One hour had passed. The room was still silent, save for the frantic page-turning of the panicked students. 000829 was halfway through her second volume. Her pace had not slowed.
I reached for the second book. It was slimmer, bound in velvet that had once been deep crimson but was now faded to the color of dried blood.
Title:The Severed Root
Author: Aldous Vane (Human Playwright).
Date of Origin: 80 years ago.
Context: A banned play within the Elven Kingdom, popular in the human borderlands. It depicts the cultural friction between the races.
I opened the book.
Summary of Data: The Severed Root
The narrative detailed the interaction between two biological incompatibilities.
Elara Ylyndar was a High Elf of the Ylyndar family, a lineage from the Northern Outposts known for immense magical renown. Her life was dictated by the "Law of Nature," a belief that tradition does not bend.
Kaelen was a human commoner, a blacksmith's son who lived on the periphery of the Elven Forest.
Their interaction began not with logic, but with Love.
Definition of Love (Contextual): A neuro-chemical defect that causes a species to prioritize another above its own survival and social standing.
They met in secret. The narrative described their connection as "pure," transcending the boundaries of race. However, the conflict was genetic and social.
The Elven culture views family and lineage as the source of magical prowess. To mix blood with a human is to dilute the magic.
It creates a "Half-Elf." In the story, this hybrid is described not as a child, but as a "pollution of the unending stream." It is the ultimate disgrace.
The Philosophy of the Fall:
The tragedy began when the Ylyndar patriarch discovered the affair.
Egoism (The Families): The Ylyndar family refused the union. They did not care for Elara's happiness. They cared for the "Name". They acted entirely in self-interest to preserve their social credit and magical purity. The human family, fearing the wrath of the powerful Elves, also forbade the union.
(Mistake: The families prioritized the abstract concept of "Legacy" over the living reality of their offspring. They assumed control over biological variables they did not own.)
Free Will (Kaelen - Male Lead): Kaelen refused to accept the separation. He believed that if he could prove his worth—if he could forge a sword of such quality that it rivaled Elven craft—he could buy his way into their respect.
He believed his actions could alter reality.
(Mistake: He operated under the delusion that meritocracy exists in a caste system. He believed he could change the minds of those who view him as a different species.)
Pragmatism (Kaelen - Male Lead): Kaelen attempted to bribe a border guard to let them escape. He tried to use logic and commerce to solve an emotional problem.
(Mistake: He underestimated the fanaticism of the Elven belief system. The guard took the gold and reported him to the Ylyndar patriarch. Kaelen failed to calculate the variable of loyalty.)
Determinism (Elara - Female Lead): When Kaelen was captured, Elara made a choice. The Ylyndar patriarch offered a trade: Kaelen's life for her compliance. She must marry a High Elf noble immediately to secure the bloodline. Elara accepted.
She believed her path was set by her birth. She was an Elf; she could not be other than what she was.
(Mistake: She surrendered her agency to the "Law of Nature". She believed saving his biological life was worth destroying his reason for living.)
Altruism (Elara - Female Lead): She married the noble. She sacrificed her entire future self for Kaelen's present safety.
(Mistake: Pure altruism is self-destructive. By destroying herself, she inadvertently destroyed the person she was trying to save.)
The End:
Kaelen was released. He watched the wedding procession from a distance. He saw Elara in her ceremonial cape, looking like a goddess, unreachably distant.
He realized that even if he lived, he would never be with her.
Pragmatism failed.
The Free Will failed.
He went to his forge. He drank the quenching oil laced with arsenic.
He took his own life.
Elara, during her wedding night, felt the severing of the bond. The text describes a "scream of the soul." She realized she had saved a corpse. She refused to betray Kaelen.
She refused to let the High Elf noble touch her. She walked into the cold Northern woods without her cloak.
She lay down in the snow and let the cold take her.
Ending her own life.
Absurdism (The Conclusion):
The final scene depicted the two families standing over two graves. The Ylyndar patriarch wept. The human blacksmith wept. They had enforced their rules to protect their children, and the enforcement of those rules caused the death of their children.
The struggle for order created chaos.
The search for meaning (Legacy) resulted in nothing (Death).
I closed the book.
My chest felt tight. This "Love" was a highly inefficient, dangerous variable. It caused Kaelen to act against survival. It caused Elara to act against logic.
Yet, the story was... compelling.
I analyzed the structure of the narrative. In The Feathered Heresy, there was only a protagonist and the world. Here, the dynamic was complex.
I realized that Fiction is not just a simulation of events; it is a simulation of Roles.
The Hero: Kaelen tried to overcome the obstacle.
The Villain: The Ylyndar Patriarch, who imposed the obstacle.
The Tragic Hero: Elara, whose fatal flaw was her submission to duty (Determinism).
The Anti-Hero: Kaelen became this at the end, choosing the selfish act of suicide rather than living the painful life Elara bought for him.
The Deuteragonist: The border guard, whose singular action pivoted the entire plot.
I looked at my hands.
I am a character in the Decayed Foundation.
Who am I?
Am I the Tragic Hero, destined to fail because of my low designation?Is Directive Vance the Villain?Or is the Foundation itself the Villain—the "Structure" that demands compliance?
But there are other roles.The Villainous Lead. The protagonist who does not seek to save the world, but to dismantle it.
In these stories, the Heroes always fail because they try to play by the rules of the world. Ithyris tried to fly (physically). Kaelen tried to bargain (socially).
They failed because they accepted the premise of the game.
I looked at the third book on the pile.
I must understand the Villains.
The pile of books I read had grown. My mind was a catalogue of tragedies, a graveyard of fictional lives that felt more potent than the breathing students around me.
I reached for the final volume. It was the largest of them all, a tome bound in iron-reinforced leather, heavy enough to be a weapon. The cover was scorched, the title barely legible against the soot-stained binding.
Title:The Ash of Two Crowns
Author: Valerius the Blind (Human Historian/Ex-Slave).
Date of Origin: 148 years ago.
Context: A dramatized recounting of the War of the Shifting Tides, a conflict between the Elven Kingdom and the Demon Realm. Though cataloged as fiction due to the inclusion of internal monologues and a constructed protagonist, the War itself was a historical fact.
I opened the heavy cover. The smell of old paper and dried ink rose like smoke.
Summary of Data: The Ash of Two Crowns
The narrative was not a straight line; it was a braid of six lives, knotted together by the ambition of two monarchs.
The Causality (Utilitarianism): The war was not fought for ideology, but for the Sun-Scarred Valley, a stretch of land bordering the Elven Forest and the Volcanic Wastes of the Demon Realm. The land was rich in Mana Crystals.
Demon Lord Malphas and Elven Queen Asora Aeralurea both claimed the land. The Calculation: The suffering of thousands was weighed against the resource gain. Both rulers concluded that the utility of the land outweighed the cost of life.
The Perspectives:
The Demon Court: Totalitarianism & StoicismLord Malphas ruled with absolute authority. In the Demon Realm, the individual did not exist; only the State existed. Malphas embodied Stoicism. He viewed emotion as a biological error. When his legions died, he did not mourn; he calculated the replacement rate.
"Pain is temporary," he told his generals. "Suffering is the forge of order."
The Demon Leads:
Kaelthas (The Hero): A Demon General. He was the greatest warrior of his age, a creature of honor in a land of brutality. He knew the war was pointless. He knew he was marching to his death. Yet, he marched. Why? Because Fate demanded it. Like the ancient heroes of myth, he believed his role was to execute his duty perfectly, regardless of the outcome. He sought glory not for vanity, but because it was the only currency his culture accepted.
Vexia (The Wife): Kaelthas's wife. She remained in the Obsidian Citadel. The narrative explored the crushing expectations placed on Demon women. They were expected to be sharper than steel, devoid of softness. Vexia loved Kaelthas, but her Pride forbade her from showing it. She judged the Elves—and the humans—with deep Prejudice, viewing them as "worthless" unworthy of the air they breathed. She spent the war maintaining a mask of indifference while her soul screamed.
The Elven Court: SolipsismQueen Asora Aeralurea ruled from the Divine Throne. Her philosophy—and that of her race—was Solipsism. The Elves believed so intensely in their own divinity that they viewed other races not as enemies, but as philosophical zombies—creatures that moved and bled but lacked the "true soul" of an Elf.
"To kill a Demon is not murder," Asora preached. "It is merely dispensing a shadow."
The Elven Leads:
Lord Thalian (The Counterpart): An Elven High Mage, husband to a noblewoman. He fought not for land, but to preserve the aesthetic perfection of the Elven Forest. He viewed the war as a sanitation effort.
Lady Elara (The Wife): Thalian's wife. She spent the war in denial, hosting lavish garden parties where they drank Elven Wine, refusing to acknowledge the butchery occurring miles away. Her Solipsism was her shield; if she didn't see the blood, it wasn't real.
The Human Slaves: Hedonism Humans were the cattle of this world. Enslaved by both sides, they were forced to the front lines as fodder.
Joric (Slave to Demons): A brute forced into the Demon vanguard.
Mara (Slave to Elves): A servant forced to carry supplies for the Elven archers.
Both adopted Hedonism. Facing imminent death, they did not pray. They drank rotgut liquor, they stole moments of carnal pleasure, they gambled with their rations.
"Eat, drink, and sin," Joric would say, "for tomorrow the masters feed us to the worms."
The Conflict:
The war lasted years. The book detailed the descent into Anarchy. As the battles dragged on, the strict Totalitarianism of the Demons fractured. The Solipsistic bubble of the Elves burst.
The Climax: The armies met in the Sun-Scarred Valley. Kaelthas, the Demon General, breached the Elven lines. He moved like a hurricane of black steel. He met Lord Thalian in single combat.
It was the clash of The Iliad. Kaelthas killed Thalian. But as the Elven mage died, he unleashed a forbidden spell—a Solar Flare that cooked the valley alive.
Kaelthas burned. He did not scream. He stood his ground, his skin turning to ash, embodying the Stoic perfection Lord Malphas demanded, until he was nothing but a statue of charcoal.
The Tragedy of the Slaves: In the chaos, Joric and Mara met on the battlefield. They were both human. They both spoke the same tongue. They both bore the brands of slavery. But the indoctrination held.
Joric, driven by the Demon's command to kill all non-Demons, strangled Mara in the mud. As she died, looking into his eyes, Joric wept. He realized he was killing his own reflection to serve a master who viewed them both as meat.
The Conclusion:
The war ended. Neither side won. The Solar Flare rendered the Sun-Scarred Valley radioactive and useless. The Utilitarian calculation failed. The land was dead.
The Aftermath:
Vexia: They brought her Kaelthas's ashes in a jar. Her Pride shattered. She realized that her prejudice against "softness" had robbed her of the chance to tell him she loved him. She broke the Demon tradition of silence and wailed in the court, a sound that cracked the totalitarian facade of the citadel.
Queen Asora: She returned to a kingdom that had lost a generation of mages. Her Solipsism faltered; the "shadows" had hurt them. The Elves were not untouchable gods.
The Humans: Joric survived. He was given a "freedom" he didn't want. He wandered the wasteland, a broken Hedonist with no pleasure left to chase, haunted by Mara's eyes.
I closed the book. It was heavy, both in mass and in meaning.
Analysis:
The story was a masterclass in failure.
Totalitarianism failed because it ignored the individual spirit (Vexia's grief).
Solipsism failed because reality (the Demons) punched back.
Hedonism failed because pleasure cannot cure the root of suffering.
Stoicism created a perfect soldier (Kaelthas), but it could not save him from the fire.
I looked at the cover one last time.
Humans were slaves in both kingdoms.
In the stories of the Foundation, humans are the default. But in the history of this world, Humanity is the currency spent by stronger races.
I realized something profound about the structure of the story.
Kaelthas was a Tragic Hero.
Queen Asora and Lord Malphas were Villains, yet they believed they were the heroes of their own nations.
Joric was a Victim, turned Villainous Tool.
But the most important realization was the Perspective. The author, Valerius, was a human. He wrote a story where Elves and Demons were majestic and terrifying, but ultimately, they were the architects of their own destruction.
History is written by the victors.
Fiction is written by the survivors.
I looked around the white room. The other children were putting away their books on Physics and Math. They were preparing for the exam. They were learning how the world works.
I had spent twelve hours learning why the world is broken.
I stood up. My legs were stiff. I picked up the twelve books of Fiction—the lies that told the truth—and walked to the shelf.
I do not just want to answer the questions.
Placing The Ash of Two Crowns back into the void shelves.
I want to meet the author.
The twelve hours had ended. The infinite bookshelves vanished, sinking back into the floor with a clean, silent retraction. The obsidian desks remained.
I had processed twelve volumes of fictional data. I was no closer to solving the Calculus of Limits, but I understood the failure state of the human (and Elven, and Demon) spirit better than any equation.
Directive Vance reappeared at the front of the room, standing beside the now-silent Resonance Dais. His silver hair was perfect. His steel eyes scanned the room, cold and evaluating.
"Return to your seats, subjects," Vance commanded. His voice was sharper now, laced with an authority that had been absent before. It was the sound of a system preparing for execution.
The students hurried, settling back into their chairs. The subtle scent of panic was thick in the room.
Vance placed his hands on the dais. The surface remained dark.
"Twelve hours have elapsed," he stated. "The data acquisition period for Day 1 is complete. I was observing your choices."
He raised three fingers. "Of the 3000 available volumes, you accessed 847 unique texts. A total of 1,942 acquisitions were made in this period. Adequate, but not impressive."
He began listing the top choices, his tone dripping with expected affirmation.
"The top three subjects, in order of acquisition volume, were predictable: Celestial Mechanics, with 211 unique books read. Elemental Theory, with 195. And Void Geometry, with 170 acquisitions. You correctly prioritized the most difficult and high-value subjects for the examination."
Vance paused. He fixed the entire room with a look of withering disdain.
"And then there was the anomaly."
He lowered his hand to a single finger.
"Fiction was the lowest priority subject. Total books acquired: 12." He chuckled, a dry, unpleasant sound.
"The entire section was disregarded by the cohort. Correct."
"Fiction is a distraction. It is a repository of lies and inefficiency. The rational mind avoids it."
His gaze shifted, focusing on the back row. He named my designation, his voice hardening with calculated annoyance.
"All 12 acquisitions were made by Designation 000981."
My designation was repeated loudly, the number amplified by the dais. A target mark.
I remained seated, my face a cold reflection of his own neutral mask.
I sensed movement beside me. 000829 turned her head sharply. Her Emerald Green eyes were focused entirely on me. Her neutral expression had broken, replaced by a momentary flash of pure, clinical curiosity.
Why?
Vance ignored the flicker of interest. He clapped his hands once, a sharp report that broke the tension.
"The logical mind of the Decayed Foundation dictates that those who waste time will fail. I expected nothing less from 000981."
He then turned his attention to the front. The shift in his voice was immediate, moving from disdain to a clinical form of respect.
"In contrast, Designation 000001."
The Golden Child looked up. His gold eyes were vacant but observant.
"You accessed and processed 36 books in 12 hours. A superior rate of data acquisition." Vance leaned in. "When asked why you prioritized Celestial Mechanics and Void Geometry above all others, what is your answer?"
000001's voice was perfectly modulated, clear and devoid of inflection.
"I was curious to understand the precise functions of Non-Euclidean Geometry and its application to spatial folding in the creation of portals."
The answer was a perfect logical outcome. Curiosity led to the most efficient data path. The perfect answer.
Vance nodded. "Exactly. The true genius always seeks the most difficult, most practical truth."
He looked back at the rest of the room. "The results of this day are clear. You have 6 cycles left before the examination begins. Adjust your methodology."
CLAP.
"Dimissed. Return to the waking world."
The white light intensified, flooding the room. The children began to flicker, their ten-year-old avatars dissolving as their minds were pulled back into their infant bodies. One by one, the numbers on the desks dimmed.
000001 was the first to dissolve. The high-ranking students followed instantly.
The ranks dissolved in numerical order. 000829 remained seated. She watched the others vanish, but she did not move.
When only she and I remained, she finally spoke, her voice low, measured, and completely devoid of human warmth.
"Twelve books of lies."
"Why?"
I held her gaze, my blue eyes meeting her green. I gave her no answer. I'll leave the reasoning of my motive to her fantasy.
She stared for another three seconds, then shrugged, the movement small and dismissive.
000829 dissolved, her desk going dark.
I was alone.
I sat in the residual white light, taking the extra moments Vance allowed for processing. My mind was still sharp, still operating in the ten-year-old framework.
The others sought The Answer.
I had found The Question.
I needed to formalize the infomation. I needed a framework.
I need my philosophy.
The three books on the tragedy of Elara and Kaelen, the nihilism of Ithyris, and the failed utilitarianism of the Demon War had provided the raw materials.
If the world is Totalitarian (Demon Realm) and Solipsistic (Elven Realm), and I am the lowest Designation in the system, then all logic is predetermined against me (Fatalism/Determinism).
To survive, I cannot rely on Free Will. It fails.
I cannot rely on Altruism. It is self-destructive.
I cannot be a Hero, because Heroes are defined by the rules they follow. They believe in the system that will eventually break them.
I must be the force that invalidates the rules.
I placed my hands on the cold obsidian desk.
The philosophy must be: Kaiserism
The Perfect Genius seeks the Answer.
The False Genius must seek the Flaw.
I inhaled, drawing the cold air into my lungs. The solution was simple. I had to create a purpose independent of the Foundation's design. A system built on the negation of theirs.
I will not find my worth in the numbers they assign. I will find my purpose in questioning the value of the numbers themselves.
I will wake up now. The six cycles to the exam had begun.
I am Kaiser Everhart.
I am 000981.
I am the Aporetic False Genius.
I closed my eyes and allowed the white light to consume me.