Neytopia › Part 1: Dawn › Chapter 5

The man with all the answers

What was meant to be the final push in her unification campaign turned out to be the worst military disaster to date. Bad crops left her troops without supplies, the tribes up north created a united front against her, whom they called “the Southern Witch”. Demoralized by the initial defeats, the horrible hunger and the biting cold, her troops were forced to retreat south.

Eight years had passed since she last saw the skeptic boy, now a skeptic man. She had thought about what he had said many times while enemy armies forced her to slip away from a compromised position. Maybe he was right, maybe all her efforts were in vain. Maybe she should promote the only man that had ever confronted her in public, give him an important position by her side to counteract the yes-men that often occupied important jobs. But all her doubts vanished when she saw him during her shameful retreat. She was recruiting all able men from every village on her way. He had recently married a young bride, who was already pregnant.

Young boys from the village paraded in front of her to be drafted for her army while she quietly watched from her big throne. When it was the skeptic man’s turn, he did not dare look at her. She spoke first, noticing how sad he looked,

I see you made the right choice and forgot about all your childhood nonsense.

Yes, your highness, I learned to hide it.

What do you mean, do you still insist on doubting things?

He nodded. She got up from the throne and approached him. She whispered in his ear,

Meet me in the forest, by the river, after the draft is over.

Once she finished the draft she went to the river. He was already sitting there, waiting. She said,

It’s just you and me now. Do you want the truth? Fine. Here’s the truth: I made up the gods, the laws, everything! But they work, they make people happy, they give their lives—

Meaning? Sure they do. But that’s not the whole story. My mother has been ill for sixteen years now. Sixteen years… God, how long it’s been. Her pain has grown worse each day. She has spent the last two years in bed, suffering. I’ve had to feed her and wash her because her hands can’t stop shaking. And when I offered her to end her… pointless pain, do you know what she told me, DO YOU FUCKING KNOW?

She shook her head, intimidated.

“I don’t want to go to hell, son”. That’s right, she’s afraid to do what is only natural because of some nonsense you made up. Last winter I too started feeling the shakes. If only I had known sooner, I never would have married and never, EVER, would have fathered a child with such cursed blood. Now my only option is to die in your stupid war and hope that maybe, just maybe my wife and child have enough food to survive. What does your “religion of love” have to say about that?

She froze. What could she say to him, the man with all the answers? He left, murmuring to himself,

Yeah, that’s what I thought.