AQORMWe had just finished building a bamboo water system for a town with polluted water. It was Qurac, and the desert air sucked. They had some strange religious beliefs but they kept to themselves. And they had an interesting language. Saying “Hi, how are you?” in print looked something like ??????? ?? ???? ????? while instead the vocal language sounds something like “??? ?? ?????” with a few other languages thrown in. Elias said the vocal language was actually a mix of Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, and Persian Farsi. But it''s hard to jumble all of this together, and it mostly sounds like Hebrew.

    And no, we weren''t being cheap, bamboo has antibiotic properties. All the latrine water would now be significantly cleaner, so it wouldn''t chance mixing with the drinking water as it went to plant crops, and all the drinking water that had been tainted was now drinkable. They started singing “(There Can Be Miracles) When You Believe” from Prince of Egypt in their own language, sounding like this.

    ?????? ???? ???????

    ??? ??? ????? ?????? ???? ?????.

    ?????? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ????,

    ????? ????? ?? ??????

    ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ?????

    ????? ????? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ...

    ???? ????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????

    ????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?????

    ?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?????

    ???? ??? ????? ?????? ???

    ??? ???? ???? ??? ?????

    ?????? ?? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????

    ??? ????? ??? ?????? ????. ???? ???????,

    ??? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??????

    ?????? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????

    ???? ????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????

    ????? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?????

    ?? ???? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?????

    ???? ??? ????? ?????? ???

    ??? ???? ???? ??? ?????

    ??? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ????

    ??? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ????

    ?? ????, ?? ??????, ??? ?????

    ??????, ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ???

    ??????, ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ???

    ????? ????? ?????

    ??? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ????

    ??? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ????

    ?? ????, ?? ??????, ??? ?????

    ??????, ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ???

    ??????, ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ???

    ????? ????? ?????

    ???? ????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?????

    ????? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????

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    ????? ?????

    ?????? ???

    ????? ???

    ??? ???? ???? ??? ????? ...

    ??? ???? ???? ??? ?????

    They were apparently fond of showtunes. I was a bit miffed though. True, this was a miracle to those with bad water, but I kinda would like a thank you too.

    Why were we doing this, you ask? Ambrosia, who was obviously stalling for time, was apparently bored of entertaining herself and wanted to do something for the world, I guess. I mean, this was a “teamwork-building training.” Which it was. But this was totally a pretext. And everyone probably knew it but Nevras, who trusted her too much.

    We didn’t dare talk to her about it though. I go too close to Ambrosia one time and she snapped and me, and I listened as Elias explained about how hedgehogs get cold in the winter and have to get close to each other or they freeze. I understood. I should avoid Ambrosia when she doesn’t want to talk, because I’ll get a lecture about porcupines.

    I suppose it felt good to be doing good for its own sake. But Elias was walking away from our group. Why? “What''s wrong?” I asked. Elias shook his head and scowled, “I should feel something after helping others, but I feel empty. Aqorm, I know you probably want a family someday, but in my heart, I yearn to know the meaning of this universe, its deepest secrets. Like, who is God really? When and how did everything begin? And why? Is history recurring or linear? And is there lost history, or even deliberately suppressed? I can''t suddenly stop asking questions because a baby cries, and though I''d help feed it, I''d be miserable most of my life.” I understood, and told him so. And then I said, “Look, you love me, and I know it. I want to you to be by my side when I have my first time. I think that I want Lilith but I love you as well. Will you join me and her in that tent over there?” There was a tent nearby that said, ???? ?????? which Elias had translated earlier as being set aside for precisely this purpose. He also claimed that there was a strange lingual pun, since it also meant, “A tent of wisdom.” So I needed such a wise person inside the tent with me.

    ELIAS

    In the beginning, God created Adam. We typically think of Adam as a him, and I may probably say that by accident, but a careful read of the text usually yields that Adam is a singular “they” and only after having the ribs removed is there reference to “he”. In fact, tsela is used both to mean the rib of something or its side, like the side of a tabernacle. In other words, Adam was a two-sided being which God believed it was not good for them to be alone, and so made two people from one androgynous one. And so it was that Adam had Eve as his other half. This is where the expression, “joined at the hip” comes from.

    Before Eve, though, Adam''s mate was Lilith, who was made as Adam was. The first humans were dated by scientists around 7 million years ago, but Adam and Lilith, on the other hand were much, much older; they were immortal beings, not simply evolved primates. It was only when Adam split off into Eve that he became like other mortal creatures. Before that, they were around when the first life became distinct from mere bacteria, and there to name all of them. Bottom line, these were beings that were old when the oldest life was born.

    Lilith began to fight with Adam saying, “I will not lie below.” And Adam said, “I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while am to be in the superior one.” Lilith responded, “We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.” But they would not listen to one another. So she ran off, from what I heard.

    Looking at this scene, while Lilith is not the two-bodied androgyne human of her namesake, not much had changed. She still favored the top.

    GOD

    I have a small confession to make. Lilith actually is born from the original Lilith. In the beginning these humans were dual-bodied beings made in my image (the text here means spiritual image), which means being “on top” has a totally different implication as humans think, because Lilith had a female front and a male rear (nothing much has changed there either). Since Adam and Lilith both preferred to be sexually dominant, they couldn''t see eye to eye, and eventually Lilith ran off. Adam prayed to me, saying, “The one you gave me has run away.” And so, I sent three angels of medicine, Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof to pursue her.

    I told Adam, “If Lilith agrees to come back, fine. If not Lilith must permit one hundred of children to die every day.” The angels left me and pursued Lilith, where they found Lilith in the middle of the sea, and they told Lilith my words, but Lilith did not wish to return. The angels said, “We shall drown you in the sea.”

    “Leave me!” Lilith said. “I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.” When the angels heard Lilith''s words, they insisted Lilith go back. But Lilith swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: “Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.” Lilith also agreed to have one hundred of their children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, people write those angels'' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees the names, Lilith remembers their oath, and the child recovers. I wanted to help her, but she wouldn’t listen.

    Ages passed, and Lilith grew sick of this practice, having not lost her immortality like the other humans that I split into male and female. They wanted to stop killing children, so I made them fall into a deep sleep. Leaving their body and mind dead on the table, I put Lilith''s heart in a jar, and I extracted her soul into a demon''s body. After Belial, she was my second attempt to make a demon with a working heart and soul. I wanted her to forget the pain of her former life, and have a happy life instead. But the other demons rejected her, and I despaired that she also would not find love.

    ELIAS

    Lilith proceeded to remove Aqorm''s clothes. Aqorm wore a loose blue dress today, and as we discovered from our time in Hell, not a scrap underneath. Lilith next undressed herself while Aqorm undressed me. The entire time, Lilith looked at me not at all. To her, men were like blocks of wood, not sexually interesting. I imagine she might be interested in an angel, but an ordinary human like me had not enough for her. She devoted all of her attention to Aqorm. Likewise, I wasn''t really interested in mating with a demon. I had read too many Bible and Torah passages about how sex basically joins two people, and I had no desire for this. As far as I could see, Aqorm had one lover who had two bodies, much like the story I told just now about Adam. Male and female.

    As I didn''t want a child, I remained in temple garments. I instead did what I could to keep Aqorm happy and loved by being emotionally supportive. I kissed her, I held her, and I made her feel special while Lilith started licking her junk. I read Aqorm''s body language, and gave Lilith hints on what Aqorm wanted to do next while Lilith went down on her. I didn''t feel totally unnecessary, even when Lilith essentially was able to act as the male and the female in this threesome, because I was a good interpreter. All the same, gradually it seemed like she was warming up to Lilith more than me. In days to come, she would probably count on Lilith instead as someone to talk to, which was okay I suppose. I had academic projects to do, after all.

    Aqorm was all about having fun. She had lived for far too long in a mansion doing the same boring things, and Lilith on top of having some similarities was also a demon. So between the two of them, the first thing they wanted to do was the most depraved sex they could think of.

    Thankfully, neither of them had much imagination, so it wound up being basically oral sex, anal sex (Lilith was careful not to penetrate too much since her tail was quite long), and very healthy doses of BDSM. As I was finally feeling slightly obsolete, I helped tie both of them together in a double fisherman''s knot, and then I grabbed a book out of my backpack. ?Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury? it read on the cover. It, along with Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens, The Manly Art of Knitting by Dave Fougner, Mommy Drinks Because You''re Bad by some religious children''s book press, and Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself by Dale Powers were books I found at a local bookstore for five for one Gold. I figured it would take them longer to get out, since the double fisherman is also known as an impossible knot due to its tendency to pull together tighter. It mainly was undone by being cut, which it looked like they eventually managed. Aqorm had a small hairclip that unfolded into a knife, so by leaning her head towards her hand she was able to secure something with which to saw herself free. Lilith had an even easier time, as her tail was able to cut these ropes loose and her claws did the rest. While they were tied though, they did a fair amount of struggling. And by struggling, I mean rubbing against each other. After becoming freed, they didn''t even bother going anywhere. I pulled up a chair and watched them, turning a page every now and then. Aqorm started stabbing Lilith with assorted knives, and Lilith scratched at Aqorm like a cat, but eventually, they got serious. Lilith, again like a cat, started licking at Aqorm''s nether regions with her tongue. She started drinking her breasts. Elves are always lactating even when not pregnant, it is an adaptation for raising children in event of adoption. Lilith entered her with her tail, and pulled the appendage in and out of her, drawing fresh blood before filling her up.

    They still had so much to try, so they tried a number of sex positions, some of which looked painful. Lilith had sex standing up, holding her up while she thrust her tail inside her, and got her in the ass a few times too, just because in this position it was easy to do. Next came a number of positions straight out of a sex manual for “What not to do if you aren''t some sort of super race that can heal quickly, or prepped for four months of physical therapy.” The Wheelbarrow. The Butter Churner. The Spider. The Snow Angel. Many of these were male-female positions which meant these two had to be creative and bump and grind against each other, or Lilith had to maneuver her tail a bit. Sometimes that was impossible, and sometimes they had to abandon a position as it looked like it wouldn''t work properly. After trying all of that, they collapsed in a heap.

    After all of that, Lilith had to have gotten Aqorm pregnant. Holding my hands in a certain position, I said a prayer, “Diagnose!” Her entire body glowed a blue color while I touched just above her pelvis. The blue glow collected and turned into a small blue circle glowing right near where her uterus was. After a second, a blue control line appeared. In a few more moments, either the blue control line would fade meaning no pregnancy, or another line would appear, forming a cross. Not it mattered. After seeing what I saw, I was pretty sure those two would keep at it until they had a pregnancy, and possibly quite a bit after. Indeed, they were continuing even as I explained all this.

    Aqorm wasn''t pregnant. So they spent the better part of six hours getting her very pregnant. Ultimately, I realized that elf and demon genetic material doesn''t mix well, so I helped out. I used aura abilities to help their compatibility, also giving her a very good pelvic massage in the process. Now she was pregnant.

    AMBROSIA

    I was curious about these people, and wanting to buy more time with Nevras, convinced him that we needed to stick around. He seemed to read my enthusiasm, and since we were spending time together in this town, we decided to enjoy it. We were going to book a room in the local inn, but the innkeeper shook his head. He said, which Elias translated as, “You have saved our village, so you will stay with our family and our people. You are welcome here any time.” He ushered us in to the back entrance of the inn, where his wife and daughter cooked the food. He said a prayer for the meal, “??? ??????, ?????, ?????, ?????! ?????? ??? ??????! ??? ??? ?????? ?? ??????, ???? ?? ?????? ????, ??? ???? ????? ??????? ?????, ????, ??????? ???????, ???????, ????, ??? ?????? ??????. ???? ???, ??????, ??? ?????, ?? ???? ????? ????? ?? ????. ” I wondered why it was so long, but it wasn''t a Jewish prayer.

    The food was... different. No, not, any strange meats. It seemed overly restrictive. We could tell they were holding nothing back in terms of giving us their full meal and indeed it was a feast. But it was basically a feast of vegetables. Milk. Fish. Eggs. It had curries, crepes, and dishes rich in butter and cheese. But there was no goat, no beef, no chicken, or lamb served. And halfway through the meal, a pig was set upon a pyre, knocked senseless with a blow to its head, drained it of blood, and roast it over the roaring fire before taking it off and rinsing it slowly with the clean water we''d helped them get. “What was that all about?” I asked, as they proceeded to carve the meat into pieces. They carefully divided the entire pig into enough for all of us except themselves to finish the animal, and urged us to not waste any. Elias asked, and they explained to him. He said, “They say that they are trying to follow a right example. The people of Qurac used to be much more violent, but now worship under Sakun, a mix of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and other religions. They accept the Sumerian deities like An, Enlil, Eriskigal, Inanna, Utu, Nammu, Ninhursag, and Enki as ''lesser gods'', concepts that are important to regular life, but not ever to be worshiped, as they only respect the Supreme God, as do the Jews. They also see ''false gods'' like Moloch (deity of child sacrifice), Baal (deity of fertility cults), especially Ahriman (deity of falsehood and deception), and any idols as abhorrent and only able to make one unclean. And there are also angels and djinn, but these are only slightly above humans. They believe that the Supreme God whom they call Ahura Mazda, asked Yima, the good shepherd, to receive his law and rule the land. When he refused, Yima instead was charged with to rule over and nourish the earth, to see that the living things prosper. He did so, and the Earth became a paradise. But then, humans were tempted by the image of false gods, and believed in the untruth of Ahriman. When the Earth was young, humans consumed water, then plants, then milk. But they were tempted by meat, and became addicted to causing pain to other life. They believe in eating very little meat besides fish and shellfish, not eating from any animal that has also given them milk or eggs, not eating anything too holy to sacrifice, and nothing among the evil animals. The idea is to treat all life well, in hopes that one day humans will not be required to eat meat to live. So any animals killed are rare, killed as painlessly as possible, and must not be animals that have already been used as pets or for eggs or for milk. Pigs are in the gray zone, because they are sometimes pets or sacred animals, but were sacrifice animals in the past, and many Middle Eastern cultures thought them unclean or contemptible. Precisely because they were in such gray area, the Sakun decided that they would be sacrifice animals, but they would not eat the animal, so this is a meal specifically for guests. We must not waste any.” I asked, “But why did they dump water on it like that? And what are ''evil'' animals?” Elias explained after translating, “They say that fire and water are sacred, and for cleansing. Being clean is very important to them. As for evil animals, insects are generally seen at odds with the goodness of the land, as they eat plants and such. A good example are locusts, which consume entire crops. Snakes, frogs, and rats are also considered noxious creatures as they kill or spread disease. They won''t eat such animals, but they will often kill them.”

    We enjoyed our meal. The pork was very simply seasoned (we weren''t supposed to enjoy it), but was still okay and safe to eat. The fish and veggies on the other hand, were very tasty. We had zucchini fritters with mint and feta, eggplant with pomegranate and mint dressing, potato pancakes with assorted veggies mixed in, we had some rice dishes, and a great deal of cheese dishes. Then there were a dizzying variety of seafood dishes, everything from local fish to shrimp and squid. Their food also had a pretty decent amount of thyme in it. I wondered where they got all this food, but then I remembered the huge oasis near the town, and realized that aside from the water in town, they had some ready sources for farming and fishing. They had figured out how to not only survive but flourish in a land that was mostly sand. Given the hardships all around them, it was amazing how cheerful they seemed. But even before we helped, they seemed content.

    They agreed to set beds for us tonight, so we explored the town some more. Having heard of Middle Eastern culture in the past, I sorta expected all the women to wear modest clothing or something. I dunno why I expected that, except they seemed to have a lot of other laws. They observed Jewish and Zoroastrian rules of ritual purity, refusing to touch unclean people or unclean animals. I''d seen the Jewish law before, and it was just over 612 laws! Just imagine, this had those plus some more. It was according to the law of charity that commanded them to help strangers as they also have done no harm, and to help the poor or needy. This is why everyone was so welcoming.

    I hadn''t seen much dress code while we were building the water system, and I didn''t see it when we were guests at the house. Quite the opposite actually. The daughter at the inn wore a lacy black outfit that showed quite a bit of her figure. And the average person on the street wore little more than some casual outfit designed to be lightweight for hot weather. Sakun had some pretty heavy Jewish influence from what I could see, so while dress code was no longer about shame or modesty, one thing was all of the married women were wearing wigs or bandannas to cover their hair except in the presence of their immediate family. Dress code had relaxed, but the town had pretty clear distinctions between male and female, and there was no crossdressing. It also had distinctions between the Sakun people and outsiders, for the men wore caps to cover their heads, and both genders dressed in fabrics that had been spun out of the nearby desert plants.

    The humans could also easily be distinguished from djinn. Djinn were a type of spirit that could be good, evil, or a mix. Unlike the Sakun people, they didn''t seem to follow these same dress codes, or any rules actually. Djinn women were often dressed like tomboys, with harem pants and just a short blouse. And while none of the Sakun was barefoot, the djinn seemed to think nothing of it since they were able to walk above the ground, and none of the males cared about being bare-chested. Even without different styles of dress, you could kinda tell they weren''t the same as others. I mean, they often had red or blue or green skin! The ones that did have a yellowish tone to their skin still contrasted by the bizarre shades of their hair color, and beyond that with their eyes which gleamed as bright and intense as the moon on a clear night.

    The whole deal with djinn granting wishes was an overstatement. Djinn routinely slept in their lamps, rings, and urns. Rubbing these would do little or nothing to secure a wish, it would only wake them up and they might even be pissed and try to curse you! They would only grant these if they managed to get themselves trapped for thousands of years, and someone got them out. People often think there is some limit, like three, to the wishes but honestly that''s up to the discretion of the djinn. Another false thing was that they return to the container once the wishes are done, or that they can only grant wishes for others. Djinn are capable of using powers on themselves, it''s just that their personal requests were small scale wishes. Wishes for others on the other hand could actually alter reality. There were a few limits put in place, or laws to djinn, because it wasn''t that they couldn''t grant such wishes. It was that they shouldn''t. A djinn asked such a wish by others must refuse to grant it. Djinn had laws which were punished by stripping them of their power, or the wish would simply fail.

    1. Thou canst not wish to make more djinn. Djinn are to be born, not made.

    2. Thou must not wish to rule over the realms over death or life.

    3. Thou must not wish to rule over the Heaven, the Earth, or the Waters Below.

    4. Thou canst not wish to be like God. It is beyond the power of djinn, and will destroy them entirely to attempt. Sёar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    5. Remember that you are creatures of nature. Thou must not harm nature.

    6. The heart and mind are not to touch, for therein lies free will.

    7. Thou must obey the djinn as they obey. Any rules djinn mention are law.

    8. Honor the Sabbath of the djinn. No wishes will be granted on this day.

    9. Respect the laws of marriage.

    10. Thou shall not wish to make the djinn mortal.

    The second one was interesting. The djinn could wish a person back to life once, and even resurrect masses of people. They could not however raise someone whose body had rotted or been destroyed, for this was the domain of God. Nor could they kill life beyond the point of revival. Interestingly, the djinn could give humans a touch that could restore life and kill it. But the key word is and, for any life returned this way risked the death of another. As for the seventh, this meant that if the djinn gave you only three wishes, you could not wish for more. The eighth wish meant djinn couldn''t grant wishes on Saturday, though they wouldn''t be punished (they simply were unable to do so).

    Also contrary to what you might think, djinn were able to marry. They were considered of all races and of any religion, although they typically stayed out of such matters. A djinn who married a human became tied to humanity, and lost the strong blue or green tones to their skin and much of their wish-granting. They typically adopted the customs of their spouse, so I saw them cover their wild hair with a dull brown wig and adopted Sakun dress code. It was still possible to pick them out because of their intense eyes, and walking in midair didn''t help them blend either. I cannot imagine they wanted this fate since it seemed like a loss of freedom, but I did see a few of them playing at being wives/husbands of humans. Such marriages were temporary though, because the djinn could not become mortal, nor the human another djinn.

    ELIAS

    After a fashion, we wound up visiting the temple. It was my goal to visit all of the world''s temples, and so far we''d made good progress. I wasn''t the only one though. I had seen this bald guy who had said he was a Miroku Buddhist in the Taoist temple, the shrines in Goji and Hinata, the church in Kushiyama, the Aiken Monastery, and now we saw him standing outside here. I didn''t really notice, because we''ve never really talked but you see a face a few times and suddenly they''re familiar. Wait... Visiting every temple, Miroku Buddhist... Wasn''t there a girl waiting for this guy? She said he wanted to finish his pilgrimage before going back to his girl. But there wasn''t anywhere else, so I told him, “She''s still waiting for you. Go to her.” His face brightened. He went in quickly, and then headed out of town.

    I took a look at the building. The temple of Sakun had a dome almost like a mosque, but the steps and pillars of a Zoroastrian temple, and some definite architectural traits of a synagogue. We stepped inside. Inside the temple were small statues to the lesser deities, but those attending ignored them in the same way a Catholic church tuned out the saints. Their focus was at the front of the temple at the burning flames of the candles and at the scrolls of laws, and each other. The temple''s center was a large heated pool for ritual cleansing, the men and women stripped off their clothing and washed, then each put on ceremonial garments. The women put on special cloaks for the call to worship. They wore an outfit that extended just past their waist of mostly red vertical stripe with flowers and paisley interrupting the pattern, and they wore short pants that extended to their knee and were quite colorful. Rather than a tool for modesty, these outfits were basically only put on for temple activities for showing their holiness. When the ceremony ending they stripped, cleansed themselves again, and changed back into less formal outfits when they left. The men likewise cleansed themselves, and put on their outfits. They wore a turban with a diadem plate of gold that had a blue cord attached to it, a long white tunic covering from their chest to their ankles, a blue robe outside that that had fringes and tassels and bells, outside of this was a many-colored jacket called an ephod, and outside of that had a breastplate with twelve precious stones and two of onyx near the shoulder which were engraved with six names each. The men''s garments were based on Jewish priestly robes, while the women''s garment was based loosely around the Babr-e Bayān which was a mythical garment that acted as a protective talisman against harm of various types. The women completed their outfit with a hamsa necklace, a symbol with a hand with an eye in the center, symbolic of not only protection against the evil eye but it also protected the home and was a symbol of fertility.

    I wasn''t sure that normally outsiders would be let inside, but we had done them a big favor. In any case, they allowed us to attend the ceremony. They recited prayers in ancient Sumerian, so even I had trouble following everything. I know, it seems like I can speak every language, but it''s mostly modern ones. Most of the service seemed to be various cleansing rituals though, and prayers honoring God, knowledge, and truth. After the service, we returned to the inn and spent the night there, before heading onward.

    Back in the vast desert, Ambrosia said, “They seemed nice.” I shook my head, “During World War I, the Bavarians basically fought for show. When captured by the British, they''d even help with medical effort, hauling people away on stretchers. And the Saxons were basically not much different from the British, since they were part of the Anglo-Saxon racial group. But the Prussians were warlike almost from birth.” She looked confused, “What are you getting at?” I shook my head at actually having to explain such a simply concept, “In Mecca, at the time of Muhammad, there Jews, Zoroastrians, Christians, and even pagans all living in the same town. There was an unprecedented level of religious peace and tolerance. But fighting broke out for religious dominance. As much as these religions could get along, some among them saw their religion as the only right one, and so strife came about that ran counter to the spirit of tolerance and harmony. They began to claim God told them to commit violence. Things are at peace now here, and maybe they''ll keep it that way. But when things in history become too much a certain way, they become their antithesis.” Ambrosia seemed sad, but she understood. Then she asked, “Does this mean also that when things get bad enough, the opposite happens?” Then I nodded, “The Buddha was born a prince when the rulers were warlords. Constant struggle was an everyday thing. Abraham was born at a time where law was unheard of, and warring tribes set the rules by might. And the Christ came into the world during the time of Roman authoritarians. History is not governed by the strong, but those who who have the courage to move the Earth back into love. Balance is something that happens, but the world is kept alive by great heroes, not great warriors. Even if no such hero comes though, corrupt dynasties eventually collapse under their own karmic weight or incur the wrath of their people. And if they kill their people, they eventually understand what it''s like to rule a ghost town.” Ambrosia still worried, “But what about when they try to replace their people with others? I mean, if your people were revolting, couldn''t you just send in immigrants?” I chuckled, “Immigrants seldom have respect for the country''s laws. Rather than fixing revolts, they instead risk becoming an invasion force willingly sent into the country. I don''t need to tell you how stupid that is.”

    We left the town, and its fertile oasis behind, and the soft sandy soil gave way to sand and then finally to dry rocky ground interspersed with very hearty plants. It is said that the thorns of cactus are actually leaves, and it seemed as though everything in here decided that the way to survive the harsh climate was to turn into a more jagged version of themselves. The scraggly grasses that remained were sharp enough to cut our skin, and the soil barely was so dry that even those seemed a rarity. The extreme lack of humidity put the temperature during the day to about 50o? to nearly 108o? ,while at night it dropped below zero. The island of the Great Desert, in which Qurac was located in, had a very strange micro-climate. While the land near Goji and Seikai was just ordinary desert, the area near the oasis was fertile enough to farm and fish, and they did so, being careful not to deplete anything. Outside town, however the sand turned into a sort of ring of permadesert. It was difficult to enter or leave the town except during certain times of day, making this area isolated from the outside world in both directions. It looked like this ring hadn''t had a major rain in over 400 years! We had less trouble crossing this area than most, thanks in part to our endurance training and Ambrosia''s barrier against the environment, but the harsh plants and dry air was a real danger. Heading vaguely west from Qurac towards our ship, we made it trough soil as hard as stone or brick, around sword tussock-grass (a plant with high amounts of silica that was as sharp as glass), we avoided large salt flat lizards and lava lizards, and a watched certain variety of penguins with an oddly brown coat digging in the rough soil. Thyme and a plant called Yareta grew here despite virtually no moisture. The latter looked like a sort of green moss with rust-covered buds that waited in a sort of near-permanent state of dormancy until the rain finally came. When it did, the Yareta and many of the other flora would burst into bloom, making this area a flowering desert. But we couldn''t really stick around for that. We had to leave this area before we dried up!

    After some effort, we made it to the outskirts of that ring of almost complete desolation. The rocky soil switched back to sand. Oddly, there were actually less plants here than in the drier region, since the soil had no real hold. It was more pleasant temperature, but this was because a sandstorm steadily swept around the area. We were getting scratched up, and our lungs would probably fill up if this kept on. Thinking quickly, we pulled out our Party Tent from our backpack, and we all dove into it, zipping it after each of us. The inside of the tent was essentially a pocket dimension, so while sand blasted around the tent outside, the inside was a town green with grass and flowers. The sand storm appeared not to be dying down, so we went to the store and explained our situation. While most of the world had that corrupt system of money, our tent had people who were fine with Gold. Ambrosia paid 3000 Gold, and the rest of us chipped in 800, and the shopkeeper sold us ponchos and some goggles. Snapping our mouth guards on, we ventured outside of the tent and collapsed it. We stumbled around blindly in the storm of dust and sand, but eventually we made it outside and toward the coast. We boarded our ship, and continued our journey.