{"sf1_id":1233304,"sf2_id":"J1OxXgXe","title":"Kruphix's Insight","author":"LuciaEvaDamora","words":2157,"posted_at":"2017-08-27T13:24:00.000Z","tags":["Acolyte","Death","Decide","Eldrazi","Extra arms","God","Knowledge","Leonin","Mortal","Night","Oracle","Planswalker","belief","merfolk","nyx"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1233304-kruphix-s-insight","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/J1OxXgXe","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/17/af/17af05d6-2b0e-4567-b195-90471acbeae8","description":"#15 of Theroes","content":"Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;Insight\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;took a deep breath, centered herself, and knocked.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThere was a pause.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nSometimes, their guest did not wish to be disturbed at all. Other times, she would request, through the still-closed door, that food be left in the hall. And, occasionally, she would invite the acolytes in and engage them in conversation, as though she liked them, as though she wanted to be here.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Come in,\" said the oracle.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;opened the door.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe Oracle of\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;was a beautiful woman with long, black hair. She was looking out the window, as she often did, arms braced against the window frame. Two more arms, diaphanous, half-real, waved lazily at her sides.\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;marked his oracles well, so that none could mistake them, and none save fools and savages would bring them any harm.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe oracle turned to face her, and smiled.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Hello,\u0026nbsp;Diantha.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;set down the tray--mutton, fresh from the fire, and an assortment of grilled vegetables, fresh olives, and cheese.\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;had few worshipers and his temple in\u0026nbsp;Meletis\u0026nbsp;was small, but they spared nothing for the oracle of their god.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Greetings, Oracle,\" said\u0026nbsp;Diantha. \"I hope you are well?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Well enough,\" said the oracle. \"I was just thinking about the temple.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"The temple, my lady?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe oracle smiled.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;temple--his true temple--where two great trees stand sentry at the ends of the earth.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"You...\"\u0026nbsp;Diantha\u0026nbsp;hesitated. \"You speak as if you've seen it, My Lady.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I have. When I was in danger,\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;spirited me away to his temple. I spent time with him there during the upheaval.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;bowed.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"That is a very great honor, to learn from\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;himself.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe oracle's smiled faded.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Learned,\" she said. \"Yes. Yes, I suppose I did.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;almost bowed, almost turned, almost left the room.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I envy you,\" she said, instead.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Oh?\" said the oracle.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yes, very much,\" said\u0026nbsp;Diantha. \"I am a priest, and as a priest I have faith--faith in\u0026nbsp;Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;wisdom, faith in his authority over the other gods.\" She looked down at her feet. \"But I do not hear his voice, My Lady, and I have never walked in his presence. Is there...\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;hesitated. She should not ask.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Is there anything you can tell me? Of what you learned?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe oracle turned to stare out the window again, eyes fixed on the distant horizon, and for a long moment she said nothing at all.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFrom her perch within the great branches of\u0026nbsp;Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;Temple,\u0026nbsp;Kydele\u0026nbsp;saw it all happen. She braced herself against the living wood with her living hands, and against the starry night with the two misty, insubstantial arms that\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;had given her when she awakened as his oracle.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"It seems I'm not the only one,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;said nothing, but gestured for\u0026nbsp;Kydele\u0026nbsp;to walk with him. As he approached to walk beside her, he shrank, a bizarre inversion of perspective, until they were the same height.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Was it a good thing, what happened?\" asked\u0026nbsp;Kydele. She folded her true arms gracefully in front of her, but her mist-arms waved uneasily. They were not entirely under her control.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nGood that\u0026nbsp;Xenagos\u0026nbsp;became a god?\u0026nbsp;asked\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;Good that Elspeth struck him down? Good that she fell in turn?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKydele\u0026nbsp;shrugged helplessly.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Order is restored,\" she said. \"All is right in\u0026nbsp;Theros\u0026nbsp;and Nyx.\u0026nbsp;Xenagos\u0026nbsp;menaces the world no more, and the\u0026nbsp;Nyxborn\u0026nbsp;again serve and guide mortals as they should.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;waited. He was always waiting.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"So why,\" she finished, \"does it all feel so wrong?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nYou speak of the greatest mystery of all. Of existence, and its purpose.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Xenagos's\u0026nbsp;ascension raises troubling questions,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele. \"About Nyx, and the nature of the gods. The philosophers teach that the gods are ageless, unchanging. But if a god can be born and die in a space of weeks, then what does that say about the others?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThat, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix,\u0026nbsp;is no mystery. It is simply a question whose answer few people truly wish to hear.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I wish to hear it,\" she said immediately.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;regarded her for a long moment before he spoke, inscrutable.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe gods are beliefs that took form within the fabric of Nyx.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"The gods inspire belief,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele. \"Surely the gods came first.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI am the oldest, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;But even I do not predate mortal belief. The first time a mortal of\u0026nbsp;Theros\u0026nbsp;looked up into the night sky and said \"I wonder...,\" some part of me came into existence. I am the unknown, the unknowable. I am what sits beyond the far horizon.\u0026nbsp;I watched as the others took shape. Death came next, ultimate and inescapable. Then sun and sea, forest and forge. After that, more abstract domains emerged--warfare, deception, insight, love.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Love?\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIndeed. And more, that mortals have forgotten. Or did you think\u0026nbsp;Heliod\u0026nbsp;was always the sun god?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"How can there have been other gods? We would remember them.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIf you remembered them, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix,\u0026nbsp;they would still exist. As soon as\u0026nbsp;Heliod\u0026nbsp;took his place in the pantheon, he\u0026nbsp;was\u0026nbsp;the sun god--and always had been. Mortals have short memories in these matters. If they had longer ones, Nyx would tear itself apart with rivalries and contradictions.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFour arms spread wide in a gesture of all-encompassing defeat.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nPerhaps I was not even the first, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;How would I know?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKydele\u0026nbsp;said nothing for a long time.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"So\u0026nbsp;the gods are more fragile than they seem,\" she said. \"And their existence depends on mortals believing that they are not?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nSo\u0026nbsp;it would seem.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Why?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWhy does time pass?\u0026nbsp;asked\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;Why does water flow downhill?\u0026nbsp;Stars shifted within his cloak, the suggestion of a shrug.\u0026nbsp;Some things simply are.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"The philosophers in\u0026nbsp;Meletis\u0026nbsp;debate such things,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele. \"The cause of motion, the nature of time.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThen let them debate, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix, with uncharacteristic hardness.\u0026nbsp;If they learn the answers, perhaps the people will revere them instead.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Are you saying you don't know?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;turned his hood toward her, and she felt a sudden rush of vertigo, the sense that she was gazing not over to a companion, but\u0026nbsp;down, into a deep abyss full of stars and blackness.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI am saying that if there is a reason--if there is some purpose behind the nature of the gods--then I do not\u0026nbsp;wish\u0026nbsp;to know.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"It is your duty to know,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele. \"That\u0026nbsp;is\u0026nbsp;your purpose...isn't it?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nShe had never contradicted\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;so directly. Many other gods would not tolerate such impudence, even from an oracle.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;only sighed, a sound like the night breeze.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI am the knower of all that is known on\u0026nbsp;Theros, and much that is\u0026nbsp;not\u0026nbsp;,\u0026nbsp;he said wearily.\u0026nbsp;But of late, I have learned things, about our world. About its safety.\u0026nbsp;He paused.\u0026nbsp;Does that surprise you, that I might still be capable of learning?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"It does.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIn fact, it did much more than surprise\u0026nbsp;Kydele. It disturbed her.\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;was the god of mysteries. He knew the answer to every question, so that he might decide which of those answers mortals could safely know...or so she thought.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIt should.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe said nothing after that.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"What have you learned?\" she asked.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAre you certain you wish to know?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I am.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIf an oracle of\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;flinched from the truth, what did she have left?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDo not be, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;Knowledge is cruel. It will break your heart and test your allegiances. Are you certain you want this curse?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKydele\u0026nbsp;took the time to consider. She knew things no other mortals dreamed of. She had gazed down into Nyx so often it had become commonplace, had watched\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;etch the names of the gods onto his great tree to bar them from\u0026nbsp;Theros. Knowledge was power.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBut\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;was the god of horizons, and some things were never meant to be known. No matter how far you travel, there is always another horizon.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nExcept here, at the last horizon.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Yes,\" she said. \"I am certain.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nVery well, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe walked in silence, and she waited. At length, they came to the edge of the world itself, where the ocean roared into the infinite depths of Nyx and the grounds of\u0026nbsp;Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;temple extended like a promontory into a sea of night.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;stood and gazed out into Nyx.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nTheros\u0026nbsp;is one of many worlds. Did you know that?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I take it you're not speaking of Nyx, or the Underworld.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nNo. There are entire worlds out there, beyond\u0026nbsp;Theros, beyond Nyx. Worlds you cannot see when you look up at the sky, places where the gods of\u0026nbsp;Theros\u0026nbsp;hold no sway. Worlds that you--and I--can never visit, with their own civilizations, their own histories, even their own physical laws.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Their own gods?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAgain, the sense of vertigo as\u0026nbsp;Kruphix\u0026nbsp;regarded her.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nNo, he said. The word rang like a bell.\u0026nbsp;Some, perhaps, have gods like us. But as a rule, no. We are...a local phenomenon.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"And you've only recently learned this?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;shook what passed for his head.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nNo. There are beings who can walk between these worlds. The first such to set foot on our world did so long ago. I am the knower of all things that are known in this world, and I learned all that she knew.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKydele\u0026nbsp;thought for a moment about everything she had heard and seen from her perch in\u0026nbsp;Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;great trees.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Elspeth was one of these...world-walkers, wasn't she?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAstute, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;Yes. She was. But not only her. So was her companion Ajani, the\u0026nbsp;leonin\u0026nbsp;who carried her body out of Nyx. So was the triton--the merfolk--Kiora, who called herself\u0026nbsp;Callaphe\u0026nbsp;and earned the ire of\u0026nbsp;Thassa.\u0026nbsp;And so, he continued,\u0026nbsp;was\u0026nbsp;Xenagos.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKydele\u0026nbsp;nodded.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"He traveled to other worlds where there were no gods...and realized he could become one?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nClose, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;He traveled to other worlds where there were no gods, and decided everyone on\u0026nbsp;Theros\u0026nbsp;should know the gods were a lie.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"I don't think he succeeded,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe did not, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix.\u0026nbsp;People saw the chaos. They saw the destruction. They saw, in short, a usurper into a domain that had otherwise remained, by all appearances, indefinitely stable. Perhaps, if he had lived to take his place among the pantheon, people might remember that there had not always been a god of revelry, and come to wonder what that meant about the other gods.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;shrugged again.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI suspect, however, that they would have learned to worship him, and forgotten his mortal origins. They would have come to believe that he had always been there, waiting for their veneration. That is the way of things. In the end, he threatened nothing.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Then he is not what's troubling you,\" said\u0026nbsp;Kydele.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;laughed--actually laughed, a hollow, echoing sound.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nYou see a great deal, My Oracle.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe folded his starry hands in front of him.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nYes, I am troubled, and not by\u0026nbsp;Xenagos's\u0026nbsp;ascension, nor by the existence of these world-walkers.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI am troubled by what troubles them.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThere it was. The dark, ragged edge around which they'd been tiptoeing.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe merfolk\u0026nbsp;Kiora, said\u0026nbsp;Kruphix,\u0026nbsp;came here from a world whose existence was threatened by something called the\u0026nbsp;Eldrazi. They are vast and terrible, the equal of any god. And they eat worlds, My Oracle. Strip the flesh from the bones of the earth and leave a dead husk, moving on to the next.\u0026nbsp;The\u0026nbsp;leonin\u0026nbsp;Ajani has faced an immensely powerful foe, a fellow world-walker and a dragon. He is unfathomably ancient, even to me. He seeks infinite power and immortal life. His plots span worlds and centuries, and he will spare nothing and no one who stands in his way.\u0026nbsp;And the human Elspeth...she came here from a place called\u0026nbsp;Phyrexia, an entire world of flayed skin and twisted metal, ruled over by vicious, monstrous beings who style themselves gods. It is an affront to nature, a dark parody of life that corrupts all it touches and touches everything in time. And it has already made its way from one world to others.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nKruphix\u0026nbsp;looked out into Nyx, night staring into night.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIf any of these things come here, to our world, he said,\u0026nbsp;even the gods may be powerless to stop them. And all your prayers, all your pleas, will fall on the deaf ears of a silent sky as this world is rent asunder or remade or worse.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nOne by one, the stars in\u0026nbsp;Kruphix's\u0026nbsp;cloak began to flicker and die, until only blackness remained.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThat is what I fear, My Oracle. That is what troubles the mind of a god.\u0026nbsp;Theros\u0026nbsp;is a minnow swimming in a deep, still pond, heedless of the depths, not knowing that something bigger rises up to devour it in an instant.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe faced her, four arms spread wide, a hole of pure darkness set against the starry light of Nyx.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nSo now you know. What will you do with this knowledge?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nDiantha\u0026nbsp;waited.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"No, Child,\" said the oracle. \"There is nothing. Nothing at all.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nShe said nothing more, and\u0026nbsp;Diantha\u0026nbsp;took it for a dismissal. She turned away.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBehind her, the oracle stared out the window, past the city, past the horizon, as though gazing into an infinite distance.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Theroes","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1233137-the-path-or-the-horizon.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1233682-ajani-s-vengeance.json"}}