Alma 154 The Pot and the Kettle

All that had been passed down from the first generation had been the first-hand accounts of their shining cities of resplendent gold and silver, their grand and incomprehensible works of astonishing beauty and sublime technical mastery, and the magnanimous heavenly people that inhabited them. 

To the First Generation, the Ancient Mulians had been akin to gods of myth. There was no better way to describe them. They, after all, had managed to transport hundreds of thousands of people like them, from a myriad of different intelligent races for their purposes across the sea of stars. 

Even now, this perception was widely accepted by all who lived in the modern era. These people who had been born in a continent that had once been part of the Ancient Mulian's original homeworld couldn't have known any better. Their lives revolved around and were sustained by the remnants of this... supposed ancient progenitor race of living deities. 

The Heavenly Barrier. The Altar System. The many eternally preserved, dazzling metropolises they had left behind. The control and manipulation of Anima itself. There was no end to the number of wonders that they had left behind in the wake of the Great Barrier War. 

It was no surprise then that all who had come after ended up with the twisted perception of who they Ancient Mulians were. Every ruin, broken artefact, and scrap of junk that was of Ancient Mulian origin was a treasure trove to the people of the modern era. 

Reed, who had visited the last Ancient Mulian city, Citlai, had been blinded even more than the average individual. He had seen, with his own eyes, the wonders of the Ancient Mulians for himself, much like the first generation of otherworlders. 

And just like them he, too, had not seen them for who they had been. He had been blinded by dazzling visions of shining gold and gleaming silver, enraptured by his own misconceptions about them. 

There was too much Reed did not know. In fact, it was better to say that he did not know much, if anything about the Ancient Mulians. Reed only knew tidbits — fragments of their culture and history — that he had stumbled upon by chance. 

And even then, he now had to take into account the biases he mistakenly had about them in the equation. Not just him, but others as well. If he wanted an accurate vision of who Ancient Mulians were, he would need to reevaluate everything he knew about them. 

An incomplete picture — the phrase best summed up his knowledge about them and about... Lu'um. 

I need to see everything for what it is and not just what I want to see, or think I have seen. Approach situations from different angles. Keep an open mind and remove all unnecessary clutter that may distract or distort my sight of the truth. 

And most importantly, I must keep myself from making opinions, let alone conclusions based on half-baked knowledge, or even worse... pure ignorance. 

Reed, for once in a long time, had an epiphany. A rare moment of personal growth had come of the entire confrontation. He had come out a bit wiser than before, not that even he realized it had happened. 

"...Do you mind if we take care of this discussion later? I don't think it'd be very appropriate for us to do this here and now, right? There's a time and place for everything."

As much as Reed wanted to continue talking with Lu'um about everything, he couldn't help feel bad about Velvund who was holding down the fort outside of the anomaly for them. He didn't want to put too much pressure on the old man and the Chosen outside. 

"The faster we're done, the better," Reed said, "I don't want to keep gramps and the people outside waiting for any longer they need to." 

He looked around and surveyed the grasslands in confusion. Where had the fissure gone? It was nowhere to be found.

When his mind came up with a possibility, he swallowed nervously and said, "T-There's no way, right? Have you... already fixed the fissure?" 

Lu'um snorted in amusement and chuckled. "If only I was as skilled as you imagine me out to be. But alas, the answer is no. I do greatly appreciate the vote of confidence you have in me though, my dear. It makes my heart throb a little faster." 

She pulled Reed close and made a silent, grand gesture toward the peaceful grasslands, as if to show off her work. 

They stared at the grasslands for a while until Reed could hold not in any longer. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "...Alright, what I am supposed to be looking at? The grass, the flowers, or the trees? Am I not seeing something here? 

Is this another symbolic set-up for something you're about to lay on me? I can only handle having my preconceptions about the world broken a couple more times, you know." 

"Relax, you silly goose. I just wanted you to see my hard work now that it's completed. I thought I did a pretty good job, all things considered. It was annoying as hell, but I got everything back in order." 

"What are you talking about?" 

Lu'um had been hard at work the moment they entered the anomaly, much to Reed's surprise. He had thought that Lu'um had been slacking off — that their entire voyage through Mulia's dark history had been a deviation from the mission they set off to do. 

He had been wrong. She had been truly clever, much more than he thought possible. Another example of her brilliant and sometimes, unorthodox ways of handling complex situations. 

The entire time Lu'um had been explaining Mulia's forgotten Age of Chaos, she had been at work. As spacetime was without order and in shambles, the laborious, intricate task of reorganizing the anomaly's unbound space and time had fallen upon her. 

She had slowly worked, weaving together a complete, correct assembly of history from the beginning to the end, up until now. 

From the moment of the Great Barrier War all the way to modern times, she had slowly pieced together the history of the continent for Reed as she continued to realign history within the anomaly. She made use of the opportunity and had made it work to her benefit, killing two birds with a single stone. 

Reed was genuinely impressed. He wagered it must have taken an incredible amount of skill to both realign history all the while using it to make her point to him. Not once had he noticed Lu'um divert her attention from him either throughout the process, making sure to answer anything he had asked of her promptly. 

They now stood in Silvermoon Grasslands, only a year or so before the appearance of the fissure. That was why it was not there, as Reed had oh-so-obviously noticed. 

"...So does that mean you've realigned everything behind us, behind this final year?" 

"Yes, that's correct. ...What of it?" 

Thousands of years of history reordered and put back into place, just like that. I didn't even notice it. 

Reed stared at Lu'um with a blank face, devoid of emotion, and said, "You. Are. Insane." 

"You juggled all of that just to get a point (although important as it was) across to me?! What if you messed up?! We could have died if you messed at any point in TIME, you fool!" 

Lu'um lightly scowled as if she had been condemned unjustly and said, "Don't be such a baby, love. If anything, I was borrowing a page off of your style of handling things, so I don't think you have the right to criticize me." 

Reed nearly choked when he heard her defense. The absolute nerve of this girl, he thought. 

Did she just call ME a bad influence? There's no way... That did NOT just come out of HER mouth. 

Lu'um coyly smiled and said, "We're two accomplices guilty of the same crime, no? Let's not sweat the small stuff and take it easy on the blame game." 

Reed wanted to reject that claim but knew he couldn't do it. That was one thing he was guilty of without questions. He had done plenty of stupid, reckless things since he'd arrived in Mulia. 

He let out a small grunt of acknowledgment and said, "...Fine, whatever. What are we supposed to be doing here in the past? We can't fix a problem if it hasn't come into existence yet." 

Lu'um nodded in agreement and said, "Right, right. That's exactly why we're here."

.............What? 

She turned toward Reed and said, "Why should we have to deal with the problem in the present when it's at its most difficult?

What if we took care of the problem... before it even happened? ...Wouldn't that be easier?" 

Reed dumbly stared at Lu'um with an expression befitting an idiot who had seen the light. 

"...Huh. That... does sound nice." 

Chapter end