# The Lesson



## Arn (Sep 23, 2020)

In a beautiful Country beyond the Sea, where there is never any grief, disease, or death, two people - a father and a son-talked in silence. Their souls were as close as their memory would allow, and there was no one who remembered them better than they did.

"Father ... tell Me, when the orcs attack, do they kill everyone?"
- All of them, indiscriminately. Prey is carried away as much as they can grab with their paws, and most of it is broken, damaged, or burned. Orcs are afraid of fire, they disdain it, but sometimes people are with them. Bad people.
"Are people bad?"
- Of course.
"How is this possible?"
- People can do both good and evil. If they are under our control, people can become our helpers and servants, do good, kill orcs and even their immortal leaders. But if people are controlled by the servants of darkness, they are the people of darkness. Then they're after us.
"It is necessary to hunt down and kill such people! Or is it better to control them so that good people kill bad people?"
- This is a difficult question. I can't answer briefly, and you won't understand my answers.
"Are there any reasons I don't understand?"
- There are many different forces in this world - good and bad. There are others who are stronger than me, and there are others that I can't judge yet. If you start actively pulling people to your side, those other forces will also start pulling in their own. As long as we don't interfere in people's Affairs explicitly, history flows slowly, and we get a reprieve.
"A reprieve from what?"
- We have everything to be happy about - perfect health, a very, very long life span, and physical attractiveness-which sometimes makes our women mix their pure blood with human blood, either by force or by choice. All these possibilities allow us to be, and nothing more. To be happy is the greatest gift, and the greatest curse. Have you thought about it, my son?
"I am very happy, as I am told, and as I understand myself, when I see mortal men, orcs, and other animals. But I can't be happy, because I'm already happy. I can't get any happier.
- Our happiness is constant. Summer in our region lasts all year round, we live easily and simply. Above us is a blue sky, and the stars, we do not get sick, do not suffer from losses. We have already achieved all that mortal men dream of and do not dream of. We don't dream of happiness - we already have everything from birth, except marriage and children.
"Wife and children - I dream of them! so I can be even happier, right?"
- Right. And only once. so you will marry as late as possible. Your children will create bodies for their children, but it will be their children-their happiness, not yours.
"I get it, I already knew about it before. Happiness in the pursuit of happiness is for mortals. Our happiness is different, it flows in a full, thick, continuous stream, it is not necessary to look for it, it is always with us. But the orcs-are they happy?
- Their happiness, obviously, is to deprive others of happiness. People can reach a state similar to ours-for a short time, and orcs are always unhappy, and take revenge on others for this, trying to take their happiness - but they can't.
"Then we must destroy the orcs!"
- This has been done many times. When the Dark Lord loses his power, his servants run away and disappear. But then they reappear, each time in an even worse form.
"Where do they come from? Orcs?"
- That's another question I can give you an answer to-so that you can understand it. Just know that the orcs are necessary, they are evil, but without them, we will not be.
"I don't understand."
- You don't have to. No one understands, this is not required. You must keep hope and believe in a Higher Power. Estelle gives all the answers.
"If I'm to believe that the orcs are the villains, but they are necessary, how am I supposed to do with them?"
- That's a question only you can answer, son. You choose.

Bright blue, cloudless sky and bright sun, intoxicating air, dense groves, tall strong trees and very young young trees - this was happiness. The immeasurable joy rolled in, receded, and came again, as if in waves, washing, enveloping everyone who was involved in the happiness of this kind. The leaves in the trees whispered to each other, and the breeze gently ruffled the hair in the open clearing. Young, strong elf, with ineffable beauty of the unique traits of individuals, experienced a continuous, never-ending happiness. The corpse of an Orc over the fire gave off a pleasant aroma of roasted meat, drops of fat fell and sizzled on the coals.

"Father, why not make people work for us?
- We must not explicitly force people to do anything-otherwise other forces will also violate the agreement. People should want to be our servants of their own free will.
"Why won't they?" Any of our people is more beautiful than the best of them. We will give them the opportunity to enjoy our beauty, our art-we will sing them our songs and create new ones for them. Can people create illusions for themselves as well as we do?
- People who try to imitate the elves sooner or later become jealous of us. And they turn against us the knowledge and power we gave them.
"Our songs?"
- Not just songs. Once the elves were able to make weapons, and taught this to people. Even earlier, the elves made magical things that give the owner a power much greater than just a well-honed sword. Knowledge is power,
"But the orcs could do that, too, couldn't they?"
- Yes, but we were better at it. Our magic was superior to anyone else's, except for the darkest sorcery - but then there were many more of us in numbers. Together, we were able to resist any malicious intent.
"And now?"
- The orcs have excelled in the dark art of creating machines and weapons. Their mechanical devices are very dangerous. The orcs have created machines against which our art is powerless.
"You still haven't told me why we allowed the orcs to become stronger than before. Orcs are just food, like other animals, so why let them still be intelligent?
- It's beyond your comprehension. For now. Just understand that if the elves begin to increase their power, as in ancient times, by developing their art to the limit or creating even more powerful and terrible machines, like the orcs - then the elves will cease to be elves. Our happiness is permanent, understand. We have nowhere to develop, and to try to improve something means to break what we have, to go from permanent, immortal perfection to human mortality and variability.
"Tell me, are humans elves who became like this because they rejected Elvish happiness?"
- We don't have to talk about it.

The elves finished enjoying their food, and continued to receive the emanations of happiness from relaxing on the grass, walking, dancing, and singing. A few young elves had retreated in plain sight here in the clearing to make love to each other. Dreaming of their own children, realizing that the time had not yet come, they made love virtually, with the help of osanwe - which was cleaner, and filled with happiness no worse. The bones and half-eaten remains of the meal were carefully buried at the edge of the clearing.

"Are humans more like elves or more like animals?"
- If you see a red or white dress, what is it, red or white? It's red and white, that's its nature.
"Understand. People are a very special article."
- Yes. As long as they don't come close to us or the orcs in terms of perfection, people are just people. That's why you can't eat people, they're not animals, not like orcs. Or rather, until they became them.
"The orcs always destroy. And the people? Like a dress-red and white, but whiter, or redder, or red with white dots. Can we then say that the dress is red, even with flaws?"
- Humans may be more orcish, or more elven, in the sense of being like us or orcs, but that doesn't change their nature. Orcs are a very special article. They can talk, they are intelligent, but they hate the elves with a fierce hatred to the point where they wouldn't even eat us. Orcs are not dangerous in themselves, as their Orc leaders made them - immortal like us, strong like us, and like us, unable to change their essence without ceasing to be themselves. Orcs never represented a separate force: the dark Lord's servants create orcs to change us.
"You said change us. Were the orcs related to the elves? I always suspected that orcs were very, very bad elves. they have become such vicious animals that have not lost their minds completely, but at the same time they have lost everything that was originally good, they have lost the very way to be happy.
- No. Orcs never had a relationship to the elves. And they could not have-even if it were possible to imagine an elf falling to the level of an animal, it would have ceased to be an elf long ago in the process of falling. Orcs, therefore, are not from the elves.
"But why do orcs only kill elves and not humans? Even form alliances with them?
- All this is possible only through the power of the Dark Lord's servants. As soon as their power weakens, the alliances of orcs and humans break up. Orcs begin to kill each other, and people do not lag behind them in the feud.
"Then we must make the orcs kill each other, and the bad people too! We must kill the Dark one's servants!"
- This has also been done many times. The Dark one was reborn or had new servants, in even more terrible form and power.
"How could it be?"
- This is again beyond your comprehension. Like mine. But it's true, believe me. And don't forget about Estelle.

Evening came, followed by a moonless night. Dusk enveloped the groves and valleys, the long shadows of the trees became more and more invisible, and a light mist blurred the fires. The stars were bright in the sky. Two faint red dots moved slowly across the clearing, moving in and out.

"I see him! It's an Orc! His eyes - you can't mistake them for anything!"
- Yes. It's an Orc. And today you have the honor to kill him.
"I'm afraid, father. Orcs are very evil, it can damage my body."
- Not afraid. Today, I am the Orc. You must kill the Orc, skin it, then chop the meat into pieces so that your people will have food tomorrow. I'm not dangerous, and I won't hurt you.
"Good! Then I'll smash your skull in with that rock!"
- Do it in a pure Elvish way, filling yourself with a new happiness that you have not felt before - you will destroy evil and at the same time bring good to your people.

In the Land beyond the Sea, no one heard the sound of the impact. The stone was weightless and invisible, existing as a memory of the eternal elves, invisible - like everything around them. Together they drew down the curtain of the night and fell asleep, so that when they awoke in a new tomorrow, they would be happy again in their eternal, timeless world, which each of them remembered clearly. Each is different, but equally beautiful.

"Father, your knowledge that you passed on to me... I have learned all this many times, and I am ready to learn it again."
- Then let's start our lesson.


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