Elsewhere: Alfheim

Chapter 4: Spirit Walker

The Elder looks at me hard. "Do you know what that voice is?"

"Back home it may be the voice of God. Here it may be the voice of The Source. In Aesir, it's called the voice of magic. It is the embodiment and evidence of one's truth. Initially it is The Voice, before all of the conditioning of the material world. Before anything else, it is. 

After reaching The Source, one's truth is tested. All lies are burned away in Its presence, until only The Truth, The True Voice remains."

Domet turns away. "If that's truth, then why have so many of our brethren been shattered and broken after encountering The Source?"

I look upon the afternoon Sun, now able to see the wind and the spirits that inhabit it. The spirits that are it. "This may be hard to hear. The Source is not evil, nor has it sought the destruction of your people. If one is annihilated after touching The Source, it is only because who they believe themselves to be is another lie that was burned away. That information is what is crippling. What one chooses to do with that information is one's own choice. Will they wallow in their sorrow and loss of their false identity? Or will they rejoice as now their true identity may be revealed?"

Domet turns back with a snarl. " Are you saying it's their fault they've been crippled?! You know nothing of our people! You've not been here a week and you think you're some kind of Sage? 

I smile solemnly. "The fault lies not in the individual, but in the collective. The Source never dictated that we should identify ourselves with the circumstances of our environments or our births. We have taught ourselves as a collective that those things make us different, but they don't. Who we all are, what we all are, is life itself. There is no difference between you or me, a tree, or the sea. We are all made from the same thing, though we may carry on and behave differently.

Your people's struggles are my people's struggles. Your burdens are my burdens, your life is my life, your existence is my existence. Contact with The Source makes that clear. It is not the being that shatters, it is the separation that the being imposed upon itself from everything else that shatters." 

Tears fill Domet's eyes. "What are you saying? That if we believed that we are all the same then our suffering would stop?"

"No, I'm saying if you understood that we are all the same then your suffering would stop. If we all understood that then suffering would cease. There is no one greater than another, nor is there one less than another. Everything that you can be that is great, someone else can also be. Everything one can be that is terrible, someone else can also be. The Great Sage is the same as The Great Warrior. They may present themselves differently, they may even be given different choices because of their different environments. But before the Sage and Warrior, they are great, and before they are great, they are. 

Everyone can be great or not. It is a choice, and it is not an easy one, nor is it one that has to be made. For one is not great because they seek it. They are great because they are."

Domet falls to their knees in sobs. "How do you know the story of The Great Sage and The Great Warrior? Are you really them? Are you the one we have been waiting for?"

"You wouldn't understand the answer to the question Domet. It has already been answered. How is it Traveler, that you have come to speak from The Source at will? Have you become the Truth of all things? Have you mastered The Source?" The Elder finally speaks. 

"The Source has no master, nor does it have slaves. If you seek the Truth you will find it. To speak it, or to be it makes no difference. All is as it was, as it is, and as it will be. 

If one wishes to be one with The Source, all one needs is to remember that they already are.

"Do you know what this means for The Journey that you're on? They will hate you, curse you, and most likely be the death of you."

"They can't kill me. Even if they succeed in killing this body. I am more than this body. It is only a part of what I am. They can't kill me anymore than they could kill anything. Once one is, they always will be, in this life or the next. The meat that is consumed was once an animal. The log burned was once a tree. It's the same thing." 

Tears come to The Elder's eyes now. "Did it really take someone from a different world to bring us this message? You may not see it for yourself, but you truly are the one we have been waiting for. The Sage and The Warrior."

"You say that I am, but if you recognize that in me, it is only because you have first seen it in yourself. I am not "The" anything. I simply am and will continue to be.

"What will you do now Spirit Walker? No, One Who Walks With Spirits."

"Continue."