Of Tea...and Things

A Questionable Personage

"But why did He not destroy evil forever then and there?" queried Lord Mulligan with a pensive frown.

Smiled Mildred wistfully, "we were just discussing the mysterious ways of Generals and Aunts, how much more so must His ways be incomprehensible to a mortal mind? Part of the answer is that He would like to give all a chance to come willingly to Himself, that all might be saved, if that be their choice."

"You hinted earlier at a certain sort of suicide," queried he, "what light does your tale shine thereupon?"

"As you have probably ascertained," said she with a knowing smile, "the two opposite sides are either the Light or Darkness, Good or Evil, the Master or the Enemy. There is a peculiar service a mortal creature might render either side, but in doing so he or she ceases to be a mortal creature."

"Hence your warning of apparent suicide," nodded he, adding, "but must one serve in such an extreme case?"

"Certainly not," chuckled the Aunt at the very idea, "most serve the Darkness, albeit unwittingly, simply in choosing to live in selfish ignorance all their born days. So too do some willingly choose to serve the Master until their dying day."

"But you said He had conquered Death," countered he.

"Eternal Death: falling into eternal darkness and dwelling ever away from Himself due to our brokenness and evil," amended she, "physical death is still a door all mortal folk must pass, though that too will be destroyed on the Last Day. All sapient creatures were made to last forever, mortal and immortal folk, just not in this particular reality; we may choose where we spend eternity: with the Source of Everything or amidst the dust and shadows of Nothing."

"Certainly a thought provoking story," said he, "and as scandalous as you promised. I suppose all that remains is to know what I shall do with it." His eyes narrowed as he took in the perfectly normal seeming ladies before him, "I have met servants of the Light, me thinks, though you will in nowise officially reveal yourselves to me." Mildred only smiled at him. "You say I have lived amongst the lesser servants of darkness all my life, and have even been so myself, though quite unwittingly done. What of these greater servants of evil, the vile counterparts of yourselves? What of Things?"

"What you would call Things are merely those things which dwell within our world, creatures of flesh and blood that can be killed, though if they are immortal they do not die of natural causes: age or disease, but of which man knows next to nothing, and fears or hates out of ignorance, and they likewise fear or hate mankind for very much the same reasons," lectured Mildred happily, perhaps she should have been a bespectacled Philosopher somewhere teaching eager students rather than gadding about guised as the of least of all Aunts. She shivered before continuing, "the true Things, horrid creatures trapped in a living death, have willingly sold themselves utterly to evil in hopes of power unimaginable and life unending, only to discover they are actually slaves and little more than animated corpses, eternally condemned even as they walk the mortal sphere."

"I had almost hoped to meet one such," said he in disgust, "just to compare both sides of this puzzle, but I believe that would be quite a foolish desire?"

"Indeed," said Mildred grimly, gaining her feet and clutching a sword in one hand, as if it were as natural a part of her ensemble as her hat or gloves. Iris likewise was on her feet and glancing anxiously about, unsure what it was that so unnerved her. Said the elder lady quietly, "it seems you are about to have your wish, sir!"

His eyes widened in terror, but there was a certain eagerness about him too, a thing which might be called morbid curiosity, said he anxiously, "there are some wishes I would rather not have granted!"