The representatives of the Creeds bickered among themselves, only the Creed of Death sitting out, looking over at them angrily. Every now and then he opened his mouth to repeat what he had said, but each time he tried, their arguing continued. There was no helping the young sometimes.
“Ok, wait stop,” Magic said. “We’re meant to be allies here. Were meant to be working together.”
“The old man just said the exact opposite,” Ritual said, pointing at Death. “He said were rivals, built in opposition to each other. How are we allies?”
“Its a temporary alliance,” Death repeated for the fifth time that day. “We must, for now, put aside our old enmities and face a threat that no single Creed can face alone.”
“Which is what?” Magic said exasperated. “How can we come to some agreement with each other if you continue to withhold information from us?”
“Death is the oldest of us,” Prayer said. “It stands to reason he knows more. Age begets wisdom. Perhaps this is a test? A way of deciding if all of us are worthy of the next step?”
“Its not that,” Death croaked. “None of you were raised within the Creeds. You dont understand how its meant to work.”
“Teach us,” Magic said. She, at least, was trying to see things from Deaths perspective. Apt, really. The oldest ally to death is never faith or tradition, its that which cant be explained. There was some of the old light left in the young people after all.
“I cannot,” the old man said. “Death is the end, not the beginning. Even if I knew what needed to be taught, its too late. You were all too slow and now the end is upon us. All we can do is mitigate the damage.”
“Four people vs the end of the world,” Ritual spat. “What good is that?”
“Its not four people,” Magic retorted. “Werent you listening? Or are you just ignorant? We, the four of us, arent expected to stop the end of the world, what were meant to do is lead our followers to the battle.”
“Our followers,” Ritual mocked, rolling his eyes. “None of us are influencers of any kind. What followers?”
Magic seethed for a moment and exchanged a look with Death and Prayer. Only Death smiled, knowing what she was upset over. “We represent ideas,” she said in a tone that was just beyond frustrated. To her, this was the most obvious thing in the world. An idea that shouldnt need to be explained to anyone. “I represent magic and the themes of change and the unknown. You,” she said, pointing at Ritual, “represent almost the opposite. Repeated activity, the same thing over and over, ingraining it in peoples minds. Explanation and cycles. The same and the same again. Prayer represents faith. The ideas that keep us going. A mitigation of the hardships we face because we have faith in our goals and we know the end result will favour us. As individuals, we are no one, but as those ideas, we are everyone.”
“Not everyone,” Death said.
“What does he represent?” Ritual asked at the same time, pointing at Death.
“The end. A lack of change. A persistent state. He represents everything that doesnt change. The three of us are change, believe it or not. Magic is change in a very real sense. Prayer asks for change, and if your faith is enough, you get what you pray for. Ritual is change. Times change around you, and the aspects of the ritual start to mean different things. Like something bobbing on a wave. Ritual represents a relative change. But its still change. Death is beyond that. Death is singular and unmoving. Nothing, and I mean nothing, overcomes death. It is the only thing we can rely on and its our job to ensure our ideals do not die.”
“Not everyone,” Death repeated. “There is one thing that escapes death. Its subtle, but once you understand, youll start to comprehend why youre here.”
“Then what is it?” Ritual asked, understanding, in a sense, why Magic was so frustrated.
“The threat to the world is one of our own, the fifth Creed. Its own pyre was lit centuries ago, and it never went out. Wars were fought over it, but it still burns to this day. Both literally and metaphorically. Magic is right, it is our followers, those who believe what we do, that matters. There may be people out there who fit under our respective banners. True religious believers mostly. Some esoteric philosophers. A handful of internet conspiracy theorists. But our numbers, collectively, are small and almost meaningless against our enemy. Our tactics must focus on lopsided warfare.”
“To mitigate the damage,” Magic said, thoughtfully.
“Its a shame you are the smartest of us,” Death said. “You could lead the world if all else were equal. But no one holds to the values of magic these days. No one practices the arts. Ritual and Prayer, they are almost the same thing to those people out there. So blended together that no one realises how different they are. But the two of you are not fit to lead. Bickering without thinking. Arguing without an idea to fight for. You simply fight over your differences instead of fighting for your similarities. You want to lead, to be elevated over your peers, and that is why you can never lead.”
“But you said none of this is relevant,” Magic said.
“It isnt,” Death shrugged. “Our ideals are plenty, but we are four people, singular individuals who cant compete with the myriad of other voices, mockeries of our Creeds, screaming falsities to everyone else.”
“Does that mean we shouldnt try?” Magic said, slight defiance in her voice.
“Yes,” Death said, his tone so confident and immediate that the other three felt defeat in their gut already.
“What enemy to the fundamental aspects of reality, as we are,” Ritual said, almost in awe, “ could make Death, the unchanging ideal, so defeated? What possible Creed could do that?”
“The Creed of Life,” Death replied. “The only thing that overcomes death is the sheer amount of life that exists all at once.”
Death spent the next hour explaining to the others that Life had been equal with them for millennia. That Life was a constant companion of Death at the pyres. Helping preserve the banners, maintaining the unlit cauldron. A friend, a family member in all but blood. But something changed.
At the climax of the last great war, a war not recounted in the history books used in mainstream schools, the representative of Life saw battlefield after battlefield littered with the remains of those who swore to uphold one of the Creeds. Who fought for the ideals they truly held dear. Who died in the names of those banners.
How could they come to any other conclusion than the Creed of Death using everyone else as fodder for their own benefit? Life confronted Death and for the first time in history, since the founding, Creed turned on Creed and the alliance was sundered. From that day on, there was no fifth Creed. Life was separate from everyone else and was free to act as it pleased.
“This has been the way of the world for generations, then,” Prayer said. “We were each born into this existence and you, and your kind,” he referred to Death, “knew it. Why, then, is the pyre only lit now?”
“You dont really follow the news all that much, do you?” Ritual asked.
“Theyve reversed death,” Magic sighed.
“What does that mean?” Prayer asked.
“Researchers have found a way to bring a living creature back from death,” Death said. “This was not a human, nor was it a terribly complex creature. But the principle is sound and it seems that the next step is to try with a complex creature. The researchers predict less than twenty years before the procedure can work on humans.”
“But the point is that they did it,” Magic said. “Which means that Life wins.”
“The balance was already out of sync,” Death said. “But this is something else. Until this, the balance could have been restored. This prevents that.”
“If its true,” Ritual said. “We’ve all seen scientific hyperbole before. What makes this different? Why dont you believe this will peter out as they do more research? Do you actually believe this could work on people?”
“Death exists for all creatures,” Magic said. “If it works only on one kind of creature, its enough. Life has an unassailable grip on reality. A foot in the door is enough to keep it open.”
“Exactly. Death is unchanging, people or small, simple creatures created in a lab. It is unacceptable for any dead creature to be brought back.”
“How do we mitigate this damage then?” Ritual said, his eyebrows furrowed. “The idea that life everywhere is the problem becomes, for us, the idea of how to … do what?”
“We could set the regular people against the idea,” Prayer said. “Use our influence over the religious to protest the idea of bringing people back. Say something like ‘do your loved ones deserve to be snatched from the afterlife and brought back to this sinful plane?’ it will work.”
“It will,” Death nodded.
“I sense a but after that,” Ritual said.
“But,” Magic said. “It doesnt matter. The people who are doing this research, they dont follow religious dogma. They may be religious, but none of that is enough to override their experiments. They want to change the world and theyll ignore us,” she waved her hands at the banners, “to do so.”
“How do we target them?” Ritual said. “Our ideas arent enough, you just said.”
“One of us is,” Magic looked around at each of them, finally landing on Death.
Death nodded. “It is true, my Creed can fight Life on an even keel. Maybe even win, but I am not a fighter. Look at me, Im an old man, I can barely stand, I walk with a stick and I am disrespected among even my allies,” he glared at Ritual over an unknown slight.
“Besides which,” Prayer said. “We cannot fight Life without knowing where their pyre is, where their representative is.”
“I know where the pyre is,” Death said. “I can even take you there. Life, as in our contemporary, will likely not be there though and extinguishing their pyre does nothing to prevent their actions. Theyve already been forced out into the world at large. We would then need to find them.”
Magic stared at Death for maybe a moment too long and sighed. Death lowered his head and nodded. If either of the others had come to the conclusion she had come to, he would have fought them. But this woman was insightful. She knew there was no other way. “Then we have a plan,” she said.
“We do?” Ritual and Prayer echoed each other.
“We locate the pyre and destroy it,” she said. “Then,” she paused and looked at Death who nodded. “We find a new Creed of Death.”