Chapter 41 Original Decision

Chapter 41 Original Decision
Luna POV

The consciousness was not in a form. It was not something that I could see or feel. It seemed more like touching something that had been awakened into consciousness. It was vast beyond measure. It was ancient beyond time. The existence of something was the existence of what had come before existence.

"What choice?" I questioned, but I did not know how to address something which was not actually addressing me. It was closer to having the question and answer coexisting together in my head.

The consciousness said, "The barrier was put there so that there might not be conflict. "But it also prevented growth. It did not allow the world to become what it was. But the question is, is the barrier best continued as a bridge, wherein the worlds can be connected with the world as well? Or shall it lose itself entirely, to be freely connected, but to risk disorder?

It is not an option that you should ask me, I said. That is an option that has an influence on everyone. It should involve the opinion of everyone.

No, no, said the consciousness. But somebody has to make a decision to initiate the discussion. Somebody has to make a choice of asking the question. And that someone is you."

"Why me?" I demanded.

Due to the fact that you are the only one who has stood in the crossing of all worlds, the consciousness said. You have been a man and protector. You have loved and sacrificed a stranger sacrificed. All realities have been influenced by some of your choices. You have provoked the right to request other people to take this decision together.

I was about to answer, when the grandmother touched me on the shoulder. We must have the party all, she said. And in the event that this choice is real, that the consciousness is actually making it, then it must be projected to every community. Not just here. Not only humans and werewolves. All beings. All perspectives."

Over the next week, we worked. Messages were dispatched to all networks, all connections, all communities that had been reached by the peace movement. We asked people to think. To consider what they wanted. To determine if the barrier shall persist or break up.

The replies were in thousands. There were those who preferred that the barrier should stay. They said it kept them safe. They claimed that order was preferable to disorder. According to them, there had to be some limits.

The barrier was what other people desired to melt. They told me that there would always be misunderstandings created by separation. They claimed that true peace was full-scale connectedness. They claimed that boundaries were only another control mechanism.

And yet other men desired something midway. They desired the barrier to change. It was to be not a bridge but a door. A door that could have been opened or closed by anybody. A door that symbolized an option and not a compulsion.

We can not make this decision, Kieran said. He had overwhelmed eyes in viewing the responses. "There's no consensus. There's no clear answer."

Probably that is, maybe that is the point, my father said. He had remained in Pine Ridge, to organize the world discussion. "Maybe there's no right answer. Perhaps it is just a matter of our decision made collectively.

I called a gathering. Not a meeting. A gathering. We united the representatives of all the human groups, all the packs of werewolves, all immortal groups, all the groups of freed creatures. We unified those people who were convinced of peace and those who were yet to be educated to believe.

We have been given an opportunity, I said. I said what the consciousness had provided. We may retain the barrier in the nature of a bridge. We may in it entirely dissolve. Or we can find something else. But we must make a common decision.

The debate was intense. It lasted for days. People argued. People cried. Individuals were able to express their biggest fears and hopes. Yet beautiful was something that occurred in the midst of all that strife. People listened. Really listened. They made attempts on different views other than their own.

At last there was a young woman on her feet. She was perhaps eighteen years of age. She was a hybrid. Half human. Half werewolf. She was born in the latter half of the peace movement. She had never encountered a world in which both species engaged in a fight.

I believe there ought to be a wall, said she. "But not like it is now. I believe that it must be a door, which everyone is free to go through. A door that tells that there is another world out there. The door that unites us and at the same time allows us space to be ourselves. I think we need both. Association and autonomy. I believe that is what true peace is.

The room went quiet. Then gradually people began nodding. Neither was it a unanimous opinion. There are those who still desired the barrier to be removed. There were also individuals who desired it to be tight. However, the general population appeared to get the young lady.

That's all we decide to do, then, said the grandmother of Elena. She was smiling. We make the wall the gateway of a wall. We give it consciousness. We give it a choice. We leave it to open and shut by what both parties require.

The barrier consciousness appeared approved. The light shifted. It became warmer. More welcoming. As though it was coming at last to be what it always wanted to be.

But then Ethan grabbed my arm. His face was pale. "Luna," he said. "Do you feel that?"

I felt it. Another thing was attempting to break through the wall. Something was not contented with the decision we made.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know," Ethan said. "But I'm angry. Really angry."

The barrier began to shake. The new door that had just been formed was being pounded from the other side. Something wanted through. Something that had been contained for a very long time.

"Not again," David said. He had fought so many battles. He had faced so many threats. But he sounded tired. "Not another crisis. Not now."

"The Void?" Thomas asked.

"No," Elena's grandmother said. She was staring at the barrier in a new expression. Fear mixed with recognition. "It's something worse. One of the things that the Void was made to hold. It is something that has been closed since the very dawn of time.

"What is it?" I demanded.

Forgetting, said Elena, who was the grandmother. It is something that causes people to lose their identities. It causes human beings to forget their decisions. It causes them to forget their pasts. Ever since the initial barrier was designed it has been attempting to break free. And now that we have changed the obstacle, the seal is weakening."

The pounding became louder. The door felt like it was beginning to crack.

We must double up the seal, the grandmother of Elena said. We need to prevent Forgetting breaking through.

"How?" I asked.

By an alternative of a new nature, said the grandmother of Elena. I was looking straight into her. By saying that you should go back to the barrier. One more time. By holding you fast with a grip of your strength. And with the power of all that thou hast known. Everything you have not forgotten."