milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Belar's real proud of those mountains, now that the snow's finally settled in and everything's in shape for maximum winter-time use. Time to go see if he can't rustle up some interest in 'em, as long as they're out there waiting for people, hey? At least, once he's done with his obligations.

The sign on his table tonight reads:

ANSWERING PRAYERS - BACK IN 15 MINUTES

WILL TAKE QUESTIONS ABOUT SNOWBOARDING, SKIING, BOBSLED, LUGE, OR OTHER SNOW-BASED SPORT LESSONS AFTER THAT

NO, SERIOUSLY, THERE'S MOUNTAINS OUTSIDE, GO LOOK

That, he figures, should do the trick.

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"It is just like that."

Mary tosses her long, lank blonde hair back.

"But I am not worried. I learned a great deal but there is much much more to learn still."

"Oh, there's always more to learn," Belar says, nodding again. "I'm more than twelve thousand years old and I'm still learning things."

"I do not think," Mary says, after some consideration, "that I will ever be twelve thousand.

"But Ben Weatherstaff is awfully old - almost ancient - and he is still learning things. And he does not even know about other worlds or anything."

"Yeah, the only human I know of who's even close to that old is Belgarath. Garion's grandfather- do you know Garion? Belgarath is seven thousand years old, and he's still learning too. But Mr. Weatherstaff sounds like a really good example too, from the sound of things."

"I met Garion once, I think. I do not know Belgarath. I know fathers - two fathers counting my uncle - but not any grandfathers.

"Ben Weatherstaff," she adds, "is not anybody's grandfather or anything. He is contrary - like me - but he can learn things still. He did not know about the Ma-what the garden can do until we showed him. Mr. Lyon is awfully old as well. Hundreds of years at least."

"Contrary's good," Belar says. "Plenty of times in history, it's been more important to have somebody contrary than somebody nice. Nothing really happens without the stubborn people, I tend to find."

Then he looks very interested. "I don't think I've met Mr. Lyon. Is he a sorceror?"

"He is an Old One. Will Stanton is one too. It is like being an angel only less to do with Heaven and more actual fighting the Dark."

As an afterthought: "Also he was Merlin too. In King Arthur."

Belar gives this some thought. Eventually, he nods. "That's kind of what the sorcerors do back home. Did back home, anyway- it's a little different now. This Dark. Was there a prophecy about it, by any chance?"

". . . it is the Dark," Mary says. A little puzzled, and a little patient.

"It is in a lot of places. I suppose there might have been a prophecy about it in some. There was one about Mordred and that was when Arthur fell and he was of the Light - so that might have been part of it."

"I ask," says Belar, "because my world used to have two destinies, equally probable. They were the destinies of Light and Dark, you see. My brother Torak? The one who went crazy, and cracked the world? He served the Dark Prophecy all his life, and so did his people, as long as they obeyed his orders and his disciples."

Mary frowns, a little - not in disapproval, but in thought.

"Two destinies sounds right. Things can be good or they can be bad. They can be bad or good in lots of different ways - but it is still Dark and Light that there is. And the Dark only does bad and hurts people."

"That's about the size of it," Belar confirms. "All the stuff the people who followed the Dark Prophecy did was... well, it was bad, even if they did good things once in a while. They didn't want anybody to even think for themselves. Just do whatever Torak told them, and hurt people because they could do it and get away with it. They would've done that forever, if the Dark Prophecy had won. In my world the Light beat it eventually, but people still have to choose to be bad or good. It's just... there's no Dark god now. It's all down to people, one at a time, instead."

"Yes," Mary says - a little vehemently, and her face is darker, now.

"The Dark does not want you to think for yourself at all. Only to do what it wants you to for it. That is what the witch did - she cast a spell for it and it was awful."

She hesitates, a moment.

"I think - that is what Bran said, I think, it is like in his world now. Because they did beat the Dark. It is like that. It is why the Dark came here instead."

Belar nods. "Torak came here after Garion killed him, too," he says soberly. "Garion had to fight him again and break him completely before he would finally die once and for all."

"Everyone can come here. Good and bad - it is not safe. It will not ever be."

A small shrug; she is, perhaps, thinking of her uncle, and her voice is a little defensive, as she goes on.

"It is still good to come here; there is much more to learn than you can anywhere else. It is only you have to be prepared."

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