Ask a man...
Anthologica Universe Atlas / Universes / Archaeron / Two Men on the Mountain / Ask a man...

Ask a man, or better yet, a child. He will stand straight and carefully recite the parable of Madreus and Geverus on the snowy mont…

In the eighth year of Madreus’ trials in the wilderness he came upon a snowy mont. It towered above the range around it as a tree among grass. No man who dwelled on worldly matters would climb such a peak. But Madreus was led apart, and the Guide led him up the mont.

Geverus, who walked beside the Avatar, whispered to him. “You will never reach the summit,” the Firstborn said. You do not have strength enough.”

“I have faith enough,” Madreus told him. “Our father would not lead me to a place I could not attain.”

So he began the climb. The Avatar found a game road that led up a shallow face for a time, and he was thankful. The game road was rough and stony, but it was the way ahead. For hours he followed the track cut by the beasts that went before. Then the track ended at a spring between cleft stones.

“Here is the end of the way,” Geverus told the Avatar. “Is this what your father led you to?”

“This is only the end of the road,” Madreus told the Firstborn. “The way continues, unto the ends of the world if it must. Our father leads me on.”

He continued up a harsher slope. His road now was the trees and outcrops, his steps sure only because they were placed on the hidden strength of the stones and branches. Many times the mountain offered him no way forward, and many times he found one anyway. And he was thankful.

Then he came to an edge between green and white. Behind him was the last of the trees, and ahead was the beginning of endless snow. “Even you cannot challenge this height,” Geverus told the Avatar. “There is no fire in you, to keep you warm in the deep cold. There is no wind in you, to fill your lungs at the top of the world.”

“There is a fire in my spirit,” Madreus told the Firstborn. “My faith will keep me warm. There is a wind at my back. Our father will fill my lungs.” He followed the Guide into the bitter cold with no fear. As he climbed, his path wound calmly around pitfalls and hidden ice. As the wind froze him, he came across fissures in the stony walls of the mont which shielded him. As his breath failed him, the path ahead grew gentle until he recovered. And he was thankful.

And, at the last, he reached the peak. Around him was only bare stone and snow. “There is nothing here,” Geverus whispered to the Avatar. “All your efforts have come to naught.”

“Our father would not lead me to a place with no purpose,” Madreus told the Firstborn. Madreus opened his heart to the Guide. He heard his father’s voice, and he was thankful.

Madreus was caught up in a golden light and borne away from the mountain and the mortal world. Thereafter he sat at his father’s side. This was the wage for his faith, and for the faith of all who follow the Guide.

And the human will tell you that the story’s lesson is faith.