“Hello, little Torr.”
While Aesop never really feared the Panelix, he used to worship her after all, ever since the whole thing with the Whenvern being ill, Aesop always felt… not scared, but anxious, whenever he was in Kairos’s presence. The mighty Time Drake had required all of the Twelve Anew to pacify him when he wasn’t quite sound of mind. If Kairos was of sound of mind and decided to start killing folks, none of them would be able to stop him.
“Hello, Kairos. I-”
“You want to know if you took the right path.”
Also, Kairos could see into the future. Normally. Which was something else that bothered Aesop. But that was why Aesop was here right now.
Twelve hours ago, Aesop had interfered in high level political affairs, stopping a potential coup d’etat. And he’d killed someone, himself, with his own two hands, for the first time. But ever since, Aesop wondered if, maybe, he shouldn’t have intervened. The Torr had a very corrupt, stagnant society. The poor were crushed beneath oppression, the weak and unwanted would disappear in the cracks. Perhaps all Aesop did was protect the status quo, allowing the Torr elite to continue as they were, without anything ever changing.
“Yes, basically…” Aesop decided to be blunt and to the point. “Us Torr are monsters. To the point that we look down on protecting the meek, and only believe in clawing our way to the top. We do the bare minimum to make sure the weakest Torr are kept alive, and we make them believe that, one day, they will be at the top if they work hard enough, even if the system is rigged against them.”
“And you want to know whether letting your friend die would have created new, even more fascist horrors, or if the terrorists had a point and would actually act within the interests of the less well off.”
Aesop nodded. “Yes. I… admittedly acted on my old biases. I was always part of the elite myself.”
“Of course you did. The Prime Minister is an ally of yours. You acted to save what you knew. What you did was perfectly reasonable.”
“But was it right?”
Kairos looked Aesop up and down. “You wonder if saving a friend was correct.”
Aesop hesitated. “I mean… of course… Saving Panos’s live was the right thing to do. Yes, Panos is an asshole of the highest order, he perpetuates the cruel status quo, but… I can’t help but think… what if? What if I was too slow? What if I let him die? And in all honesty, I nearly did let him die. If it wasn’t for the stupid Rethan baby you gave godhood to for some stupid reason, I wouldn’t have gotten there in time… Admittedly, it did depend on where the bastard was aiming, I THINK he was aiming at Panos’s chest, and Panos could have survived that if I was too slow… But… Well…”
The Whenvern snorted. “You think I don’t keep track of these things? I made sure you made the right choice.”
“Hm. That… That does bother me a bit. Makes me wonder if I have free will. Do I?”
“You do. But I make tweaks here and there. I add or remove miniscule obstacles, I trip people up and slow them down, or I speed things up, so things run smoothly. You chose to save your friend. I made sure you managed to do so.”
“But would you have interfered if I chose not to?”
“Perhaps yes, perhaps no.”
That answer was unsatisfying. “You’re not helping me here. Maybe I should just be direct, and ask you what would have happened had I let Panos die, and if I’d let Fasterus take control, violently. Because you are going around the bush now.”
The Whenvern immediately snarled, then leaped forward and pushed Aesop to the ground. Aesop was about to fight back, but as Kairos’s claw was pressed against his head, Aesop relaxed, realizing that the God of Time was showing him something.
Aesop’s eyes were forced shut. When he opened them back up, Aesop found himself back in the parliamentary chambers. But the place was nothing but rubble. After a quick glance around, Aesop quickly realized that something didn’t seem right. Why would Fasterus acted on his threat of blowing the place up, when he already had Panos beaten and defeated?
“Hang on… This makes no sense. Fasterus won. But here, everyone is dead, him included. You… You made Panos hesitate, which stopped Panos from stabbing Fasterus after he had disarmed him.”
“I did, yes. Because if Fasterus lost his duel legitimately, he would have done anything to make sure he won. Anything to prove his point that he was superior.”
Aesop frowned. “That… goes against your claim that we have free will though.”
“You make the choices. I add or remove pauses. To produce better outcomes.”
“But then…” Aesop trailed off, then rubbed his head. Reality around him slowly returned to normal. “I DID do the right thing. But it didn’t matter, because you made sure that the worse scenario didn’t happen. But what would have happened if I was too slow?”
Kairos tutted as he released his grip on Aesop, then backed off and stood up straight. “You just want to know if the terrorist was truly a terrorist, or if he would actually usher in a new, better society. Yet, seeing the alternate path where Fasterus blows everyone up because he was bested in combat hasn’t convinced you that Fasterus was just a dictator of a more violent type?”
“You… do have a point… I suppose I have a new question now though. Outside of the obvious, did I do any actual good, or did I just continue the status quo?”
“What do you think?” Kairos asked back.
“Um…” Aesop thought for a moment. “I… I mean, sure, I saved some lives. I stopped Panos from dying, alongside maybe a few other folks. But I don’t think I did anything else. Things will continue as normal, but any desire for change has most likely been completely quashed. And our electoral systems mean any real change is… difficult.”
“And you can’t change it? You have more than godly power.”
Again, Aesop thought to himself. “Hm. You are right… I can be… persuasive. But also… Perhaps I can nudge Panos to… learn from this… His first instinct will be to tighten everything up, to build more walls. But perhaps this immediate threat to his health will allow me to push hm towards building something other than a wall. Maybe… Maybe I can convince him to maybe… do something to make lives easier for the poor… To appease those who would have followed in Fasterus’s footsteps…”
The Whenvern smiled, glad that Aesop was slowly figuring things out himself.
“The question now is, in what direction do I nudge my fellow Torr?”
“I think that is a question better suited for your fellow Twelve Anew. They know what the meek desire. They can point you in the right direction. However, you will need to act fast, before the shock of what happened fades and the status quo you fear returns, as strong as ever.”
Aesop nodded in agreement, then bowed to the great dragon. “Thank you very much for the wisdom.”
“No worries, little one. Keep up the good work.”
Aesop bowed once more, then headed off. He had things he needed to think about.