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.A few hours later a young shepherd who had led his flock much higher than he usually did came upon them.Retens and Kytra were as surprised as the shepherd was at the impromptu encounter.They must have looked quite wild and mad, but the young man was not afraid.He himself spent much time alone in inward reflection and the depth of their wisdom was not lost on him.“His coming would change everything.For, you see, it is him who convinced Retens and Kytra to leave their lives of solitude and come teach their knowledge to the world.Reluctant at first, they eventually agreed to go to his village and speak to the shepherd’s people.And so, for another thirty years they taught of what they knew to whoever came to them.Their following grew from the few people who sat at their side by the small pond on the outskirt of the shepherd’s village to large crowds coming from every corners of the land.Some came and went, taking with them their teachings as stories, others stayed a while and learned of some of the techniques before returning to their homes, others yet became dedicated followers and together with the lovers formed a tightly knit community.It is by the end of that period that the first rift happened.“Over the course of those years the number of practitioners grew constantly.Customs naturally developed over time and when the community reached numbers in the thousands, the skeleton of a hierarchy was put in place.By that point, practitioners had wedded one another and their offspring had been raised in the light of the lovers’ teachings.This first generation was enlightened beyond what their parents had achieved and learned of the link much faster.That in turn enabled the community to reach ever deeper into the Other World.The paths to the Ground and Higher Layers and the extent to which the layers could be influenced were ever more clearly defined.It was then that the dangers of unformed minds dwelling too deeply in the Other World became apparent and that the potentially horrendous effects of the manipulations of the Higher Layer came to light.“One evening Retens and Kytra were resting after a long day of teaching and sitting.Their followers were going by their tasks and the children played joyfully around the central plaza of the village.But one child, the most gifted child of the community and, the stories say, the grandson of the shepherd who had first come across Retens and Kytra, was sitting by himself dwelling in the Higher Layer, something a child his age should not have been able to do.About what happened next, the reports differ, each more gruesome than the next.The child, most likely unintentionally, killed one of his playmates.What all the accounts agree upon is that this event triggered the realization that younglings lacked both the emotional and mental maturity to have access to such potentially destructive capabilities.“Retens and Kytra, in consult with the elders of the community, decided that the path to the Other World should not be taught to children, at least not until they were in their late teens.And so it was agreed and a timeline of what teachings to impart children as they grew up was outlined.On that, Retens and Kytra saw eye-to-eye.But as time went by Retens became increasingly persuaded that, given the potential horrors the manipulation of the Higher Layer could bring forth, those techniques should be forbidden.But Kytra disagreed.She thought that more careful measures should be taken to ensure that such incidents did not happen again, but that forbidding the techniques altogether would only impede the advancement of the practitioners.Retens and Kytra were growing old by then, and their love was strong enough to sustain their disagreeing, even on such a crucial subject.But however close their community of followers was, it would turn out that it did not have such a strong bond holding it together.“Some years later, Retens and Kytra died, on the same night, surrounded by their followers.They were buried at the foot of the old tree under which they had spent the first part of their life together.“From there on, it is a tale as old as the world; a tale of ego and fear.The community of practitioners slowly broke apart into groups.Some followed Retens in his decision to forbid manipulations of the Higher Layer while others followed Kytra and dwelled ever deeper in it.It did not take long before these first two groups further split.They branched out to the rhythm of self-advancement, hunger for power and fear of that which is different.Thankfully, because of the nature of the practice, its demanding discipline, the utter dedication needed for the smallest advancement on the path, and, more importantly, the strength of the pull, the abuses were limited and decreased dramatically over time.However, over the centuries following the death of Retens and Kytra, the teachings of the great masters were distorted.Remember that many more people had come, listened, and left than had become dedicated followers.Of those, many compiled what they had heard into story books devoid of actual practical meaning.And over time the great masters were turned into empty deities, their teachings turned into outlandish tales and rewritten or embellished at the whims of those in power or those aspiring to power.Centuries later still, when entire people had turned to those writings as holy texts, they were yet again changed to fit one or another’s selfish purpose, further gutted of their significance and truth in the interest of some and eventually turned into dogmas, doctrines, and rites; things so rigid it resembled in no aspect the masters’ original teachings.“And that is where your Book of Hethens comes from, my king.It is nothing but the pale shadow of the original teachings of the masters.That is the reason why I did not want to share my knowledge with you.But before you say a thing, I beg you to let me finish, for this is but the start of my story.“My people were direct descent of the followers of Retens, or Hethens in your mythos.Shortly after the original rift, my ancestors left the birthplace of the community.They probably intended to quickly find another area to settle in, but conflicts, drought and other factors prevented that.They moved from one place to the next until, probably before anyone truly realized it, they had become nomads.My ancestors wandered the large continents across the Empty Sea for a millennium, keeping the spirit of Retens and Kytra and their teachings alive.The techniques enabling manipulation of the Higher Layer were forbidden and, purposefully, were not passed on to the next generations.Within a few decades those potentially disastrous techniques were erased from the collective knowledge.“Eventually my ancestors crossed the Empty Sea and reached Ho-Orlan, or in my native tongue, Bryin-Lan, the Land of Dwellers, the land beyond the Great Barrier.There, they found a place to settle and prosper.Our newly established communities remained fairly small and simple.For you see, a satisfied people has no hungry ego to divert its energies into prideful accomplishments or meaningless competition.It has no taste for bettering itself in regard to its brothers or neighbors.On an individual level, one is his own measure and is indifferent to the achievements of others.Hence, my people lived simple and fulfilling lives.“If you were to cross the peaks of the Great Barrier, you would encounter a land of valleys and hills, of rivers and lakes fed by majestic waterfalls rushing down the slopes of the monumental mountains surrounding it on all sides.A beautiful land, where the sun rises and sets in awe-inspiring displays of light and colors, where thin clouds envelop the mornings like the tender embrace of a loved one, where game abounds in lush forests and clear-water lakes, and where the bounty of the land is many and diverse [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]