To watch a war is to know there are people dying, and that you are a spectator. How does that work? You watch because you are not participating, and there are a number of reasons why that may be. The first and most obvious is that you are not physically capable. You may be missing vital limbs, for instance. Go ahead and read that as a joke, too, there’s no one stopping you. This is not a funny story, but there’s no reason to believe you can’t find humor in it. That would be one reason, anyway, a physical inability to participate, however that may be interpreted. Some come back from a war like this, and when the next war happens, they end up in this category. Then again, others won’t let that stop them. A hero known as Manner will make that evident as this conflict draws nearer to its conclusion.
Another reason why someone could become a spectator to someone else’s horror is that they have decided they don’t agree that it is worth fighting over. They see the war as a mistake, so they let bad things happen and gossip over it, reflect on how terrible a mistake the whole business was in the first place. This is okay, because that’s a part of human nature. It’s a direct reflection of how wars happen in the first place, how two sides can clash over issues they’re not willing to talk about, because things have gotten so bad they think they can’t, because they imagine a great divide only bloodshed can cross, only a patch of jagged earth painted crimson can overcome. We like to find reasons to not do things more than to try and accomplish what must be done, because there are always so many distractions, we choose what we want to focus on, and talk about the rest, because talk can be accomplished without much effort, unless it’s to a point where we don’t want to talk about it. Confused yet? There are observers in this Traverse War. One of them has already been mentioned, La Femme, who is familiar to Godsend, the Eidolon, and others as a colleague in the Latter-day Allies. She happens to be one who’s even more removed from the ordinary plane than Godsend because she has the element of being something of an embodiment, a representative as much as anything of a basic human template. She is a feminine ideal, not the only one, because there are many, but one that suggests the power women are capable of. She is also French, like Brother Jack.
In one of her distant places, she is watching the battlefield with a couple of friends, Bodhi and Samsarra, who also have chosen to not participate. “I told them it was a mistake. The whole world knows it was a mistake,” La Femme says. “Now they’ve gotten more of us to join their cause. Jack, my countryman, I understand. He has always allowed himself to be driven by his passion. The Staged Man, though, I was surprised about. I thought he had more wisdom.”
“I have always known him to possess that,” Bodhi says. He is Godsend’s only rival as the world’ most powerful champion. He is less aggressive, and thus less well-known, but for years he has been quietly going about his mission, which he regards as sacred. All corners of the globe know him, all peoples. He doesn’t prioritize among populated areas, and he rarely is found in battle, so his absence is no mystery. He is not here to judge, though he is prepared to offer his own thoughts. “They are better off now with him present than they were before. They will make fewer mistakes.”
“Mistakes are all they’ve been making,” La Femme says. “The tragedies are mounting, the abuses of power they allow alarming. We should put an end to this ourselves, bring our own judgment on them.”
“What would you have us do, Emmanuelle?” Samsarra says. She is Bodhi’s constant companion, La Femme’s counterpart to Godsend, whom they are all aware is chief on her mind. Where there is turmoil and strife between the latter, only harmony between the Indian flames. Still she is here to judge. Samsarra sees turmoil and strife in more places than one. She sees what motivates La Femme, and also what the source of this emotion is. The war is troubling, because its tax is indiscriminate. The city will burn, and because of the war, no one within it will escape the suffering to come. “We see that there are two sides. One we have ourselves fought against, the other we ourselves have fought alongside. They are wasting themselves against each other now, over a useless cause they have only exacerbated. They think they are fighting over a mere matter of control. They are fighting because they have become accustomed to fighting. That is the only reason, but it is not something they are aware of, those who are active in the war. What they see is a matter for which there is only one resolution: defeat of the enemy. How do you propose to alter this view for them?”
“Weaken their chances of victory,” La Femme says.
“They are doing that themselves,” Bodhi says.
“Then I fail to see what the problem is,” Samsarra says.
“They continue to fight,” La Femme says. “We are being irresponsible if we allow that to continue. You see what they’ve accomplished. Godsend and the Eidolon, who were supposed to be the strongest of them, have splintered. One is unaccounted for, the other has taken a reckless course that will bring about his own ruin, which will not only be disastrous for his own cause, but for all of us. We do not stand to profit from this. That is why we must act, make them see the error of their ways.”
“An act which is easier in thought than in action,” Samsarra says. “It astounds me that we are talking of this war as if it is a bad thing, even now. Who is attempting to defend control of this city other than a collection of the worst impulses mankind has to offer. Why are we, in turn, defending them? Shouldn’t we simply take our positions among the ranks of the invaders, whom we’ve trusted for years, with our own lives?”
“What troubles me is how easily we’ve demonized the defenders,” Bodhi says.
“They’re monsters,” La Femme says. “It’s not hard when they’re monsters.”
“Not all of them are,” Bodhi says. “There are those who wield power who may be counted among that number, but the majority of them, they aren’t, or they have been made so by ourselves. The story of Viper is well-known, and he was vindicated in his fear by the fate we have learned. The one of Barracuda, however, I believe would be equally enlightening, if not moreso. The Americans created this man, because they, too, were watching. What are we doing here but escalating the tragedy?”
“Spare me the bleeding heart synopsis,” La Femme says. “We do not dictate the sad courses of human life. We are here as observers, not puppeteers. Their mistakes are their own. Don’t give them anymore power than they’ve already assumed for themselves, in their hubris. This war is a direct result of their own morbid fascination with their exaggerated senses of self-importance. Godsend is our primary case, but he is not the only one. What did the Eidolon accomplish, in his spiral of self-destruction, than the unraveling of everything he had sought to accomplish? This is his city, we shouldn’t forget, the troubles there things he was most familiar with. A war has broken loose there, in one sense, because he allowed it to happen. For ten years, where was he? Where was this champion, this instigator? There were problems there before him, and there were problems after him. He returned recently and now has accomplished the defeat of his hated foe Viper, in league with Godsend. We know already what this means. We know that there are others more powerful yet. We know that the mayor of this city is the greater threat, because he is in plain sight.”
“You speak of Malcolm Bidd, the pacifist,” Samsarra says. “He has never done anything to provoke them. He does more in detriment of the cause you ascribe to him than to aid it, because if he is their great champion, then Traverse is already lost, gained again, however the outcome may be interpreted.”
“The fool of your analysis,” La Femme says. “He is the devil who convinced the world he doesn’t exist. Don’t you see? He is the most dangerous man there. He has declared martial law. Is that the decision of pacifism? It’s the act of tyranny. We all know what it means. If we don’t end this now, the tragedy reaches its zenith, without a conclusion to benefit anyone.”
“Then how do we do that?” Samsarra says.
“We bring judgment to the invaders,” La Femme says. “They have taken the role themselves. We are called to reclaim it. They were wrong. The city was corrupted in a pressure tube, and a war resulted. Take away the offending element and you relieve the pressure, undo the damage. You don’t see Bidd as a threat, and you don’t understand why. Because he is capable of order, and he has demonstrated that in the only way this war would understand, by introducing chaos. Do you see? He has the power to dictate the course of the war. He wields true power. Now that he has revealed this, why would we need to wait longer to put an end to this? War is not something we condone. War is something we are meant to prevent. And yet here is a war certain among us have actually participated in, taken sides in, fought in. We allowed it to happen; why let it continue?”
“You spoke of wisdom earlier,” Bodhi says. “Let me tell you what I know of it: Wisdom is something you earn. It is something gained from experience. It is not knowledge, it isn’t common sense. It is a thing that elevates human thought above petty concerns and conflicts, separates man from his baser instincts, which he is ever trying to overcome. Wisdom is a tool, but it is not something easily applied. We see a thing, see it for what it is, but what do we do about it? Wisdom is the course through which we discover our destination, not the means in which we achieve it. Wisdom is seeing a mistake, not the correction of it, because it is not a solution, but the presentation of a problem. Wisdom is human nature, the awareness of it. It is more common than we believe, but seldom recognized. It is more often ridiculed, because it is not present in the popular consciousness, which sees only the questions of life, because it is only concerned with answers. Wisdom is the question, not the answer; wisdom forms the question and does not expect to find the answer, a problem that knows no solution.
“Who is wise, you ask? More often than not, the outcast, because he has the value of perspective. Why is there a war raging in this moment? There is always war. War is constant. This war is confined to a single city. It has a singular goal in mind, and has never in ten years strayed from that thought. It is a surgical knife. It is an element of fate. Those participating in it have no perspective. They see only the final goal, because that is all they’re capable of. Why do we watch? Because it is not our arena.”
“You wouldn’t fight even if it were right in front of us,” La Femme says. “You don’t fight because the fight is never picked with you.”
“I wonder if there is a reason for that,” Samsarra says.
“I don’t fight because this war is wrong,” La Femme says. “It doesn’t involve me, and it shouldn’t, because it should never have happened. You want to talk about wisdom, like you understand it, like it even matters? This is my wisdom: Instead of recruiting more fighters, instead of bringing in Brother Jack, my countryman, and the Staged Man, they should have started sending their fighters away. Bidd is creating order there? So much for it! Let him! Whatever they were seeking to accomplish there, it was never necessary, and it becomes less and less so every day. And yet they persist. Do you call that wisdom? I call it foolishness, as I have since the beginning. They have followed Godsend into war, Godsend who is the champion of justice. Where is the justice here? I can find none. He himself hasn’t championed it there. The trail of the dead is proof enough. He is faultless? Let me be the first to witness. I have known him for many years. I have fought beside him, too. I have been his dearest ally. Yet I will not stand by as this carnage continues, and I will not aid him, or his enemy. The Eidolon? His removal from that scene will hopefully be of some permanence now. He has done no one there any good, but rather festered in that city. He stumbled, and because he stumbled, because he was a fool, as we have all said, time and time again, this war was brought to Traverse. I do not pity them. I find myself sympathizing more with the dead.”
“Your angry words have never served you,” Samsarra says. “We are meant to stand in judgment? Who are we to wield such power? I for one reject it. We observe. For what purpose? Do we offer our services, do we aid weary warriors, or do we tell them that they are wrong? I wish there were answers to these questions. Bodhi, forgive me.”
“That is unnecessary, Sarra,” Bodhi says. “Emmanuelle, calm yourself. We are witness to a war. That is not reason enough to become warlike. Let us devote our minds to other matters, I say. There are better uses of our time.”
This council ends with those words. There are others who talk like this, still others who write, or make speeches, or debates. Some even make jokes, yes. The world is continuing as it always does. Some are entirely ignorant of these events, either because they have their own problems, or they have their own concerns, or because their way of life is so drastically removed from this that they could know or understand any of this. And yet they are not so different as others may think. There are also those who are aware, and choose not to care. There is a war? They have their own lives to worry about. There is a war in Traverse, in Alabama, in America? They are far removed. How does it affect them? Why should they be concerned? It affects them and it doesn’t. They should be concerned and they shouldn’t. This war is one of many, one of a constant, countless, endless stream of them. The lives lost here are among many lives lost, through war, through inhumanity, through the natural processes of life. Is there a joke in all this? I’m sure you could find one.
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