As it so happened, justice and judgment went hand in hand.
That much was to be expected, considering that punishment was usually meted out through judgment, which was then seen as justice. As Kieran had learned, many of Eni's concepts were born from found axioms, which were then applied to knowledge-keeping as principles.
As Kieran delved into the meaning of these Supreme Letters, he remembered something the Compendium had once said to him. He was a Grand Truth.
Well, what did that mean?
In essence, it meant something about his presence embodied or resonated with some inceptive and timeless understanding. A Grand Truth was something that could not be denied, was protean, and existed in every age, recorded and unrecorded.
Kieran had drawn that conclusion from learning the potential meaning of each Supreme Letter.
However, Kieran didn't know how it translated to being a Grand Truth. Sometimes, he felt as if there was nothing special about him other than his rebirth. He hadn't heard of that happening to someone else.
Nevertheless, that was all beyond the current him. He didn't delve deeper into understanding what he couldn't extrapolate.
But he let it stew to stop it from leaving his mind. It lingered there, growing hotter until it became a burning question that Kieran seared into his mind.
'I'll come across the answer one day. So far, these Supreme Letterings are helping me understand.'
From what Kieran understood through the seven Supreme Letterings that he had now wholly comprehended, they all embodied a principle that not just knowledge operated upon.
Anatomy — structure, form, and containment — was present in all things. Even the formless adopted the shape in which they were contained.
Born — birth or emergence — represented beginning and creation. Everything bore a creator, whether that was animate beings or inanimate things.
'Truth, mystery, connection, lies, and knowledge — Eni dipped his toes into many waters.' But, perhaps they're just reflections of each other.'
Like the principles he recorded, many of those terms overlapped.
And that's what Kieran had been doing recently — overlapping pieces of knowledge he knew to obtain answers.
Wordmancing hid heaps of condensed meant for the Runemaster to unravel and internalize. Kieran hadn't done much of that until now, and it opened his eyes. Almost literally. He could feel his mystic eyes on the precipice of activating.
With the help of all that he had suffered thus far, Kieran's curiosity and need to ask questions grew. At the center of those questions was understanding Eni's purpose. Fo
'Why words? Is Eni a pacifist then? What was his reason for becoming the Endless of Mysteries? Why does he truth seek?'
These questions burned in Kieran's mind like brilliant stars, blinding him to their answer. Perhaps they were far too significant for him to know right now. Still, he wanted to.
A gnawing curiosity ate at him, and it was thanks to this Trial.
Sometimes, too much time to think was a terrifying thing. The mind was infinite… and so the questions it could conjure with even the barest of hints were similarly innumerable.
Finally, Kieran convinced himself to stop going on a tangent about mysteries, truths, and grand purpose.
'With time. Now, we focus.'
Kieran exhaled deeply through flared nostrils.
His understanding of Judgment had reached a suitable level, but there was always the issue of weaving mystical essence. It was very demanding in the department of focus.
Luckily, he had practice.
All this had become akin to a daily routine where Kieran spent days at a time in this place, studying and contemplating. So much so that his physical body had begun to show signs of growth he wasn't aware of.
That was mostly the Flame's doing, mixed with the natural effects of time. Boys had to grow. Humans did…
'Every living thing, I suppose.'
Of course, the Flame was tempering him with sparse amounts of energy that it begrudgingly sent.
Kieran had succeeded in convincing with his similarly glib tongue.
'How could the fight be glorious and I remain stagnant, am I right?'
The Flame thought so, sending what scant amounts it could bear to part with. It suffered some heartbreak, knowing no bloodlust would be returned.
As if sensing Kieran's thoughts, the Flame flickered before him with its usual smile of wicked glee.
"You are a long-term investment that I'm making to fund my wedding! So don't you dare lose value before then. Or… I'll go mad!"
Kieran spared the Flame a derisive look.
'You're already mad. I don't think anything can get madder than you. Now shoo, I'm trying to remember and focus.'
The Flame seemed taken aback by Kieran's dismissal, but it revolved around Kieran in partial silence. The occasional impish chuckle would leak out from its grin, along with delightful remarks about the blissful future.
As the seconds passed, both his focus and mind grew razor-sharp like a pristinely and recently sharpened blade. The culmination of those months of mental practice was brought to bear, revealing immediate fruits.
Kieran's surroundings grew silent as the reasonably deep mystic pool seethed, and then a moderate stream flowed toward him.
That drew tentative looks and the Flame's ire.
"What wizardry are you trying to pull?! You dare deceive me in an attempt to wield theurgy? Are you trying to trap me once more?"
Kieran's focus dissipated, interrupted by the irascible Flame's howling. That dissipation infuriated Kieran and he scowled furiously, too.
Two fools suffering from similarly unbridled rage.
"Your earlier tantrum has left my mind ill! I can't remember things. If things stay like this, soon enough, I will forget all."
The Flame did something similar to cocking its head with impish cluelessness.
"Are you becoming dumb? Like the others? Oh no… I promised not to do that!"
Kieran scoffed indignantly.
The Flame seemed just about as forgetful as he was. This place was an extension of his mind. Well… part of it was meant to be. However, the Flame had wreaked havoc upon everything here, or rather, its infernal and uncontrollable rage wrought this damage.
"Oops. Heal, heal. Don't become dumb. But if you try to trap me… I will inflict that pain all over again!"
Kieran sighed with deep, depressed resignation. He truly hated this Flame and wished it would vanish.
He reached out to the mystic pool again, this time without reservations. His Nine Supreme Ciphers emerged around his arms, and the pool erupted and surged toward him in a torrent.
The Flame had already become wary of his action, so the need to do things gingerly had vanished.
The mystic essence was solidified and shaped into two semicircles with the flat sides facing upward first, then two segmented lines extended up. He stopped there and repeated that step countless times until it was dense, and nearly half of the accumulated poor disappeared.
The segmented lines became intricate chains, and the semicircles were hollowed out and resembled bowls. Repeating this step was mentally taxing. Fortunately, he had spent months refining his understanding of this step.
The last step was then taken — a simple horizontal bar intersected the chains perpendicularly and in its highest link.
Then, Kieran gave it a push.
With its structure completed, Kieran moved Judgment toward the dormant and essentially lifeless Equality Gate. There was a delayed reaction, like a groggy person waking up from bed and needing time to process what was happening.
Then… the Equality Gate sprung to life. Its exuberance was renewed without drawing upon the half-drained mystic pool. It shared Judgment's essence through an uncanny link. It was like they belonged together, like Kieran had assumed.
But Kieran wasn't done. There was enough mystical essence for one more symbol the size of Judgment and Equality.
'Nothing beats securing the mind. If what I gathered is true… these three should form a perpetual defense.'
Unless the Flame broke it… but it didn't have the means to do so. Not yet.
It had exhausted a ton of energy in those few moments of anger. Those seconds had nearly foiled its plans.
Of course, Kieran wasn't scheming to kill the Flame. Not yet… at least. He was simply taking the precautions needed to protect himself.
'What's the word? Prudent. Yes. My memory is slowly returning.'
All the while, the Flame gave constant dubious looks. Malevolence flickered in its empty, ghastly eyes.
Meanwhile, while staring at the void in Equality's center, Kieran recalled a piece of forgotten knowledge and wielded it admirably.
'Further. To think I'd forget something as important as you…'
Further — also known as the Sixth Syllable — was the word of augmentation.
Once Further was placed inside Equality, which was used to balance Judgment, a sense of increased calmness and harmony washed over Kieran. For the first time since the beginning of the Trial… he felt steady!
'Three As One… kind of reminds you of.'
Kieran blinked in thought while one thing came to mind.
'Was this fated?'
