It took Avere two whole hours to find his way back to the meeting room, now with the help of Cades with who he had head a rather pleasant conversation about some ideas when it came to the pillars as well.
By now he knew of motion from the trial Leyk had taken, Absence from the words of Experience, and speaking of Experience, he also knew of Experience, he knew of Stagnation because she supposedly blessed his blade, and according to Leyk there were six more, including History as he had told him, that being the one that had given birth to the compass he was supposed to give to Leyk a few days ago now.
Oh, and there was dust, the statue he was able to summon at any time should he so wish to do that, which Avere however stopped him from doing for some reason, saying bad things might follow that statue from what they knew.
Yet, as far as they could tell, with Cades saying he was a bit better at understanding the philosophical parts of the gods and deities, the pillars and the great ones, none of them represented something physical, even dust being a mere stand-in for apathy and decay, motion being more so linked to progress and understanding, fighting and acting, doing and resting, from what Cades had told him Leyk had learned during his trial.
But that made him think- just what was the great pillar of experiences?
He had thought about it for a bit, and after a while he had begun to understand what the great pillar had explained, it wasn't that there were countless small experiences, there was a single one, there was life, and that life, everything we see, everything we hear, makes us who we are, it builds us, it builds our souls and so much more.
To be honest, he had always assumed souls might be made up of experiences, and he had only been confirmed in his train of thought further when Adelius had confirmed that it was an afterlife consisting only of souls and experiences.
So, was the great pillar of experience also the one who led and represented all souls?
No, perhaps in some way he did do that, but if experiences did truly make up the soul he was the one who made up the soul, he wasn't the soul itself, such schematics seemed rather important if he was honest, and in the end, stagnation, motion, choices, and so much more all made up a being, it's history decided what happened, it's choices make it who they ar-
Oh, choices, Avere realized that the great pillar of choices might also exist, understanding that it fit in with the others, remembering some of the words, but being rather aside from the idea until Cades voice finally resounded inside him and confirmed it.
Choices, that was indeed interesting, were they the ones who made choices inside our minds, and if so, were they our morality, the compass that led all living beings, or were they simply a voice int eh back of ones mind, like the little screams of wonder as you realize you could theoretically just how away a baby...
No, that wouldn't make much sense, it seemed more like that would fit with a pillar akin to Impulsivity... no, Impulsivity seemed a bit too... precise... how about... Inconsistency...
And with that Cades confirmed another name, now having collected motion, inconsistency, history, choice, experiences and absence, six of the ten great pillars, aside from the eleventh that was supposedly the child of a child, the great pillar of dominion.
But there was the same problem, normally dominion was also what was used to describe control over something, such as dominion over fire, dominion over ice, dominion over motion perhaps, though he felt as if the great pillars belonged to an entirely different category of, well, everything, it he was entirely truthful to himself.
Was dominion not something gods would claim to wield? Control over something, something more than just manifestation or authority, more than size and change, more than what a mortal could truly comprehend, or perhaps it was the very comprehension of dominion that turned one into a god.
Maybe that was the very reason that the false pillar of dominion was the king of gods, the god of gods, that which the pillar of experience had called it.
Then there was also the fact that, according to Cades, Leyk had met a pillar of inspiration that had claimed to work for the great pillar of motion, so what aspect did he serve, had he even had a choice, was there even a way to ask all of these questions to anyone but thin air, his own mind, people who understood even less than himself, anyone else?
Godhood, speaking of that, that ridiculous question that Cades was assuring him would indeed allow one to overcome it, there were just too many possible answers one could think of, and even if one did, what was the thing it would lead to? Certainly not instant power, it was just the lead in the first place, leading him to relinquish his strive for that piece of knowledge for now, remembering something else.
The old man, he did not know anything about them aside that they are supposedly, well, old, and more powerful than even the great pillars, there were some titles, but in most cases it was rather insane things, such as the wall of passing, another synonym for happening, for present, for change, for many a thing, so he just could not admit that those things might be exactly what they were talking about, continuing on that trail of thought until he finally arrived back in the room, Cades once more appearing, now looking outside the mirror and having conjured himself two trees to carry a hammock for himself.
There was silence after all the thinking was done, and nobody had anything more to do, Leyk having walked away from the table and having laid down somewhere on the ground, probably wishing to have something like Cades hammock, though he could not see them yet, Lawrence looking at his very own compass, fashioned onto a string he could put into a pouch hidden under the loincloth that had made him look quite barbaric at the beginning, the rest just sitting there, Kehit also laying down later, but for the most part being too scared of the tyrant to move much.
Yet, all they could see out of the window of tinted glass was white, nothing more, everything else having long since vanished.