God, I’m an idiot.
If I’d listened to him, I wouldn’t be sitting here staring into the face of a very harassed-looking Chaos, watching her destroy everything I’ve worked hard to keep as my own. She drew fire down from the sky and destroyed my house; she caused the earth to quake for an entire hour in my city only; and to top it off, she has me strapped to Wayne the Wounded Willow. His branches pinned my arms to my sides and crushingly squeezed my chest and abdomen, slowly suffocating me. He’s enjoying it far too much for my taste. His bark keeps stabbing me in random places all over my body.
I should’ve been more alert. I knew this was coming. I was just minding my own business, trying to clean up my mess, when Chaos suddenly appeared in my living room as fire and smoke.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Discord,” she said by way of greeting.
“Oh?” I responded, sipping my water. “Why is that?” Then I added “Ma’am” for good measure. She hates that, and it was probably a bad move. Her eyes turned fire red, glowing like red hot coals. There was massive heat, then blackness, and now Wayne the Wounded Willow. Wayne demands we recognize him by his full title or he becomes exceedingly insufferable. I'd oblige if he wasn't hugging me like some Nature-made straightjacket.
“Now you can’t run from me,” Chaos wore a triumphant smile. It’s hard to catch me off guard, but she’s one of the few people in the Governing Clan that can restrain me. She’s pretty creative about it, too. Leashing me to Wayne the Wounded Willow was a clever idea, considering she knew my Thought would not allow me to escape easily, given the circumstances.
“I’d never dream of it. Now what do you want?”
Chaos pierced me with her curious black eyes. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”
I let out a sigh of impatience because Wayne was getting a little too enthusiastic about tightening his grip. “Order tried to tell me to leave the girl alone. He'd mentioned you’d be cross if I didn’t listen. Said you’ve taken a liking to her for some reason.” I grinned thinking it’ll be a cold day in Hel when Chaos actually likes anyone for the sake of affection. Chaos consorts too often with Reason.
She narrowed her eyes and glided closer, coming almost nose to nose with me. “Let me get this straight,” she hissed, “you knew I wouldn’t like it, and you did it anyway? Why? Why would you do such a thing?! How stupid can you be?”
“I couldn’t help it!” I yelled, surprising myself. Chaos widened her eyes a little and stepped back a foot. Wayne tightened his branches.
“Errrg… Wayne, lighten up a bit. I can’t breathe!”
Chaos nodded slightly, and the grip loosened.
“I couldn’t help it. How could I possibly avoid Harmony?”
It took a long time for Chaos to answer. In the meantime, she stared at me with a wondrous expression, then she huffed and started pacing angrily. Smoke began to form at the hem of her lava-orange dress. Her golden curls bounced furiously on her shoulders.
“You can’t be that thick,” she whispered, half to herself. She stopped in front of me and searched my eyes for any form of deceit. She couldn’t find any.
“You can’t avoid her, Discord. She is one of your opposites, and this one is polar. Usually, the Poles have to bend to meet, and that causes the line to crack and snap the opposites back into their place. When that happens, I am suddenly working overtime while your dad takes a vacation. I’m not having it!”
It made sense why Chaos didn’t want Harmony and I to meet then. She was right to worry, clearly. She looks haggard and overworked.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed out. No excuse would work. It’s my fault Harmony is where she is; it’s why I have to clean up another mess, and why Chaos has me tied to the worst tree in the world.
“Discord,” Chaos said quietly, “you should have listened to Order. You will always crave her, but because you are my son, that means the further you get from your Pole in romantic endeavors, the more destruction you’ll bring unless you make a trained, conscious effort not to.”
She breathed out so heavily, I thought she was going to sink right into the earth. “No matter now, though. You have to fix this, Discord. Harmony is the one I need to settle the World. There are natural disasters, social corruption, and violence everywhere. Do you think I enjoy this?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“Shut up, smart mouth, and listen. I don’t like to be the only one working. Yes, I enjoy what I do, but I also enjoy what the other half does. Harmony is needed for Order to be heard. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Release him Wayne,” she barked. Wayne the Wounded Willow hesitated for just a moment and then released me, albeit reluctantly. I smiled. Even Wayne won’t cross Chaos, especially when she’s tired.
“So what’s the job then?”
Chaos stared at me with those black eyes, eyes I shared with her, along with her dark complexion. I look like my dad in the face, though, which is probably why I get away with as much as I do.
All at once, the smoke stopped and the world became eerily quiet, as if Time had dropped into the wood for this moment.
“Do you really love her?”
“Yes,” I said emphatically, and I meant it.
“Okay, well, this is going to take a lot of focus and work on your part, son. You sure you’re ready?” I just met her stare. I’m not going to say it again.
There in the wood with Wayne as witness, my mother told me where to find Harmony, but told me I would have to come up with a plan to release her. This would not only save Harmony, but me as well. I haven’t been well lately. I’ve stopped seeing Sleep. I just can’t be with her after what I did to Harmony. Sleep can be a viciously jealous bitch, and her revenge generally comes in the form of faces of people I’ve hurt or seen hurt and done nothing.
I left the wood in deep thought, not even noticing the life swarming around me. I have no idea how I’m going to get her out, but I have to try. They had to quarantine Harmony because my Dis Self wanted to destroy something, and she was the closest, easiest target.
The problem won’t be in the chance of Dis getting hold of Harmony, but in getting Indifferent, the Institute Warden, to release her to me. Indifferent doesn’t like me much. I can’t blame her, really. I’m the one who sends most of her patients there, including Patience herself. Someone from the White Clan always releases them, though. Of late, I’ve been working a little too closely with the Black Clan. I should work on that.
In any case, as I expected, Indifferent wasn’t willing to let Harmony be released to me. She was waiting for someone from the White Clan, who would be arriving any moment.
It was no use arguing with Indifferent. Without emotion, there is no fire or wiggle room for persuasion. As I stood contemplating what to do next, a strong wind picked up and the front door of the Institute banged open. Order came striding in, dressed in his rainbow robe, and wearing a smile that could make Immorality do his bidding.
“Hi Dad,” I smirked at him. His robe always looks a little silly against his pale skin and gray hair.
“Son.”
Order turned his clear blue glaze at Indifferent, who was, naturally, indifferent to his allure. He smiled his charming smile anyway, and Indifferent, to my surprise, softened a little. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, my parents can really be show-offs.
“Hi Indifferent. How are you?”
“Well, Order. You are here to see Evil again?”
“No. Not this time,” he looked a sidelong glance at his son and cleared his throat.
“I’m here to vouch for Discord. Let Harmony out to him.”
Indifferent looked almost scandalized. It took her a moment, but like the power of Chaos, nobody questions the power of Order. She leaned over and pushed a few buttons. A loud buzz echoed off the walls, and several yards away a heavy cement door clicked and slid open. I held my breath and waited for that brown-haired beauty to come striding out in her light blue gown with its dark brown stripe straight down the middle the length of the dress. That dress is probably what got me hooked to her. It fit her vivaciously curvy body perfectly. She looked strong and stable in it, ironically enough.
She didn’t come out. The three of us glanced at one another before moving quickly down the hall. This is definitely not a good sign. As we got closer, we heard talking and felt the presence of people who weren’t supposed to be there.
The room was crowded. Standing in a deep blue suit was Sadness, looking overly pleased with herself. Flanking her right was Anger in his blood-red shirt and black pants; Anxiety to her left in his piss-yellow knee-length robe and bare feet. Behind them was the one I really didn’t want to see here. Pitch black from head to toe with no face was the Shadow of Fear. He or She is the one in the Black Clan even the members avoid.
What’s Fear even doing here? What does she fear? Me? My stomach dropped and my breath hitched. I hope it’s not me she fears.
“How did you get in here? You’re not authorized.” Indifferent said coolly.
“Come now, you know how this works,” Sadness said quietly. “The two clans are related to Thought, and what Thought wants, Thought gets,” Sadness spread her fingers out and shrugged as if to say, ‘what can you do?’
“No matter that. Why are you here then? White should have been here earlier to release her” Indifferent said as she stared at Harmony, who was sitting quietly in the corner, staring off at nothing in particular.
That’s when I saw it, before Sadness even said it.
“Oh, we’re both here, dear. White and Black. Not everyone, of course. No one person can feel all of us at once. Unfortunately, because the memories she has of you, Discord, the emotions are confusing, and Thought is responding to all of them. You know Thought. They don’t have much independent thought of their own. Thought is both the beginning and the ending of life itself,” she uttered quietly. Sadness had a knack for looking devastated and enjoying it.
“If you’ll see, Happiness and Joy are over there trying to cheer her up, and Peace has been wrapped around her since we got here. She’s too protected for us to do anything at the moment, but she’s shut down mentally because there are too many of us here. If she doesn’t come out of it, though, Dis will come for her.” Anger grinned wickedly.
Indifferent shifted. She wasn’t always Indifferent. Once upon a time, she was Different. When In found her, she felt the shivering ice cold numbness of everything inside her. That lasted for weeks until she couldn’t feel anymore. Briefly, I wondered what Dis, In’s brother, would do to Harmony.
I stepped closer to Harmony. Anger blocked my way with Fear close behind him. Sadness smiled sorrowfully. “We can’t let you get near her. That would give White too much power, because you’re here to save her. We’d rather you didn’t. You see, Dis has a way of rewarding us when we bring new members to him. We’ll just stay until she calls him to her with Thought. It’ll be nice to finally have Harmony on our side.”
“You can’t do that!” I yelled and moved forward. Order grabbed hold of me. When I looked at his face, my heart dropped. Dis and his brothers In and Un are probably the most unpleasant Beings in existence, save for Evil, but there is nothing Order or any of the others in the Governing Clan can do about them. They must exist. Always.
My heart broke when I looked back at the dirty young woman on the ground in the corner, who had her knees pulled to her chest with her skinny arms wrapped around them and her forehead against her knees to hide hiding her eyes from the blinding colors in the room.
There’s nothing I can do. I should leave. I turned to walk away when a thunderous sound came bellowing down the halls. A form in a forest green gown and soil brown skin materialized in front of us wearing a laurel of white flowers. Her eyes were black as night and a pit that would make even the Shadow of Fear recoil.
“I think that’s enough of you, Sadness,” Chaos said quietly, but even in the low tone, it was threatening.
“Now, Chaos,” Anger butted in, “you know that’s now how it works. She has to stop feeling or thinking about us before we can go, and we’re not about to let that happen.” Anger had a menacing feel to his stance that was almost funny.
Chaos stood there and seemed to get taller, more imposing. Everyone went silent. Anxiety began to shift nervously from one foot to another. His eyes darted all over the place, trying to look everywhere except at Chaos, who was now staring down the Shadow of Fear. Order smiled and stepped up next to Chaos and stared at the Shadow.
After a few moments, the Shadow cackled and melted into the wall. Sadness looked uncomfortable, and Anger looked livid. Anxiety whimpered and stared at the wall where the Shadow escaped.
The little brown curls on top of Harmony’s head began to shake as Fear left, and Anxiety after that, then Anger, and finally, reluctantly, Sadness.
Harmony lifted her head and looked right at me with those big, red-rimmed eyes the color of new spring leaves. They seemed to ask, “why?” As in, “why are you here?”
Happiness, Joy, and Peace left too. The only ones in the room now were me, Harmony, Order, Chaos, and Indifferent. Thought settled all around us. The room seemed to sizzle and steam with the removal of all emotions. Nobody should ever have so many from each clan at once. It could literally become explosive.
I walked over and slid down the wall to sit next to Harmony. We both looked up at my parents, Order smiling brightly in his ridiculous robe and Chaos looking serious, yet relieved in all her brown and green glory. Indifferent almost smiled (at least I think she did) and walked away, leaving the four of us alone.
Chaos stepped forward and spoke, her voice like a prophetic Oracle, as if she were channeling someone else:
“More often than not, opposites cannot come together. The stress of meeting will break the line as the poles try to pull together, and that threatens the safety of the entire world. Sometimes, however,” and at that she became a week and almost stumbled. Order moved closer and wrapped his arm her around the waist to stabilize her.
“Sometimes,” he continued for Chaos, “it works to the betterment of mankind because when the poles stick, it creates a circle and connects everyone with a fluid flow instead of the forceful back and forth on a line.
“Opposites usually need to work separately, albeit cooperatively. With collaboration, love, and communication, however, we can achieve something that catapults humankind into another level to reach the primary goal: Complete Balance.
“Going forward, you must listen to us both. By not heeding my warning, Son, you nearly destroyed us all. It’s important for you to remember that you are never alone when trying to fix your life. We are always here with you, the entire Governing Clan: Time, Death, Stability, Disorder, Ignorance, Intelligence, Will, Weakness… we’re all here for each other. You must remember that. No matter how much we disagree and fight, we are all aiming for the same goal. All of us, except, of course, Evil and Purity. Those two are their own opposites. Their poles create the Universe, which is why they need to stay separated. Even one of the lines with the poles, such as Harmony and Discord, we leave an gap for those universal polarities to place themselves.
“Won’t that create Balance?” Harmony asked
“No,” Order and Chaos said at once. “Their polarity is what creates life,” Order said more calmly.
“Evil and Purity are too large for one race. That’s why we have a Governing Clan that has split the different aspects of each of the poles, to create the lines and web that hold the matter of this world together. Should Evil and Purity come together as one, our web will cease to exist, and the Earth will dissipate,” Chaos finished with a tired seriousness that brooked no room for questions.
We sat quietly for a few moments before Harmony took a deep breath, smiled and said, “Way to go, dummy, you nearly killed us all. How about we get the Hel out of here and figure out how we can help contribute to the Balance rather than, you know, destroy it.”
I snorted. “That sounds good to me.”
If I’d listened to him, I wouldn’t be sitting here staring into the face of a very harassed-looking Chaos, watching her destroy everything I’ve worked hard to keep as my own. She drew fire down from the sky and destroyed my house; she caused the earth to quake for an entire hour in my city only; and to top it off, she has me strapped to Wayne the Wounded Willow. His branches pinned my arms to my sides and crushingly squeezed my chest and abdomen, slowly suffocating me. He’s enjoying it far too much for my taste. His bark keeps stabbing me in random places all over my body.
I should’ve been more alert. I knew this was coming. I was just minding my own business, trying to clean up my mess, when Chaos suddenly appeared in my living room as fire and smoke.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Discord,” she said by way of greeting.
“Oh?” I responded, sipping my water. “Why is that?” Then I added “Ma’am” for good measure. She hates that, and it was probably a bad move. Her eyes turned fire red, glowing like red hot coals. There was massive heat, then blackness, and now Wayne the Wounded Willow. Wayne demands we recognize him by his full title or he becomes exceedingly insufferable. I'd oblige if he wasn't hugging me like some Nature-made straightjacket.
“Now you can’t run from me,” Chaos wore a triumphant smile. It’s hard to catch me off guard, but she’s one of the few people in the Governing Clan that can restrain me. She’s pretty creative about it, too. Leashing me to Wayne the Wounded Willow was a clever idea, considering she knew my Thought would not allow me to escape easily, given the circumstances.
“I’d never dream of it. Now what do you want?”
Chaos pierced me with her curious black eyes. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”
I let out a sigh of impatience because Wayne was getting a little too enthusiastic about tightening his grip. “Order tried to tell me to leave the girl alone. He'd mentioned you’d be cross if I didn’t listen. Said you’ve taken a liking to her for some reason.” I grinned thinking it’ll be a cold day in Hel when Chaos actually likes anyone for the sake of affection. Chaos consorts too often with Reason.
She narrowed her eyes and glided closer, coming almost nose to nose with me. “Let me get this straight,” she hissed, “you knew I wouldn’t like it, and you did it anyway? Why? Why would you do such a thing?! How stupid can you be?”
“I couldn’t help it!” I yelled, surprising myself. Chaos widened her eyes a little and stepped back a foot. Wayne tightened his branches.
“Errrg… Wayne, lighten up a bit. I can’t breathe!”
Chaos nodded slightly, and the grip loosened.
“I couldn’t help it. How could I possibly avoid Harmony?”
It took a long time for Chaos to answer. In the meantime, she stared at me with a wondrous expression, then she huffed and started pacing angrily. Smoke began to form at the hem of her lava-orange dress. Her golden curls bounced furiously on her shoulders.
“You can’t be that thick,” she whispered, half to herself. She stopped in front of me and searched my eyes for any form of deceit. She couldn’t find any.
“You can’t avoid her, Discord. She is one of your opposites, and this one is polar. Usually, the Poles have to bend to meet, and that causes the line to crack and snap the opposites back into their place. When that happens, I am suddenly working overtime while your dad takes a vacation. I’m not having it!”
It made sense why Chaos didn’t want Harmony and I to meet then. She was right to worry, clearly. She looks haggard and overworked.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed out. No excuse would work. It’s my fault Harmony is where she is; it’s why I have to clean up another mess, and why Chaos has me tied to the worst tree in the world.
“Discord,” Chaos said quietly, “you should have listened to Order. You will always crave her, but because you are my son, that means the further you get from your Pole in romantic endeavors, the more destruction you’ll bring unless you make a trained, conscious effort not to.”
She breathed out so heavily, I thought she was going to sink right into the earth. “No matter now, though. You have to fix this, Discord. Harmony is the one I need to settle the World. There are natural disasters, social corruption, and violence everywhere. Do you think I enjoy this?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“Shut up, smart mouth, and listen. I don’t like to be the only one working. Yes, I enjoy what I do, but I also enjoy what the other half does. Harmony is needed for Order to be heard. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Release him Wayne,” she barked. Wayne the Wounded Willow hesitated for just a moment and then released me, albeit reluctantly. I smiled. Even Wayne won’t cross Chaos, especially when she’s tired.
“So what’s the job then?”
Chaos stared at me with those black eyes, eyes I shared with her, along with her dark complexion. I look like my dad in the face, though, which is probably why I get away with as much as I do.
All at once, the smoke stopped and the world became eerily quiet, as if Time had dropped into the wood for this moment.
“Do you really love her?”
“Yes,” I said emphatically, and I meant it.
“Okay, well, this is going to take a lot of focus and work on your part, son. You sure you’re ready?” I just met her stare. I’m not going to say it again.
There in the wood with Wayne as witness, my mother told me where to find Harmony, but told me I would have to come up with a plan to release her. This would not only save Harmony, but me as well. I haven’t been well lately. I’ve stopped seeing Sleep. I just can’t be with her after what I did to Harmony. Sleep can be a viciously jealous bitch, and her revenge generally comes in the form of faces of people I’ve hurt or seen hurt and done nothing.
I left the wood in deep thought, not even noticing the life swarming around me. I have no idea how I’m going to get her out, but I have to try. They had to quarantine Harmony because my Dis Self wanted to destroy something, and she was the closest, easiest target.
The problem won’t be in the chance of Dis getting hold of Harmony, but in getting Indifferent, the Institute Warden, to release her to me. Indifferent doesn’t like me much. I can’t blame her, really. I’m the one who sends most of her patients there, including Patience herself. Someone from the White Clan always releases them, though. Of late, I’ve been working a little too closely with the Black Clan. I should work on that.
In any case, as I expected, Indifferent wasn’t willing to let Harmony be released to me. She was waiting for someone from the White Clan, who would be arriving any moment.
It was no use arguing with Indifferent. Without emotion, there is no fire or wiggle room for persuasion. As I stood contemplating what to do next, a strong wind picked up and the front door of the Institute banged open. Order came striding in, dressed in his rainbow robe, and wearing a smile that could make Immorality do his bidding.
“Hi Dad,” I smirked at him. His robe always looks a little silly against his pale skin and gray hair.
“Son.”
Order turned his clear blue glaze at Indifferent, who was, naturally, indifferent to his allure. He smiled his charming smile anyway, and Indifferent, to my surprise, softened a little. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, my parents can really be show-offs.
“Hi Indifferent. How are you?”
“Well, Order. You are here to see Evil again?”
“No. Not this time,” he looked a sidelong glance at his son and cleared his throat.
“I’m here to vouch for Discord. Let Harmony out to him.”
Indifferent looked almost scandalized. It took her a moment, but like the power of Chaos, nobody questions the power of Order. She leaned over and pushed a few buttons. A loud buzz echoed off the walls, and several yards away a heavy cement door clicked and slid open. I held my breath and waited for that brown-haired beauty to come striding out in her light blue gown with its dark brown stripe straight down the middle the length of the dress. That dress is probably what got me hooked to her. It fit her vivaciously curvy body perfectly. She looked strong and stable in it, ironically enough.
She didn’t come out. The three of us glanced at one another before moving quickly down the hall. This is definitely not a good sign. As we got closer, we heard talking and felt the presence of people who weren’t supposed to be there.
The room was crowded. Standing in a deep blue suit was Sadness, looking overly pleased with herself. Flanking her right was Anger in his blood-red shirt and black pants; Anxiety to her left in his piss-yellow knee-length robe and bare feet. Behind them was the one I really didn’t want to see here. Pitch black from head to toe with no face was the Shadow of Fear. He or She is the one in the Black Clan even the members avoid.
What’s Fear even doing here? What does she fear? Me? My stomach dropped and my breath hitched. I hope it’s not me she fears.
“How did you get in here? You’re not authorized.” Indifferent said coolly.
“Come now, you know how this works,” Sadness said quietly. “The two clans are related to Thought, and what Thought wants, Thought gets,” Sadness spread her fingers out and shrugged as if to say, ‘what can you do?’
“No matter that. Why are you here then? White should have been here earlier to release her” Indifferent said as she stared at Harmony, who was sitting quietly in the corner, staring off at nothing in particular.
That’s when I saw it, before Sadness even said it.
“Oh, we’re both here, dear. White and Black. Not everyone, of course. No one person can feel all of us at once. Unfortunately, because the memories she has of you, Discord, the emotions are confusing, and Thought is responding to all of them. You know Thought. They don’t have much independent thought of their own. Thought is both the beginning and the ending of life itself,” she uttered quietly. Sadness had a knack for looking devastated and enjoying it.
“If you’ll see, Happiness and Joy are over there trying to cheer her up, and Peace has been wrapped around her since we got here. She’s too protected for us to do anything at the moment, but she’s shut down mentally because there are too many of us here. If she doesn’t come out of it, though, Dis will come for her.” Anger grinned wickedly.
Indifferent shifted. She wasn’t always Indifferent. Once upon a time, she was Different. When In found her, she felt the shivering ice cold numbness of everything inside her. That lasted for weeks until she couldn’t feel anymore. Briefly, I wondered what Dis, In’s brother, would do to Harmony.
I stepped closer to Harmony. Anger blocked my way with Fear close behind him. Sadness smiled sorrowfully. “We can’t let you get near her. That would give White too much power, because you’re here to save her. We’d rather you didn’t. You see, Dis has a way of rewarding us when we bring new members to him. We’ll just stay until she calls him to her with Thought. It’ll be nice to finally have Harmony on our side.”
“You can’t do that!” I yelled and moved forward. Order grabbed hold of me. When I looked at his face, my heart dropped. Dis and his brothers In and Un are probably the most unpleasant Beings in existence, save for Evil, but there is nothing Order or any of the others in the Governing Clan can do about them. They must exist. Always.
My heart broke when I looked back at the dirty young woman on the ground in the corner, who had her knees pulled to her chest with her skinny arms wrapped around them and her forehead against her knees to hide hiding her eyes from the blinding colors in the room.
There’s nothing I can do. I should leave. I turned to walk away when a thunderous sound came bellowing down the halls. A form in a forest green gown and soil brown skin materialized in front of us wearing a laurel of white flowers. Her eyes were black as night and a pit that would make even the Shadow of Fear recoil.
“I think that’s enough of you, Sadness,” Chaos said quietly, but even in the low tone, it was threatening.
“Now, Chaos,” Anger butted in, “you know that’s now how it works. She has to stop feeling or thinking about us before we can go, and we’re not about to let that happen.” Anger had a menacing feel to his stance that was almost funny.
Chaos stood there and seemed to get taller, more imposing. Everyone went silent. Anxiety began to shift nervously from one foot to another. His eyes darted all over the place, trying to look everywhere except at Chaos, who was now staring down the Shadow of Fear. Order smiled and stepped up next to Chaos and stared at the Shadow.
After a few moments, the Shadow cackled and melted into the wall. Sadness looked uncomfortable, and Anger looked livid. Anxiety whimpered and stared at the wall where the Shadow escaped.
The little brown curls on top of Harmony’s head began to shake as Fear left, and Anxiety after that, then Anger, and finally, reluctantly, Sadness.
Harmony lifted her head and looked right at me with those big, red-rimmed eyes the color of new spring leaves. They seemed to ask, “why?” As in, “why are you here?”
Happiness, Joy, and Peace left too. The only ones in the room now were me, Harmony, Order, Chaos, and Indifferent. Thought settled all around us. The room seemed to sizzle and steam with the removal of all emotions. Nobody should ever have so many from each clan at once. It could literally become explosive.
I walked over and slid down the wall to sit next to Harmony. We both looked up at my parents, Order smiling brightly in his ridiculous robe and Chaos looking serious, yet relieved in all her brown and green glory. Indifferent almost smiled (at least I think she did) and walked away, leaving the four of us alone.
Chaos stepped forward and spoke, her voice like a prophetic Oracle, as if she were channeling someone else:
“More often than not, opposites cannot come together. The stress of meeting will break the line as the poles try to pull together, and that threatens the safety of the entire world. Sometimes, however,” and at that she became a week and almost stumbled. Order moved closer and wrapped his arm her around the waist to stabilize her.
“Sometimes,” he continued for Chaos, “it works to the betterment of mankind because when the poles stick, it creates a circle and connects everyone with a fluid flow instead of the forceful back and forth on a line.
“Opposites usually need to work separately, albeit cooperatively. With collaboration, love, and communication, however, we can achieve something that catapults humankind into another level to reach the primary goal: Complete Balance.
“Going forward, you must listen to us both. By not heeding my warning, Son, you nearly destroyed us all. It’s important for you to remember that you are never alone when trying to fix your life. We are always here with you, the entire Governing Clan: Time, Death, Stability, Disorder, Ignorance, Intelligence, Will, Weakness… we’re all here for each other. You must remember that. No matter how much we disagree and fight, we are all aiming for the same goal. All of us, except, of course, Evil and Purity. Those two are their own opposites. Their poles create the Universe, which is why they need to stay separated. Even one of the lines with the poles, such as Harmony and Discord, we leave an gap for those universal polarities to place themselves.
“Won’t that create Balance?” Harmony asked
“No,” Order and Chaos said at once. “Their polarity is what creates life,” Order said more calmly.
“Evil and Purity are too large for one race. That’s why we have a Governing Clan that has split the different aspects of each of the poles, to create the lines and web that hold the matter of this world together. Should Evil and Purity come together as one, our web will cease to exist, and the Earth will dissipate,” Chaos finished with a tired seriousness that brooked no room for questions.
We sat quietly for a few moments before Harmony took a deep breath, smiled and said, “Way to go, dummy, you nearly killed us all. How about we get the Hel out of here and figure out how we can help contribute to the Balance rather than, you know, destroy it.”
I snorted. “That sounds good to me.”