Flaw In Logic

Jut.

It began in the legendary youth of Dezorian civilization as a simple temple. When a warring tribe led by the madman Crex attacked the shrine, a single torch within was the only light the besieged priests had for the entire duration of the ten day generational eclipse. The priests began to worship the torch as an idol, a gift from their benevolent god. Even after the siege itself faded from memory and was forgotten all but entirely, the Eclipse Torch of Corona Temple kept its holy stature, in time becoming almost a god unto itself. Where it had been said centuries before that the great Dezorian god would one day purge the world of all that was unclean, by the times of The Heroine, the legend claimed that the Torch itself would do the purifying.

After the Great Collapse, the temple took a new name, Gumbious, and grew. A nearby village, blessed by its proximity to the Dezorians' holiest shrine, also grew, and by the time of the one Algoian culture, it had come to encompass Gumbious entirely. This town was known as Jut, and Gumbious served as its heart, as well as its soul.

At the top of one of the temple's great spires was a landing pad for air and space craft. It was here the that the small ship Landale VII, piloted by the android known as Wren, landed almost silently late one evening.

"So this is Jut," Mium said, her face near a window in the ship's small rear passenger section, where she sat. "It's beautiful."

"Indeed it is," Demi said. She sighed and took in the view through the cockpit window.

The landing pad was nearly a quarter mile above the ground. The great height provided a dreamlike panorama of the region.

The spire upon which the landing pad rested was connected directly to a massive, rounded structure with a domed roof which Demi recognized as Gumbious Temple. Although not even half the height of the spire itself, the main temple building was an awe-inspiring sight none of the less. The largest manmade structure in all of Algo (except for Palm II, of course), Gumbious had well earned its prestige.

Connected to and surrounding the temple were several smaller buildings and towers. These structures were hemmed in by a retaining wall which was itself nine stories in height. Stretching out in all directions around the wall was Jut itself, the largest city on Dezo as well as the planet's provincial capital. And beyond that was frozen countryside, unbroken to the north, south, and west until it met the mountains, nearly a day's journey away on foot. It was night. Dezo's silver moon was like a brand new one meseta piece in the sky. The stars burned cold all about it.

"It's nice to be back," Demi said to Wren. "I haven't been here in ages. When was the last time for you, Wren?"

"I was here last with Chadwick Ashley, Rika Ashley, Kyra Tierney, and the Reverent Lutz."

Demi's jaw dropped. "With Chaz and the gang? I had no idea it had been that long!"

"Wasn't that two thousand years ago?" Mium asked, stunned.

"That is correct," Wren said. "It is two thousand years this month, actually."

"Why are you two here, anyway?" Mium asked. "I just decided to come along when Azur mentioned the swell scenery..."

"Well," Demi said, "Dahl told me that the Bishop wanted to talk to someone in person about new arrangements concerning the laconia shipments to Palm II. Dahl couldn't come herself, and Erol and Azur are both busy, so I guess she decided that we were the next best thing."

"How long will this take?" asked Mium.

"Oh, not long, I'm sure," Demi said with a wave of her hand. "The Bishop is a reasonable enough fellow. He probably just wants something in writing, that's all."

"Then let's be going," Wren said. He pushed a button and the glass cover over Landale VII's cockpit slid back so that the androids were exposed to the frozen but fresh-smelling air of Dezo and the biting winds which accompanied it at that altitude. Wren stood and stepped on to a small stepladder that a temple priest had brought beside the ship. Demi and Mium quickly followed him out.

"pala [Hello]," said the priest, in his native Dezorian, when the three androids were assembled before him.

"Greetings to you as well, Father," Demi said. "May we speak to the Bishop?"

The priest thought for a second and then nodded. "ga je vov [This way]," he said. He then turned and pointed to a door which led to the interior of the spire. He began to walk towards it, and the three androids followed. The foursome entered the tower and then began to descend a winding spiral staircase.

Even androids can have fears, and one of Mium's was heights. The center of the spire was open to the stale air within, and there was no railing on the side of the staircase. Mium kept her eyes closed and didn't dare open them for fear of vertigo. She used her other sensors to plot a course down the steps and concentrated on the smell of incense and the sound of the wind as it whistled through the hollow middle of the tower. The distractions were pleasant enough, yet she somehow couldn't forget the almost endless drop that lay less than a meter away from where she walked. Her relief was great when, after a few minutes, the party came to an elevator.

"Why can't they put this closer to the top?" Mium whispered to Demi. Demi shushed her, but the priest looked at them out of the corner of his eye as he opened the elevator door with a brass key. The elevator's golden and ornate shutter doors slid open, revealing a compartment barely large enough for the four of them to squeeze into. Wren had to duck as he entered. Without a word, the priest turned the key in a different hole, and the elevator began to descend.

It stopped on a subterranean level six stories underground. A doorway the shape of a tear drop awaited the androids only a few steps away from where the elevator had come to rest. Its opening was covered by simple purple drapery.

"feen miin caad kunsejpum feen [This is the room of the Bishop]," the priest told them, again in Dezorian. He stepped forward and stood beside the door like a guard. "da ga deK jiit [He will see you now]," he said, and then pulled the curtain aside.

There was darkness on the other side, and a sweet aroma.

"Wren!" Demi whispered. "I can't see anything!"

"Come forward," said a quiet voice with a pronounced and rather old-fashioned Dezorian accent. Despite the accent, the speaker's Palman was perfect.

As Wren, Demi, and Mium stepped forward, torches along the walls of the tiny chamber came on as if by magic (and it very well might have been magic).

Demi was surprised by the look of the man before her, who she knew must be the Bishop himself. She had expected someone grand and intimidating, especially after his impressive introduction. However, the Bishop was actually a tiny man, less than five feet in height and very thin. His green skin had paled with age, and the ceremonial robes draped over him seemed to swallow him almost completely. He sat cross-legged upon a purple cushion, and a lamp at his feet spouted incense which smelled of the violet. The Bishop's face was also tiny, and showed great kindness. His dot eyes glowed with warmth, and his toothless, wrinkled smile was endlessly friendly.

"By the Torch," he said. "You are the great android, Wren. And you, little one... You are his assistant, Demi." To Mium he added, with a wry grin, "But I am afraid I don't know you."

Mium smiled shyly. "I'm just an android. My name is Mium."

"Such modesty," the Bishop said.

"I am Master Wren of Zelan, sir," Wren said.

"Please, Wren," Demi said. "You must address him as 'Bishop,' or 'Father.'"

"Oh, it is quite all right, child," the Bishop said. "I know that it would be rare indeed for an android to share our beliefs, our customs. I take no offense."

Demi smiled. "I am glad."

"We are here to discuss the matter of the laconia shipments to Palm II," Wren said. "Director Dahlia Mallos was informed that you wished to renegotiate the details in person."

The Bishop smiled. "Yes, I know why you have come."

"I assume Director Mallos was busy with some very important matter, or else she would have come herself," Wren added.

"Oh, no, I asked her to send you," the Bishop corrected him.

"...Why?" Wren asked.

"For two reasons," the Bishop said. "First of all, I have always wanted to meet the androids responsible for restoring Algo to its pre-Collapse glory."

Demi smiled. "That's my Master!"

"I could not have done it without your assistance, Demi," Wren reminded her.

"And there is also the matter of the laconia to discuss. But most importantly, there is something I wish to give to the ones who journeyed with the heroes of Algo. But first, I have a question for the three of you." The Bishop cleared his throat and Mium and Demi looked at each other, puzzled. "What will happen to you when you die?" he asked.

Wren scoffed openly.

The ancient Bishop smiled at Wren. There was love in his eyes, and a gentle pity that Wren detected and did not like.

"Very well," the Bishop said. He turned to Mium. "What do you think?"

Mium looked down. "Although I am even older than Wren, I have spent most of that time in deactivation. In effect, I am very young. I must admit that I haven't given the matter much thought, mostly by my own choice. I cannot answer, Bishop. I just don't know."

The Bishop nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "A good answer," he said. "Better than most." Then he looked to Demi. "My child," he said to her. "Have you considered what will happen to you when you die?"

Demi blinked. "Well... As an android, I will not die in the same sense as a carbon-based life-form, like yourself..." She exhaled, and smiled. "But yes, Bishop. I have."

The Bishop nodded slightly, and beamed. "Of course you have, sweet one. There has never been a person who did not consider it."

Demi fell silent as the Bishop turned his attention to Wren once more.

"But you," the Bishop said to Wren, who stiffened noticeably as he was addressed. "Haven't you ever thought about what awaits you when your body ceases to function?" The skin above the Bishop's eye, where a Palman's eyebrow would be, jerked upwards.

"I have given the matter little thought," Wren said flatly. "If my body should cease to function, then my neural net will follow within moments."

"And then..." the Bishop leaded.

Wren blinked and cocked his head to one side. "And then...what?"

"What happens after that?"

Wren laughed lightly. "Nothing. When my body ceases to function, I will no longer exist. My body can be made into something new, or it can even house a new positronic brain."

"But you will cease to exist?"

"Wren, Fuoren Model, serial number 7X99987Y, will no longer exist. Correct."

The Bishop laughed and slapped his knee, actions that caused the whole of his tiny body to quiver. "So you, then, do not believe you will find peace within the Elsidgeon?"

Demi's eyes widened. She looked down so no one would notice. Mium, on the other hand, fought back her urge to chuckle after hearing how the Bishop's accent butchered the name of The Heroine's sword.

"It is a well-known fact that essences of ancient Protectors were housed, by some unknown force, within the sword Elsydeon," Wren said. "I do not know how this was done. Nor am I certain that those 'essences' were spirits, or souls, as most people now believe. They may have been some sort of psychic imprint, or what have you."

The Bishop shook his head and made "tsk" sounds. "Such a skeptic. And you, child?" he asked Demi warmly. "What do you believe?"

Demi reddened and looked away. "I...I asked Chaz about this once. He was certain that I would join him and the others in Elsydeon someday, but when I pressed him, he admitted that none of the Protectors he saw in Elsydeon were Android. Even if the spirits are real...and I believe that they are...there is no reason to think that an android would...enjoy their fate."

The Bishop's eyes danced. "What if I told you that there are android souls within Elsidgeon at this very moment?"

"What?" Demi cried, her eyes moist. Mium, whose attention had drifted to the odd torches on the wall, did a double take.

"This is highly implausible," Wren muttered. "A mechanical construct could not have a 'soul.' Even the existence of souls in carbon-based sentient life forms like yourself cannot be scientifically proven."

The Bishop waved off Wren's comments with a movement of his green, wrinkled hand and kept his eyes focused on Demi. "Pay him no mind, child."

"Are there really androids in the Elsydeon?" Demi asked pleadingly, her hands clasped before her, shaking.

The Bishop chuckled and pulled something partly out from beneath his cushion. "They are in here, sweet one. Look." He pulled the object further out, and the golden hilt of a sword was revealed.

"Elsydeon..." Demi whispered, running her fingers over the sword but never quite touching it. "It's been two thousand years. Exactly like I remember it, though..."

"How did this come to be here?" Wren asked the Bishop. "I was under the impression that the sword was being kept in its hiding place at Esper Mansion."

"The Reverent Tenth Lutz, Celendra Walsh, brought it here many years ago," the Bishop said. "She didn't say why. She just left it. She was never seen again after that day."

"Sort of creepy, isn't it?" Mium asked, her own hand not daring to be as near Elsydeon's golden hilt as Demi's was. Yet her fingers lingered above it anyway, impossibly curious.

"Touch it," the Bishop said to Demi.

Demi looked up. "Why?" she asked. Fear rang clear in her voice.

"Touch it," the Bishop repeated. His voice was calm.

Demi touched the sword.

She gasped slightly and her eyes closed as she felt the souls coalesce about her. Wren was wrong, oh he was so wrong. She could feel them. She could feel their strength, their hope, their courage, their love. The sword was the place where those who fought to protect Algo returned to, and it was within the sword that all of their emotions were amplified to an almost incomprehensible level.

"Where are they?" Demi asked. She was so immersed in the world of Elsydeon that she didn't even hear her own voice. "The androids?"

"They will find you," she heard the Bishop say. He sounded distant.

Demi bit her lip and waited.

And the androids came.

There were two of them. One of them looked exactly like Mium and was obviously a Mieu-type. The other looked similar to Wren. He was a Siren model, with a silver face and flaming red hair.

"Who...who are you?" Demi asked with her mind, her positronic mind.

"We are androids who, like you, fought against Dark Force," said the red-headed Wren.

"We lived on Palma," said the Mieu. "When it was lost, we escaped on the ship Alisa III. A Dark Force was aboard."

"For one thousand years we fought him, both directly and indirectly."

"Both of us were used by the Dark Force more than once... But in time we won." Demi stared at the Mieu when she spoke. There was such kindness in her eyes.

"Will I be here with you someday?" Demi asked. She directed the question in particular at the kind-eyed Mieu.

"Yes, Demi," she said. "My name is Miun. I will be waiting for you."

Demi shook and exhaled sharply as the Bishop removed Elsydeon's hilt from her grasp.

"I saw them!" she cried, first at the Bishop, then at Mium, and then, most fervently, at Wren. "Wren, it's true!" she said. "There were two of them. One of them was a Mieu-type, like Mium, and the other was a Wren, like you! Oh, Bishop, it was incredible!" Demi turned to Mium and the two android friends embraced.

The Bishop looked to Wren with a wry grin.

"What do you say now? Will you believe? Or do you accuse your associate of delusions? Perhaps you simply attribute her visions to the need to believe in a higher power which is inherent in all people?"

"Demi is an android," Wren corrected.

"What's your point?" Demi asked, the challenge in her voice apparent. "Is an android not a person?" Even Mium seemed a little perturbed by Wren's insinuation.

Wren sighed. "What is the meaning of all this?" he asked. "What does this have to do with laconia shipments?"

"Nothing," the Bishop said. "I have already prepared the documents. All we need is an okay from you to finalize an agreement. Palm II will have more laconia from the mine at Skure than it can ever possibly need."

"Then why have us come here?" Mium asked.

The Bishop laughed and pointed to his forehead. "Would you accept that the Eclipse Torch made me do it?" he said, looking at Wren. "Naaah. I'm sure you don't believe in that, either."

"I still don't understand."

"That much is clear," the Bishop said. "Why don't you believe in a greater power than ourselves, Master Wren?"

"You mean as in God?" Wren asked.

"Correct."

"I do not believe in God because there is no tangible evidence to prove that a God exists."

"Then you do not accept my knowledge and understanding of my relationship with God as evidence?"

"I mean no disrespect, Bishop, but I cannot. Therefore, since there is no and can be no evidence of the existence of God, a belief in God is illogical."

"So then everything must be logical?"

"It is better when things are. Logic is stable. Emotion and belief are not."

"Chaz never would have defeated the Dark Forces without emotion, Wren," Demi said. "It was his emotion which led him to act."

"I never said emotions are irrelevant or 'bad,' Demi," Wren pointed out. "But emotion is less...safe than logic. I doubt you would argue with me if I was to say that Chaz was highly unstable."

"Is logic infallible?" the Bishop asked.

"Yes, if analyzed by an efficiently logical person. Most individuals who claim to adhere to logic still allow their emotions and beliefs to interfere. That pollutes the logic."

The Bishop nodded. "I see. Would you mind answering a few questions with your logic?"

"Of course not," Wren said. "It would be a pleasure."

"All right, then. Let me start with a point. You prove me wrong."

"That would be fine," said Wren.

"Tell me where the flaw in my reasoning lay. God is good. God sees the future. God is all powerful."

Wren smiled. "If God were truly good, He would not allow evil to exist. I do not think you would argue with the premise that evil exists."

The Bishop nodded. "I do not. But what if I say that God allows evil so that we may choose good?"

"If people decide their own fate, then God does not know the future, for that would mean predestination, and predestination contradicts your theory of free will."

"But what if I said that God knows the future but does not determine our actions? He is merely aware of what they might be."

Wren smiled. "Then God is not all powerful."

"Why do you say that?" The question was asked by Mium, not the Bishop.

"Why does it matter to you and Demi?" Wren asked. "We androids are designed to serve the people of Algo. Everything has its place, and taking part in pointless philosophical discussions that do not apply to an android's duty is not the place of any android."

"Answer the question," the Bishop said to Wren, his palm raised towards Demi, who had turned red with anger.

"God is not all powerful because if He was, He would not allow evil to exist."

"Now, now," the Bishop said with a grin. He shook his finger and whispered, "Do you concede that your logic is not infallible? It is not without flaws."

"How do you arrive at that?" Wren said.

"Because I already said that God allows evil so that we may choose good, which is what God wants."

"If God wants that, then why not create people to be good?"

"Because then there is no free will."

"Bishop, you already said that the future is determined--"

"No. I said God knows the future."

"Aren't they--"

"They are not the same thing. God knows our future but does not determine it. We do. God possesses the power needed to direct us, but instead allows us to direct ourselves, so that we may actively choose good and therefore be good."

Wren shook his head. "You are using circularity."

The Bishop smiled and sniffed at a violet plume of incense rising from the lamp before him. "Am I?" he asked. "Or are you?"

Wren wore a look of utter shock. "I beg your pardon, Bishop. My logic is flawless."

The Bishop shook his head. "Let me ask you another question," he said, wearing a smile, his eyes closed. "Why is the universe?"

Wren waited. "Why is the universe what?"

The Bishop waved a finger at Wren. "Now, now. What I said was a complete sentence. It had a subject and a verb. There is no need for me to add anything to it."

Wren waited a while longer, then said, "I do not understand."

"Let us try something easier," the Bishop said with a sigh. "Where is the universe?"

Wren laughed. "Where is the universe? That is a ridiculous and impossible question."

"Why is that?" the Bishop asked. "Is the universe not a place?"

"...It is," Wren answered carefully.

"And do not all places exist somewhere? Does not everything have its place?" The Bishop smiled at Wren. "Didn't you say that yourself, not more than twenty seconds ago? And if my question is logically arranged, shouldn't your logic be able to answer it?"

Wren glared at the Bishop. His mouth was silent.

"That, child, is the flaw in logic," the Bishop whispered. "It cannot answer everything, whereas my faith tells me exactly where the universe is, and where it is going, and why it is, and it explains to me my own purpose and the nature of my relationship with the universe, and with God Himself." The Bishop opened his eyes and looked up. "And it is waiting to answer the questions, all the wheres and whys, if you will only listen."

Demi smiled. Mium stared at the Bishop. Her eyes were empty. It was her mind that was busy. And Wren was silent.

The Bishop clapped his hands and a brother entered, carrying a small hand-held computer. He handed it to the Bishop, who then handed it to Wren.

"Here is the new trade agreement. I think you will find a hundred and one percent increase in laconia shipments to Palm II most reasonable." He smiled.

Mium clapped her hands, too. "Dahl will be thrilled!"

The Bishop smiled at Mium. "I certainly hope so. I think Director Mallos' work is for the good of Algo. I would be negligent not to help her in any way I can." The Bishop returned his gaze to Wren as Wren returned the computer. He nodded. The Bishop looked down at the computer's tiny screen, nodded back at Wren, and switched the machine off. "Very well then," he said. "We have accomplished what we came here to do."

Demi leaned forward and patted the Bishop's tiny hand. "All right. And thank you! We'll be on our way now."

The Bishop chuckled. "You certainly will."

Wren stared at the Bishop. The Bishop read Wren's expression as "What is that supposed to mean?"

The Bishop laughed yet again. He looked down and waved his hands. "You will find out soon enough. I assure you that nothing too trying awaits. It is now time for my adoration before the holy icons. I bid you farewell." The torches went out then, and everything was silent. The priest at the doorway asked the trio to please follow him.

Wren was silent all the way back up to the ship. Demi wanted to ask him why he was so quiet, but knew better than to try. Instead, she and Mium chatted about Demi's glorious experience with the Elsydeon. Their talking made Wren seem even quieter.

In a moment, Landale VII was soaring away from the city of Jut and into the cold space where it would eventually dock with Palm II, and then Zelan. And still Wren said nothing. His eyes were narrow. So was his mind. But a seed had been planted. And soon it would begin to grow.

Fin.