In a Distant Time
In a time long ago, in a world whose beginning and end we do not know—
Amid the darkness of night, on the bank of one of the long tributary rivers that carved its way through the earth toward the ocean—
stood a tall, broad-shouldered young man, clothed in a white shroud. His skin was pure and pale, and his unkempt hair gleamed under the moonlight; its dark locks reached down to his neck.
He stood still, holding an arrow and a wooden plank. He waited until a fierce wind arose, whipping the river's surface into roaring waves. Then, striking the plank powerfully with his arrow, he began to chant words upon that ancient piece of wood, continuing through the entire night.
When he finally finished, he buried the plank in the soil by the riverbank and covered it with mud and a little of the river's water until the ground became soft and claylike. Then the young man mounted his dark horse and vanished into the night.
The next day, another young man arrived—he looked younger, his hair equally disheveled but neatly trimmed. He wore somewhat elegant clothes and rode a great stag. He searched for the buried plank, and upon finding it, took it with him, riding back to the city at midnight, veiled in fear of being seen.
He slipped through the slums quietly, and when he finally reached the tents beyond the guards' sight, he entered one. Unwrapping the cloth in which the plank was hidden, he began to read it—when suddenly a voice came from behind him:
> "So you've finally returned, Hyunkel? You're later than usual. The savages were beginning to think you had fled this time."
Hyunkel replied as he read from the plank:
> "Don't worry, Diogenes. I can handle them—even if it means taking a few punches. What matters is that Lauk has finally replied with a message. It seems they don't want him to speak at all, and they're tightening the noose around him while he works."
Diogenes:
> "At this rate, the coup in Artia might fail. They already know Lauk is there—and as for the Arsia front, it's hopeless. Support from the royal family vanished after the fall, so…"
Hyunkel:
> "Don't worry, Diogenes. I'm aware of that. In truth, I think Helkias is already dead. For some reason, the savages refuse to tell us what happened in the city of Arsia. They hide it as if it were some great secret."
A thud sounded against the tent wall.
A soldier shouted:
> "Sleep, you fools! Your voices are echoing through the night. Keep it up, and I'll have you working instead of resting!"
Diogenes extinguished the candle, and Hyunkel lay down, hiding the plank. He pulled out a sheet of paper and a quill from the cloth and began to write quietly.
---
This is Eritrea now.
It is a province under the rule of an occupying power—the Empire of the Atlases.
They came from across the sea five years ago.
Eritrea was once a great empire, divided into three kingdoms a hundred years ago. These states waged endless wars, each claiming the right to rule the entire continent and name their empire after it.
The kingdoms were the Empire of Arsia, and the Empire of Artia—my homeland, the land of my family and ancestors.
Artia and Arsia were locked in a bloody political conflict for ages. But when the Easterners, known historically as Archia, launched an invasion from the east with a massive army, Arsia and Artia formed an alliance to defend themselves.
They held the imperial fortress through long sieges. When the Archian resources finally ran dry, Arsian generals launched a counter-siege from behind the Archian lines, cutting off their supplies and reinforcements.
After a series of counterattacks, the Archian leaders surrendered, returning Artian territory and signing a peace treaty that turned into a formal alliance between the three nations. Artia even gifted Arsia some lands as a gesture of goodwill. Eventually, the three united under one name: The Empire of Eritrea.
Surprisingly, the Archian people who remained in Artia were treated kindly and accepted as natives. They studied under the empire's scholars and philosophers, transforming from illiterate commoners into intellectuals and geniuses. This cultural exchange inspired Archia's rulers to rethink their stance on Eritrea, eventually forming a peace pact, trade alliance, and territorial merger into the greater Eritrean Empire.
Thus, the empire was forged over seventy years of history.
But after this unification, Artia—the intellectual heart of the empire—faced moral turmoil. Cultural intermixing brought floods of ideas from Archia and Arsia, leading to social decay, political strife, and a twenty-year civil war for power.
The chaos finally subsided when the empire founded academies across its lands, educating the populace and producing new generations of thinkers who delved deeply into science, philosophy, and politics—so deeply that they reached metaphysical and religious debates detached from logic.
They adopted rational and deductive methods, and philosophy flourished until the empire's libraries overflowed. A grand library as vast as the imperial palace itself was built to house the written knowledge. Disciplines were classified and specialized, and among the youth arose intellectual circles—groups devoted to deep philosophical discussions about life and existence.
Among them was our group, led by a brilliant young thinker who quickly became one of the empire's most prominent philosophers.
I, Hyunkel, along with my companions from Arsia and Archia—Lauk and Helkias—made great discoveries in biology and natural science across Eritrea. We studied ancient creatures that existed before human settlement—beings with emotional awareness but no language to express it.
Among them was the Griffin, a lionlike beast with enormous wings and the horn of a unicorn. Helkias tamed the last of its kind, and it became the emblem of the empire—a symbol of power and courage.
Lauk, meanwhile, discovered a rare breed of mountain horses near Artia's borders, while I managed to tame several plain-dwelling stags, training and riding one myself.
Those were the days of our youth.
As we grew older, Lauk and I became scholars, continuing our studies, while Lauk later joined Helkias in the army due to the shortage of soldiers. Helkias' bravery in battles against the Atlases earned him the title of Commander of the Imperial Army.
But as I mentioned, the empire was already decaying from within—moral collapse and political upheavals ultimately led to its fall.
Today, I, Hyunkel, recount to you in detail the tale of the philosopher among the savages—
and how we will restore the lost glory of Eritrea, whose light and wisdom were burned away into the abyss of oblivion.
Hyunkel finishes writing the prologue on the parchment.
Tears fall upon the paper as he remembers.
He sighs and murmurs:
> "That day was hell."
He rests his head on the ground and tries to sleep.
Then he dreams again—
that same nightmare—
the day he witnessed the burning of the Great Library of Eritrea.
To be continued...