Here's part 19 of into the Hellmouth! If you'd like me to notify you when the next part is up, just say so! I want people to know when the next part is ready, but I also don't want to spam anyone. Also, sorry that this part ends a bit abruptly, but the post wound up being too long, so I had to cut it short. Here's part 18 if you missed it: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/204675787?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=1 Enjoy, Guardians. “No!” Toland shouted again. “That’s not how the Darkness works!” Eris frowned. “But I read your journal,” she said, “the Darkness is like entropy - it seeks to exterminate all life in the universe, as you said it does!” Toland’s face darkened. “The goal of the Darkness is not to extinguish all life,” he said, “the goal of the Darkness is to rule the universe! Destroying all known forms of life just happens to be the best way to do that.” Eris sighed. Discussing the contents of his Journal seemed to throw Toland into a frenzy. No matter what she said, it was never the right answer for the old warlock. It was as though his strange eyes saw something that she simply couldn’t. And with each passing hour, both master and student were going increasingly frustrated. “Well, if that’s not how the Darkness works, then why don’t you tell me?” she asked. “What do you think I’ve been doing?” Toland replied. “You’ve been shouting nonsensical sentences at me, with no context, no explanation, and then acting shocked when I don’t understand!” she snapped. “So why don’t you teach me?” Toland looked over her, long and hard. “Why are you here, Eris?” he asked. Eris blinked. “Because - “ she said, “because I want to know my enemy. I want to know how it killed my friends. I want to know the truth about the world.” Toland chuckled. “The truth?” he asked. He turned around, and gripped a nearby counter. “I drive myself to the edge of madness trying to explain the truth.” He was silent for a moment, and then sighed. “It’s so simple,” he said at last. “Elegant like a knife point. It explains - this is not hyperbole, this is the farthest thing from exaggeration - EVERYTHING.” He shook his head, as though in disbelief. “But you lay it out and they stare at you like you've just been exhaling dust. Maybe they're missing some underlying scaffold of truth. Maybe they are all propped on a bed of lies that must be burned away.” Then, he paused, as though an idea had suddenly occurred to him. He turned back towards Eris, looking her over one more time. “Why does anything exist?” he asked. She blinked. “What?” she asked, caught off guard by broadness of the question. Toland watched her, his unmatched eyes unblinking. She gulped. “Well,” she said, “the reason that -“ Toland waved a hand, and shook his head. “No no no no no don't reach for that word,” he said. “There's no 'reason'. That's teleology and teleology will stitch your eyelids shut.” Eris frowned. “What do you mean by that?” she asked. She wondered where the old man was going with this. Toland smiled. “Why do we have atoms?” he asked. “Because atomic matter is more stable than the primordial broth. Atoms defeated the broth. That was the first war. There were two ways to be and one of them won. And everything that came next was made of atoms.” “Atoms made stars. Stars made galaxies. Worlds simmered down to rock and acid and in those smoking primal seas the first living molecule learned to copy itself. All of this happened by the one law, the blind law, which exists without mind or meaning. It's the simplest law but it has no worshippers here.” He paused, and turned around towards a window. “Out there, though, out there - ” Eris was growing more confused by the minute. “Where are you going with this, Toland?” she asked. “And what does this have to do with - “ “HOW DO I EXPLAIN IT!” roared Toland, slamming his fist down on a nearby counter. Eris flinched at the sudden outburst. Toland began to mutter under his breath, and Eris leaned in to try and catch what he was saying. “. . .it’s so simple.” she heard him say. Then, he turned around, and yelled, “WHY DON'T YOU SEE !!!” Eris was unsure of how to respond. But she was sure of one thing; the rumors of Toland’s madness were nothing to be quaffed at. The warlock suddenly cleared a nearby counter with a swipe of his hand, and grabbed three glasses, lining them up next to each other. Once he was satisfied he turned his head towards Eris. “Imagine three great nations under three great queens,” he said, gesturing at the three glasses. “The first queen writes a great book of law and her rule is just.” He pointed to the first glass as he said this, and then to the second one. “The second queen builds a high tower and her people climb it to see the stars.” Then, he came to the third glass. He picked it up, and inspected it. “The third queen,” he said, “raises an army and conquers everything.” Using the glass like a club, he knocked the other two glasses to the floor, where they shattered. He stared at the wreckage for a moment, and then looked back to Eris. “The future belongs to one of these queens,” he said, placing the glass back down on the counter. “Her rule is harshest and her people are unhappy. But she rules. This explains everything, understand?” His expression looked hopeful - like a child looking up at a parent, hoping to be forgiven for some transgression or another. “This is why the universe is the way it is, and not some other way. Existence is a game that everything plays, and some strategies are winners: the ability to exist, to shape existence, to remake it so that your descendants - molecules or stars or people or ideas - will flourish, and others will find no ground to grow. “And as the universe ticks on towards the close, the great players will face each other. In the next round there will be three queens and all of them will have armies, and now it will be a battle of swords -“ he turned back to the glass - “ -until one discovers the cannon, or the plague, or the killing word.” The warlock looked thoughtful for a minute, and then grabbed Eris by the shoulder, rushing her to the balcony. “Everything is becoming more ruthless and in the end only the most ruthless will remain,” he said. “LOOK UP AT THE SKY!” He pointed toward the Traveler. Eris gazed upon the ruined sphere, and suddenly began to see what Toland was talking about. The most ruthless prevailed, she thought. She began to think about exactly what Toland had been saying, with his talk of queens, and atoms, and primordial broth, when suddenly, she realized that the warlock was still speaking. “-and they will hunt the territories of the night and extinguish the first glint of competition before it can even understand what it faces or why it has transgressed,” he said. “This is the shape of victory: to rule the universe so absolutely that nothing will ever exist except by your consent. This is the queen at the end of time, whose sovereignty is eternal because no other sovereign can defeat it. And there is no reason for it, no more than there was reason for the victory of the atom. It is simply the winning play.” Edit: Part 20: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/205506572