Time - Brave Unnamed
“Did any of you know, my grey melons, that time is not just a thing nor is it merely a perception?” An old unnamed djinn asked the ten young ones who sat in the lotus position in the tent: “Yes, master! My grandfather had told me something about it before he died.” A certain young djinn replied gracefully.
“Ah! Are you not Brave, the grandson of ‘the scribe’?” The old djinn directed his eyes toward him. He nodded.
“Well then, let’s hear what the scribe told you about ‘time’? I hand over the class to disciple Brave.”
The young djinn stood up and bowed as the old one went and sat down a little further from his students.
“You may begin.”
-
I was born to an unnamed couple who used to live in the Dreador Forest near the Sleek territory. Shortly after I was born, Sleeks bandits killed my parents and left me in the isolated hut.
I don’t remember it, but that fateful day was when my ‘grandfather’ adopted me. Even though we were biologically unrelated, he never ceased to treat me like his own blood. In fact, I only got to know of my parentage by some crazy drunkard in the unnamed village to the South.
Marbas, my grandfather was the last scribe of the Jann Realm. Since the Great Banishment 1000 years ago, as repayment for giving some of us time to stay on Earth, we unnamed djinns took it upon ourselves to remember the legend of the woman, her powers, her wrath and her grace. We promised to forever remember her name in both the realms. The legend was sung first by Wisdom, the first scribe. It was so long that learning it required the effort of a lifetime.
At first, hundreds of unnamed djinns learnt the epic by heart and became scribes. Their lineages increased the number to a thousand exactly 80 years ago. But that was also the time when Shah Sawaar of Marids -the only calamity-level djinn of the realm- had ordered for the extermination of all unnamed villages.
The number of our villages, enclaves and even scribes had reduced significantly by the time Shah Anshah of the Ifrits killed Shah Sawaar.
He formed the coalition of the four great tribes and crowned himself Grand Shah. That is when he nullified Sawaar’s orders and saved us from this tyranny.
But by that time, only two scribes had survived the Nameless Genocide –as it was later called.
Marbas, my grandfather was the only scribe left alive at the time. Him, me and her daughter Aina were a loving family.
We were happy, until some mad old Marid showed up at our doorstep to ‘fulfill his master’s orders.’
I still remember it vividly to this day:
Knock Knock
“Who is it?” I asked from behind the door.
“A servant of the eternal darkness.”
Marbas told me to step aside slowly and so I did.
“Why are you here?” He asked him.
“To fulfill my master’s orders, aye.” He laughed manically as he said it.
‘Brave! Tell Aina that they have come. She should know where to take you.’ He had whispered.
‘I am not going anywhere without you.’ I whispered back after I realized what he meant.
Knock Knock Thud
The Marid had started banging at the door
‘Please, Brave.’ He looked at me with pleading eyes: ‘Look. I promise that I will come after you.’
I paused for a moment to look him in the eye, hugged him and went to the kitchen.
Grandpa kept him occupied until we could escape. He’d promised to come after us but he never did. I started crying.
-
“Time” he told his age-mates: “is a living and breathing entity.”
The students looked at him questioningly.
“Listen, fellows. If you think about a person, an image of that person comes into your mind. For each individual, that image of the same person may be different. For example, let us talk about Master Eldar.”
The master seemed taken aback to be used as an example and smiled lightly.
“With this first impression that I have of him, a kind and gentle image is formed as I think of him. For some of you who may have gotten punishments from him, a cruel image can also appear.”
The master seemed amused by the analogy that he knew was to follow.
“Time is also like that. Every person perceives it differently. Its personality is volatile. That is, it changes for each person by what he thinks of it. But I assure you, my fellows, that it is not all just in our field of percep-”
“Very well, Brave. You may sit back down. We have other topics to discuss too.” Eldar interrupted him.
Brave couldn’t understand why he was cut off so abruptly, it was as if the master did not want him to tell the whole story.
***
“Yes, you appeared on Earth before his first night as your son.” Sean pointed out the part that was the most frustrating of the mysteries of Daniel’s ability: "and that means that you were reborn here before you even died there, Mr. Brave."
“Also, if both the realms are real and they exist simultaneously, then there’s no way that time reverses each night to that exact moment when he goes back.” He added.
An old memory appeared in Brave's mind at the mention of the objectivity of TIME and he asked the room at large: “Do any of you know that time is not just a thing or a perception?”