A wise fool's ranting - Chapter 1

First chapter of my "A wise fool's ranting" serie, a mix of philosophy brought with fantasy with an intresting hermit called Sagesse.

It all began when you found this very old book that stood out in your local library. It was so old the cover was barely holding together, and as you tried to buy it due to your curiosity, the clerk couldn’t even find it in their database and just told you to keep it. This mysterious trick of fate was for you the start of a story that would bring as many questions as it would answer, but you did not know this yet. Excited to delve into the mysteries contained in this book, you rushed back home and sat down at your desk after getting your favorite drink ready.

As soon as you began to read, you found yourself transported inside of an old library. The smell of old and mysterious tomes and parchments covered in dust along with a faint smell of herbs filled the air. The library was made of tall bookshelves reaching the ceiling, towering over you by many meters, spreading seemingly endlessly, all filled with mysterious books of all kinds and shapes. You could read the title of some of them, but most were in languages you could not even read. A few rays of light filtered through the windows covered by years of dust, just the right amount to enjoy a good read.

Suddenly, you were caught off guard by the voice of an old man that brought you back to your senses. “Well, if it isn’t a word eater? I haven’t seen one since the dawn of this era, don’t stay standing, come sit down and let us share our thoughts”. When you turned around to face the direction from which the voice was coming, you saw an old man giving you a gentle smile empty of any hostility despite you being an intruder. His skin was wrinkled and his long hairs and beard ashen, but his deep blue eyes were still full of life. As he finished speaking, with a wave of his hands, the bookshelves slid on the ground to make some space, at the same time, a table and two chairs appeared out of thin air, alongside with two steaming hot cups of tea resting on it. The old man calmly took a seat and invited you to do the same with a gentle gaze.

Once you sat down, you could vividly feel the smell of herbs emanating from the tea in front of you. The old man took a sip of his own tea before saying with a calm, yet somewhat excited tone. “The last time I saw a living soul was eons ago, you may call me Sagesse, I am the one taking care of this bastion of knowledge”. Without waiting for you to reply he added. “I know word eaters such as you can only perceive the world and not interact, but it doesn’t mean I cannot impart some of my wisdom to you right? As flawed as it may be I trust you will be able to find some truth in my words”.

With a gentle smile, Sagesse waved his hand again, creating a small sphere of white fog floating over the table. “Since you seem to have a thing for words, let us engage in a discussion about languages”. He said with a warm voice before he continued. “This mist you see, is what is inside of your head, your ideas in their most primal form, a mess you cannot communicate, a mix of feelings, emotions and perceptions”. A translucent water like veil appeared next to the fog as Sagesse added. “Using this “fog” as a material, you shape your ideas into something you can exploit using the language, you put words on your ideas, that thin veil is the language, and there are as many different veils as there are languages. However you see, some information is lost when you shape your words using a language, and depending on the one you use, the same “fog” could take two different shapes”. As he spoke, the fog passed through the veil, condensing into cubes of various sizes. You tried to take a sip of tea too, however your hand passed right through the handle of the cup, noticing your frustration, Sagesse let out a small, amused laugh as he spoke. “It’s no use, you do not belong to this world and as such you cannot interact with it”. He then went back to his explanations. “Going back on track, the language you use to shape your words of course affects your thoughts, which means that your language affects even the way you think”.

After taking another sip of his tea, he added with a relaxed tone. “If you find the ranting of this old fool to be nonsense, feel free to go explore this library, I will not blame you for it.” Seeing as you did not move, he kept going with his explanations after a grateful nod. “Now that you have words you can exploit, the next step is to communicate them, to do so, you must transfer them one way or another, be it writing, speaking or anything else. But by doing so, you give those words a “color”; by adding a “tone” to it, you change the meaning of those words depending on how you convey them. For example, if you scream with an aggressive tone the same thing that you would have whispered with a gentle tone, the same words will be perceived in different manners”. To illustrate his words, the cubes took various colors, some became green, others red, but what surprised you is that some of them disappeared. You tried to voice your concern, but no sounds left your mouth as it moved, as if the air refused to move under your actions. The slight change in your feelings being noticed by Sagesse, he said after letting out a light laugh while caressing his beard. “I see that you have noticed some words went missing. Indeed, when exposed to the outside world, not everything is perceived by the target, if you speak then some words might not be heard, if you write them some words could be skipped, not everything you express will be received”.

Once he was done answering your “question”, he went on with his teachings. “Now is the time for your words to be received by your target. Once again, you will stray further from the initial meaning, since no two different persons perceive colors the same way, what is to you blue, could be green to someone else, or maybe red to another”. As he spoke, he created another veil, and sent the coloured shapes through it, as he did, all the shapes changed color. “Finally, the target will now convert these words into thoughts again”. The shapes went back to fog, forming a sphere again of various mixed colors, however it was much smaller than the initial sphere of fog, a detail that Sagesse commented with a smile. “As you can see, you lost most of what you wanted to convey in the process, and to make up for the blanks, the target’s mind will fill it with what it believes completes it”. Black fog came out of nowhere and mixed with the already existing fog until it reached the size of the initial fog sphere, however it was now totally different from the initial one in terms of color.

Sagesse spoke once again. “You see, this phenomenon is the source of many misunderstandings, because no one can truly understand another since they cannot truly communicate. If you wish to communicate with as much precision as you can, then you need to carefully craft your words so that what is left of them will guide your target into creating something that fits your initial thoughts as much as possible, such is I believe the essence of communication”. He let out a light laugh before adding. “But I am only a fool that has spent the last hundreds of years holed up inside of my library ranting about my own philosophy of life so do not take it to heart”. With a warm smile, he said while looking straight into your eyes. “It seems I have kept you here for quite some time already, it is about time I send you back. But worry not for we will meet again if fate allows. And who knows, maybe you will be interested in listening to more of my ranting if such a thing happens”. With a content smile, he waved his hand again, making your vision blur before going dark. After a few seconds you found yourself back at your desk slightly disoriented, the smell of old books and herbal tea still fresh in your nose and Sagesse’s words still vivid in your mind. The book was still lying on your desk, the first few pages containing Sagesse’s previous words, but no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t read the book any further, as if the pages were all stuck together.