ù Pride ù

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You know what the first rule of nature is?

The careless creatures die first

The first thing, the book said, was to test the power. If the lights go on,
something's wrong.

Would he bother?

No. It had never happened before. Fool. That didn't mean it never would happen.

Familiarity breeds carelessness. He'd done it thousands of times. He'd just
check the main switch. Careless. Careless creatures die.

Did he deserve it?

Of course.

In nature, the weak and feeble died. But man glorified them. He was a weak man.
His shell showed the results of years of exertion. But rippling meat pales
beneath the power of a strong mind. And his mind was weak.

He was a creature of pride. Tall and strong. But pride is mindless, and so is
he.

He had come. The tower of meat. Vaguely contemptuous of the weak of limb.

Fool.

Anyone should know that the truth is always hidden.

Carelessness dies. Pride will die today too. The switch casually flicked from
on, to death. Anyone should know that reality is the opposite of appearance.
Pride is going now. Pride is starting. Preparing for suicide. Pride will die,
but the Wise will live on.

Leave Pride to its fate. Just watch for the moment. The flicker of the light,
showing Pride's fall.

Think. Remember. Pride caused its own fall. Arrogance on ridicule on
carelessness. None but the foolish ridicule the Wise.

Beauty cannot see the mind. Neither can Pride. But the Wise can. That is what
makes them wise. That is why the Wise are the rulers. That is why the Wise are
the judges. That is why Pride is going to fall.

The Pride who had the arrogance to steal away Beauty. The Pride with the
arrogance to say he was sorry. What can Pride know of love? Love is of the
mind, and the mind belongs to the Wise. The arrogance to ridicule him. He, the
Wise. Talking of love and devotion. Pride could not find a grain of true
devotion in his entire hulking existence.

Pride chose to die when Pride asked for Beauty. Beauty let Pride die when
Beauty was blind to the mind. A fitting fall for an unfitting couple.

None should rule the Wise. The Wise are the natural rulers of all. Pride,
Beauty, strength and courage. None could withstand the decisions of the Wise.

A flicker!

Pride had not withstood. The Wise had decided, and Pride had been cast down.

To see the proof. To view the lifeless meat, if you could have called its
previous existence life. A brainless, ambling existence. Strength and grace
without true inner strength and grace. There is nothing as strong or as
graceful as the mind.

Pride was there. His body a husk. Torn throughout by the power that was the
vengeance of the Wise. His hand still grasped his Doom. He had not checked the
light. Carelessness brings death, and that carelessness was no exception.

To see his face. To see how he looked at the moment of realisation. Quickly
roll him over. No! Stop! Too late...

Pride and Wisdom both fell. Pride and Wisdom had been judged, and both were
lacking.

---

By Blue Apache [AV Snr/TUi]

And hey, ain't life a bitch? For all you realists out there, this is just
your typical murder that goes wrong and kills off both the 'good, innocent
victim' and the 'evil, coniving murderer'. All the better. Didn't like either
of them myself...