Mad Gods - Predatory Ethics: Book I by Athanasios Read Free Book Online Page A

you follow, is someone else’s.”
Plethon added, “Now, because so much faith has eroded, reason has, once again,
become our best tool. Just as in Plato’s time, we use humanity as the measure
of all things. I’ll go a step further. Properly prepared, we can find all things
within ourselves. In ourselves, we can find what we revered in gods. It will be
different for you, as it was for me, as well as for others who searched for
their own way. I can’t explain any further. Any words will only sully it. Will
provide an even more incomplete explanation.”
    “But why me?” Kosta wanted to know the reason why
this duty fell to him, rather than any other Truth, his Uncle George or Malone.
There were many people more deserving, or capable of understanding all that
Plethon had said.
    “Nobody else would understand.” He waved his hands
about the ruined Palataki ,
indicating far more than the crumbled, stone walls. “What the Truth did to
those unfortunate Byzantines in Kostadinoupoli is what the world now needs.”
    “The world?” Kosta was overwhelmed.
    The old teacher laughed. “No, not like that. The
change you’ll make is one of perception. Within the pages of many books,
starting with the Idammah-Gan, are keys which will unlock a sequence, releasing the
world from a shackled understanding.” He smiled. “I don’t mean each person,
individually, rather, collectively. You’ll see.”
    “All right then.” Kosta touched the old man’s frail
chest, sending him to his reward. It was where they now stood, but it was warm
and roofed. The room was filled with Laconian sunlight. He sat at a table and
pondered an obscure scroll, atop an open, vellum leafed book. Plethon had
already known peace in his lifetime. It was a peace that he easily recalled.
    Before Kosta could leave, the old philosopher asked
him if he needed to know the location of the entrance to the Library’s
catacombs. Kosta replied that he knew where to look. He thanked him and walked
out of the building - from where he came, to where he had originally intended
to go.
    Home: Alexandria.

 
    - Dangerous Words -

 
    TIME: AUGUST 10TH, 1961. ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

 
    So much forgotten; so much more lost.
    The thought weighed as heavily on Kosta’s mind as the
tons of earth above him. He felt the burden every time he stood still and wiped
sweat away from under the miner’s helmet, which emitted just enough light for
him to be able to see the path. Signs, worn by the millennia, were almost
impossible to follow beneath the ruins of the Royal Library. Above him, bare
foundations marked where the complete knowledge of antiquity had been housed
and twice burned alive.
    It had taken five centuries, a Caesar and a Bishop,
to destroy the Library of Alexandria. The Ptolemies, Egyptian successors to
Alexander the Great, had erected it beside their busiest port. They had ordered
that every ship and traveler must surrender all books, or texts, in their
possession. They were then copied and returned. Their owners were never able to
tell that the originals were never returned, but remained at the great library,
whose renown grew to mythical proportions.
    Kosta knew about libraries; he was pained when he
first saw these ruins. His search through the underground had begun, and
stopped, more than a year before. After leaving Plethon at Mystra, he had
tried, and failed, to find the entrance to the library’s catacombs. He had then
been forced to search elsewhere for clues. He traveled the world, going from
one exclusive, unique library to another, searching for knowledge lying long
dormant, thought lost, forgotten, more powerful and dangerous than anybody
believed. He searched through tomes, codices and secret texts, incredulous that
he was able to understand every language he read: French, Latin, German,
Aramaic, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and ancient Greek.
    In order to have access to these private libraries,
he bargained, bribed and used every subterfuge, wile,