"So be it."

  Lady jasmine made her decision. For a brief second, her eyes—like ice crystal saturated with green flecks—lock onto Masa Ed dark brown gaze. She looked downward. On her hand fitted with green lace glove is the golden seed with black bands. After a sigh that whispers 'it couldn't be helped', she gently placed the ancient seed in Masa Ed mouth that opened wide in response to her movement.

  "I pray the grace of the primordial darkness be upon you."

  As Masa Ed swallowed the seed, shutting his eyes; he felt a mild wetness accompanied by a soft sensation of tender touch on his forehead, which was followed by an ethereal hypnotic crooning that its warmth and magic engulf his mind—calming its stormy ocean and bringing him great pleasure unlike anything ever.

  While he savor the aftertaste of the heavenly voice, already forgotten he just swallowed a seed he expected will make him gag and vomit; he suddenly felt a rising sensation of heat like he is being surrounded by flowing lava.

  What's happening. He wondered. Shouldn't I be in the chamber? Because he saw nothing but empty darkness after he willed his eyes open, he felt lost but not scared even though he also could no longer hear, smell or feel his body not to talk of what the vacuum of darkness that persists sustains.

  Maybe I am dead? He concluded; however, in the very next instant, he felt drenched from an unceasing outpour of rain as his mind made sense of the empty horizon in his blurry sight, leaving him shocked and stunned.

  "What!!" He blurted. Shouldn't I be with them? What's going on here? He couldn't believe his eyes. Here he was, standing on a vast plain that seems to stretch infinitely, his bare feet almost sinking into its dark brown loamy soil that is wet from the unceasing outpour.

  He raised his head. Vast and endless, the sky filled with white twinkling stars stretch—an awe-inspiring sight that reminds him that promise of years past when he was still a child; therefore the reason he chuckled mirthlessly at the absurdity of it all—his dreams as a child and where he stands right now, a place he has absolutely no idea of.

  "Where exactly is this place?" He muttered.

  His eyes seek to find where the land—illuminated as if a night where a moon hung above—ends, but to no avail.

  "Have I been kidnapped again?"

  "No, this is the tree realm."

  Deep and familiar was the voice originating from behind him that startled him, making him spun around as fast.

  "Hello."

  An unkempt man of matte dark brown hair and a familiar bearded face his eyes laid on, flashed him a greeting smile.

  As he been there before? Or did he just appear? He doubted.

  The familiar strange man like he can read his mind smiled, he resumed, "I have always been here; I am you, you are me, you know that."

  Masa Ed chuckled at the his claims. He took another look at his face completely identical to his before the supernatural incident; in essence, the man was simply a copy of what he used to look like before he rejuvenated, looking young and exceptionally good looking like he is now.

  "Plant the seed."

  He heard a whisper like it was carried by the passing wind as he was about to address the man waiting for his response with a warm familiar smile.

  "Believe me, you do not want to plant that seed."

  The man's dark brown eyes as he informed him points at the ancient golden seed with a black band in his hand that he turn to look at, observing keenly with an analytical gaze.

  "Why?" He inquired, his voice raspy deep and authoritative.

  The man smiled. "Because its not what we want," he replied matter-of-factly. "The seed in your hand comes from an external source—a power seed. It won't in any way get us closer to the absolute truth we seek; what it can offer us is power, nothing else. Here..."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He stretched his hand towards him, showing him a black seed that has white flame marking on it that rest gently on his calloused palm, looking pure and holy.

  "This is the truth seed, its what we were born with. With it, reaching the absolute truth is just a matter of time. Its what you should plant, not one that belongs to a foreign entity."

  The man stated.

  Masa Ed chuckled.

  "Really?" He inquired. Now his voice sounded deep and calm like it has always been, but yet it still carry the weight of authority.

  "Of course," the man replied matter-of-factly, sounding absolutely confident. "Is it not the absolute truth we seek?" He smiled and tilted his head sideways at a tiny angle.

  To his inquiry, Masa Ed stifled a knowing smile. He swap looks severally at the two seed, judging and analyzing which is right.

  "Don't listen to him, plant the seed." He heard again, the quiet whisper like it was carried by the wind, its content putting him in more confusion as to which seed he should choose: the ancient one in his hand or the holy and pure one in the outstretched hand of the man that claimed to be him.

  "What's making you hesitate?"

  "I wonder." Masa Ed replied. A moment later, he raised his lowered head. With dagger-sharp intensity, he scrutinized the man, his eyes starting from his wooly kinky hair and ending at his dark toes that contrast his chocolate brown skin.

  "You really look like me." He muttered the conclusion of his assessment.

  "Like I said; I am you, you are me," the man responded. "So, what will you choose? Truth or power?"

  Masa Ed waited, looking like he is in a deep contemplation.

  After a short while, his gaze returned to the man who is also waiting.

  "What exactly are you?" He questioned. "What part of me do you represent?"

  At his existential inquiry, the man's smile vanished and his brow furrowed for a brief moment before his friendly smile suddenly returned to his face.

  "Who am I?" He replied. "If this is your realm, you should know. Please, tell me, I want to know, too."

  "I see..." Nodding his head repeatedly, Masa Ed stretched his words.

  "Plant the seed now, don't listen to him further."

  Yet again, he heard an instructing whisper like it is carried by the traveling wind, which like before, he ignored, but instead, he refocused his attention on the man and what he offered—the black seed with white flame markings.

  "You say you don't know what you are exactly?" With a smile, he questioned the man who responded with a nod. He resumed, "If that is true, how do you know you are me and I am you? You just didn't guess it, right?"

  At Masa Ed question, the man paused briefly after which he smiled.

  "I just know," he shrugged. "Just like you know you exist, I also know I exist; the difference is you carry labels and knowledge, while I do not. If I was the one that experienced the outside world very much like you do instead if you, I will be the one standing there and you will be the one standing here. Its all about the fundamental structure of human existence."

  "Wow!" Masa Ed exclaimed at the man's conclusion, his eyes opening wide.

  "Great answer by the way." He nodded at the man who has a faint smile on his face. "Can I assume you lack my knowledge and labels?"

  "Of course," the man replied, "If I have knowledge and labels like you do, I am basically another you, which I am clearly not."

  "I see... you are not bad." Masa Ed muttered. After one last look at the pure and holy seed in the man's hand, in the next instant, he turned around, backing him and facing the horizon of the barren level plain that seems to stretch infinitely.

  "Won't you take the seed?"

  He ignored the inquiring voice of the man behind him. His gaze shift to his left. There he found a small unique depression on the soil that look newly made, looking like someone dip a hand inside the soil minutes ago, taking something from the within it.

  "Hmm.. Strange." He muttered. Curious, he moved closer to the depression and crouched in front of it before he starts to analyze it with his eyes, comparing the soil that is darker in color and is like a heap of ring surrounding the small narrow depression, to the soil around it that are less dark.

  This look fresh. He concluded in his mind. For confirmation, he took a darker soil in his hand which he focus his eyes on, examining and feeling it even though the rain is watching it off from his hand.

  "Its a prime location to plant a seed."

  "You are right." He nodded faintly; he agreed with the man, his double, that stands right behind him after which he focus his gaze on the ancient seed in his other hand that he opened up.

  "I hope you are not tempted to plant that?" The man inquired.

  Masa Ed chuckled.

  "Why don't we do this, you plant the one in your hand and I plant the one in my hand. What do you say?"

  "No way!" The man rejected his idea. "Only you can plant a seed. Its how this realm was structured—"

  "I get it." Masa Ed cut him off. With a smile on his face and to the shock of the man, he dipped his hand holding the ancient seed into the depression of the soil, letting it fall inside a hole through it; basically planting the ancient seed.

  "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!?"

  The man screamed, expressing great horror in both his voice and physical expression.

  Annoyed by his scream as their is a frown mixed with a scowl on his face, Masa Ed rose to his feet and turned to look at his face that retains an expression of horror.

  "What are you fucking doing?" He questioned, tilting his head a bit.

  "What?" The man felt perplexed by his inquiry.

  "Yes, what?" Masa Ed mocked. "I figured you out already. You are clearly not what you claim to be; so why keep up the act?"

  Just as Masa Ed finished, it began.