Pook

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The Millennium Quest
Chapter Three
6.13.05 - By Pook  

            The last few minutes had felt like a blur.  Not too long ago, Pook was enjoying a drink while looking at priceless works from ancient Egypt.  Now, he was in the presence of a man claiming that the Millennium Items were in fact real.  Although he was intrigued, he found all of this very hard to believe. 

            “I’m sorry, Mr. Shahdi,” he said, “but if the Millennium Items were real artifacts, why is it that no one had heard of them until they were featured in a cartoon series?”

            “Because, Mr. Pook, who would have believed it?  You yourself even doubt me right now.”

            “How did you know that?”

            “Simply put, I didn’t, until you just told me.  And it was this sort of trickery that helped the Millennium Items gain their reputation.  Allow me to explain.

            “As I was saying earlier, the learned craftsman created the seven golden items at the request of the Pharaoh.  The Pharaoh and his priests proceeded to use these items in an elaborate show.  When a man was accused of being guilty of a crime, he was brought to the court of the Pharaoh.  There, the Pharaoh would pass judgment on the man, guilty or not, by using his supposedly divine Millennium Items.  Each item possessed a different power.  The Millennium Rod was said to let the Pharaoh control the souls of the weak.  The Millennium Eye was used to see through the eyes of the guilty.  The Millennium Necklace held the power to see into the future of the prisoner – a future that almost always showed an untimely death.  The Millennium Ring was said to contain a soul so wicked that unleashing it would bring despair to all.  The Millennium Key, shaped like an ankh, was used to see into the very soul of the accused.  The Millennium Scale weighed the value of a man’s very life.  And finally, there was the Millennium Puzzle, an item believed so powerful, that it was not only kept in a box, away from the unworthy, but also in pieces, as to not unleash its full power.”

            “Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen the show before,” interrupted Pook.  “But am I supposed to believe that these items truly held those powers?”

            “That’s just the point,” said Shahdi.  “The Pharaoh himself spread the word of the powers of the Millennium Items as a way prove his divinity.  These pieces were made from ordinary gold, they held no true powers.  But the people under Pharaoh’s rule were superstitious people, and easily frightened.  You see, he Pharaoh was a clever man, and dispensed different agents throughout his land.  Having spies relay information to him gave the appearance of being all-seeing.  Pharaoh would disguise his priests as other prisoners, and when both the undercover priest and the real criminal were brought to court, the priest would act as if under the control of the items.  In a way, this was the first form of psychological torture ever used.  Men accused of crimes would see the other men fall to the ground, after believing he saw the other man’s soul ripped from his body.  It made it very easy to get people to confess their crimes this way.  The powers of the Millennium Items were nothing but a hoax; a fraud; a game…”

            “…a Shadow Game”, said Pook. 

            “Exactly.” 

            All of this came as a shock to Pook.  This elaborate sham was in fact brilliant, but he still wondered why he had never heard of this before. 

            “There’s one little thing that bothers me about this.  If the man who made the items hated the Pharaoh, how could he let this horrible act continue?  Surely he could have gotten his family to safety and then exposed the truth.”

            Shahdi seemed to agree.  “Yes, but who would dare go against the Pharaoh?  After all, he was considered to be a god.  No, the artist could no expose the lie, but he could find another way to punish the Pharaoh.”

To be continued…