Ark'ay The God                                                  Mymophonus the Scribe                                                                                                                                              )	        S	  @      Arkay The God       So be it known that the gods were once as we.   Ark'ay, the god of death and birth, was an ordinary  shopkeeper whose only unusual characteristic was a passion for knowledge. To indulge his hobby he became an avid collector of books on almost any subject he could find in print.    One day he stumbled across a tome which purported to tell the secrets of life, death, and the purpose of existence. After  months of studying the convoluted logic, written in opaque language, he thought that he was finally beginning to understand what the author was saying.    During this time he became so intent on understanding the book that he ignored everything else: his business started to slide towards bankruptcy, his few friends stopped visiting him, he ignored the plague which was ravaging the town, and his family were ready to leave him.   Just as he felt that the book was opening visions of new worlds, the plague brought him low. His family tended his illness out of a sense of duty, but he slowly sank towards death. So, as a last resort, he prayed to Mara the mother-goddess to allow him enough time to complete his studies of the book.   "Why should I make an exception for you, Ark`ay?" asked Mara.   "Mother Mara, I am finally beginning to understand this book and the meaning of life and death" he answered, "and with a little more time to study and think, I should be able to teach others".   "Hmmm, it sounds to me like that `teaching others' is an  afterthought to appeal to me", she replied. "What is the reason for death and birth?"   "There are far more souls in the Universe than there is room for in the physical world. But it is in the physical world that a soul has an opportunity to learn and progress. Without birth, souls would not be able to acquire that experience, and without death there would be no room for birth."   "Not a very good explanation, but it does have elements of truth. Maybe with more study you could improve it," she mused.  "I cannot give you `a little more time.' I can only condemn you to Eternal labor in the field you have chosen. How say you to that?"   "I do not understand, mother," said Ark'ay.   "Your choice is to either accept the death that is so close or to become a god with us. But a god is not an easy nor pleasant thing to be. As the god of death and birth you will spend eternity making sure that deaths and births stay in proper  balance in the physical world. And, in spite of what you  believe you understand, you will always agonize over  whether your decisions are truly correct. How do you decide?"   Ark'ay spent what seemed to him as an eternity in thought before answering. "Mother, if my studies are not completely wrong, my only choice is to accept the burden and try to  transmit the reasons for death and birth to humanity."   "So be it, Arkay, God of Birth and Death."         