Witch (2)
Mi began wandering through the forest again, trying to clear her mind and banish all these thoughts. She stared at the outside of the enclosure, repeatedly asking, "What exactly do you want? Animals only care about reproduction. You want to throw a few small stones to wipe out a giant dinosaur, then release a witch doctor to create a race of humans that kill each other. And this so-called civilization and progress—civilization and progress built on piles of corpses? Is this what you want to see? What kind of civilization is this? What kind of progress is this? It's nothing but enslavement and exploitation."
Mi stared at the opposite side of the valley, where colors shone brightly and life was in full bloom. Al and Joe sat quietly beside her.
“You’ve been telling me that witches observe the world, that witches can coexist with the human brain.” Mi turned to El. “If witches can observe the world all the time, why do they live inside the human brain? Why don’t witches live in the veins of plants? Why don’t witches live in the brains of fish? Oh, witches only live in the human brain, but humans weren’t originally humans, they were just animals. It was only with the addition of witches that things became different. What’s the difference between witches and humans?”
“If what you say is true, and the beginning of life is the insertion of a gene,” El thought for a moment and then said, “the purpose of these lives is to reproduce. I told you that divinity is reproduction, remember?”
Mi nodded: "Then wouldn't that mean animals are closer to gods than humans?"
“The witch led humanity toward a confrontation with divinity,” El said. “In the long course of human development, the brain capacity grew larger and larger, and a kind of humanity that was independent of divinity gradually formed. In the human brain, humans no longer only focus on reproduction.”
“Indeed, humans are much busier, and having children becomes the most insignificant thing,” Mi thought for a moment. “According to you, this is human nature. Then what is a witch? You said a witch has a segment of consciousness. Where does this consciousness come from? Is it part of human nature?”
“Yes and no. We witches exist in a rather unique way.” El pointed to the vines twining around the giant tree in the forest. “Our relationship with humans is like this tree and the vines. Outside the Witch Forest, primal witches can only exist by relying on humans. There are other ways in the non-human realm, but I can’t say exactly how. After all, only the witch with whom the link is established knows the specifics, and my link is with humans, as is the guiding witch, so I don’t understand the links with other creatures. You also said that there definitely won’t be just one experimental box.” El winked at Mi.
"Are you saying that the shaman is another force within the human brain? You've always said that the shaman and humans coexist. But who can say for sure whether the shaman lives within the human brain to provide energy or to absorb it?" Mi even had a crazy idea. She stared at El and said, "Is it possible that the human brain is chaos itself? The shaman absorbs energy within the human brain until one day enough energy is stored for the shaman to separate from the human brain?"
“Child,” El sighed, “if the witch keeps absorbing the energy from human brains, the brains will continue to shrink until they are completely drained.”
"Ah, yes." Mi lowered her head shyly.
“I know you’re resistant to witches,” El said gently. “You’ve always believed that you’re still human. Even if humans are a species brought by witches, at least witches don’t want to hurt people. Every witch you’ve seen was once human. We have the greatest goodwill towards humans.”
* * *
Mi returned to the center of the forest and looked at the somewhat anxious El: "Since humans were brought by the witches, why is there a place like this?" Mi looked around the witch forest. The witches had already coexisted with humans, so what were they doing back here?
“The kind of witch you’re talking about is called a Primal Witch. I don’t know exactly how many worlds Primal Witches exist in. Only Primal Witches who are powerful enough to break away from humans can return to the Witch Forest. Not all witches return to the Witch Forest.” El also looked around the Witch Forest. “There are solitary witches here who do not coexist with anyone.”
"So, according to you, there are a lot of witches outside? Are those witches re-engaging in human brain activity, or did they die along with humans?"
“Those people who mutate without reason, I think are most likely influenced by witchcraft, if their brains are not damaged.” El thought for a moment. “Witchcraft that participates in human brain activity has a deep affection for humans, just like you always wanted to go back. I think there must be some witches who detach themselves when humans die and then wait for the next human of the same frequency to appear so they can live in the human brain again. Such people usually have access to the information of the witch’s previous host because of their shared frequency. There are many people among humans who are ‘born with knowledge’ or ‘have past lives’ in this case.”
"Can witches repeatedly live in the minds of different people?" Mi thought for a moment before asking. "Not all witches are willing to return; they prefer to coexist with humans?"
“Only when a primordial sorcerer is powerful enough can they be captured by the Forest of Sorcerers during the process of separation. Then, their bodies are reconstructed within the Forest of Sorcerers, allowing them to walk independently in the outside world as a sorcerer.” El looked at the sea of consciousness. “Sorcerers come from chaos, and I don’t know if chaos is the same as the sea of consciousness above. If it is, as you said, there were hands that took sorcerers from the sea of consciousness and placed them in different experimental boxes. Some sorcerers enjoyed the outside world and never returned, while others broke through the shackles and came back. I think this is the origin and destiny of sorcerers.”
"If this is the origin and final destination of witches, why don't those witches want to come back?" Mi lowered her head and thought for a moment. She didn't want to return to the witch forest either; she had been trying to find a way to escape from here.
“There are many powerful consciousnesses and brainwaves outside that can also see into people’s hearts. They will use this characteristic to make a difference in the human world.”
“I understand,” Mi nodded knowingly. “You’re talking about those powerful people, those great figures who will be remembered for their good name or their infamy, those who are particularly clever and have achieved great things, those who stand at the pinnacle of power and are unwilling to come back to be ordinary witches, or even need to relearn witchcraft.”
“I think that’s why this place is called the Witch Forest,” El said, suddenly sounding a little melancholy. “Too many women return to the Witch Forest. When I was a new witch, it was full of all kinds of women, but very few male witches. Even if a male witch comes back to hibernate, he will soon go out again. I think male witches prefer the outside world.”
Why?
"Have you forgotten that a witch's defining characteristic is perception?" El said sadly. "That's why the pain of childbirth is the highest level of pain for women. Witches experience the extreme pain of childbirth time and time again in their symbiotic relationship with women, and they even intensify this pain. Once a witch leaves a woman's body, very few witches are willing to parasitize her again. It's like actively choosing to experience childbirth again and again."
“The male wizard doesn’t have this experience,” Mi thought of the process of a woman’s pregnancy and childbirth, which can even take a woman’s life, and continued, “Can he choose to live in a male brain again?”
“The witch who has just been separated from her female body still retains her sense of self as a woman,” El said gently. “Although women have brought them much pain, they are unwilling to abandon their female identity. The witch cannot deny her birth. If you were to return to Earth, would you choose to become a man?”
"Oh, is there a choice?" Mi asked, somewhat puzzled. "Didn't you say that only those on the same frequency band can coexist? A man's brain and a woman's brain are usually on different frequencies."
“You’ve started thinking from a witch’s perspective,” El chuckled. “You no longer see yourself as a person.”
"Let me digest this." Mi felt her mind was crammed with strange information, about to explode. What kind of energy did the shaman provide to the human brain? Mi wasn't even sure if the shaman existed, especially now. She knew there was a controlling hand above her, yet she had to follow the script and complete her shaman training, accepting the identity of a shaman. Mi tried to shake off all distracting thoughts and diligently learn to become a shaman.
Unable to define what the witch was, Mi felt she was simply Mi, not something unrelated to her. Mi's past was vividly clear; she couldn't claim the witch existed independently of her. All of this confused Mi. Mi thought that even if a male brain were to parasitize her, she would still want to return to her own body. When her life ended, would she be willing to live again as a man? If such a choice existed, Mi hesitated. If she could choose her gender before birth, would she prefer to be a man or a woman?
"What about her?" Joe asked worriedly, looking at Mi, who was once again lost in thought.
“We can only wait for her to figure it out herself. Only by entering the Fountain of Life can she see the witch's origins. There's no point in me saying anything now; she believes she *is* Mi.” El sighed. “That's what symbiosis is like. For thousands of years, I've felt like I'm El, while you can never escape Joe's fate. Perhaps this is the price of symbiosis. We rely on humans to gain the power to grow, while humans borrow from us to gain immortality.” El swallowed the rest of her words. She didn't know whether she should believe Mi's words, or believe that all of this was driven by someone, that they had participated in a long experiment, whether willingly or unwillingly. Now, El only wanted to be a competent guide; getting Mi out of here was her top priority.
“Al, this little girl is very perceptive and full of curiosity,” Joe snuggled up to Al. “I think she must be a bit of a troublemaker. She also has a bit of OCD; even though she doesn’t believe we’re witches, she’s started calling herself one. Is she self-hypnotizing?”
“I don’t think so. Perhaps this could be considered a form of submission. She wouldn’t say that after she truly obtains the power of witchcraft.”
"El, I think she's living in a better world already, so why did she come to the Witch Forest?"
“The fact that she can come here means she has her own way of surviving,” Al gently stroked Joe’s hair. “Ah, humanity is so naive yet cruel.” Al kissed the end of Joe’s hair. “Joe, I need you.”
“El, I’m here, I’ve always been here,” Joe said gently, looking up at El.
Mi returned to the heart of the forest, where pink and blue clouds intertwined before her.
"Ah, the air is filled with such a sweet, lingering scent!" Mi sighed, turning around to give the space to Al and Joe.
* * *
Mi and El sat down facing each other again, while Joe, his face flushed, had already run off somewhere.
Where's your little follower?
"Oh, she's shy. You blue planet people are all like that—" El tilted his head and said quipped, "saying one thing but doing another?"
“Oh, no, no,” Mi denied repeatedly. “She’s an old relic from over a hundred years ago. Things aren’t like that now. But people in our area are more reserved. It’s true that you can do something but not say it, and you certainly wouldn’t do it in public—hehe, haha.” Mi was a little embarrassed. She looked around. There wasn’t a single house, nor a bed to block the view. “There’s no point in discussing this with me.”
“I’m just curious,” Al laughed. “I know what’s going on, but I don’t know why such humans exist.”
Why do humans exist like this? Mi pondered for a moment. Animals don't care about whether there are bystanders; this is a sexual shame unique to humans. Ever since humans started wearing clothes, they have deliberately distinguished themselves from animals, and even invented a word for this: "privacy."
"I have a question, are you a couple?" When Mi saw the pink and blue light clusters intertwined, her first thought was that they were having sex, but how could consciousnesses have sex?
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