But if even one of you still cares to hear of the schemes of the Order of the White Lotus, then I will share! I have been quite busy seeking the means to carry out our plans, and so I must always choose carefully how I will spend my limited energy, heh heh. But if you are interested in these matters, then it is quite worth my time to oblige you!
So, I told you all a little about the old Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden, and then I waited to see how it would be received. As often happens when one moves a tile in Pai Sho, the immediate effects were rather limited, heh. But that is okay. That is how the game goes, sometimes. As some of you know, I am quite fond of the Lotus Tile; though its short-range influence usually takes quite a while to have an effect on the rest of the board, those effects are nearly impossible to counteract. This is how I hope it will be now: we will start slowly, but we will be unstoppable.
And now I have waited for the right moment, and I believe it is time for me to move the Lotus Tile once again! Now, I will venture to tell you the happy ending of the Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden. You have all been very worried about the little lotuses, haven't you? I know I am, every day, heh heh heh.
When Longshot suggested that I stop telling the story, I was describing how cruelly the little lotuses treated the five-petal, six-petal, and seven-petal lotuses. They revered three petals as the most petals any lotus could ever have; any lotus with a number of petals that was so different from three must have very few petals indeed, and so must be quite a contemptible little lotus. This was not so, of course. The five-petal lotuses were far nobler than the three-petal lotuses, but not in a way that the other lotuses were yet prepared to understand. And so the little lotuses cursed the five-petal lotuses, and the six-petal lotuses and the seven-petal lotuses. They rejected them, imprisoned them, and even executed them.
The four-petal lotuses, if you were wondering, tended to stay out of this debate altogether. They did not approve of the cruel treatment that the other lotuses gave to the five-petal lotuses, but they were not quite sure what to make of the five-petal lotuses either. Whenever a four-petal lotus did decide to stand with the five-, six-, or seven-petal lotuses, they would suffer the same treatment. They would be rejected, lied about, or even killed. Some four-petal lotuses heroically stood by their five-, six-, or seven-petal friends to the bitter end, but most four-petal lotuses were simply unsure what to make of the whole business.
This went on for thousands of years. In some centuries, there would be more one-petal lotuses than any other. At other times, two-petal lotuses would be the majority. And at other times or in other parts of the Garden, there would be more three-petal lotuses than any other; at those times, the Garden truly flourished because of the honorable goodness of the three-petal lotuses. Remember, the three-petal lotuses were indeed good and noble. But three was not the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
In these times of prosperity under the three-petal lotuses, the one-petal lotuses and two-petal lotuses would begin to grow in numbers once more, feeding off of the wealth brought about by the diligence of the three-petal leaders. And before long the one-petal lotuses would become the majority once again, and the Garden would swing back to decay. This unfortunate cycle continued for thousands of years. Nations rose and fell in the Garden, wealth was gained and lost, wisdom was found and forgotten. The good or bad fortune of the little lotuses ebbed and flowed depending on which sort of lotuses were the majority.
From time to time, a great four-petal lotus would defy the rigidity of the three-petal leaders, and speak forth a bold new idea. Most of these were silenced in brutal fashion, but many of their ideas nonetheless changed the Garden. And from time to time, the Gardeners would place a five-petal lotus amongst the others, or even a six-petal lotus or a seven-petal lotus. These lotuses did magnificent things that changed the face of the Garden in ways that the other lotuses thought were impossible...but these shining lotuses almost always met their end violently and abruptly. And the marvelous changes wrought by the five-, six-, or seven-petal lotuses would soon be hijacked by the three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses, and as time passed, the work of the great lotuses would be undone.
But then one day, something new happened, as it always does sooner or later.
One day, new lotuses were seen in the Garden, lotuses with eight petals, and even a few with nine! The other lotuses did not like these new lotuses at all. These new lotuses were so very different from the noble three-petal lotuses, so very different that it simply could not be tolerated. But as the three-petal lotuses, and the two-petal lotuses, and the one-petal lotuses came to rid the Garden of the eight- and nine-petal lotuses, they were surprised by the quick and wise words of these strange new lotuses.
The eight- and nine-petal lotuses did not speak like any lotuses they had heard. Their words were not overly polished by talent or skill, but they carried a wisdom unlike that of even the wisest four-petal lotuses. The eight-petal lotuses were able to reach the root of every issue, explaining it in a way that even the one-petal lotuses could not refute. They unfolded mysteries that had never before been revealed, all in the simplest fashion. They could not be stumped by even the most difficult of questions.
Soon, however, the three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses had enough of this, and they tried to silence to eight- and nine-petal lotuses. But nothing seemed to work. No matter what they tried, be it slander, imprisonment or even violence, the eight-petal lotuses would always somehow find a way out. The three-petal lotuses tried to take away the food and shelter of the eight-petal lotuses, but still the eight-petal lotuses would cheerfully find some new food and shelter without the slightest worry. The three-petal lotuses tried to condemn the eight-petal lotuses, rising up in their righteous three-petal wrath, condemning the shameful ways of the non-rigid eight-petal miscreants. But the eight-petal lotuses would go on without concern. And whenever the three-petal condemnation went too far, the eight-petal lotuses simply and effortlessly explained precisely how mistaken the three-petal lotuses were. And then they would go on again, unhindered by all the three-petal lotuses' designs.
During all this, the eight- and nine-petal lotuses were explaining what I think is the best part of this whole tale: They explained that they had not always had eight or nine petals. They had started with far fewer, and had grown, had learned to open more of their lovely petals. And they explained that every lotus, every single one, could likewise grow to open more and more of their own petals to the world around them. It didn't matter if a lotus had one petal, or three, or four; every single lotus could grow to have a completely different and higher number of petals.
The eight-petal lotuses explained that every lotus had already experienced this change, even though they did not realize it. For example, when a lotus was first born, crying and screaming, they would begin life as a zero-petal lotus. Ready to riot one moment and then lounge about the next, baby lotuses operated according to a very different sort of nature than most adult lotuses did. Then, as they grew, they learned to open one little petal to the world: they learned to have calculated desires, to seek their own good, to say "Mine!" Their entire deepest drive changed, evolving into something higher, something more effective than mere raging instinct. They would sometimes cheat or take things from other lotuses, but many of them eventually grew to know better than that sort of behavior. They transitioned into becoming two-petal lotuses, seeking the approval of their friends and of the adult lotuses. Not all of them changed into two-petal lotuses, but many of them did. Their deepest drive changed, seeking friendship, love, and the joy of other lotuses, rather than simple selfishness.
But the problem was that many of the lotuses would stop there. They would stop changing, stop going through the metamorphosis of opening new petals to the world. They remained as two-petal lotuses for the rest of their adult lives. Some of them even turned around and reverted to being selfish one-petal lotuses, or even wild zero-petal lotuses. Only a few lotuses continued changing, growing up to be honorable, noble three-petal lotuses. And yet, almost every single lotus who reached three petals stopped there, because after all, three petals was the highest number of petals that a lotus could bear. Wasn't it?
Well, the eight- and nine-petal lotuses explained that they had once been three-petal lotuses themselves. They had been born as zero-petal lotuses, the way all lotuses were, then had grown to be one-petal lotuses, and then two-petal lotuses, and finally three-petal lotuses. But all lotuses can change their petals. And the eight- and nine-petal lotuses had kept changing, had kept growing. They worked through the immense difficulties of becoming four-petal lotuses, and then grew over time to have five petals, and then six petals, and then seven petals. And now they had grown to have eight petals, and some of them even had nine. And they were still growing and changing. They told the other lotuses that there was no highest number of petals that a lotus could bear. There was no upper limit. Every lotus could continue revolutionizing his or her whole life, ever rising to higher, better, brighter ways.
These higher ways were not just BIG three-petal ways. They were not just more of the same. Each new petal changed everything, simply everything, petal by petal. The eight- and nine-petal lotuses were quite personable and cheerful, but they were not BIG three-petal lotuses; they were eight- and nine-petal lotuses. And they were able to show the path to all the other lotuses, able to show them how to gain more petals, explaining it in clear and detailed ways that even the seven-petal lotuses had been unable to do. For the first time in the history of the Garden, the unfamiliar path was being shown to all, so that all could gain petals without limit!
The eight-petal lotuses said that the three-petal lotuses would have to change. Their day of probation was ending, and now they would have to choose: they would have to decide to grow or fall. Three was certainly not the highest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
Many of the other lotuses did not like to hear this, and they tried even harder to fight the eight- and nine-petal lotuses. But it was too late: The eight-petal lotuses were already growing again to become nine-petal lotuses, and the nine-petal lotuses were growing into ten-petal lotuses, bristling with greater power than the other lotuses could believe. In centuries past, the seven-petal lotuses had been silenced, but the eight-, nine-, and ten-petal lotuses could not be stopped. And for the first time, more and more lotuses began slowly to open more of their own petals on purpose.
The whole Garden began to change as brand-new four-, five-, and six-petal lotuses bloomed everywhere. By the time the nine- and ten-petal lotuses finished their work, the Garden would never be the same ever again...
Hooray! So, that is my summary of the ancient Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden. But of what use is it to us? Heh heh, well, next I will tell you a bit of the actual plans of the Order of the White Lotus. We aim to change the whole Garden, forever. When I tell you our plan, we will see if you think we are up to the challenge...
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