Pendekar Batari Mahadewi: The Journey to Find Your Self
Episode 167 The Shadow In The Mirror
In the meditation room called the thousand-mirror room, Batari Mahadevi and Nala saw their reflection in each mirror, in various angles. The two sat cross-legged and far apart, looking for a place of their own. When looking at the mirror image, Batari Mahadewi began to think about himself:
‘I see a mirror. There's my shadow there. My shadow is not the same as me. But through that shadow I saw myself, recognizing myself as I was drawn there.
I recognize myself through the mirror image. I know myself through me who is not me. I recognize myself through falsehood. In the mirror was me, but I wasn't in the sneeze. I sit here, looking in the mirror.
Yeah, correct. Everyone can only know himself through something else; something that can reflect on him, through shadows, through words, through speech.
How do I recognize the real me? What is inside me? What cannot be reflected by a mirror? What is my internal organ? What's mind? If I am the one that the mirror doesn't reflect, is that me?
If I am the unspeakable, is that me? I am inside of me. I was in the mirror. I'm in someone else. I am the one who is in my mind. I am the self that exists in the minds of others.
Will I always be the same? If I change clothes, or without clothes, am I still the same as I am today? I am not single. I was in a thousand mirrors reflecting my image.
I am a different one. The different one is me. What can't be reflected by a mirror? What can no one else really see? What can't be described in me? Is that a feeling?
What do I feel when I look in the mirror? What do I feel when I look at myself in the mirror? What do I feel when someone says something about me? Do I really understand my feelings? This feeling is the fruit of my mind. Is it the same feeling I feel?
I don't really understand my feelings. I can't really tell you what I'm feeling, but my body can feel what I'm feeling.
My body felt cold in the cold room, my tongue felt sweetness when I tasted the sweet taste of fruit. How do I know that cold is cold, and sweet is sweet? Is it from my body? Or my thoughts?
How does my body feel the other way? Feelings of joy, fear, sadness, anxiety? How does my body feel love? Can my body feel love? What is love? Is that love? Ah, goddamn. Why is this again appearing in my head?
Wait..this pops into my head? Is love just a matter of mind? Or really a feeling? How do I feel when I fall in love? Have I ever been in love? Does my body want to feel love? Is love the same as wanting?
If I want to taste apples, do I love apples? Love is not the same as wanting. What makes me want something? What makes me want power? What makes me want to go back to my world? I miss the things I left behind. I miss the things that I don't have right now. Is it with my miss love?
I once told Nala that love exists out of nothingness in the self and makes the self move to fill that nothingness with something that makes it exist. If so, I will start with love to make the nothingness in my body come into existence, to have the ice power that I do not yet possess. But what kind of love? Love to whom?
Batari Mahadevi was still struggling with her own thoughts. And Nala too. The two thought of different things, yet both of them had one goal in common; finding an understanding that could open the doors of cold energy within their bodies, which had been covered by heat energy.
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Meanwhile, in the world one month, Jalu and Niken prepare to surprise the Swargabhumi warriors who have taken control of the city of Blue Pearls. It has been almost a month for Swargabhumi soldiers to live there and wait for additional strength to move closer to Swargadwipa.
Jalu and Niken's new strength has grown rapidly and made them able to travel much faster than before. Within three days, the two pairs of Fire and Ice warriors finally arrived also in the Blue Pearl city.
The city looked gloomy and seedy, very much different from a few months ago, when Jalu, Niken, and Batari Mahadewi got there. In that city, Jalu declared love. After all, the city is a sweet memory in the story of Jalu and Niken.
“Kak Jalu sure of our plan?” ask Niken.
“Yes, of course.we already know this city. It is not difficult to find the whereabouts of Patih Hamapadayana. We give a surprise attack, then we go from there.” Said Jalu.
The two pairs of warriors waited for the night to begin their plans. When night comes, the two move. Swargabhumi's forces were much different from Swargadwipa's. Perhaps because they feel that their numbers are many, they can relax and not be vigilant. Even the movements of Jalu and Niken were illegible to the magic warriors who supported Swargabhumi, I don't know what they were doing there.
Jalu and Niken arrived at the town hall of Mutiara Biru. The place was heavily guarded by many soldiers who increasingly indicated that the Patih Swargabhumi was in that place. Jalu and Niken heard a boisterous voice inside the town hall, the voices of men laughing out loud, and the occasional sound of women being forced to do something unwanted.
Jalu and Niken growled. At least, it was never taught in the discipline of Swargadwipa's army. Even the Fatih Siung Tiger Beetle would never allow anything indecent to happen in his army.
Jalu flew and hovered above the town hall. While Niken is still hiding in the branches of the thick leaves of the tree. Jalu radiated all his strength and the radiance instantly made the atmosphere become silent. The soldiers on guard looked up and were astonished to see the flames floating in the sky. But their astonishment actually makes them not alert; just silent to see what is in space.
It rained fire from space. The fire that he was mustering was so huge and it quickly burned down several buildings in the town hall. The people who were inside immediately jumped out. Some were confused and panicked over what was going on, but others had captured Jalu's presence in space in the form of a fireman.
Once again Jalu launched a fire attack from space. The soldiers and people who were gathering under scattering. Some burned and others bounced. Meanwhile, some magic swordsmen who had just realized the situation they were in ended up jumping up and trying to stop what Jalu was doing.