So... Here you have an essay-but-not-really I wrote for my Social Science class. We were supposed to write something that showcased our know-how about the Axial Age and only given only minimal information, and I liked it too much to just leave it at that so... Hope you like it?

Words From A Wise Man Long Dead

"A letter, dated 270 BC, is merely one of the many artifacts retrieved from the newly opened excavation site. What marks it as distinctive is not its remarkable quality nor the site that was its home for a centuries and decades, but its content. Now, hush, my student, and let me read it to you."

My Treasured Apprentice,
I remember, despite the years that define my age, when I had first found you. You were so young, and yet your eyes shone with the knowledge of men much older than the father you never knew. At such an impressionable age, you had already known of the despair that death brings. You had already known of how human could so easily turn against human, you had already known of how hands could be stained in invisible crimson.

And yet, my child, for I had always thought of you as mine even if I could not hope to compete with the memories of the people who birthed you, you have chosen that path. You chose to repeat the mistakes of the murderer to avenge the murdered, chose to stain your hands with blood that should never have been spilled. You chose wrong, and oh how I despair upon this! If only I had taught you better, child. If only I had been able to clear your young mind of the notions of vengeance, if only I had taught you of laws that were not man's! Child, the decision of whose heart was to stop beating does not lie with you, nor does it lie with the murderer of your parents, nor does it lie with those who claim to do it for justice. It is no man's decision. It is God's, and only His. Why do we spill the blood of our kin, what reason do we have to order the slaughter of innocents? If there is an answer, it is founded on the faulty morals of our kind. Individuality persists still, and what holds true for you is a transparent lie in the eyes of another. The right to judge is not ours, for the truth individuals so valiantly strive for is nowhere to be seen! We cannot merely decide, for our minds are not united and the range of our vision is limited. Only God has the right - for He sees all and his wisdom is immeasurable.

The purpose of this, my child, hasn't been to change your mind, for I know what I saw in your eyes the day you left my aging self could never be erased, but merely to tell. This will be my last lesson to you, for sickness is a difficult enemy. I only pray that you will take heed of my words, and wash away the blood before it leaves a permanent stain. There is still hope, my dearest child.

A Man That Hopes To Have Taught You Well,
俞慧真

"I wish to have taught a lesson through the words of a wise man long dead, my student. The secrets of our world are still largely hidden, even though many a decade has passed and the Earth along with its occupants have aged and changed. As you go forth in your pursuit of dreams and desires, I hope you remember this."