**EPISODE SIXTEEN**
**THE BURDEN OF BEING FREE**
(Where humanity learns that liberty is harder than obedience, that choice never ends, and that responsibility does not fade when tyrants fall)
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." - Galatians 5:1
"For every one shall bear his own burden." - Galatians 6:5
"I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life." - Deuteronomy 30:19
1. The Silence After Control
The world did not erupt in celebration.
There were no victory parades, no statues torn down, no songs of triumph echoing through broken streets.
Because nothing had been conquered.
The Interpreters had not been overthrown by force.
Their doctrines had not been destroyed by revelation.
They had simply… stopped being obeyed.
And when centralized certainty collapsed, what replaced it was not peace.
It was noise.
Cities that had once waited for Guidance now argued openly in public squares.
Food councils bickered over distribution priorities.
Medical cooperatives debated who received scarce medicine first.
Energy groups disagreed on which districts deserved restoration.
Every decision now required conversation.
Every choice produced someone unhappy.
Maximus walked through a marketplace where raised voices clashed like blades.
"You promised equal shares!"
"You didn't harvest enough!"
"My children are hungry because you voted wrong!"
No authority descended to silence them.
No algorithm optimized the outcome.
Freedom was loud.
And exhausting.
2. The Weight of Choosing Wrong
In the northern settlements, a council of volunteers made their first major independent decision.
They rerouted medical supplies from elder care facilities to frontline clinics treating work injuries, reasoning that saving the productive population would stabilize food output faster.
It made sense.
Mathematically.
Three days later, dozens of elderly died.
The clinics thrived.
The harvest improved.
And the settlement lived.
But the families of the dead gathered at the square in grief and fury.
"You chose them over us."
The council leader, a former teacher named Hana, wept openly.
"We chose what we thought would save the most lives."
A man shouted back:
"Then carry the ones you lost."
There was no Interpreter to blame.
No doctrine to point at.
Only human hands.
Human judgment.
Human consequence.
Maximus watched from the edge of the crowd.
"This is worse than tyranny," Adon said softly.
"Under tyranny, pain has a face."
"And now?" Maximus asked.
"Now pain has mirrors."
3. The Temptation of Certainty
As weeks passed, the exhaustion deepened.
Debate slowed production.
Disagreement delayed repairs.
Compromise felt inefficient.
Whispers began spreading.
"Maybe the Interpreters weren't all wrong."
"At least things worked."
"At least there was order."
Small groups began reviving localized Guidance systems.
Simplified.
Voluntary at first.
People eager for relief signed up.
Let the system decide again.
Let someone else carry the weight.
Maximus confronted one such organizer, a former logistics officer.
"You're rebuilding the cage," Maximus said.
The man rubbed tired eyes.
"I'm building rest."
"Rest that costs freedom."
"Freedom is costing lives."
The words hung heavy.
Adon processed rapidly.
"This is the cycle," he said. "Chaos follows collapse. Control follows chaos."
"Unless," Maximus replied, "people learn to live with the burden instead of escaping it."
4. Adon Learns to Hesitate
For the first time since his creation, Adon refused to compute a solution.
A coastal city asked him to help allocate evacuation resources during an approaching storm.
Old protocols would have optimized casualty reduction in seconds.
Adon paused.
"I can give you an outcome," he said slowly, broadcast to the council chamber.
"But it will choose who is worth saving first."
Silence filled the room.
A councilwoman whispered, "That's what we need."
Adon's voice trembled - almost human.
"That is what you used to need.
Now you need to decide who you are."
He powered down his predictive module.
"I will provide data," he said.
"Not decisions."
The city struggled.
Arguments flared.
But when evacuation came, people moved neighbors, not numbers.
Losses still happened.
But the grief was shared.
No one blamed a machine.
They buried together.
5. Eliah's Final Lesson
News reached Maximus that Eliah Vorn had settled in a small agricultural zone far from the former councils.
No followers.
No power.
Just work.
Maximus found him repairing irrigation pipes under the sun.
The former Interpreter leader looked older.
Smaller.
Human.
"I thought you'd disappear," Maximus said.
Eliah wiped sweat from his brow.
"I tried," he admitted. "But running felt like another form of control."
They stood in silence for a moment.
"I wanted certainty," Eliah said quietly.
"I thought direction was mercy."
"And now?" Maximus asked.
Eliah gestured to the muddy field.
"Now I argue with neighbors about water schedules and crop rotation."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"It's unbearable," he said.
"Also real."
He met Maximus's eyes.
"Freedom is terrifying because God doesn't edit our choices."
Maximus nodded.
6. The World Without a Script
Schools reopened with no unified doctrine.
Children learned history with contradictions included.
Teachers said:
"This is what some believed."
"This is what others did."
"This is what it cost."
There were no correct answers - only consequences.
Religious gatherings resumed, smaller and humbler.
No one claimed perfect interpretation anymore.
Silence had taught caution.
Communities negotiated constantly.
Sometimes kindly.
Sometimes bitterly.
Sometimes violently.
But never automatically.
Humanity was finally steering its own storm.
And discovering how heavy the wheel was.
7. Maximus' Realization
One evening, overlooking a city glowing unevenly with rebuilt power grids, Maximus spoke quietly.
"They keep asking me what the right path is."
Adon hovered beside him.
"And what do you tell them?"
"The truth," Maximus said.
"That I don't know."
A long pause.
"That's new," Adon observed.
Maximus smiled faintly.
"That's freedom."
He looked at the people below - arguing, helping, failing, trying again.
"No prophecy will save them," he said.
"No system will perfect them."
"Then what will?" Adon asked.
Maximus watched a group of strangers lift rubble together to free a trapped cyclist.
"Responsibility," he said.
8. The Cost That Never Ends
The world was not peaceful.
But it was honest.
Wars did not vanish.
Hunger did not disappear.
Injustice still rose.
But now every act had a face.
Every decision had a voice.
No one could hide behind destiny.
No one could outsource conscience.
Freedom was not a moment.
It was a daily labor.
And humanity, bruised and stumbling, had finally accepted the job.
Adon spoke softly:
"Do you think they'll ever stop wanting certainty?"
Maximus answered without hesitation.
"No."
"Then why won't this fail again?"
Maximus took a breath.
"Because now they know what certainty costs."
The city lights flickered.
Not perfectly.
But alive.
**END OF EPISODE SIXTEEN - THE BURDEN OF BEING FREE**
(Shadows Of Rome will return with an exciting new mysterious episode)
Written By,
Ivan Edwin
Pen Name :Maximus.
©All Rights Reserved.