The Destroyer Book 3

by Michael-Scott Earle

  "Alas, I am just a girl. I hold no magic or weapons to avenge my loved ones." Telaxthe raised an eyebrow. Her smile had faded during my rant and I expected the empress to command her guards to enter and slay me.

  "Will you join me for dinner?" she said. Her mouth curled into a smile so similar to Nadea’s that I had to look away to avoid the rage and sadness that her face brought to my heart.

  "Do I have a choice?" I took a moment to answer since I was surprised by her question.

  "Everyone has options. I've found that even when a situation looks dire, there are always at least three choices to be made." I didn't answer and she continued, "I will tell you a story. It is one often not told to humans. The tale will take some time to share, and I would prefer to do it over a glass of wine and some delicious food. Please join me." She seemed sincere and I nodded.

  "The princess and I will take dinner in here. Please have a meal prepared immediately," she said. I glanced around the room but didn't see anyone standing near us. I realized that these Elvens must have hearing like Kaiyer. I'm sure the attendants on the other side of the door were rushing to fulfill her wish.

  "Shall we sit at your beautiful table?" the Elven ruler asked.

  My suite was large and had three rooms that connected to my own bedroom, my handmaidens’ room, and a private bath. On the opposite side of the room was a rectangular oak wood table that was big enough to seat six. It was stained a dark chocolate color and etched with pewter encrusted flowers, birds, and children playing. It had been a gift from my mother's parents, who were once powerful nobles of Gradar. They had died when I was five years old and I never knew them.

  "Very well. I am not hungry though." I sat at the head of the table and Telaxthe sat next to me, close enough so that our skirts touched.

  "My chefs will delight you with their creations," she brushed off my meek objection with an easy smile. The door opened and three Elven women walked into my room. One lay out a gorgeous green tablecloth with gold and silver embroidery on it. The other set out a small array of plated cheeses, fruits, honeys, bread, and dried meats. The third set down crystal jugs of sweet and dry wines, along with glass pitchers of water with cut oranges and green citrus peels filling half of each container.

  The speed and grace with which the servants worked surprised me. Before I counted to five the table was set and the three Elvens had exited, closing my door silently behind them. If not for the food laid out before me I might have second guessed that they had actually been in my room.

  "Let me serve you, Jessmei." She took a small dish and wooden tongs, placing apples, salted meats, cut cheeses, and crackers on it before handing it to me. While I set the plate down she poured some of the white wine and then prepared a matching dish for herself. The way she moved her hands and held her body reminded me of Nadea. But I remembered to remove the puzzled look I'm sure my face wore by the time that Telaxthe raised her glass and touched it briefly to mine.

  "To our future," she said. I resisted the sudden urge to throw the golden liquid on her face and mustered up a slight smile. I took a sip of wine and then a small bite of cheese. The wine tasted like it was from Nadea's part of the country. It was crisp and dry for a white. The cheese was a salty gouda and probably came from Loorma, which was known for its cheese production.

  "As I said earlier, the past recollection of our worlds is not known to humans. When we find civilizations that are removed from the influence of the O'Baarni or Elvens, they often have crafted their own history, or they have legends that have been corrupted by time and twisted into something similar to the truth, but not entirely accurate. What I am about to tell you is known only by my own people. Some of the O'Baarni know the latter half, since it involves Kaiyer, but they have not bothered to learn the lessons of our Dead Gods." I exhaled when the empress said his name, and my heart ached. I thought I was strong enough to battle this woman wit to wit, but the mention of his name made me want to fling myself onto my bed and cry my life away.

  "The truth." Telaxthe set down her glass and gave me a piercing look. "Can be more fantastic than fiction." Then she smiled and leaned back slightly in the wooden chair. "There is much to learn from mistakes that have already been made. There are only a few of my people more versed in the various histories of our creation. While I am hesitant to boast about my accomplishments so far in my career, I am quite prideful of my knowledge of what has happened to bring the life forms in our web of planets to this point."

  "I am interested to hear your account then." I tried to relax. She made it quite obvious that she was going to enjoy telling this story. I reasoned that I should pay close attention and ask appropriate questions. Fortunately, I had always excelled in my history and political lessons.

  "Eons ago there were two beings created from nothing. They were consciousness with no form. They were thoughts without motives. Like painters with a canvas that stretched forever in all directions. Their names are difficult to pronounce in our current language but closely resemble T'Leinaw and T'Cheelmaie. Our old languages labeled them as Day and Night." She picked up a small piece of bread and spread butter on it, then placed a piece of white cheese and a dried apricot atop the butter before taking a perfect bite.

  "You see, these two beings could never directly communicate with each other, like opposing sides of the same coin only one was conscious at a time. They knew of each other's existence through actions that the other took, but they had no way of having a conversation in the way that we are now.

  "They did find a way to communicate indirectly though. T'Leinaw is said to have been the first one to act. After an unfathomable about of time in the darkness the being created some lights, colors, and stars. When it was done with its work T'Cheelmaie saw what had been created and chose to make movement to the stars and colors. When T'Leinaw awoke, it realized someone else added to the creation process.

  "They played with their creative process like children. At first it was just the stars and the movements of them. Eventually they created objects that were not stars. Giant pieces of solid matter that drifted back and forth in the nothingness. For a while they entertained themselves with creation. Then they dallied with destruction, casting the other's creations into the stars to be eliminated in showers of infinite dust. They angered each other, but could not ever truly fight since they held equal power and were separated by the one force that was beyond their control: If they created, they became tired, when they rested, the other took over." Telaxthe took another sip of wine. Her passion in telling the story reminded me of when Nadea spoke of her quest to find the O'Baarni.

  "Finally, the two crafted something that neither wanted to destroy: a child." When the empress's final word left her mouth I felt a pang of regret in my stomach for things that had never been.

  "How did they make a child if they never knew each other?" I asked.

  "T'Cheelmaie started with a form, painstakingly crafted from pieces of dust and matter floating between the stars. When T'Leinaw saw the body that was created, it was taken by the beauty of it and could not bear to destroy it. Instead, it gave the form life. Then the process was finished as the two Gods bestowed gifts of Spirit and mind onto the creation. Soon, the being awoke and a new God was born. Its name was T'Orend. Their creation did not have the same powers as its parents, but, unlike them, T’Orend never needed to sleep. Finally, the Gods could communicate with each other through another sentient being.”

  "So this T'Orend passed messages between the two?" The empress nodded at my question before she continued.

  "In our old language, T'Orend means time. It separates day between night, the sun between the moon, and the seasons our lives shift through." There was a knock on the door a brief second before more Elven attendants entered. Small plates of steamed and flavored vegetables were carefully arranged next to salted fish and placed with a small glass of pale beer. I wasn't much of a fan of the grain alcohol, but the dry bitterness of the liquid would probably pair well with the fashion in whic
h the fish was prepared. The empress waited for a few minutes while we started on the first course before she continued with her story.

  "T'Orend was warm and loving; the God could have pitted its parents against each other, it instead worked to unite them. It told each of the other Gods words of praise that the other had supposedly communicated. They were small lies at first, but they later became truths when the two beings fell in love with each other, despite having once been enemies and never actually being able to inhabit the same place at the same time." The idea of lovers that could not be united appealed to me for obvious reasons and I felt myself becoming more interested in Telaxthe's fable.

  "The Gods decided that, since T'Orend had been such a success, they would experiment with creating other, lesser life." She had finished about half of her food but gently nudged her plate away and downed the remainder of her beer with a satisfied sigh afterward. "Create they did. The Gods made planets to circle the sun, and they made some of these planets connect to their magic. The powers pulsed with love from the Earth, heat from Fire, cold from the Wind, and life from the Water. To inhabit these planets, they fashioned all sorts of life forms, communicating their designs and desires to each other via T'Orend. While they worked with purpose and great intelligence, most of the beings they attempted to create perished before they finished working on the next. They did learn from their failures though, especially T'Orend, who observed all parts of the process and did not have the eons of experience that the parents did."

  "If these beings were so powerful, why did it take so many failures?"

  "That is an intelligent question, Jessmei, and one that I asked when I first heard the story. It seems that these entities were fallible. They made plenty of mistakes, the sum of which ended with all of their deaths." She sipped some of the water with the citrus fruit in it.

  "I guessed that was their fate when you referred to them as the Dead Gods." I took another bite of food and followed with a sip of beer. One of the servants remained in the room and he filled the empress's glass with the wheat brew.

  "Eventually they got the knack of creating less intelligent creatures. They graduated from plants to animals. Nothing that came close to matching humans, at this point, but simple beasts of the land that could reproduce and eat each other or other plants. Some of these they allowed to change and evolve throughout many cycles of the Gods sleeping and waking."

  Another group of servants entered and produced small cups of chilled fatty yogurt sprinkled with dried squash seeds, cinnamon, and slices of sour tangerine. It was a refreshing palate cleanse that accompanied the water quite nicely. After the empress and I finished the small bowls she continued with her story.

  "Eventually the three of them created humans on a single planet. They didn't realize what they made at first. It wasn't until much later, after a few shifts of the two Gods sleeping while T'Orend watched, that they found that the humans had flourished. They built their own meager civilization out of mud huts, herd animals, and crude paintings on the sides of cave walls. Still, the Gods knew they had created something that might flourish and they set out to craft other intelligent races."

  "Like Elvens?" I asked.

  "We came much later. I do not believe that your world has any of the old humanoids left. Perhaps you may have heard of goblins, drakens, ogres, orcs, dwarves, half-humans?" I shook my head. "Ah, they made hundreds, perhaps thousands of different ones. Most have died out, though there are worlds that are home to some of these creatures.”

  "We have stories of fairies, dryads, kenku, lizardmen, and catmen. But these are just fables to scare children." I recalled the various tales I had heard during my childhood.

  "Those tales are based in truth. Those creatures may have once lived upon this world. Some still may. The Gods were quite prodigious with their creative exercises. This all happened more than five hundred thousand years ago. The old races could still exist, scattered on other worlds. Especially this one since it is so far removed from the main web the Radicles weave."

  "Kannath's warriors told me a bit about the Radicle, but I am not sure I understand it correctly." I felt the pain of Kaiyer's death again and fought down the urge to cry until it turned into mild anger.

  "By the end of my account, you will have a much better understanding." Telaxthe swallowed half of her beer in a large gulp and then continued her story.

  "The humans expanded rapidly and the Gods decided to make themselves known. Perhaps they were vain creatures, and intended to have their creations worship them, or perhaps they didn't realize the consequences of revealing their powers. The outcome was to be expected: the humans loved their creators and worshiped them. This did please the Gods and they lavished more affection on that race over all the others." I sensed a hint of bitterness in her voice.

  "By this time, the humans had built advanced civilizations, but they also knew disease, death, pain, suffering, and a host of other complications that come with life." She looked to me and I nodded in understanding.

  "The Gods looked at the humans' pain and shared in their agony. Using T'Orend, they debated for many cycles, which for the humans was thousands of years, until they came up with a solution that they felt would free them from the agony of living with risk."

  "The Gods figured that all of the problems facing the humans stemmed from their short lifespans, combined with the enormous amount of work they had to do to survive. If their existence was made easier, they would have more time to devote to their creators, and to other more pleasurable activities. This would end their strife and suffering and allow their beloved race to enjoy the short time they had. So the Gods created another race to be servants to the humans."

  "The Elvens?"

  "Yes. The Gods had become truly skilled by that point. They wanted to make a race that was strong, long living, intelligent, and beautiful. Above all, they wanted the new species to obey their masters with unquestionable devotion."

  "Wouldn't the Gods be their masters?"

  "Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the path that would spell death for the trio." The empress sighed regretfully. "If only they had done that. But instead, they made it so that Elvens felt a compulsion to always obey their human masters. I can't imagine what that must have felt like, to not ever have a choice, not even the ability to choose death over obedience."

  The first set of servants returned carrying soup in fine Nia porcelain bowls accompanied by garlic crusted bread. The soup tasted like it was tomato and asparagus. I didn't think it was the season for tomatoes and guessed that the chefs must have procured the red fruit from the castle's greenhouse stores.

  "It did not take long for the humans to become jealous of their servants. Why should these new children live longer than us? Why should they be stronger and more beautiful? The humans beseeched their creators. It didn't help that our kind held a unique connection with the planet and the Elements that surrounded us. We could control these powers and bend them to our will. Of course, our will was really just the command of our masters.

  "Finally, the Gods relented and gave humans access to the powers of the Elements. It sedated their complaints for hundreds of thousands of years. Humans were now much more powerful than their Elven servants and began to live extremely long lives. It was the latter benefit that started to unravel the relationship the Gods had with their creations. The humans and Elvens only existed on one of the God's many worlds. Since they made children much quicker, but lived as long as the Elvens, they came to overpopulate that single mass of earth. The humans beseeched their Gods again, asking for a solution to the problem.

  "So the Gods used their powers to connect all of their worlds together with a system to travel between them. They put many doorways on each of their planets and taught their creations to open them. The humans and Elvens rejoiced and built beautiful shrines to contain these doorways. They called the structures the Radicles, since these shrines represented the seeds of new life for the human race.

  “The Radicl
es were difficult to use, even for these powerful humans. A sect of their kind dedicated the entirety of their long lives to learning how to move others to different worlds via the Radicles. They passed this knowledge to their children, who in turn learned more and passed the knowledge along. After generations of this process, the knowledge of the Radicle came to be imbedded into the very blood of this sect so that their descendants knew, almost instinctively, how to use the Radicle before they knew even how to speak. This sect made an interesting discovery . . .” she trailed off as more Elven servants entered. I was so engrossed in the story that I had only taken a few bites of the delicious soup and considered asking the servants to leave it, but the scent of the main entrée was so tempting I allowed them to take my soup.

  They cleared the entire table and then set down small silver trays of roasted duck spiced with peppercorns and oranges. Telaxthe and I each had our own small bird, and the servants quickly went to work with knives and forks; slicing the perfectly cooked meat into small edible pieces. New glasses of rose wine were poured and a new pitcher of water was set before they left the empress and me alone again.

  "I should explain that I use the term 'human' quite loosely. From what I can understand of the scraps of records from that time, these powerful humans did call themselves the O'Baarni. It meant many things in the old language, but amongst my people it meant 'masters.’" She smiled slightly and then took a few small bites of duck before washing them down with the wine. I followed her example and agreed with her earlier statement that I would be delighted by the food.