by Mussie Haile
Just then, she heard Shewit’s voice in her head. It was a memory.
“It is in you. The ability to draw energy from Toas and unleash chaos. You just have to surrender to it.”
Eldana had not understood what Shewit had meant then. But she did now. She closed her eyes, and let herself go. She had been trying to draw from the well of power when all she had to do was dip into the well and be lost in it.
“Take me.” She whispered, even as Lord Taboon’s dark magic was all around her. Suddenly, something cracked inside her and opened. As a segment of her revealing itself; a segment that she had never known was there.
Eldana felt such a rush of energy that she screamed. A ball of radiant light exploded from her, throwing Lord Taboon and Sinto aside, and spreading through the entire land like a ripple.
Eldana lay there glowing like the sun. She was a conduit for the energy in the air. A giver and taker of life. She knew what she had to do – drawing from the depth of Toas.
With an ear-splitting shriek, the light drained from her, and back into the earth. It spread through the land like webs, growing, becoming larger, and swallowing the surrounding ground. And then suddenly, there was quiet. Eldana breathed. She felt weak. But she was still alive. Siem, Hermon, Mikko, D’rmas, and Meko rushed to her side.
“Eldana,” Siem called. “Are you alright?”
Eldana gave a weak smile.
“Well done, child.” Eldana heard a voice say.
It sounded like Fraweyni’s. But Eldana was not sure.
She succumbed to her weakness and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Eldana, Siem, and Hermon had spent so much time running that they had forgotten what it felt like to live without having people on the lookout for them.
Immediately after the battle, Siem, Hermon, D’rmas, and Mikko, had lifted Eldana from off the ground and to a shelter that Fraweyni had caused to grow from the ground. There, Meko administered to her.
“Is she going to be okay?” Siem had asked, concern etched deeply on her face.
“Yes, I think so,” Meko replied.
“You think so?” Hermon asked.
Meko looked up at him. “The kind of magic she has just worked has never been worked by anybody. Not even the being of Balance and Chaos that came before her. She just single-handedly blew out every enemy. And it’s not just that.”
“There’s something else?” Siem asked.
“Yes. She is alive and the world is not crumbling to pieces.”
“What’re you saying?” Hermon asked.
“I’m saying that Eldana is not the cause of chaos in Toas. And if that comes to the people, there is no fear of gods anymore!”
“She told me not to call them like that. Gods. Rather Camin and Lowus” Mikko remembered.
Meko nodded.
“Everything will be different from now on, everything. Would you adhere to the rules if there was no appending chaos looming?” She left the rest to the thoughts of her listeners.
Sinto and Lord Taboon were nowhere to be found. Somehow, they had slinked off the battlefield. The orcs were a race whose love for battle was almost unbridled. Even after Lord Taboon, who had enlisted them, was gone from the battlefield; even when it was clear that theirs was a losing battle, they fought on. The Elvsoc faced them with strength and skill, decimating their numbers until the orcs were forced to flee for their lives.
Eldana woke back up in the shelter with all her friends surrounding her. She told them the stories she heard from Shewit, crumbling their reality even more. The friends stared at each other in silence.
“What next” Siem tried to break the silence. “I am not sure,” Eldana started “If you knew, everything is fabricated, would you stick to it? The chaos, the hundred-year cycles? Everything? I mean Camin and Lowus had killed so many just to keep their lie alive. What would you do if you figured that out?”
“I would go berserker.” Hermon added, looking desperately around for a smile of his double pun. He could not find one. Just a serious answer from D’rmas.
“I would.” He seemed to strike a nerve with this answer, everyone around him started to nod.
Fraweyni came to visit Eldana and found the group in deep thoughts in front of her.
“We go back to Ciroc.”
“We’ve had enough interaction with the rest of the world.” She added. “I need peace. The elves need peace. Our place is right where we started. In the forests of Ciroc.”
“I will miss you,” Eldana told her.
Fraweyni smiled.
“You and your friends are no strangers to the elves. For a fact, our songs will carry your names. You all are always welcome amongst us. Always.”
“What happened to Camin and Lowus?” Eldana looked at Fraweyni trying to read what she was thinking. But this time, she did not let her in.
“Well, they vanished after your surge of power.” It will be a lot harder to kill you now.” Fraweyni smiled.
Eldana had a thousand more questions, but she left it there. There where gone, for now.
Hermon and Meko excused themselves from the rest of the company to go have a heart to heart about what they felt for each other. Siem had seen them leave and could not help the smile that appeared on her face. She had never expected that her friend would fall in love with an elf. And a very beautiful one at that. Strong, and excellent.
They will make a good pair, Siem thought. Until the elves left, and Eldana and her friends found themselves back on a track to the Middle Kingdom.
“I could not believe that you would leave her, and come with us,” Siem said looking at Hermon.
“You’re talking to me?” Hermon asked.
“Of course, I’m talking to you,” Siem replied. “Wasn’t I staring at you?”
Hermon shifted in discomfort.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Hermon denied.
“Oh, please, Hermon,” Eldana moaned. “Quit with the denial. It’s not a bad thing if you’re in love with an elf.”
D’rmas and Mikko roared with laughter. Hermon’s cheeks grew a bit red.
“But seriously,” Eldana said. “I’m happy for you, for you both.”
“You know,” Mikko said, sitting up and a mischievous grin growing on his face, “I’m wondering what kind of babies the…”
“Mikko!” Eldana, Siem, and Hermon chorused.
The last time they had been to the Middle, they had run out of it with their hearts in their mouths. The King had just tried to apprehend Eldana. Lord Taboon had tried to capture Siem and Mikko, and Hermon had acquired D’rmas services through a brawl. As they went through the gates, they felt absurdly different.
The walls of the city were chipped in places. There were scorch marks on walls and buildings. Some of the buildings they had passed were in shambles. Some of them were undergoing repairs.
“A battle happened here,” Eldana noticed.
“Yeah,” D’rmas said. “Following the wave of destruction, I’ll say that the battle had ranged well through these gates and into the inner sector. But some parts of the structures are still standing, so my verdict is that the enemy soldiers beat the kingdom into a retreat. The kingdom soldiers were fighting furiously in return. They had been beaten into the inner sector where they made their last defense and succeeded in repelling the forces.”
“Excellent analysis,” Mikko chipped in as soon as D’rmas was done. “I should call you for a contribution to this text I plan on writing on war schemes and strategies.”
D’rmas chuckled. “I’m always at your service, dear friend,” he said.
“You know what?” Hermon asked all of a sudden.
“Techle,” Eldana said.
“How did you know that was what was in my mind?’ Hermon asked,
looking surprised.
“You forget that our dear friend has become a telepath,” Mikko replied.
“Come on, no,” Eldana protested. “I did not need to read his mind. I was thinking about the same thing too. Techle helped us before we left here. Wow, it feels like years ago.”
“Exactly,” Siem said. “Perhaps after our intended tour of telling the people the truth, and our visit to the king, we’ll go find him?”
“Well said,” D’rmas replied. “There’s no place I would rather spend the night.”
The welcome that the group of friends received was unprecedented. As their caravan cruised through the streets, people began to pour out from the buildings to come meet them. Eldana was nothing short of surprised. She had not expected that the people of Middle Kingdom would accept her again, much less celebrate her. Not after she had abandoned her perceived duty at the time and run away; in the process releasing chaos into the world and exposing them to it. But here she was. Here they all were. Being called heroes. Their names took up most of the chants and songs that the people released. She did not understand it. The only explanation would be that the news is spreading like wildfire that there will be no more looming chaos every one-hundred years. Only two very old beings of Balance and Chaos that need to be fought. She had expected fear in the people, but everyone seemed released and happy.
Mikko whistled.
“I was not expecting this at all,” he said.
“Same here,” Siem said, as she looked across the crowd with wide eyes.
Their excitement was so lavish, that she could not help but have the funny thought that the people would not have enough excitement for themselves after this. The people dubbed Eldana and her friends the heroes and saviors of Toas.
“Do you hear that?” Hermon yelled so he could be heard above the roar of praise.
“What?” Eldana questioned.
“They are calling us heroes,” Hermon replied.
“Are we not?” Eldana asked. “We just risked everything to make the whole of Toas better.”
“We are even lucky we are getting a heroes’ welcome,” Siem said. “More often than not, good deeds go unappreciated.”
“Aye.” D’rmas agreed. “But I think I know why this one is this appreciated.”
“Why?” Mikko asked.
“It is not just because you delivered the world from the maws of chaos, Eldana. I mean they are happy about that, sure... But it is not just that. That there,” he pointed towards a man in the crowd, “is why most of them are happy.”
Eldana, Siem, Hermon, and Mikko all looked in the direction D’rmas was pointing. And they saw him. There was no way you could miss a display of fire, even in a crowd like this. The man was holding a club, which he frequently set on fire, and after a few seconds proceeded to quench the fire.
“Meko was right,” Hermon whispered.
The man caught their eyes and began to wave happily at them.
“Yeah, she was,” Siem affirmed. “People are less obedient. There feel free again.”
“How?” Eldana asked. “I do not understand.”
“You did it, Eldana,” Hermon said.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yes, you,” he said. “You not only saved Toas from being torn apart, but you also did more than that...”
“That is a good thing, right?” Eldana asked.
“That,” D’rmas said, “only time will tell. For now, let us bask in this heroic welcome. We have deserved every bit of it.”
“Well said, my friend,” Mikko said. “Well said.”
Eldana tried to step off the caravan, but Siem gripped her by the arm.
“What do you think you are doing?” Siem asked, giving Eldana a quizzical look.
“What does it look like I am doing? Joining the crowd of course,” Eldana replied.
“Bad idea,” Hermon chipped in.
“Look at the crowd, Eldana,” Siem instructed. “Take a look at their level of excitement. I can very well tell you right now that this caravan is the only thing keeping us from being torn apart, and you want to leave its safety and deliver yourself into their hands?”
“But I thought they are celebrating us and our accomplishments?” Eldana asked.
“Of course they are, but the moment you get down there, everyone will want to touch you, the being of Balance and Chaos, the savior of the entirety of Toas, the liberator of the people, the one who made everyone free. Do you think you can handle it when all these hands are trying to touch you, to feel you, and cannot get enough?”
“Oh,” Eldana said, her eyes widening in comprehension, “I see what you are saying.”
“Please even staying at the edges are dangerous. Thankfully, none of them is wild enough to try to jump at us,” Siem said.
Eldana laughed.
“There’s also the fact where you do not want to miss out on the feast Techle has probably prepared for us,” Hermon said.
“That’s true,” Eldana exclaimed. “There’s no way he does not know we are in the Middle Kingdom already. It is just a day ride from here with Mikkos help.”
“And if Techle is still the Techle we knew,” Mikko said, “then you can only imagine what he has got brewing.”
They all laughed.
“Let’s just come out from this tour in one piece,” Eldana said. “You know, just to make sure that everything is okay. And after all, now we have all the time in the world to enjoy the pleasures that Techle’s tavern has to offer.”
They all laughed and nodded their heads in unison, and turned to show their acknowledgment of the crowd’s songs and chants, by waving, nodding, and smiling.
Henok sat in his chair, looking heavily morose. He had been this way since he had gotten a report that Lord Taboon and Sinto were nowhere to be found after their attack on the being of Balance and Chaos. Their bodies had not been found, so he still harbored the hope that they would return soon. With their absence, a new royal adviser could now present himself, hoping that now, the King could finally give him his ear.
Henok had gone from one of the most revered kings in Toas to one of the weakest within a very short time. He had not dealt with the stigma that dogged him from his loss to Tonar, a kingdom filled with humans, and now this. His most powerful magicians had been defeated by a band of friends, and elves. But this was not the most disconcerting news. The roar he could hear outside his palace. Oh, how his subjects hated him now...
Just a few minutes ago, a guard had come in to tell him that Eldana and her friends were in the kingdom. Henok had stared at the guard until the royal adviser had to dismiss him from the king’s presence.
His people were giving Eldana and her friends, who remained nothing but a band of fugitives to Henok, a hero’s welcome! Not only because she had single-handedly restored peace to the kingdom, but because in doing that she had given everyone the idea that they can live a life in full freedom. Now, what power he still held as the king stood, by every indication, to be threatened. If it was not already.
The royal adviser, an elderly short man with a full, but neatly trimmed gray beard and a bald head, had been able to discern from the king’s reactions what the problem was, and he had just the solution for it. His major problem was getting Henok to give him his listening ear. The royal adviser had always known since Henok’s childhood that he was going to be occupying his position only as a figurehead for a very long time. In fact, till his death. He had been relegated to be background, unmentioned in the history books, unknown by the kingdom’s poets. But this here was fate smiling down at him! He had never expected that a day would come when the magicians the king had taken to getting advice from would no longer be available! That day was here, and he was no slouch.
Even if the magicians were to suddenly and unexpectedly turn up, he would make sure that the king saw his worth as an adviser. He di
d not even mind being added to the magicians as a third person...
“My King,” the adviser said softly, controlling his tone of voice so as not to sound anything but utterly subservient.
Henok looked at him, and then looked away.
The adviser swallowed. The king had not given him any indication to go on or to stop. He would take the silence to mean he could go on.
“Things may not look too bright at the moment, but you can make them be my lord,” he stared at the king and continued. “It looks like your throne may have lost its power because it was not able to provide the peace which your ancestors have been providing before you...”
“If you intend to rub my failures in my face, you should know that you are succeeding, and that does not bode well for you,” Henok told the adviser.
“I’m sorry, my king,” the adviser replied hurriedly with a deep bow, “but that was never my intent. Not even the slightest bit. I intended to show you that though it may seem like you have been stripped of your powers and authority, it is not the case!”
“No one fears authority anymore,” Henok said. “They can easily band together and challenge the throne. It is going to be easy for insurrections to rise among the people. How long before someone thinks he is better than the king on the throne and steps forward to challenge me?”
The royal adviser smiled inwardly. He had the perfect solution to that.
“My King?” he called, “Are these same people, not your people?” he asked.
Henok sat up a bit and looked more intently at the adviser.
“They are,” he replied.
“And do they not reside within your walls and under your very own protection?”
“They do.”
“They are subjects of yours, my king. And a few new magic tricks and a new hero are not going to stop that. They are still going to go back to their beds to sleep, counting on you for their protection. They will still move about, work, have lives, raise families, counting on you to watch their backs. You make the policies. You make the decrees. It is also your job as a king to act on foresight. And like you have rightly said, my king, you have seen this newfound power going to chaos.”
