"So what’s Ellas like? The world itself, I mean. Tell me about it."
It was a weekend and we were out for the day. I had taken Alex to where it had all began; well she had taken me really – her car, her suggestion.
I’d walked her to the clearing, talked her through it all, much as I had told Tony all those months ago. We even sat on the very same log that Tony and I had.
“Ellas and its people… to be honest, I didn’t take a great deal of notice for the first few years I was there. You know torture, killing and the like seemed to occupy a great deal of my time and left little for admiring the surrounding scenery.”
The look on her face was well worth my seemingly heartless remark, although to myself I silently resolved to never again allow my naturally flippant nature make light of all I had seen and done.
“Oh, don’t you look at me like that, Alex. I was just being sarcastic. You know, just like you seem to be so very often… But honestly, what I just said was true… I remember very little of the world and its people from those times. I knew all about the world, its geography, the people, their strengths and weaknesses. But that is different to what you want to know… that was just knowledge, almost like from a book… but much more complete. He gave me that, and much more besides – all I would need to function as his tool. My appreciation of Ellas as a place came much later… after my escape. Probably quite some time after that even, because at first, much of my time was spent evading recapture by his servants.
“I suppose, looking back, it was a wonderful place, or would be if not for him. Spending time again with Setia and her people is the first I can remember of beginning to appreciate Ellas and its people – I’ll tell you of that, shall I?”
Not waiting for Alex’s response I began to relate a story that I knew would prompt far more questions than it would answer.
“After a while spent sifting through all that Jain could tell me, and exploring every library he knew of, I decided to go back to the beginning, to visit the Stones of Achra and see what they might be able to show me, to see if they held any clues as to how I might return.
"On the way there I went to visit Setia. She knew me immediately, took me in her arms and hugged me, but as on that first meeting, her eyes held me and she knew. They held me with a look of both apprehension and fear. She knew what I had become, and all that I had done. Her very first words to me were, ‘So it is true… Dar’cen lives still
“We had ridden into her town, just the three of us… Jain, Tarnia and myself. I think we caused almost as much commotion the second time, as when I had arrived with the Nargu.
The three of us made quite a sight for such a small out of the way town. I was decked out all in black with my sword slung over my shoulder, Tarnia simply bristled with weapons and, there between us, was Jain – dumpy, old, almost bald, with a broad grin spread across his face as he handed out sweets to any young children that dared to come near enough
“Jain and Setia hit it off immediately. At first, I thought it was just an age thing – they were both old, possibly of the same generation, and so possibly shared childhood memories and the like. But it was much, more than that; they had immediately recognised in each other something, a secret something that only they could see.
"Within moments of meeting, Setia had drawn Jain away, taking him to her home, where they stayed for most of the morning. When they eventually emerged, Setia seemed much relieved, as if what they had spoken of had lifted a huge weight from her.
"Her eyes, when they fell upon me, no longer held the apprehension they first had, now they were lighter, seeming almost joyful. In them I somehow sensed hope.
“We stayed two days, enjoying the welcome and open friendship. We would have stayed longer if not for my insistence at my quest, and my fears that, should we stay too long, Dar'cen would learn of my visit and take vengeance on the whole town for giving me comfort.
"I learned a great deal in those two days. Nargu now often passed through the town on their way to and from the Stones of Achra and, on their return, Setia said, they were always mournful and afraid. They would drink far to excess even for their great appetite, and with that would boast that Dar’cen still lived, while at the same time showing their fear of returning to him empty handed.
"They never came back with a captive, I had been the only one.
"Their trips had started suddenly, a year earlier, Setia said. That, I told her, had coincided with my escape from him, and that he must want to replace me.
"I had then silently vowed to capture a band of these Nargu to learn all they knew and, if I could not reason a way to use the stones myself, then I would destroy them and and save someone else from the life I had endured. Even as the thought flickered across my mind Setia had smiled, her eyes bright, almost as though she knew what I planed.
“''It is very unnerving talking with you Setia,’ I said. ‘I believe that even Dar'cen did not know my every thought as easily as you.’
“'His way was always one of force and pain,’ she replied. ‘He relied upon fear, and the compulsion he placed upon his subjects. His arrogance led him to believe that none could or would ever be able to defy him. What they thought or planed were of no consequence to him, as they would never be able to act against him – they would always be his and obey his will. That was his belief and so his undoing, and again it has proven true with you. For you too broke his yoke… you are free of him and live to defy him still.’
“And so began our friendship, for although much of her time was spent with Jain, we too would sit for hours discussing what had happened to me, and what we thought the future held. Setia was a mine of information; her council and advice proved invaluable in the years that followed.
"Setia was old, older than most of the Wise that still walked Ellas, and Jain, she said, was far older than I had believed him to be.
"They were both of a kind, a people that had long since been culled to near extinction by Dar’cen. Once they had been many, but now those few that were deemed strong enough to join the ranks of the Citadel, were mere shadows of those that went before. Their blood line had been systematically eradicated from humanity during his rule. Very few survived, and only now, hundreds of years later, were any being born that truly held the power of old.
"Setia had been such a one, and Jain had known immediately upon their first meeting. True she could not defeat a troop of Nargu, but in her lived the knowledge and power to be one able to stand against Dar’cen’s will, and her child would be stronger still, she said. Setia had borne one child, but her fear and premonitions of what was to come, had convinced her to give up the child.
"That sacrifice had almost been her end. But it had had to be done, she said, to save her child and to give the world some hope of salvation.
"For Setia had foreseen his return, and the importance of her child in his undoing. All this she told me, yet she would say no more. She would not give a name, nor any clue as to what had become of the child. She said only that her child was safe, safe now that I was free of him… and that one day I would understand. She would say no more than that of the matter, even when I pressed for an explanation. I did not understand her story then, nor do I still.
“Our talk then turned to other matters. We spoke of many things, and later as the conversation changed to easier, safer topics, Setia quietly asked, ‘Who was the one who helped you, helped you to break free of him?’
“I looked at her blankly for a moment, unsure of where this question had come from. We had been talking of Jain and how and where we had met. Had she somehow known or reasoned it out, or had Jain told her the little I had said of gaining my freedom. They had spent a great deal of time closeted away together, so perhaps he had. Yet even Jain did not know of Anna, of how her friendship and eventual death, had set me on the path to defy Dar’cen. He could not have told Setia of that, so what did she know?
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“She answered the question for me. ‘An ancient magic has been laid upon you.’
“I started back, surprised and angered. My senses instantly alert, but confusion clouding my mind at what she had said.
“As I stood Setia held up her hand. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘Do not be alarmed, I started badly. This is no evil, this is not his doing. So be calm. Please sit while I explain.’
“I sat again, opposite her. But I was not calm.
“'When we met yesterday I did not see this spell, this magic, so faint was it upon you. It was Jain who told me of it. He had first seen it when you met, it was how he knew you for what you were,’ Setia said.
“I could not help myself as I blurted, ‘Stop this history lesson woman, tell me what it is, what this magic is. Then you can tell me the rest.’
“Setia looked exasperated at my interruption, and I felt ashamed at my lack of control. But my heart hammered with anxiety – I needed to know what this magic was, what it was doing to me and what it had done. Setia was silent for what seemed a lifetime, while inside I climbed walls trying to flee my own tension.
"Eventually, it was I who spoke first, ‘I am sorry, Setia, please forgive my rudeness and continue.’
“Setia smiled at me as she said, ‘I too am sorry, I did not realise the effect such a revelation would have upon you. I had forgotten all that you must have been through. I will move straight to the heart of it… the magic is a counter to his compulsion, an ancient magic devised by the greatest of our kind during the war against him. Its effects are to slowly break his control by planting a seed of free will within the souls of those under his control. The spell then nurtures and feeds that seed, strengthening one’s free will until the point at which it is finally strong enough to defy him and break free. The changes must be slow, ever so slow. If not, he would see what happened, see the spell, and then he could defend against it.
"This is the magic that allowed so many to break free of him, resist and fight against him in his first coming. Without this magic Al'kar would have stood almost alone in his fight. The magic is faint on you now, it has run its course; your free will is now very strong, and you will always be able to resist his control. But when you first met Jain, it was clear for one such as he to see. The magic was at its peak, he said, and he knew that you were then at a turning point.
"He did not know which of the two magics would win, for, he said, Dar'cen’s compulsion on you was very, very strong. He said that he lived that night as if it might be his last.’
“Despite the anxiety and confusion that still filled me, I laughed. I could not help myself for it was almost exactly what Jain had said to me when we first spoke. I remembered that night well and how Jain had indeed lived it as if it were his last. I could still hear the young woman’s voice pleading with him to return again.
"I looked back to Setia and her serious eyes brought me back to what she talked of, and the magic she questioned. It could only have been Anna who had laid this spell on me.
"I had believed that her friendship, her love and her death, had somehow strengthened a resolve in me that had eventually grown until I could defy him.
"But that was not the case, it had been this magic, her magic slowly working its way into me, strengthening me against him. She had said that I was not ready to stand against him, that I had to take her life, a life she eventually took herself. And now I knew why she did so, she took her own life to give me time, time for her magic to take hold, and to set me free.
"I choked at the knowledge, slumped forward in the chair, my head in my hands as tears began to well in my eyes.
"Setia slowly leaned forward, her hands reaching out to take mine. I knew what she did, but did not care – it was past time someone else knew of Anna’s story, knew of her sacrifice.
“I felt the familiar intrusion, as if Setia’s eyes bored into me, saw me and all I was. I held back nothing, let her roam where she would, see what she desired. I saw with her as she browsed my memories, and I tried to guide, but she gently pushed me aside as she found what she sought. Setia was with me when his hatred filled my mind, when he told me that the woman must die. With me when I set out on my mission, and again as I sat alone in the dark waiting for my victim. There, as she entered the room, lite the lamps, and there as I looked upon her face.
‘Anna?’ Setia gasped. ‘It cannot be… She still lives… Praise the light, she still lives.’ Then, as she saw it all, her hands shook and I heard her sobs as she cried with me.
“A long time later, we talked and she told the little she knew of Anna, Anna who had been the greatest of them all, she said. It was she who had created the magic that had been laid upon me, the magic that had been so crucial in the war against Dar'cen. A likeness of her existed in the Citadel, Setia said, where her name, her life and her works were legend.
"Little of that time was still known, but much that was good had come from Anna, she said.
"I argued with her, saying that it must be another, the name and the resemblance a coincidence. It could not be the same, I said, the woman she talked of would be hundreds of years old now, and that my Anna had been in her middling years, thirty five, no more. But I could not dissuade her – Anna, the greatest of them, had lived a dozen lifetimes to fight him still and to bequeath her final gift of freedom upon me, she said.”
“So that’s what you meant the other day?” Alex asked. “When you told me how you broke free of him, you said that things were not quite how they seemed at the time. It was this magic that Anna placed on you that you were talking about, wasn’t it?”
“For a long time, I was sure that Setia had to be wrong; that the Anna she saw in my mind could not possibly have been the Anna from her legends. But being sent back as Anna’s letter seemed to imply, and then meeting you, the twin to the woman Carthia, forced me to rethink a great deal of what happened to me.
"Now, I believe all Setia said. But I do not understand it… none of it. Why would Anna, this legendary figure, give her life to save me?”
"I didn’t have an answer, and for once Alex was at a loss for words too. So after a few moments of reflective silence I returned to my story.
“Setia and I talked further that day, but I’ve digressed a long way from your original question of Ellas and its people. In those few days spent in Setia’s village, something again changed in me… I began to appreciate the people and the world around me. I saw the people, really saw them; their kindness, compassion, and love of all things filled me with hope.
"True petty squabbles still abounded in their day to day lives, but as a people we have much to learn from them. They were kind, honest and caring, always prepared to listen and share with the needy, and lend help when it was deserved.
"In them I saw goodness – something that abides only in the very best of us here on Earth. They were not perfect, not in the least, but they would be a shinning examples to those of us here.
"They had little, but yet were more prepared to share the little they did have than those among us deemed rich beyond measure. If not for his coming, it was a world to be envied, a world to be proud of."
“So things changed for you at that point, you stopped wanting to return," Alex declared.
I suppose my face showed my surprise at her insight, because she continued without waiting for a response, “The passion as you spoke, the way you described the people, and how very caring they were, gave too much away. As you spoke of them you changed… your voice and your face changed, you calmed and seemed at peace, at home almost.
"Earlier you said that you stopped searching for a way home, started instead to treat Ellas as your home and to, in small ways, do those things that would obstruct his growth.
"This was it wasn’t it, this was the turning point for you?"
Again the look on my face was all she needed to see. She was a bloody infuriating woman, but then aren’t they all.
“Yes. It was the start of it, but only the start. I began to see Ellas for the first time, the people and their kindness, but I still wanted to be with my family and the normality that was my home. It was complicate, and I only truly decided to stay much later, when the search seemed futile."
“Well I suppose you’d best finish this story first before we move on to much later,” Alex said, with a grin. “You were going to tell me of when you went back to the Stones of Achra!”