Ellas - A dozen years ago
Kane
‘So what is it that we three must know of each other, Kane? That you know of Carthia is plain, but as to the how and what you know, both of us are at a loss.’ Anna’s question was obviously for me, but her eyes had taken in Carthia, too, as she spoke.
My answer was a smile, a smile that for once reached my eyes, my heart and my very soul.
For lifetimes I had grieved the loss of my friends, and for those same lifetimes, I had sworn vengeance upon the woman, Carthia, the girl before me.
And now I wanted to hug her, kiss her, and tell her that all was right with the world. But Anna’s strictures on telling my story forced me to hold back.
It was infuriating, and yet still I smiled, grinned even. Jain, Tarnia, Step and Garam lived, and would continue to live long after the time that I had thought them dead.
So many mysteries were now laid bare to me, so many questions now answered, and yet so many more now presented themselves.
But I could share none of it; not a word of my past would Anna allow. And yet I so wanted to share my joyous news with her… with them both.
‘You grin like an imbecile. Answer the Lady Anna’s question, fool man. Tell her what she wishes to know; what we both wish to know… How is it that you know me, and what was it that angered you so; anger that so quickly turned to this foolish grin? And who was it that you believed I killed?’
Anna laughed. ‘Well said, Carthia. I could not have berated the fool man better myself. But as I told you earlier, Anna will suffice… I have no titles. I am not a lady.’
I still grinned; I could not help myself.
Anna glared at me, her eyes so reminiscent of those of Setia when long ago she probed my mind. And yet I knew that Anna would never do that again; the once she tried had almost been catastrophic.
She wanted to know, wanted to know all that was my life. And yet her prophecies, her very own dreams, would ensure that she hear none of what I so wanted to tell.
‘I do not know what you will allow me to tell, Anna. Much is of who I was… the one you will not suffer to hear of. Some small part I wish to speak of with Carthia… but even that I feel is not for this time. Suffice it to say that young Carthia here brought to me a revelation… a thing that, had I not been the foolish man you name me, would have come to me long since. But no matter… you have brought me joy today, Carthia. A joy I never thought to be possible… and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hugged her again; the third time since the revelation dawned.
‘Fool man,’ she muttered, even as she, too, smiled.
‘Riddle upon riddle,’ Anna said quietly. ‘Your life, or perhaps I should say lives, bring less meaning than my most convoluted of dreams… and yet you somehow touch and affect all. You frighten me, my friend. To not know you is my bane… and yet so much of what you are, what you were… and perhaps what you will be, weaves its way though my life… all of our lives.’
‘Riddles again, Anna? I would speak plainly to you; tell you all that I know, all that I am… and yet all that you say is shrouded in mist and your damnable prophecies. Can you not for once speak plainly?’ Even as I spoke my harsh words, I smiled, knowing full well that nothing would come of my request. Anna would not, perhaps could not, listen to my story, nor tell of what she knew – her strictures would not allow it.
‘That all that has transpired this day involves Carthia, I do not doubt, Kane. But were I to speak freely to you, I do not think that I could do so before her… Forgive me, Carthia, but the fool man, as you rightly name him, wishes some plain talk this day—’
‘She may stay, Anna. This one, I now trust as I do you.’ Though mere moments ago I would have taken her life, a woman’s life… with no hesitation at all. How would such an act have changed what was to come? I shuddered at the thought. Forget that, fool. Anna is going to speak to you at last. Pay attention.
‘Seriously, Anna. Though she knows nothing of me, I have seen in her one that I can trust… and if I know anything of you, you too, trust this young woman.’
Anna smiled, a knowing smile that spoke volumes. ‘Yes, little one, ‘ she said, as she took Carthia’s hand,’ come with us and perhaps we may share some few tales with you of that which was… and, who knows, some small thoughts as to what is to come.’ As she finished, her knowing smile fell upon me.
‘What?’ I blurted. ‘Some small thoughts as to what is to come? You would now talk of such things?’ I was truly astonished at her words.
‘Patience, my friend. Let us secret ourselves away… and then we shall see what we shall see.’
####
Five minutes later we were ensconced in Anna’s tent.
On the way I’d given a very bemused Tomas a big hug and a smile. Christ, I’d nearly kissed the man. Bright would get extra oats and some tender loving care tonight as well.
Life was suddenly so very good – my friends lived, and Anna was finally going to talk plainly.
It was warm, stuffy and dark in Anna’s tent. She had insisted that the flaps be closed, and that Tomas be stood outside to turn away errant visitors.
Good old Tomas, who I should have recognised long since. He’d joined our group a few weeks before I left on my search for the past, and something had tickled my mind then, but I had ignored the feeling, so caught up in my coming quest was I.
‘So, who speaks first, Anna?’ I asked.
‘Yes. I know nothing of either of you. So which will it be that tells this tale?’ Carthia asked timidly, almost as if to herself.
‘How much can I say?’ I asked myself, even as the words left my lips.
‘Until my fear takes me,’ Anna answered my unintended question. ‘I cannot say what it is that can be told, and what I must not hear, Kane. Speak, but be slow. Do not rush with what you say… I must not hear that which I should not.’
‘Me? You wish me to speak first, Anna? I thought that, given your offer to finally tell me some of that which you have held back, you would be the first to speak. My question was to myself… a prelude to ordering that which I thought would be safe to tell you.’
‘Ah, but for the folly of men. They speak first and think later. What say you, Carthia? Should I tell of the little I have to say, or should the fool man, Kane here, tell us what he has to share?’
‘They say that a gentleman always lets a lady go first, but this is no gentleman… today, he has been but a fool. I think that he must speak first,’ Carthia said, with a huge smile on her face.
‘Fine!’ I said, in mock annoyance, my grin still evident, I was sure. ‘But first there is the matter of your brother, Joram. He must be informed that you are safe, Carthia.’
‘That matter had been taken care of, Kane. Carthia’s whereabouts will be known to her brother. You need not concern yourself.
Ah. No more delaying tactics, then, I thought, glumly. ‘Are you sure that I can speak of this, Anna? This, my knowing of Carthia, directly concerns my life before… before I met you.’
‘I am anxious, Kane. Yes, I am. Any talk of you makes me so. But there is something here that I am to know, something that lies deep within the life that was yours. Something that is yours to tell… or perhaps yours, Carthia.’
Carthia blushed at the mention of her name. ‘I know nothing of this, Lady… forgive me, I mean, Anna. That he is a fool man is plain for all to see… but of more than that, I know nothing.’
‘Fine. I will tell you… but I will talk slowly. I have seen you when your fear takes you, and it is not a thing to be taken lightly.’ I said the words earnestly. Anna would become a fury if there was only a hint that I was about to venture into that which she should not hear. ‘Where to begin is the first of many obstacles that must be crossed before I can tell what I must… and that is without thought to your prophecies and fear, Anna.’
‘Start at the beginning,’ Carthia said, flippantly, a comment from a child, a young girl who had run away, a girl who would become a woman that changed the world.
The beginning. The words echoed through my mind. The beginning – when I first met and learnt to hate the Carthia that sent me back to my home after she gave the order to kill my friends, or mere days ago when I first met the girl, Carthia, the girl who closed the loop that was my hatred and showed me my life as it now was. But even as I pondered on the word, I knew that there was more. There had to be. Alex, a name I had not brought to mind for such a very long time, was the twin of this girl, this Carthia that would be. No, I knew that this story was not yet complete.
‘I met your brother,’ I said hesitantly. ‘He misses you… he told me of your leaving—’
‘A message has been sent, Kane. This I have told you. Hold back no longer, or the day will be done long before my fear, as you name it, comes upon me.’
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‘I do not know where the beginning lies, woman,’ I said, my anger breaking through the joy I felt in my heart. ‘The beginning for me… or for this girl before us?’
‘Do not talk of me as if I do not exist,’ Carthia said, indignantly. ‘You invited me here. Both of you. I did not push myself upon you, I—’
‘Be silent, child. He comes to the crux of it. At least the crux of it as he knows it… and my foreboding still does not stir.’
I looked upon Anna with astonishment. Could I really speak of this? Could I really tell her of who and what I was, and of how it was Carthia who sent me back?
Carthia spoke before I could even formulate what it was I wanted to say, what it was I could say even.
‘I had to leave. The dream told me to go… it said that if I stayed I would die, that Joram, Mae and the children would die; that we would all die.’ She had tears in her eyes as she spoke and her hands shook. ‘I did not mean them harm… I did not want to leave them… but… but after she was gone… and the dreams telling me what was to come—’
‘Hush, child. Hush,’ Anna said, tenderly as she pulled Carthia close. ‘Do not worry yourself with what might have been. Your dreams are yours alone, and not for sharing. You have taken the first step, and we will protect you now… this man, Kane, will protect you. Of that, I am sure without the knowing of your dreams. What you did was enough… it was what drew me to you… and I feel it was as you said; in some way you saved us all.’ Anna smiled as she finished, but her tone held no hint of mocking.
‘This child, Kane, has already faced more in her short life than we can possibly know of. So I agree that she should… that she must hear what we have to tell this day.’
‘Strong words, Anna, but how far will you let me go with what I say?’
‘Perhaps you may tell some of what you know, Kane… but not of how you came by this knowledge… Yes, that might work. Already, I have gleaned that you have previously met or at least know of young Carthia here. And yet she recalls nothing of that which you know. And that knowledge did not bring me pain… it may be that I will be allowed to learn more.
I raised an eyebrow questioningly.
‘No, truly. Tell your tale… but do not rush. Be slow, as you said you would. I will know when you should stop.’
‘What game is this that you play? Can you not just both speak plainly as Kane has asked? You tell me, Lady Anna… sorry, Anna, that I should not tell of my dreams, and you yourself prevaricate so about what Kane hints that he knows of me. Why? What is it that cannot be spoken of amongst friends? Or do I presume too much?’
Anna sighed. ‘I, too, dream, Carthia. All my life I have followed what it is those dreams tell of. Some would name such a thing as a gift, but for me, my dreaming, or foretelling as most would say, has been a curse. A curse that took away my life… Forgive me, I digress. Although taken together, the prophecies of old and my—’
‘Prophecies? What are these prophecies that you now speak of?’ Carthia asked, even as her face coloured. ‘Sorry… Anna. I did not intend to interrupt. It is just that if not for my dream, I would have not understood what it is you speak of when you talk of your dreams… but of these prophecies, I know nothing…’ Carthia’s voice trailed off to silence, leaving her question hang between the three of us.
I held my breath. Anna had said very little of the prophecies, and the little she did say was as a riddle to me.
The silence grew as Anna seemed to think to herself for a few moments, her eyes distant as though playing out some waking dreams.
‘Strange,’ she said, finally. ‘You have repeatedly asked almost the same question over the cent… over the years, Kane. Demanded answers even. And on each of those times I have not answered… not truly answered. Not because I did not want to, not because I jealously guarded that which I knew. I could not speak of what you wished to know… it was as when you speak of your past, a foreboding, a dread, a pain even, would come upon me and I would have to stop you. So it was with the prophecies… and my dreams. I could not speak of them. And yet now I feel no such restriction.’
She fell silent for a moment, and I again held my breath. Centuries, I thought. Would she now finally tell of her damnable prophecies? And would what she said in someway explain what my whole life had been about… and what was yet to come?
Her words quietly broke through into my thoughts. ‘It is as though now is the right time… Yes, that is it. Now is the time you were meant to learn of the prophecies, Kane… and you, too, Carthia. Now is the time, and this is the place. And if this young woman was not here with us now, Kane, I would not be allowed to speak of this… Today is a strange day indeed; a day of change. We three are at the…’
I did not hear the last of Anna’s words as visions of the change my other self faced this day filled my thoughts. Somewhere I was lying face down on a cold hard floor, my bowels filled with ice water. And yet on that very same day, here now, I had faced a woman, who for centuries I had loathed beyond reason, and then come face to face with a reality that had hung for all those centuries just beyond my nose – I was the one; I was the Watcher, he who lurked out of sight and directed the woman Carthia as she sent me to my home.
And yet even now all was not clear – still I did not know why. That I was sent back, that I sent myself back to become Al’kar, I did not now doubt. But as to the why, and what it was I was to find or learn whilst at my home, was as deep a mystery now as it had ever been.
Small steps, my father used to say. Take small steps toward your goal and soon those very same small steps would bring you to where you wanted to be.
I had learnt a great deal this day, a great deal that had replace a despair in me I had thought to never lose, and now Anna, too, was finally prepared to talk.
Yes, a momentous day indeed. A day of change.
Anna was still talking, though her eyes were on me, a questioning look glinting sharply in her stare. ‘Long ago, centuries some say, but I believe it to be a far greater time than that, millennia I would say, the prophecies were recorded. The prophecies tell of the demon’s coming, of Dar’cen and the doom he would bring to our world. It is said that the prophecies were recorded in seven books. Seven that have long been lost to the world… though the words of the six still live on to this very day. Recorded by the faithful exactly as they had been written, with not even an inflection beyond that passed on, ever tolerated—’
‘You said seven… and yet only six were recorded?’
‘Ah, so you pay attention finally, Kane. It is good that you are back here with us again,’ Anna said with a smile.
Carthia looked from Anna to me and back again, confusion on her face.
‘He is a man,’ Anna explained. ‘His attention wanders as that of a child… as do they all.’
Carthia laughed, a burst of laughter that had her covering her mouth as she saw the mock indignation on my face.
‘Pray continue, Anna. You have my full attention. You were about to finally tell of those so secret prophecies of yours, and of how seven became six,’ I said, with a smirk on my lips.
‘If only it were a matter for jest, Kane. If only. The last book, the seventh, was lost to us… if it ever was, that is. The seventh is a thing of legend. Who can say if such a thing existed at all? Although I believe that it must, for what is said within the sixth, the last book, leaves all our future at a juncture, a knife’s edge… But enough of that… the six, as I said, were passed down from generation to generation. Not written, but by word of mouth—’
‘But surely then, each generation would—’
‘No, Kane. There were no variations. None at all. Every word, every utterance was as it was told that very first time after the cataclysm took the tomes that so few considered precious enough to protect.’
‘Cataclysm, Anna?’ I asked, genuinely interested. I had heard nothing of such a thing.
‘The Cataclysm was long ago; it is a part of the history of the tomes, and of the prophecies. Then, it was said that very few knew of them, let alone devoted themselves to the prophecies. Such a life was frowned upon, you see. As indeed were the prophecies and the very tomes themselves. The few followers were often mocked, beaten even, merely because of their belief in the writings that were, even at the time of the Cataclysm, thousands of years old… and that time I believe was thousands of years ago.
'What the words tell us, for the history, too, was passed down by word of mouth, is that the then ruler of Alberia, a kingdom long since gone from this world where the books themselves were kept, would bear no word, written or otherwise, of the dark time that the prophecies told of.
'Hearing his father’s words, Prince Jain’al ordered a purge. He hunted down the followers, tortured those he found, and destroyed all copies of the tomes that were found. Five long years the purge lasted, only ending when the prince came at last upon the originals, those that had been written so very long ago. Only then did he stop.
'Little did he know that the time of the purge was well spent amongst the dedicated. They it was who began the Telling, they who first learnt the words of the six, they who led the prince to find the original six so that his purge would end and unwittingly allow the dedicates to continue their work, and thus allow the word of the prophecies to be passed down to the time when they would be needed.’
‘Who was it that wrote these prophesies. Anna,’ Carthia asked before Anna could continue.’
For a split second Anna’s eyes glanced toward me before she answered. ‘Erithain was the name of the one who penned the prophecies. Of that person nothing was know. Some believed that Erithain was a god, a deity come to warn us of the demon that would come to ravage our world. Little else is known.’
Anna spoke on, but my thoughts drifted back to the woman, Erithain, who had, not so long ago for me and yet centuries for the world as it now was, saved us from Dar’cen’s clutches. Who was she really? That it was she who had penned Anna’s prophecies I did not doubt, but who was she really? Where did she come from and why did she name me Ka’in, a name that sounded so close to the Kane I had chosen, the name my Father had wanted for me?
Without thinking, I spoke over Anna, ‘Who was she, Anna? Erithain, who was she. You know more, I’ll wager? She named me Ka’in, and you showed no surprise, none at all.’
‘Rude man!’ Carthia blurted, but Anna said nothing, she didn’t have to, the shock on her face was sufficient to prove my accusation.
‘Well?’ I pressed.
Silence filled the room. Carthia said nothing, and Anna met my accusing stare with a look of mixed anger, frustration, and something else… pity.
Pity, I though. Why pity? 'Tell me, Anna,' I urged.
‘Another time, Kane,’ Anna said, as she stood and turned to leave. ‘The story of Erithain you will here but not now and not here… it is not my tale to tell. Another must tell you, one who you will trust.’
And with those words she left, leaving me dumbfounded and with yet more questions added to my ever growing list.
Turning, I saw that Carthia still sat opposite me, a look of confusion on here face.
Seeing her lifted my spirits again. They live, I thought, as a smile crept it’s way across my face. That is more than enough answers for one day.
‘Why do you grin so when you have obviously angered the Lady Anna so?’ she asked, not with a little venom in her tone.
I smile, a big grin of a smile. ‘Because today you made me happy, Carthia. Happier than I can ever remember. I did not mean to anger Anna. It is just that there is much that we cannot share with each other… do not ask me to explain as I myself do not fully understand.
‘It is why today Anna could not talk of Erithain… what she knows she said is for another to tell and so I will leave well alone. But as to Erithain, I will tell you what I know and of when we once met, a very long time ago. Much you may not understand as I cannot tell all, not yet anyway… the Lady Anna, as you call her, would boil me alive should I do so without her knowing. Will you listen?’
‘As long as you do not anger me as you did, Lady Anna,’ Carthia said, the corners of her mouth forming the beginnings of a smile.
And so I told of that day, the day deep in the bowels of Mother Ellas, when Anna, a Giant, and an Ellaren, met a little known legend. Nothing of the when, or of our escape from Dar’cen, just of the mysterious lady who sobbed in my arms.
Carthia listened attentively, her face alternating between wonder, confusion and outright disbelief.