Meeting (2)
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“ Some millennia ago....” Fiona began, taking a hold of my wrist and pulling on my hand.
“.......the Aether Fall happened. That was the catalyst that stirred up the entire continent and changed Rakia into what it is today. The first thing that usually comes to mind when most people hear the words ‘Aether Fall’ is ‘deity’ but that analogy is only half true.”
She slowly twisted my arm back, a gesture that summoned a surge of splitting pain in my shoulder blade despite my futile attempts to suppress it.
“The problem with that line of thinking is simple, really. They’re associating all divine beings under the banner of that one word but there are actually two different kinds of deities. We share some similarities with each other but its not to the extent where we can be grouped together.”
The pain surging through my shoulder ceased before long, and once it did, she circled around me and placed a hand on my knee, caressing it lightly and giving it a small twist.
“Tcgh!”
Much to my dismay, a tender pain erupted in response to her touch. My body—shrieking from the agony—was held firm by the vines that sprouted from the makeshift chair.
“Bear with me for a minute Liam. I have to be careful with this or you might not heal properly.” She whispered softly, the words didn’t sound special in anyway but somehow, I felt like they numbed the pain.
After massaging a few more points on my leg, she stood up and returned to the space behind me to repeat the procedure.
“Now then, where were we? Ah, yes, deities. That word actually refers to two general classes of divine beings, the first of which are nature spirits like myself. We are commonly called ‘Nymphs’ or ‘minor deities’ by fanatics.” Fiona explained begrudgingly
“Our existence doesn’t depend on faith; instead, we are born through the culmination of magical energy that has accumulated in regions with high concentrations of mana.”
“Then that must mean you don’t need people to worship or believe in you, right?” I probed curiously, sparing a glance over my shoulder.
The deity chuckled lightly.
“Yes, that’s right my dear. Nymphs are born from the world itself; we are divine spirits. In general, spirits are physical manifestations of nature’s will. That also goes for the lesser spirits you see floating around this place too, the different colors represent the core components of this forest—water, earth and wind.”
“Oh, that's what they were! I’ve been curious about them for a while now, these pretty lights.” I said, stopping to glance at the multi-colored orbs lazily drifting through the air like fireflies. “Are they alive?”
Before I could get my answer, I felt her fingers press against the base of my neck, then she gripped my head and jaw, swiveling my head slightly.
“Good, it doesn’t look like anything's wrong here.” she affirmed, sounding proud.
“Um, lady Fiona?”
“Don’t worry I’ll be done soon. Now as for your question about them being alive; the answer is no. Well, to be clear, they’re not alive yet. Lesser spirits do not have a personality and are not self-aware, it is easier to think of them as manifestations of Sylvans excessive lifeforce.”
This forest was teeming with life, I could feel it clearly even without stepping foot outside this hollow enclave. Considering how potent all of that life force must be, its not strange for some sort of self-regulatory mechanism to be in place for the sake of order.
Oversaturation was never a good thing, not even when it came to life force. The simplest countermeasure to prevent that would of course be death, however, it looks like this peculiar forest has opted for a different approach.
Before I could decide if such a system could be called genius or not, the deities voice pulled me back into the realm of our conversation.
“Sylvan thrives from an extraordinary concentration of ambient mana and life force. In order to regulate that abundance; I developed a cycle to harnesses that advantage. It evenly distributes the surplus mana and life force across the land, allowing lesser spirits to take form and contribute to maintaining harmony.”
“Harmony?”
“Yes.” She answered, her voice still mellow. “The lesser spirits have a role to play too, they’re not just here for show—for example, the spirits of earth keep the land fertile, in the same way the water spirits keep our rivers and streams clean.”
I stand corrected. It seems I made the mistake of underestimating the inner workings of a deity’s domain. Sylvan's system was marvelous—no in fact, it was even better, genius was the word for it.
“So it's kind of like housekeeping then?” I retorted curiously.
She laughed again, this time sounding even more amused.
“Yes, exactly my dear. Impressive, no?”
A hint of pride was undoubtedly suffused in that question. For someone with such a regal demeanor, Fiona was surprisingly easy to read. I guess even deities want to be acknowledged for their efforts every now and then.
“Of course, It's amazing, no wonder they call you a deity. Nobody else can do something like that and make it sound so easy.” As a token of my appreciation, I lacquered my words in sincerity. It wasn’t just because I knew that was what she wanted to hear—her efforts truly were commendable.
“Well, this much is to be expected. I couldn’t call myself a divine spirit if I can’t even take care of my own domain.” her voice rippled from behind me. I couldn’t see her face but it sounded like she was puffing with pride.
Since her mood was perking higher, I decided to probe further.
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“Then what about you?” I questioned politely, leaning back to raise my chin. “What makes a divine spirit different from these lesser spirits?”
Her hands suddenly stopped and the sound of rumination became audible.
“Ahem!” She began, making a mock gesture
“...Well Liam, not to brag or anything but in simple terms that would be like comparing a stream to the ocean. Lesser spirits—as their name implies— are simply natural manifestations that are subservient to beings of higher divinity. In my case, the spirits flock to me because I’m somewhat of a combination of all of them.”
“I see, that does make sense. I think I understand what you mean now, but what do they have to do with druids?”
“That’s what we’re about to get into.” Fiona stated wittingly.
Maybe it was because she was standing behind me but her tone sounded softer for some reason, like it was lulling overtime.
“Before we get to the druids, we have to talk about the other class of deities first—the Sefirot. They are objects of belief and worship that thrive on the faith of others for their sustenance. Before the Aether Fall, they had no physical presence in the world but that all changed one day when the first Sefirot descended to Rakia.”
My body was still recoiling from all the aches and sores Fiona had stimulated with her handiwork, yet I could still feel my ears perking up in anticipation. Blood pumped vigorously through my veins as my mind stilled and settled.
“His name was Gabriel—the so-called lord of providence. It goes without saying but his presence on the continent created a shift in the dynamics and social order and before long people—no, humans begun to earnestly worship him.” Her intonation grew colder.
“To this day humans still have the lowest mage count amongst all the other species on this continent; but it was even worse back then when they were actively being culled by monsters and hunted by vampires with hardly any means to defend themselves. Thats why the appearance of a foreign deity—one that was willing to overlook their sins and past transgressions in the name of ‘salvation’ —was so appealing to them.”
“Why didn’t they just worship the Nymphs if they needed protection that badly?”
A shallow sigh was unleashed above my head. The strength being exerted by her fingers decreased considerably too. She was probably wondering how to word her next sentence properly.
“Listen, Liam. I bear no ill will towards humans, however that doesn’t mean I’m especially fond of them either. Nymphs have no inherent desire to be worshipped—nor do we need it, but we are able to coexist alongside people so long as they are willing to form a pact and agree to appease certain conditions. In my case, I merely wished for the preservation of this forest and peaceful coexistence amongst its inhabitants. Humans have an innate desire to build and conquer, which would eventually lead to the destruction of the forest, and more importantly...” she trailed off and stopped for a moment.
“....they have an incredible propensity for violence, whether it be against each other or everyone else. Even though they hardly had any mages at their disposal back then, they were still trying to capture and sell off elves into slavery. They had an opportunistic approach to things, and they suffered immense isolation because of it.”
Her ambivalence was something I understood quite well. Based on her own explanation, she was an aspect of the world itself given form. From her perspective as someone that both outlives and outclasses them, she must have had a hard time understanding mortal inclinations.
Up until recently, it was the same for me too, however, things have changed. I couldn’t honestly say I still felt the same way.
“Lady Fiona, I think I get what you mean.” I spoke up earnestly, garnering her attention with my wistful tone. Her massaging hand motions slowed—dulling the pain— but they didn’t stop completely. That was the most efficient way for her to convey her interest.
“You see, before we went to Fallon, I was actually staying in a human town far away from here. Things were normal until one day a group of bad mercenaries showed up looking for a rune. They caused a big ruckus, stirred up a lot of trouble and even got people killed in the process. At first, it made me mad. I resented them for it, I felt bad about what happened and I wish it never came to that but...”
I held the words for a second, mulling over the melancholic climax to my days in that town.
“....even after everything that happened, I don’t think all humans are that bad. There were good people living there too. I know because that was where I made my first human friend.”
Silence loomed again, allowing the fading sounds of my silly explanation to fill our surroundings.
“Fufufufufu...” Fionas laughter—the vocal amusement of a literal deity built up rapidly behind me.
I could only hope she didn’t interpret that as blasphemy.
“I wasn’t expecting to hear something like that today. You’ve certainly caught me off guard child, well done.” Fiona—still giggling—regarded me playfully.
Captivated by her humor, I found myself chuckling as well.
“I thought you were going to get mad.”
“As I said, I bear no ill will towards humans, but there is some truth to your words. I haven’t really interacted with many humans over the last millennia so perhaps they have changed. Besides, as ruthless as they were, humans weren’t actually the ones to instigate the war that divided this country.”
She couldn’t see it, but my brows were raised inquisitively.
“What most people don’t know about the Aether Fall is that the Sefirot didn’t descend all at once. They came sequentially, years apart from each other and each new arrival was causing distortions until cracks started to form in the sky. When the other Sefirot began following in his footsteps, Gabriel became quite...passionate about recruiting followers and establishing his own domain here in Ekin. Because of his fervent desires, Rakia’s first major conflict involving deities began shortly after. Large scale conflicts involving us deities aren’t as straightforward as wars, that’s why a different name was eventually crafted specifically for them, we called them ‘crusades’.”
The name was familiar, yet its meaning hadn’t changed. After all was said and done it was still a thing of bloodshed. I ignored the jittery sensation of something warm being poured into my back, and took a moment to think. Isolated conversations like these typically tended to go better with more input.
“If crusades are conflicts between deities, that means he eventually came here then, right?”
Fiona, lost deep within the intricacies of her meticulous work muttered ‘yes’ reactively.
“Across the country, all who refused to become a part of Gabriel’s sect were either exiled or culled, usually the latter but in the case of elves who preferred isolation it was particularly bad. Their seclusion was interpreted as a rejection of Gabriel’s benevolence because of my protection so eventually, their siege brought them to my domain. Thinking back now, their train of thought must have been fairly simple: ‘If the elves have sworn fealty to another deity, then all we have to do is eliminate the source of the problem’.”
My arched brows devolved into a widening stare. I foolishly attempted to twist my head around, only for the small woman to gently straighten its course with a motion that must have meant something along the lines of ‘I’m not done yet.’
“I already know what you want to ask Liam, and the answer is yes, I fought Gabriel. Well to be precise it was all of us here in Sylvan—me, the elves and the greater spirits that assembled to combat his sect ‘Avalon’ in its infancy. The crusade was a taxing task, many lives were lost and it even resulted in the destruction of the place you call ‘Fallon’, but eventually, it came to an end. As shameful as it is for me to admit this even after all these years, the strain of battle alongside preserving the forest’s well-being and as many of its inhabitants as I could proved too difficult, and I was defeated.” Fiona’s voice was level—firm even, though there was a subtle hint of dissonance mixed into her words.
I expected some amount of friction to be mixed into the history of elves and humans, although I hadn't counted on the deities being major factors in such earthly squabbles. Crusades really were a different kind of conflict if thats how things usually ended up, the scale was far beyond that of a simple war, lesser machinations could never end in the defeat of a divine being.
As surprising as it was to hear that, the truly curious thing here was the fact that up until now, she had yet to make any mention of the druids whatsoever.