It started a very, very long time ago in a realm you likely haven’t ever seen. In this realm and in this time, the elementals and the daemons and the devils and the faeries lived closer than they do now. Many elementals, such as your father, chose to live in the same realms as the humans and the elves so that they could be closer to those who praised them. One day, that would change. This day is the story I share.
It starts with a man, dressed in gold and black with the horns of a stag upon his face, walking into a palace in the clouds. The man was smooth and flexible, like a snake.
He walked upon the clouds because he knew their names, and so they could not resist them. This man knew the names of a great many things because he was a great many things. He knew the clouds and the winds and the birds and the bees. He knew the names of the birds and the cats that ate them. He knew the stones and the men that cracked them, the trees and the men that cut them, the stags and the wolves that hunted them. This man was a trickster and held no allegiance for anyone but himself.
He walked into the clouds on a machine constructed at his request. The machine was a canvas frame with a place for fire beneath it. The heat would cause the wind to rise up against its will and bear him aloft, and he used this to reach the palace of your father.
Just as the man knew many things and was many things, he had many things, like the knowledge of how to make this machine that bent the winds to his will without magic. It took no mana or effort to use it, and it enraged the owner of the palace.
But just as the man knew and was and had many things, the king knew little and had little and was little in comparison. The only thing that the king had when compared to the man was his strength and his speed. He was the fiercest storm and the strongest gale and the fastest wind that had existed. This king was Boreal, the father of the Wind.
The king demanded the man’s reason for the intrusion, and the man asked why he was not welcomed. At this demand, the king found himself bound by the old laws and commanded his children to fetch the ingredients for a feast. A trap, as it were.
His children traveled to the land below and swept up a great many windstorms as they searched. They found the fattest hog and carried it away into the sky, breaking the hearts of the farmer. They seized the most beautiful hart from the mouth of a wolf, and it howled in dismay. A flower from a princess’ garden, aged wine from an old man’s cup, a golden apple in the hands of a sick child, bread stolen from the human king’s baker–each item leaving broken hearts in its wake.
As the items gathered on the table in front of the guest and Boreal, the guest complimented each. When they ceased to appear and the king’s children whistled with pride, the guest made a comment.
“These foods are fine, very fine, I thank you! But perhaps you could add some fruit to our meal? I’m dying for something sweet and for something juicy,” The man said.
Boreal bristled at the comment, and his stormy rage got the better of him. He commanded his children to return to the world and find him the juiciest and sweetest berries that the realm had to offer.
His children did, and with naught but a whisper of the wind, they stole magical fruit from the lair of a sleeping dragon. The fruit was carried up and placed onto the man’s plate. The king smirked and invited the guest to dine with him as he pleased, confident that the guest’s arrogance would not allow him to admit that the food was impeccable. A slip-up of manners would constitute a breaking of the old laws and allow the king to destroy this intruder.
As dinner progressed and the king had more courses brought and made by his sons and daughters, he grew angrier and angrier. The guest slipped up not once, answering each question with grace and compliments. Not once did the guest use the wrong fork, or grasp the wrong knife, or cut indelicately, or chew loudly, or do anything that could be seen as impropriety. He was the perfect guest, and queens would have wept to have their daughters marry this stranger whose courtly grace surpassed the gods that had deigned to visit the realms of mortals.
The king grew angry and slammed his fists on the table, breaking it. He roared and raged against the walls of his palace, but the guest was unfazed. This, of course, enraged the king further, and Boreal demanded what his guest’s reason for arriving was.
“I simply wanted to show you my latest invention and experience your hospitality,” the guest said calmly. This calmed the king somewhat, though he was irritated immensely at the man for having the gall to control his winds. His winds were cool and bitter, and he was well-known for being the winter wind. To have the winds he commanded in this realm forcibly heated and controlled by another was a blow to his pride that he couldn’t stand.
“I, too, have mastered the wind. I wished to visit you, equals now that have accomplished the same thing,” The guest said after the pause, and the wind all over the world grew still. Ships stalled in their travels and leaves dropped to the ground. Storms ceased immediately as every wind in the world paused, aware of their father’s wrath.
The king stared at the guest, incensed. Worse even than the words was the look on the man’s face. There was no hint that the words had been spoken in jest, and so the king had no reason to call the words an insult. He was trapped, but the king considered himself a cunning elemental. He toasted the guest and said, “Yes, it appears we are. So you have mastered the wind! Then I must welcome you as a fellow lord over the elements in a way that is proper.”
The man grinned and returned the toast, seemingly content with the gesture. Then, a thought occurred to him.
“What do you mean in a way that is proper?” He asked. The king grinned.
“Why, I mean that we must have a race! A race is the most fitting contest between two lords of the wind, is it not? And I must admit, I am most curious if your slow, hot air can compete with my fast, cold winds at all!”
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The guest looked nervous at the proposal, and he held up a hand to decline. He realized, though, that he could not decline without insulting the king, thereby removing his protections. He gulped, his suave demeanor gone, and accepted the challenge. The king slammed his goblet down with glee.
“Excellent! What would you have if you won, then? No contest is true without stakes to match!”
The man considered and asked what the king wanted from him first?
“Why, I’d just like you to destroy that machine of yours and never tell a soul how it works,” The king said, reasonably. The guest nodded, no choice but to accept.
“If I win, then, I want you to not show your face to mortals for a year and a day,” The guest said. The king grinned and easily accepted the wager, confident in his victory.
The two masters of the wind exited the palace and approached the edge of the cloud. The guest lugged his great machine over and moved it into position.
“Where are we racing to?” Asked the guest, and the king pointed off into the distance.
“We’ll race around the world, starting in that direction. How does that sound to you, my friend?” The king posited.
“It sounds good to me. What will be our signal to move?” The guest asked.
“We must choose something fair. The next bird you hear sing will be the start of our race. Is that agreeable?” The king offered. The guest nodded, and the two stood to wait.
It was several minutes before a bird was high enough for the two men to hear, but when it sang out into the air, the king vanished. He ran onto the wind as a harsh winter breeze, a howling laugh piercing through the air as he left the guest behind with his machine.
The guest stood, smirked, and stepped out of his machine. He, too, ran onto the wind, but as a warm summer breeze. The king was a fool. The summer winds were generally slower than the winter winds, but hot air was capable of far greater speeds than the cold air of the king.
The trickster sped up and past the king, swirling around him once as a taunt. The king raged and moved even faster, but he was still no match for the hot wind that laughed at him. The king pushed himself to speeds he never had before, and the trickster matched him stride for stride. The king was the father of all winds, though, and had more experience as a gale than his opponent.
Despite the raw advantage of the trickster, the king managed to compete for much of the race. It was not until there was a straight shot back to the palace that the trickster managed to outstrip him with speed, appearing on the edge of the cloud as a man again. The king appeared a moment later and stepped violently towards the guest. Thunder crackled, and the king swore as he realized that the guest still had not lied or broken any laws.
The guest smiled at the king, and gestured below them, at the world of mortals.
“A deal is a deal, my king. Remember that you must not show your face to them for a year and a day!” He cried, returning to his flying machine and preparing to descend.
“Why are you returning your machine, you deceptive fool?!” The king demanded, and the man laughed, a sound like a hyena’s cackle.
“So that I can show this machine to the cities below and tell them that I beat you in a race with it!” He told the king. “Those fruits you stole have surely enraged the dragon, and it will take out its wrath on the cities of the men and women below. The farmer, the wolf, the child–they will all weep and curse your name. And all the while, you may not explain yourself or show yourself to them.”
The king dropped to his knees.
“Why do you do this to me, fiend?!” He cried.
“I was bored,” the fool replied.
----------------------------------------
The wind elemental, now joined by three friends, stood some meters apart from me.
“The first, then, was that story,” I said with finality. The wind moved around a bit, agitated.
“That story was ridiculous. The king was born in the elemental realms,” one of the elementals rasped.
“That story was true. I was there,” I said calmly.
“You were there?!” One wind elemental gasped.
“I was there,” I said.
There was a moment of silence before one of the other elementals whistled, “Were you there, truly?”
I looked at each elemental in turn.
“I was there,” I said, and the winds raged around, dispersing before reforming in front of me.
“Thrice heard and witnessed,” They whispered.
“The second thing I gift to you is the name of the trickster, a name that not even the king was able to learn,” I said, and the winds gathered around me closely.
“Who was this trickster?!” They cried, my hair flying around in the wind as they swirled around me.
“The trickster’s name was Loki, and he is my sworn enemy,” I explained.
“Where is Loki?!” The winds howled.
“He is a god, so he is in my domain. He has stolen it from me,” I said calmly, unfazed by the winds ripping at my clothes and hair.
“The third thing I offer is the knowledge that I know a way for you to go back to the Air elemental realm at will,” I said, and then staggered as the winds grew even more in intensity. This had more wind elementals that had secretly been listening in revealing their presence, jostling me and pushing me around.
I fell to my knees as a gust of wind knocked into my back. I clutched at my throat as the wind formed a vacuum in front of me and I couldn’t breathe. Horrible noises surrounded me as the air clashed, creating thunderclaps with no lightning.
Suddenly, the vacuum cleared and I could breathe again, but I stayed down as the winds fought around me.
It grew stiller, and I stood. A crowd of wind elementals, victorious, stood around me, their winds self contained as they each looked like a small tornado. They’d run off the vicious elementals that wanted to kill me.
“Mortal, you tempt fate with these words. Should they prove wrong, we will suck the breath from your lungs and tear you to shreds,” One elemental threatened. I stood there calmly, but my heart was pounding inside as I took my gamble.
“Just as Loki knew many things in the story, I know tenfold as many things. Did I not speak your language? I will make a way for you to come and go, but I will expect a promise before this happens. I think it best, then, that until I create this pathway, you protect me and mine.”
The winds bristled, and I staggered back a step.
“You attempt to enslave us, wizardling?” a larger tornado rasped.
“No. I make no claim to your choices. I only ask that you lend a helping hand if you’re about and wish to keep me safe enough to help you all,” I clarified, mollifying the wind elementals.
“This is a decision made on a case by case basis,” The largest wind elemental said. I flew backward as each elemental dispersed and returned to their flitting between the trees and the world, buffeting me with a gale.
I let out a groan and a sigh of relief. My test was a success, though perhaps only barely. I’d need to get much stronger.