“In those days, some of the old wonders of the Shallah clung to life; energy and reality hadn’t settled into their current, more orderly arrangement. The world could be rather easily persuaded that anything existed, if you were genuine and spoke well. Not much remains detailing how exactly the grand Shallah fell, but fall they did. Forcing the refugees to abandon all they knew and to discover a new way of life.

“We, the people of the Nether, were the most stubborn. Immediately, the wisest individuals conveyed together in a grand assembly to put down what they all remembered of the Shallah’s ways. To the Nether people, history and tradition are a constant presence in their lives. So they could think of no more pressing matter than to restore a semblance of the way things were.”

Lowanna smiled at Nether King Hungry Eye, enjoying his attentive expression. Time to test him, if only slightly. “However, a problem soon emerged at the grand assembly. Can you guess what it was?”

His emerald eyes flickered. He thought for a moment and responded with certainty. “They all remembered different rituals.”

“Exactly,” Lowanna wondered how he came to the correct conclusion; she watched the flows of his Nether closely and hadn’t pressed his face to the flow, to feel the shape of history. He had simply arrived at that conclusion through logic.

Although the thrill of danger danced across every motion, Lowanna still spread out her fingers and fluttered the tips. Small patterns spun and twisted out, a mesmerizing whirlpool. “Now, there are quite a few theories about why the memories were different: had the wise leaders come from different aspects of Shallah society? Had they had selfish motives and tweaked their recollections slightly to benefit them more? Or was reality truly so subjective that multiple layers of existence pressed against and slid over one another with no ill effects?

“In the end, it does not matter. What matters is that division came, even before the Nether people had settled into their new shape. Arguments grew heated and lines were drawn. Three dominant ideologies emerged, about how the Nether people were related to the Shallah and how they should act in the first place.”

From the way Nether King Hungry Eye leaned forward as she spoke, Lowanna sensed his impatience. In a way, he reminded her of Enmya, pure and brutal in their aims. Often harming themselves by their inflexibility. But where Enmya would have tried to use humor to urge her forward into the more relevant facts, Hungry Eye simply watched.

Is it patience, that brings you stillness? Do you find peace there? Lowanna wondered as she carefully chose her next words. Or is it something more monstrous, the hungry beast with half-closed eyes, in hibernation until catching the scent of prey?

“When the ideologies were created, they did not have any teeth. They were a lifestyle, rather than an energy organization. Those came later, once Nether had settled and rituals became commonplace. Yet the energies we use now still derive their potency from these stories.”

One more pause, just to give the young Nether King one last test. His Nether Core, so solid and tightly wound, did not waver in its rotations. The color of his eyes seemed to darken, but he sat and listened.

He accepted their relationship as teacher and student right now. He would wait and listen, only evaluating after experiencing what he had gained from the process. It was not the ideal attitude, but it would be enough.

“The first ideology, you know,” Lowanna said. “Phaea. The ideology of service. Born from the people who recalled surrendering control to the Shallah as an act of faith, trusting that in exchange for their sacrifice, they would be guided and protected by the Shallah. Eventually, this ideology would become used as a weapon and lead to the creation of the Nether Arbiter… of which I am the second. And hopefully, the last.”

Lowanna clicked her tongue as her fingers danced, drawing the curving, circular reinforcement pattern of Phaea. “A tragedy that it would now become inverted… in its base form, Phaea also struck me as the noblest bond.”

“Inverted?” Hungry Eye frowned.

“Originally, a single individual would create Phaea to huge swaths of people. Their entire village. As opposed to one person holding the Phaea of many others,” Lowanna sighed. “Remember, power always borrows from the story. Perhaps that’s why the story of the Nether Arbiter was always so doomed… those who subscribed to Phaea would work tirelessly to help entire groups of people, giving their Phaea freely. They offered their lives to make existence easier for those around them. In those days, they were called Nether Priestesses, stewards of the people.

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“The second and third ideologies have fallen out of favor, perhaps for good reason.” One by one, Lowanna cracked the knuckles of her hands. She would need all of her focus and dexterity to weave the old patterns. They possessed none of the nurturing curves of Phaea. “Both became used as dangerous weapons in the early Nether Wars. The second ideology is Toosah, cooperation and partnership. They remembered a Shallah people who worked together with the beings they created. In more modern times, Toosah was a bond between individuals, very publicly binding their interests together.

“Obviously, one or two Toosah helped establish an individual’s credibility; why trust a leader with whom no one was willing to enter Toosah? However, during the times of plenty, as Nether Warriors lived longer and longer… the bindings of Toosah became complex. As you aged, it was quite common to create a new Toosah every few years. Soon, sprawling webs of bindings emerged, until there were extra-governmental associations soul-sworn to defend each other. With only a few deft manipulations…”

“Civil war,” Nether King Hungry Eye’s pupils contracted.

Lowanna smiled sadly, so tired of how far her people had fallen. How the laurels of victory and piece had aged, becoming encumbrances and weapons which could be turned on their own people. She had no defense and didn’t try to excuse her predecessors.

Instead, she stretched out her fingers. Her pointer and middle fingers stabbed in and out quickly, drawing the dense and solid binding of Toosah. After only a few seconds, she had created a thick bar of significance. The movements of her fingers changed to be more looping, adding the edge of the connection.

When she finished, the working fizzled in the air for several seconds. The bond spat out hunks of spare Nether, but lingered. “Do you see?”

So many tests, Lowanna bit the inside of her cheek. I promised myself I would be better than my predecessor… yet is this not exactly how she treated me?

Lowanna felt herself straightening. She flexed her fingers again; she would be different than the cackling sadist who had taught her about the horrible burden of the Nether Arbiter. “If you need me to demonstrate it again-”

“No, I think I understand. It’s designed for half to be down by each person, yes? You lean your significance against one another. Honestly, its kinda genius,” Nether King Hungry Eye sounded genuinely admiring. Then, despite only seeing the shape that Lowanna had made, his hands blurred in rapid motion. In only a few seconds, he had created his own partial Toosah.

His quickly sputtered and collapsed, even while hers lingered in the air. Hungry Eye glowered at the failure and quickly made another attempt. This time, he kept his weave tighter but didn’t quite catch the proper spine of significance to hold it all together. His second attempt collapsed and hers was just now beginning to deteriorate.

He swore quietly to himself but didn’t ask for help. And his third attempt-

This is the protege you wanted, wasn’t it? A true monster you could help sharpen their fangs and devour the world, Lowanna felt an unfamiliar emotion: envy. The Nether King had eyes to see the proper bindings of the Toosah with only a single opportunity, enough natural intuition to work his way to the shape over three attempts, and the density of Nether to support it all.

“Excellent,” Lowanna forced herself to keep her voice light. She moved on from the lingering binding. “Historically, there was no special name like Nether Priestess for those who used these; any could engage in Toosah.

“Finally… the most aggressive of the bindings, Maala. This ideology rode to war by the side of the Shallah. It remembered conquest and conflict. These people argued we should continue the holy words of our progenitors, seeking to unite the universe under a single banner. The bindings of Maala can be created without even the agreement of both parties; essentially, the supporters justified the binding by embracing a code of honor. It could only be extracted from a foe when you had the possibility of killing them and instead spared their life.”

“A cruel bond,” Hungry Eye observed. "With many similarities to a yoke."

“You can understand how, after the brutal civil wars, Nether Warlords and their Maala were hunted almost to extinction,” Lowanna’s hands moved again, creating the final and most vicious of the bindings of the Nether people. A tight halo of hooks and tension condensed in front of her hands, twisted into an inert position, but ready at any moment to snap into place and sink into the Nether Core of a target.

For a long time, Hungry Eye simply stared at the curled Nether for a long time. “Yet now, the Nether people have relied on threat of violence to force everyone to surrender Phaea. Quite the inversion of the original story. No wonder your power comes at such a high cost.”

Lowanna nodded and focused on Hungry Eye’s Nether Core. “I can see you’ve already accepted a Phaea. And you are… well, this is more difficult to read. Not only is the energy around your body extremely complex, but deep as well. You are in the process of slowly condensing additional Phaea? A much-simplified version, but still one with consequences. You imitate the pattern because you don’t understand the price. Just from all these half-formed connections… I assume quite a bit of emotional stress has flowed into you?”

Hungry Eye gave her a searching look. Lowanna shrugged. “Phaea is service, as I said. Holding the responsibility, you guide people even through the vicious temptations and agonies of their own demons.”

He closed his eyes. “Seems like I really needed a teacher.”

“You did,” Lowanna agreed lightly. And we needed an example. A hope for the next generation of Nether Warriors. A way that didn’t evolve a restrictive organization built on fear.

A separate Path than our current vicious pyramid with a sacrifice strapped to the top…