The Foolhardies 182 Gods And Monsters

It had been nearly an hour since our earlier discussion where I demanded Luca slays at least one general in the upcoming war.

In typical fas.h.i.+on, he called me crazy. Then he slumped back on his chair and got moody for about five minutes before he finally agreed to it.

"I'll just do it," Luca said like he was repeating a line from his favorite sporting goods brand.

Satisfied with his own answer, Luca's mood lightened, and thirty minutes later he was asking Aura to tell us a story. Honestly, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Aura herself looked a little worse for wear after she'd told Luca that her brother would likely die soon. Perhaps a story would help lighten her mood too.

"What would you like to hear?" Aura asked.

"I want to know more about the myths… the great spirits who once ruled the Fayne," Luca suggested.

"You want to know about the Eldar?" Aura asked in a contemplative voice.

"Is that what they're called?" I asked.

Aura nodded.

The toes of her feet dipped into the water and she drew a line across it while she thought about Luca's request.

"The priestesses say all the worlds were one once," Aura began. "In the time before the shattering."

Aura would go on to tell us about the five great Eldar, brothers and sisters who were born of a union between earth and sky. As the children of these primordial forces, the Eldar possessed great power over nature itself.

"Like the five elements?" Luca interjected.

Aura shook her head. "No… The Great Eldar were far more primal than that."

She told us of the siblings and what they could do. Aur, the all-mother and leader of the Eldar, was the mistress of life. For it was from her womb that all life comes from.

"The stories claim that she birthed all the mortal races, each one born from a union between her and her four other siblings," Aura revealed.

"Eugh," Luca remarked, his face crunching up in disgust.

"It's not for us to judge the G.o.ds, Luca," I scolded.

"You two argue over everything," Aura chuckled softly before she resumed her tale.

Valdun, the eldest of the Eldar, was the master of magic. It was said that he went into the dreams of lesser races and taught them the first spell — which was the power to wield fire — so that they might protect themselves from the darkness.

"Sounds similar to the story of Prometheus," I noted.

"Shush, Dean," Luca chided. "Aura, please continue."

Aura did as he asked and told us of Grimma, the mountain, who was master of the elements.

"He was the tallest of them all. So tall, in fact, that his head brushed the clouds in the sky when he walked," Aura shared.

Then there was Drayna, youngest and fiercest of the siblings, she who was master of death and lady of the hunt.

"Hold on," I interrupted. "You said earlier that Aur mated with her siblings to birth the mortal races, right?"

Aura nodded. "Yes."

"Then how could she have mated with Drayna if they were both female?" I pressed.

"Didn't you just say it wasn't for us to judge the G.o.ds?" Aura reminded me.

I couldn't help it. I hated inconsistencies in story-telling. Fortunately, Aura had an answer even for that.

"Drayna's nature couldn't be contained in a single form," Aura told us. "They say she was a ma.s.sive creature with many heads, each one with its own gender and personality."

"A gender-fluid King Gedorah," I noted.

"Nerd," Luca taunted.

Aura ignored our sibling squabble and continued her tale as if she couldn't stop now that she'd begun.

"Last of the siblings, but certainly not the least, was Rahvan, master of night and day," Aura pointed up to the sky. "From his pairing with Aur came the first of the second generation of Eldar, Sol and Idunn."

"What about Samhain?" I wondered aloud. "Who's his daddy?"

"Valdun," Aura whispered.

The five siblings originally worked in unity. Each of them was content to play their roles and bring harmony to the primordial world. However, after their children came to power, Samhain in particular, the unity among the brothers and sisters began to fracture.

"Samhain whispered into the ears of his father, Valdun, and made him resent his sister Aur who was their leader," Aura told us. "Particularly, he'd learned to resent Aur for being more beloved by the mortal races even after he had given them fire."

"Sounds like a d.i.c.k," I commented. "Reminds me of a certain chancellor and great general."

Eventually, Valdun gave in to his son's provocations, and his resentment toward Aur grew until even his intentions for the lesser races had grown dark. Gone was the time when he cared for the well-being of mortals. Instead, he sought to corrupt them, to change them in ways that would reflect his own corruption.

"That was how demons were born," Aura said, s.h.i.+vering slightly.

I wrapped an arm around her almost instinctively, and it wasn't until Luca pointed out that we were getting a little too cozy by the edge of the deck when my face finally turned red from embarra.s.sment.

Aura seemed to be the same way, and in order to change the topic, she continued her tale of the Fayne's myths.

Not content with his father's downfall, Samhain whispered into the dreams of the others too. And although Drayna and Grimma succ.u.mbed to his goading, Rahvan remained true to his role despite the seed of doubt placed in him.

In his rage, Rahvan banished Samhain beyond the door of night which prevented him from ever seeing Sol, his first love, and would eventually lead him to Idunn, who he would later steal from the sky.

"But Samhain's trickery had borne fruit and war among the siblings could not be prevented," Aura added.

Drayna marshaled her children, the dragons, to her side and built an army that could topple Aur from her seat in the sky. Not to be outdone, Grimma brought the giants under his control so he too might claim the seat of Aur. However, it was Valdum who managed to raze Aur's sky palace with the help of his demon horde.

Aur did her best to fight them off with the aid of the other mortal races who would eventually make up the fairy race, but the three armies arrayed against them were unstoppable forces. Slowly but surely, Aur was losing the war.

"What about Rahvan?" Luca asked as he rose from his seat and moved over to where Aura and I were. "Why didn't he help Aur?"

"Rahvan represents the duality in all beings so even if he managed not to be corrupted, a part of him couldn't help but feel resentment for Aur," Aura explained.

Rahvan's dual natures continued to war among themselves and he would have remained a spectator in the great war of spirits if not for the counsel of a mortal who helped him find balance in himself again.

But Rahvan knew that even with his help, Aur might still lose, and he loved her deeply despite his earlier doubt. So, with the help of the wise mortal, Rahvan devised a plan to separate the siblings from each other and save the primordial world that would have been destroyed by their quarrel.

"The shattering," I guessed.

Aura nodded. "Rahvan shattered the world himself into five halves so that each sibling would have a domain to rule in where the mortals there would wors.h.i.+p only them…"

"I doubt they went willingly?" I deduced.

"Rahvan wasn't the strongest of his siblings but he did have mastery over night and day. Similar to how he locked Samhain behind the door of night, Rahvan locked his siblings behind doors at different times of the day," Aura explained. "Drayna when the sun was at its zenith, Grimma when the Moon was at its peak, and Valdun during the darkest hour…"

"And for Aur?" Luca asked while looking completely engrossed in Aura's tale.

"For his beloved, Rahvan gave the moment when the sun dipped and the moon rose so that she might see her two children even for a short while," Aura added.  

To his mortal friend, he gave five keys, each one connected to five seals that could only be opened, Rahvan believed, when the five siblings had let go of their hate so that balance could be restored and the world might be whole again.

"After he'd given his friend the keys, Rahvan locked himself in the realm of dawn along with the race his friend had belonged to. He'd grown fond of them despite the short lives they lived," Aura finished.

"Humans…" I whispered.

Aura smiled wanly at me and Luca. "Ironic, isn't it? We treat humans as our slaves but you play such big roles in all our stories."

"Um, those five keys… they wouldn't be the same five keys the Sense Knights were supposed to guard, right?" I asked worriedly.

Aura shrugged. "It's a myth, Dean… so probably not."

Then she looked thoughtfully back at me while her finger tapped on her lips.

"Incidentally, the five Eldar siblings also represent the five senses," Aura added. "Can you guess which of them was sight?"

Three nights later, as the Foolhardies marched out of Hoodwink Tower, I rode on Myth Chaser and gazed up at Idunn and remembered the myth Aura shared with me and Luca.

I thought about the giants, dragons, and demons, and wondered if they were stuck on some other world much like the Fayne. The thought of it made me shudder. I had enough problems with just fairies. I didn't need more.

"Nah… there's no way that myth was real," I said out loud.