Mark Begins
By K.H.Y.
Long ago Nergal wondered; was he not the god of his Morphs? They were beings fashioned by his hand in the image of man. His caprice was their desire, and his will their fate. They were irrevocably chained to the one whom had summoned them into existence.
They had no free will - they did what they wanted but what they wanted was what Nergal willed.
Nergal began to wonder; would a Morph ever obey him of it's own free will? Was it even possible to imbue his creatures with that most vital element of sentient beings?
Originally, Nergal scoffed at this idea. A human being's free will was one of their greatest flaws - a flaw he had overcome when he had elevated himself to the status of a god. Granting a Morph free will was, in his view, a defacement of an otherwise perfect creature.
Why would a god desire his creatures to have any will other than his own? Nergal thought. That was the great mistake the gods made when they fashioned Elibe. That was the first error from which all others have stemmed.
The idea did not die, however. Despite his reluctance to admit it, Nergal still possesed many human characteristics. They were weak and would eventually have to be destroyed. Nergal knew this, but of all his remaining human traits, curiousity was the strongest. Nergal developed a great desire to see what would come of an experiment where a Morph was given the ability to decide for themselves whether it would obey their god or not.
Unable to suppress this compulsion, Nergal began to think, What harm could come of it?
It was in this way he planted the seeds of his own destruction, for this creature would be in many respects the architect of his death.
In his defense, Nergal took the greatest conceivable precautions against this. When he wrought the spell to fashion such a Morph, he crafted it so that the Morph would have two undesirable traits. It would be physically weak, sickly in fact, and magically sterile.
In exchange for these weaknesses, the creature would have free will.
Nergal made doubly sure to craft these three stipulations into the spell. He thought the loss of power a much worse fate than the loss of free will (in fact, he thought any being having a will beside his own was more of a burden than a gift) but the Maker reasoned that this would make him safe from his creation.
After the spell had been wrought, Nergal put into play. On the ground before Dragon's Gate, the Morph of Free Will came into being.
The process of becoming was an unpleasant beginning for this creature. First came magic. It came in the shape of a dark cloud. This clould convulsed into the shape of a man. The soul, such as it was, came screaming into existence. The cloud began to solidify. Following this event bones, tissue, organs, skin, and hair grew. This process was not quick. The growth, although described quickly here, took many weeks.
When the screams of fear and pain finally subsided, Nergal eagerly made his way up to the Gate. On the floor beneath it stood a young man - naked and afraid. Nergal exalted at the sight.
In appearance, the creature was not like his other Morphs. They had dark hair and amber eyes. This creature had silver hair and red eyes. The only physical similarity between this Morph and the others was that they were all unnaturally pale.
The Morph was very fair to look upon. This was, of course, true of all Nergal's creatures. Beauty was, in his view, an important part of perfection. Nergal felt especially attracted to this Morph. Unlike the others, he hadn't made it in the image of an archetype of what the most beautiful men and women of the world might look like. Instead, he had crafted it in his image. While the Morph's hair and eye colors were different, the counterance of his face and structure of his body resembled Nergal when he was a young man.
Nergal felt somewhat whistful at the sight. He quickly dismissed this nostalgic emotion.
"Do you know who you are?" he asked coldly. The Morph stared at him blankly.
"I asked, do you know who you are?"
The Morph spoke in an inhuman tongue. It was the language of those spirits who had never set eyes upon the sun; those who had never been part of the world. How he or any other Morph was born with such knowledge remained a mystery, even to their god, but Nergal knew enough of the language to understand that the creature was telling him his name.
"In this language, that makes you Mark," Nergal said.
"Marrrk?" the creature slurred. He was drawn to the name. It sounded familar.
"Yes, Mark," Nergal said. He gave the creature a look that was almost affectionate. "And you are the Morph of Free Will!"
The creature gave him another blank stare. The Dark Necromancer saw that a demonstration was necessary.
Nergal concentrated all his will into a single command. "Kill yourself!"
The Morph didn't move, except for a confused series of blinks.
It was then Nergal knew he had succeeded. While it was possible the Morph hadn't understood his words, that wasn't necessary. Nergal's will itself was what guided the nature of his other Morphs – it was a bond which went far beyond the restrictions of spoken language. The vocal command was just for "decoration" (in truth, although he didn't know and would never admit it, Nergal spoke his will aloud to feel more important).
"And now there is no difference between the gods and myself," Nergal said, mostly to himself. "We have both created a being who's heart works independently of our own."
The Morph of Free Will, Mark, cringed at the horrific sight of his creator's face as he uttered these words.
Avi osi ne swaeno eki atto vasik katasi, Mark thought. In Elibean Common this amounted to:
Life is no way to treat an innocent being.
A/N: I felt like writing a Fire Emblem fanfic. To be honest, I've all but withdrawn from the fanfic community. I've been writing stories with original characters for quite sometime now. It's been so long since I posted a fanfic I can't even remember my old account. That is why I am using my brother's. You can tell the difference between us because I use the initials K.H.Y.
I'm writing a short novel right now, so I'm not sure if I'll expand on this story or not (with all my tests, it doesn't leave me a lot of time). In either case, this chapter stands well enough on its own. It can be considered a story in its own right.
I'd like to say reviews will determine whether or not I continue this story, but they won't. I wrote the story mostly for myself, so I don't much care if anyone reviews it or not (getting feedback is always nice though). If you do review, please tell me what is wrong before you tell me what is right. Fanfics wouldn't have much practical value if they weren't for improving one's skills at writing.
