Author's note: Phew! Finally ready for posting. The next few chapters are rather critical, so they took a little extra time to get it together and edit. It was like giving birth, or pulling teeth, or… something. It took work.
The next handful of updates may be a little slower… say two, maybe even three weeks. The reason is… the chapters are getting more complex, and even I'M getting lost in what's going on. So I practically have to reread the entire thing with every posting, and that takes some time.
Onward!
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25: Secrets: Sky
"What are you up to today?" Hawk asked.
Lise didn't turn around from where she was brushing her hair in the mirror. No braid today, she was doing queenly things, not Amazon things. She wore a silk dress, simple yet elegant, in the classic Rolantic style, and twin gold bracelets curled around her wrists and up her forearms. She could see him looking at her in the reflection, just looking in that way of his that still was able to touch her after all this time.
"I'm taking the girls to the prayer room. Coming?" she asked, as if she did not know the answer.
"No," Hawk replied. He never did; he didn't see the point, with no Goddess to pray to, and Lise couldn't make him feel what centuries of Rolantic tradition had bred into her bones. "I'm going to play some cards with the baby here - " he said, motioning to their youngest daughter, impatiently waiting at the table.
"Father!" Alluma protested.
"No such luck," Hawk teased. "Twelve years old or not, you're still the baby until someone in this family has a kid." Alluma gave him a huffy look.
Lise only smiled. This was a familiar refrain for her. Hawk would never admit to having a favorite child, and certainly he loved all their daughters equally, but the simple fact was, Alluma was too much like him. Aliota, eighteen, had been preparing to take over as queen since birth, practically, much like Lise herself had. Fortunately, unlike her mother, she wouldn't have to for some years yet. Jelissa, fifteen, was somewhat reserved and dark, emulating her older sister's pride but not her personality. She would make a great Amazon warrior.
But Alluma... hadn't inherited anything from her, as far as she could tell, except her golden hair. She was fickle; sometimes energetic, sometimes reserved, and endlessly restless. Some thought she was flippant, but she had a depth that became apparent once one knew her better. Lise, frankly, had no idea where she would go in life, or even if she would choose to stay in Rolante.
Primping done, she gave her daughter a hug and her husband a kiss, and glided serenely out the door of the royal bedroom.
Aliota awaited her in the corridor, wearing a light blue silk dress and pale blond hair neatly combed in a sharp contrast to Jelissa's silvery-lavender hair, slightly disarrayed as she ran to meet her mother and sister. "Sorry I'm late, Mother," she replied.
Lise didn't scold her. She knew Jelissa had been at practice, even if the short Amazon skirt she wore didn't give it away, and she lost all track of time while she was there. She slowly began to walk down to the castle corridors, flanked by her daughters, who chattered together happily.
They stopped at the door to the prayer room, Jelissa leaning her spear against the wall and unbuckling the belt that held the sword she was nearly as proficient with. It was the Forcenan influence; Jelissa insisted they should know both, because who knew when one or the other might come in handy?
Lise, Queen of Rolante, entered the prayer room first, the Princesses following behind respectfully.
The windows were open, the wind whistling from one side of the room to the other. They were always open, even in a storm; it was thought that if it rained in this room, it was because the Goddess wished it so.
Sadly, Lise stopped to contemplate the sad truth. There was no Goddess, and there would not be for some time yet. But the traditions remained, providing some sort of continuity for the transition.
An odd golden ball sat in the corner, not metal, something like a seed – an extremely large one. Lise wondered why Angela kept sending her artifacts. Angela hoped that these could be used somehow to find whatever Mana energy was left in the world, to concentrate it, to create whatever iota of magic could be found; but all of Lise's shaking and rattling of the items had convinced her that Valda's assessment was correct, that was not possible.
In fact, she couldn't sense what Angela could sense at all. At one time, she had been able to do some magic of her own, but it wasn't exactly the same as what Angela did, and she concluded, reluctantly, that she would never have the same sort of sense of Mana that apparently being born Altenan granted.
The Amazon way was different. Mana or not, they were there for the Goddess, past, present, or future. They fought for Her justice.
Her daughters knelt with her to murmur the prayers to Jinn, to the wind, to Goddess old and new, then standing as they completed. "Coming, Mother?" Aliota whispered, keeping her voice low out of respect.
"No," Lise replied equally quietly, standing to her own feet. "I think I'll stay for a little while." Aliota nodded, and she and Jelissa left Lise to her own thoughts.
With the two young women gone, Lise was left with only the sound of the wind to keep her company. She was not lonely, however. Lise had always loved the sound of the wind, part of her Rolante heritage; and if one listened correctly, the wind could tell of a great many things. Today, it sounded… curious.
She walked over and bent down to pick up the golden seed. Mana or not, it did have a nice feeling to it – of creation, or rebirth. If it was a seed, was it supposed to grow something? Not the Mana Tree. That tree grew from fairies, not big gold seeds.
It was a subtle change in the pitch of the wind that drew her attention. Still holding her treasure, she approached the west window, the direction from which the wind came today. The direction of sunset rather than sunrise. Wind was invisible, naturally, but as she watched, it seemed to coalesce, swirls and eddies combining. She blinked to clear her eyes, but sure enough, a figure was forming – and not one she had expected to see again.
"Marduk," she greeted the angelic being. "I haven't seen you since the Goddess died. How is it you are here?"
"How much you forget, Amazon Queen. I am only another form of the Goddess. I am Her," said the rather distinctly male figure. "Past, present, future, it does not matter."
Lise had a hundred questions to ask, but politely waited.
"Time is not so linear as you may think, not from the dimension where I stand," Marduk told her, the voice rising in pitch to become almost feminine, then descending back to a deep baritone. "Neither is it completely malleable, but there can be some... twisting… involved. I am gone, in all of my forms, but my… shades… are still accessible, in a way. Perhaps your shade will be able to step outside its own time as well. Carlie, I'm sure, could explain it better for you." The Goddess stopped and mused. "Shade. How appropriate. Such a misunderstood Elemental, its chaos difficult for lifeforms to understand, the more so the more intelligent they become, and the more it frightens them. It was a pity I could not make beings who could understand and endure darkness better."
"There is always light within the darkness," Lise answered.
Marduk, the Goddess, gazed down, speculating. Had Her eyes not been covered by a golden helm, Lise suspected she would have been afraid to meet them. "You are one of the few left who are able to understand, because you were able to receive my Gift, that which you sometimes call the 'class change'. But soon enough, that knowledge will be gone as well."
Something in Her voice gave Lise chills. "Whatever do you mean?" She unconsciously found herself caressing the smooth surface of the seed, perhaps for comfort.
He motioned to the air around, and the mountains below. "Mana, my power, still rests in the world, but hidden, waiting; the Elementals hide, with little of it to cling to. It will build, with time, but until then… there is little protection from those who wish to destroy it. Creation, destruction, both necessary parts of the whole, a needed balance, but a difficult one. The sparkle of Mana, splintered into a sky of dust, and who will be left to pull it together again? Who will be around to remember the secret of Mana? It will be only a legend by then."
Practicality switched over. "What are we facing, then? Decline? War? Death?"
"Perhaps nothing more than change," Marduk told her. "That may be the most frightening of all. But do not forget, the demons are still there. They are formed of chaos and destructive energy themselves, and therefore, by definition, cannot be destroyed in the normal ways."
"Could they return?" Lise gasped. "The Archdemon, the Dragon Emperor?"
"The Archdemon was a construct, not a being, and that construct was shattered by you and Angela," She told Lise. "That construct cannot arise again, not in that same way, though other constructs make arise. The Dragon Emperor… was a being, if a corrupted one. Even I do not have an answer, I can no longer see the world clearly enough."
Lise's Amazon bravery took over. "So what do we do? Without Mana?"
"There is one thing. Humans may not be able to control Mana any longer, but as long as there is life, it is there, and you are connected to it. The Goddess is both the source of Mana, and its product."
"That doesn't make sense," Lise protested. "I don't understand."
"It doesn't make sense in your dimension. You cannot understand the higher dimensions, so you will have to believe." Marduk paused. "There are a hundred types of balances, dualities that both oppose and complement to keep the world in place. And the dichotomy of Life and Mana, the Goddess and her power, is the most precious and harmonious of all. It is the difference between you reaching out to the Goddess for her power to enter you, and merely standing back and choosing to receive her."
"So you are saying that it is always a balance?"
"Always. The truth of the Goddess is that her plan, her balance, can never be know fully, but simple knowledge of such a truth is to make oneself part of Mana. Normally the actions of humans would not have the power to disrupt Mana so, but she is young, and unformed, and vulnerable as she grows."
"That makes me afraid," admitted Lise.
"Perhaps you should be. Fear is a great motivator, and that is why some seek to take advantage, and it is this dark side of the Goddess that leads them to fight, to make war. Others still are tied to Mana itself and powers, as the Jumi are, but some – like you – are tied to the Goddess, and she will seek you, she needs you."
Lise turned her head to look towards the east window. The window of sunrise, of new beginnings. "Goddess, allow us to be part of you still," she prayed in a whisper, before returning attention to her divine guest.
Marduk seemed pleased to hear her prayer. "That you will be. Ancient Goddess or new, it does not matter, but you will need time to truly understand. Learn it, Amazon queen. The connection will serve you well." And Marduk disappeared.