Tales of the Spirit Age: Fall of the Blue Spirit
Part XXIV: Of Twisted Lip and the Demon
"… the demon of ice, scorning the offers of the river maiden to assuage his lust for the blood of her people, then spoke again, his deformed maw frothing with hatred:
" 'You see before you a monster twisted by cruel Fate. Doomed I was, a miserable slave spat out of the Abyss to suffer the slings and arrows of the Gods' War. That I proved a cunning warrior and able commander proved only to lead me to further downfall, for my master Pana, God of the South Ice Wastes, placed upon me all the onus of defeat and none the glory of victory.
" 'You, Blue Spirit, Demon Warlord of Glorious Agni, you defeated my master's army, destroyed it, and cast me into shame! But not for that do I hate you with all my being, no, for it is your very existence that led to my greatest misfortune!
" 'My master cast me back into the Abyss, to redeem myself by dragging back others of our race to be enslaved, to fill the ranks of his annihilated army. I did this, eagerly, desperately, for I was but his slave and his will was mine. There in the miasma of the Abyss, I was given to mate, but upon seeing me, she cut out my eye and howled for my head, because I was not you, not the Blue Spirit, not the God Killer!"
" 'Wounded, dishonored, I fled from cruel Death at the claws of Nightmares back to the world of the Gods, where a kinder Death waited. But as I stepped onto the barren ice beneath the full cold light of La's lantern, I became afraid. Afraid because I knew that Nothingness awaited me on the other side of Death, afraid because my Life Above, even in the miserable caste of a slave, was mine, the only thing I could lay claim to.
" 'Beneath the ever-night winter sky, I chose not return to my master with my failure, but ran northward, to the white shore where the ink sea crusts the ice with salt foam. I ran though I bled, I ran to extend my worthless life one priceless second longer. I do not know what I intended, to let Lord Tui devour me, to cast myself upon the spearpoints of his hosts, but I took pleasure in the thought the end of my life would be in the manner of my choosing and not my master's.
" 'I ran to exhaustion, until I collapsed on the ice, with the scent of the sea in my snout and the slurried foam-shoulders of its dark waves beckoning me, falling into another well of darkness called Oblivion.
" 'Upon waking, I smelled another, neither God, nor Spirit, nor Demon, but Man. A child, blessed with Lord Tui's gift of mercy. She had cleansed me of the blood that flowed from my eye, and sealed the wound so that no pain lingered, only a strange patch of darkness where there had once been light.
" 'I was hungry and so I thought to devour her. As my claws sank into her, she looked at me not with the fear of prey staring into the predator's maw, but of utter joy, that I should be the avatar of Death. I, who had so cravenly desired to extend my life that I fled from God and Nightmare alike, did not understand.
" 'She saw my hesitation not for what it was and begged me to end her pain, as she had done for me. She was deformed and so a burden to her family, an object of hatred and scorn among her people. As proof, she unwound the veil that hid her mouth and showed me fissure in her face, a bloodless wound that twisted her lips and teeth and made her speech incomprehensible.
" 'She had eyes of such blue that Tian should be put to shame, for all her soul's suffering and mercy were there, shining from depths that defied Tui's kingdom. Neither my claws nor my fangs would obey her tears. I begged her to ask anything else of me, my horns, my blood, my bones, but she would not and went her way in silence.
" 'For many days thereafter, I evaded the hosts of Air and Water, Spirits and Demons alike whom the Gods dispatch to exterminate renegades. I became such a despised being without care, thinking naught of returning to Pana to receive my sentence or to seek my own Death, for hope that I might see her again consumed me with a desire to live.
" 'She dwelt on the outskirts of her race, a castaway from their number for the monstrosity of her appearance, for Men are blind and hypocritical, allowing the deformed to live only so they may heap contempt and abuse upon them. So I too became hypocrite, against the canon of my own race, seeking to keep her alive when I should have devoured her.
" 'In time, she ceased demanding that I repay her as she had first desired and told me her name: Tornuaq. If what is good is measured in warmth, and what is evil by cold, then I betrayed even the granted ice in my body, for warmth like that departed from Agni's eye crept into my very marrow when she was near and lingered even across the many leagues I journeyed to elude my hunters.
" 'But Fate does not take kindly to those who are defiant, and for my transgression, it was guiltless Tornuaq who paid. One day, the wind bore the scent of her blood. Fear like none I have ever known seized me, goaded me to flight, whispering terrible horrors to me that you should think me possessed by a Nightmare.
"She had been taken by Men who thought her a witch or malevolent Spirit, who had cursed their boats and driven away the fish they prey upon. They howled accusations as they dragged her across the ice where others waited to murder her for imagined crimes and fell upon her with stone and ice and bone, until I could no longer hear her screams. They saw me not, not until I was among them, a great bear-shark among koala-otters, until their blood flooded the ice with red, consuming the stain of hers.
" 'She called to me, a wordless cry, bringing my bloodlust to heel. Her life was fading, leeching into the bloodstained snow. I took her up in my arms, for I knew of only one who could save her: my master, Pana.
" 'For the first time in many, many days, I answered his summons, returned to his cold, hollow chambers. I went to Death, that she might live.
" 'My master spoke not as I laid her, still breathing, quickly fading, at his feet. He was silent as I pleaded with him. He turned away as I begged for any punishment, any torture, any Death he might devise, only that he would use his power to deny Death its due and make her whole. I dared to seize upon the hem of his robe and for that he cut me across my face with his lash of ice.
" ' "Slave," spoke he, "Get this refuse of your foul desire from my sight and commit thyself to Death for your transgressions. No flesh of mine shall I spare for the object of your base lusts."
" 'He raised his lash once more, but I flew at him, rage consuming the bonds of fear that had fettered me. I tore his heart from his chest and pressed the living flesh against her cold, cold lips, knowing I was too late but not wanting to believe. Death had claimed her for the dark depths and she was beyond my reach…'
" 'Hear me, Blue Spirit and Daughter of Tui, hear me and speak nothing of mercy, for I have none. Hear me, Blue Spirit and Daughter of Tui, hear me and speak only of vengeance, of Death, of destruction. Hear me, Blue Spirit and Daughter of Tui, hear me, for I will depart from this valley with the power of the Gods and wrest from Death's cold claws the soul of Tornuaq!...' "
Archivist's Note: The "Tale of Twisted Lip and the Demon" can be found among the many stories of the Southern Water Tribe, in varying forms. It is said that Tornuaq was a hideous witch who conjured an ice-demon to revenge herself on a man who scorned her lusts; alternatively, that she was a girl placed under an enchanted disfigurement by an evil Spirit, and was rescued by the god Pana, who either made her his priestess or married her; also, that she was born disfigured and that a warrior cursed with a demon's form saved her from a mob who thought her a witch, whom she then cured with her water-bending abilities; the couple married and lived happily ever after.
The archivist cannot but conclude the aforementioned versions are mere wishful thinking…
A/N: Hm, I wonder who this "Archivist" is... 83 So, yeah. In real life, people do not blurt out their motives in convenient (drawn-out) expository monologues. Thank goodness myths, Classic plays, anime and other mediums who use this device really aren't all that concerned with what people do in real life.