CHAPTER 7: BACK TO THE FUTURE


After the moment of theological crisis and Aphrael's ungodly gloating had passed, he settled down cross-legged, the child-Goddess coming over to sit on his lap. "So", he asked, looking at nothing in particular, "It's all gone, then."

Aphrael, who had been drawing patterns in the sand, did not look up. After a pregnant pause, she finally said, in a voice thick with great sorrow, "Yes, Father, it's all gone."

"The Styrics?" When Aphrael did not answer, "Anybody?"

"Oh, they survived Sparhawk. People survived. It is what they do. But everything had degenerated to a struggle to find the next meal and everything else was forgotten. By the time of the great thaw, nobody remembered anything anymore. My family passed into obscurity, which for us is the same as death, but I lingered for a while. Longer than the others. I think it's because I was known as the God Queen of Elenia and somewhere, someplace people still remembered her in some form. And I witnessed great migrations and new civilizations. But I grew weaker all the while and one fine day I went to sleep Father. And then, in the nothingness, I heard you call to me, and your faith, it called me back Sparhawk. Because you are special."

"So nothing is as it was?"

"Oh, I doubt that, Sparhawk. History has an annoying tendency to repeat itself. Did you not encounter the Elenian script? Did I not say the Elene God is still going as strong as ever? But it is not the same, Father, if that is what you mean."

Sparhawk did not want to dwell on that any longer. Great sadness lay that way, he sensed. "How did I come to be here, then?"

Aphrael slid off his lap and turned around, sitting cross-legged herself.

"Now that, father, is a mystery."

Sparhawk had spent the last few weeks, in his time at least, being subjected to similar mystic proclamations by the same divinity, so he was not very much impressed. He crossed his arms and waited.

Aphrael gained an embarrassed smile. "Well," she said, rubbing the back of her head, "I don't really know. But if I had to guess, I would say that some great magic occurred when you broke, or as I now know, released the Bhelliom from its earthly confine."

"Earthly confine?"

"When Cyrgon came knocking, father, I journeyed into the remains of Zemoch. And there I found some rather upsetting truths about the Bhelliom."

"Such as?"

"Did you know that the Troll Gods had nothing to do with the power of Bhelliom?"

Sparhawk started. That was a new one.

"As it turned out, they had just been hiding in there. Its true power turned out to be something more than any of my family could anticipate. To put things in perspective, father, it called our world its Daughter."

"Come again?"

"Our world is its daughter, Sparhawk. It created this globe that we reside on."

"Globe?"

"Oh, I never got around to telling you about that, did I? Well, you'll find out soon enough. Anyway, the world maker has been creating worlds for a very long time, it seems, and for each world, it contended with its polar opposite Klael. Only with this world, something went wrong and both Klael and the Bhelliom were trapped, remaining slumbering for millennia. Through the course of a really long time, each influenced the world in its own subtle way and brought to bear the making of their respective champions. That would be you, Father, for Bhelliom, and Cyrgon for Klael."

"Me?"

"Yes, Sparhawk. You are Anakha."

"Doesn't that simply mean I have no fate? Or the Gods can't see my future or something?"

"Oh, you simple man. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of things. You are Anakha, Sparhawk. You are Bhelliom's creature."

"But" he protested, "I am just a simple man!" he protested.

"Oh Father, if you only knew..."

Sparhawk did not like where this was going, so he abruptly cut that line of conversation off. "Enough of that, Aphrael, I am Sparhawk and that is it. Now, back to the matter of Bhelliom..."

The Goddess sighed and returned to her explanation, "Anyhow, when you went and released the Bhelliom, I surmise that the great power that exploded from within somehow reacted with the energies of Azash's death and the miasma of foul Zemoch itself and resulted in you being thrown here, deep into the future, into someone else's body"

A horrid doubt gnawed at Sparhawk's soul. "The thing I destroyed?" he asked in a hoarse voice, "surely that was not the original..."

Aphrael shot Sparhawk a long-suffering look. "Sparhawk," she asked, "did that look like the soul of a child?"

He considered the feeling of wrongness and shook his head.

"It was, as I said, a parasite. Something of an abomination. It's gone now. Anyway, the Bhelliom," the tiny Goddess continued in a grave voice, "found itself without its Champion. And when Cyrgon came riding on Klael's back, I entreated the Bhelliom to lend me its power and it did in a manner of speaking, and I was able to defeat the Elder God. But our confrontation had been but child's play. As he retreated, the maddened God released Klael from its earthly confines. In another time, had you been alive, you would have fought against Cyrgon and that would have been it, father. But you were gone and without both their champions, the two mighty entities had no choice but to duke it out themselves. And the resulting devastation, as I previously mentioned, wiped out most of civilization."

Sparhawk was, first and foremost, a military man. That his absence during a decisive battle resulted in almost the world's end weighed on him.

However, the child Goddess was perceptive of the knight's suffering, and she laid a gentle hand on his. A warmth suffused Sparhawk and he lifted his weary head. She could have said something, but she decided to guard her silence, and Sparhawk found it all that he could ask for.

"So," he asked, at some length, "when are we then?"

"Oh, I don't really know, father." she replied flippantly, "I've been asleep for ages. But I reckon I'll pick it up soon enough."

Sparhawk sighed. Well, he'd clung on to a little hope that Aphrael would know more about his predicament, but that was that. He pushed himself up to his feet and turned to take in his surroundings. "How," he asked, turning in a circle, "are we supposed to get out of here?"

Aphrael smiled impishly. "Oh, you can go now. I'm staying right here"

Before Sparhawk could protest, the world around him went dark.


Aye, read and review