Life after Iris's revelation was… well, honestly, it was the same.
Iris didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't that.
If she was being honest, she felt a little cheated. She had expected the real events surrounding her epiphany to be similarly incredible, similarly fateful. She had half-hoped that somehow, through some unknown vampiric magic, Blaise would sense Iris's newfound feelings, and confront her about it. But Iris knew that was a foolish thing to wish for, because any confrontation with Blaise would only end in rejection for Iris.
Iris knew she couldn't have Blaise.
Iris was a neurotic mud-raised girl who regularly had panic attacks whenever a male over five-foot-one glared at her, and who hadn't even kissed anyone, let alone done any of the things Blaise and Dante got up to.
And Blaise was just… Blaise.
She was beautiful, cunning, funny, protective, and wickedly smart. She was… yeah, she was Blaise.
Sure, maybe if she got extremely lucky, Blaise and Dante would take her into their bed for a night of passion, but that's was the very best she could hope for. But Iris knew that wasn't what she wanted.
She wanted to wake up every morning with Blaise's arms wrapped around her, to see that cunning, vicious smirk aimed at everyone who stood in her way. She wanted to feel Blaise's fiery anger scorch those who'd wronged her, and to hear Blaise's seductive, erotic words dripping into her ears like honey.
She wanted… fuck, she had it so bad.
"Darling, are you alright?"
Iris jumped, startled out of her depressing thoughts.
"Oh uh… yeah. Just thinking. Why, am I doing something weird?"
"No, it's just you've been staring at me for the past five minutes with this adorable expression on your face. I was just wondering what goes on in the pretty little head of yours."
Oh Merlin, how she wished Blaise meant it.
Was she still staring? Iris needed to change the subject.
"So, anyways… I've been meaning to ask you guys: why do the Rells hate the muds so much?"
"What do you mean?" Draco said, "I thought you were on board with seclusionism?"
"I mean, I guess? I know my reasons for hating muds, but they're p-pretty personal and unique to me. I'm just wondering why a whole bunch of people who never… n-never had to grow up around them are so adamant on not letting them influence magical society."
"Well, darling" Dante said, turning away from a… spirited kiss with Daphne, "what you have to understand is that while most Rells may not necessarily have great amounts of experience with mistreatment by muds, historically, we very much do."
Iris scrunched her brow, and let out a little noise of confusion.
Why did Blaise look so parched all of a sudden?
"Um… Oh! Well, dar– uh… Iris, to really understand it, you have to go all the way back to the origin of all the races on earth. Have you heard that story?"
Iris shook her head.
Blaise took a few seconds to regain her usual smirking composure, and then continued. "Oh really? Well, darling, I'm sorry then, it's often considered the foundation for the beliefs of those who are… in the know, as one might say."
"If you don't mind, I'll tell you the version of the story that my mother told Dante and I when we were very young. Different races and families will have their own stories, and will usually tell them to… very close friends."
Nope, no, NOPE. Not happening. She really needed to tell Blaise about her recent revelations, because letting Blaise flirt with her while she had a massive crush on the girl seemed wrong.
Maybe later though. She was almost draped over Iris now, and it was all Iris could do to hold back a whimper.
"Anyways darling, this is something you should know, and to be quite honest I'm both honored and flattered that I'm going to be the one to do it. Joking and flirting aside, it means a lot."
Was that… was that a blush? It was barely visible, but Iris could swear she saw it. Iris could now, she felt, comfortably admit to herself that HOLY SHIT BLAISE'S BLUSH IS ADORABLE AND HER SMILE IS ADORABLE AND HER WHOLE FACE IS…
…
Well, that was new. When Iris finally came out of her dreamy-eyed trance, she noticed Blaise was coming back down the stairs to the girl's dorms—wait when did she leave?—with a small black book held gently in her hands.
Blaise sat down with a more serious look than Iris had ever seen on her, and Iris saw the embossed silver cover as she opened it up: "The Hemogony".
"Eons ago, in a time before time itself, there was only Magic and the real, separated from each other. The real, dead on Earth, was cold and lifeless without magic, and Magic, high in the Fields of Elysium, was formless and rolling without the real. The real could not move or change, eternal dead physicality, while Magic could do naught but change, infinite vibrant intention.
"But then, at one point, at the beginning of time, magic made Charon, the Ship of the Bear, and used it to form a river down to the real, descending upon the world. She descended upon the real, and settled within it, and thus created the cosmos. Now unified, Magic could make solid and manifest its limitless creative intention, and the real could shape and create from its limitless manifestation."
"So, in this new unified reality, the cosmos themselves emerged, and within them, the Earth, the center of Magic. The real may flourish elsewhere, on the cold dead planets which circle the dying stars, but on earth, Magic births itself into reality, flowing into the dirt until life and vibrancy emerge. This life has its own magic, a small, unique piece of Mother Magic within it, and each new creation Magic saw as her own child, precious and loved, and sought to nurture and protect that spark until the time when it would be returned to her loving embrace in Elysium."
"So then, in the early days of the Earth, Magic was close to the real, infused in it, and the children of Magic could feel her embrace throughout the whole of their lives. In every action, they were connected with the whole of the Earth, and so there was no violence, no theft, no conquering, no strife, only peace, happiness, devotion, and love."
"With all feeling the pain of all, there could be no pain; and with all feeling the joy of all, there could be only joy. In those days, they numbered no years, and named no days, for there was no deed for numbering or counting. They kept no records, no writing, no speech, for through the Magic, all knew all, and all saw all. The races lived and died, never outside of their Mother's embrace, traveling between the earth and Elysium on the Ship of the Bear without grief or mourning."
"For eons then, the Earth was happy. The races were in communion with Magic, and Magic flowed through the races. The Earth itself was in communion with Magic, and Magic flowed through the Earth. But then, as Magic leaped and danced in joy across the whole world, the muggle emerged out of the dregs of its power."
Blaise's voice took on a dark and foreboding tone. "The muggles were a new race, different from the others. The patches of mud on the Earth, hiding places of the Magic-less real, had been so changed and warped by the creative force of magic that they were able to birth out a race themselves. This new race, the muggle, was born of the mud, and so could only remain children of the mud forevermore; they were born of the world alone, and so could never come into communion with Magic."
"For a time, the world proceeded as it had. This new race, muggle, lived on its own, away from the peaceful children of Magic, seemingly content to be the outsider, the untrusted. But slowly, that changed. With the absence of the spark of Magic within them, they could not feel the joy nor pain they caused, so they crew cold and hard, greedy and cruel. They saw the abundance Magic had gifted its children with, and began to desire it for themselves; for mud was their mother, and mud had gifted them with nothing but coldness and misery.
"So, consumed by their nature, the muds began to set off across the Earth on raids of conquest and domination, taking and pillaging and conquering, stealing the abundance of the children of Magic for themselves. All the children of magic cried out as one, feeling the pain of their victims, but the outsiders were deaf to it, hearing only the sound of their own muddy greed."
"As the years passed, and the muggle hordes only grew larger and bolder, their unceasing march of supremacy and domination began to push out Magic itself from their lands. For mud was their mother, just as Magic is ours, and Magic has no place in a kingdom of mud."
"So, the surviving children of Magic grew more and more distant from their mother, feeling her less and less in their lives. It came to pass that when the mud had spread out over nearly the whole of the Earth, and the children of magic had retreated further and further away from its corrupting touch, that one of the children of magic, a sorcerer named Gilgamus, the most powerful in his village went out and explored the kingdom of mud, for he thought himself strong enough of a mage to have no fear from the muddy hordes."
"At first, he was revolted by the cities teeming with filthy, disgusting, deaf beasts, which killed and stole anything that was in their sight. However, as he was returning to his village in horror, a cart ran off the road and broke his leg. Gilgamus stayed in the city of mud as his leg healed, and as such, was unable to commune with his Mother and feel her love."
"He slowly became infected with the muddiness of the city around him, growing more and more distant from Magic, and began to grow hateful, arrogant, and cruel. He lost his connection to the infinite well of his Mother's magic, and so could only rely on the traces she left in his own body, greedily taking her gift as his own. By the time his leg was fully healed, the mud and its lust for pain and conquest had taken over his soul, and he had made plans to conquer the creatures around him, and use them as an army to rule the Children of Magic."
"He left the city of mud on a quest to gather power, both physical and magical, and on his journey, ran across two of the last truly free Children of Magic in the whole of the world. The sorcerer Humambia, and her brother Incitus, were roaming in the deserts west of the cities of mud, joyful in their communion with their mother, who provided for them in the barren lands. When Gilgamus came across them, he hailed them as fellow Children of Magic, using his prodigious skills to hide his greed and hubris from them. They accepted him with open arms, and he ate and sung and danced with them, using powerful illusions to trick them into believing they were communing with him in Magic."
"As the weeks wore on, Gilgamus saw that Incitus had a great talent in magic, almost equal to his own, and desired to use him as a pawn. So he began to whisper things in Incitus's ear, words of mud and blood and filth, slowly poisoning his mind. Gilgamus stoked the fear of the wild beasts in his mind, telling him that if he went among them and observed their ways, he would gain knowledge suitable to defend himself and his sister from their filthy clutches."
"One day, Gilgamus distracted Humambia as Incitus snuck into a city of mud, determined to protect himself and his sister. But just like Gilgamus, once Incitus had bathed in the mud, it began to seep into his very soul, and he too grew cruel and spiteful, despising both his Mother and his sister the more and more, convinced he and he alone deserved to rule over the mages and beasts. When the mud had seeped into him completely, he fully rejected Magic and his sister, believing his bonds to both shackled him, and he conspired with Gilgamus to murder Humambia, and use their combined talents to conquer and rule the Children of Mud. He planned to use Gilgamus's abilities to take over the earth, and then betray him, just as Gilgamus also planned to betray him. "
"However, when Gilgamus and Incitus went to smother Humambia in her sleep, Magic sent her a warning, and she awoke before they could come to her. She resisted them bravely and fiercely, but she was overwhelmed by Gilgamus's powerful magic, and in truth could not bring herself to harm her own brother, even if he was corrupted by the mud. Humambia was eventually caught off-guard by a massive force of wind that Gilgamus summoned, and was blown miles away, landing broken outside the gates of the city of mud. Her body, still barely clinging to life through the grace of her Mother, was quickly set upon by the muddy hordes, who tore her to pieces, dividing up devouring her limbs and organs."
"After this, Gilgamus and Incitus were descended onto that muddy city like a typhoon, destroying everything in their path with powerful spells, and then soon another, and another. In each city they pacified all the rampaging animals, and used their corrupted gifts to bind them to their will."
"However, as they conquered more and more of the kingdom of mud, they began to win less and less, as the hordes against them grew stronger and stronger. Even with their enslaved army of beasts, they could not overwhelm the capital, the largest of the cities, and so retreated, enraged beyond reason at their failure, little better in mind than the muds themselves."
"In this mad rage, they descended into paranoia, with each believing the other to have sabotaged the storming of the capital, as in their arrogance, they believed themselves to be incapable of error. They both made plans to betray the other the next night, believing that without the other, their victory would be assured."
"That night, they both found each other out of bed, with tools for smothering in hand, and had their worst fears confirmed, for they saw the other trying to kill them. They had a massive battle of spells that could shake the very earth, which lasted for four days and four nights, destroying large swathes of the city they resided in. Both were evenly matched in skill, and they battled without end, each countering the other perfectly."
"In the end, they had both exhausted all the magic they'd stolen, and had resorted to using their limbs to batter at each other like beasts. Gilgamus managed to overcome Incitus, for he was large and strong where Incitus was frail. He grabbed a mace from the corpse of a beast, and killed Incitus with a mighty blow, bathing the mace in Incitus's heartblood, imbuing it with all the power and significance of their hatred and rage. Gilgamus then christened the mace Saurur, which meant 'slayer of thousands' in his tongue, for he believed Incitus to only be the first of many lives his weapon would take."
"Using Saurur, which could strike with the force of four thousand maces, Gilgamus quickly overran the capital, and proclaimed himself the Mage-King of the world, and quickly used his armies to overrun the peaceful Children of Magic, securing the world once and for all for the Children of Mud."
"He left the Children of Magic alive, but enslaved, fit only to work the fields and serve his every whim, singing his praises and obeying his petty commands. He banned the rites to commune with Mother Magic, believing that any who obeyed them could be a threat to his power, and slowly, the mages forgot their ways, becoming infected, but not taken over, by the Children of the Mud and their filthy ways. The corrupted King Gilgamus ruled for two hundred and forty thousand, two hundred years, seeing generation after generation of enslaved mages, guarded by the Children of Mud who worshipped him as a god, growing ever more resentful as they saw Gilgamus descend into greater and greater madness and cruelty."
"Eventually, there was born one exceptionally powerful mage by the name of Nephistium, who was even more powerful than Gilgamus himself when he lacked Saurur. Nephistium's parents had been slain by the mad Gilgamus on one of his many rampages, and so vowed to bring an end to the mud-king's tyranny."
"Under cover of night, Nephistium, who was enslaved as a shipbuilder, snuck out of the slave-quarters and down to the River Euphrates, the roaring lifeblood of Gilgamus's kingdom, slaying every one of Gilgamus's guard-beasts he could see. Then, with a mighty heave, he used his powerful magic to reroute the river to run straight through the palace, killing and drowning half the beasts in the capital on its way, and demolishing a quarter of it. King Gilgamus was taken off-guard, and before he could call up his magics, he was washed away, drowned and battered in the river, his body and his mace Saurur never seen again."
"Tragically, the effort of rerouting such a mighty river was too much for Nephistium to carry alone, and he left his body, boarding the Ship of the Bear, and sailed into Elysium, where he resides there to this day with all his brethren."
"The mages, finally free, rejoiced, and made plans to immediately return to the idyllic state they had occupied before Gilgamus's tyranny. However, the Children of Mud, now free from Gilgamus's control, quickly retook control of all their cities, trapping the Children of Magic inside, unable to return to their secluded villages, whose locations were now known to the Children of Mud."
"In time, many of the Children of Magic, the ones who had been most touched by the mud during Gilgamus's reign, desired to live among the beasts of the cities, and petitioned the rest of the Children to completely forget themselves and their mother, and live as beasts in the throngs of the cities. The rest of the Children resisted, for they had not forgotten their mother, and eventually almost came to battle with their former brethren. Their strife excited the Children of Mud, who used their disorder to slowly capture and enslave the Children of Magic once more, seeking to gain their power."
"Eventually, a compromise was reached for the good of all mages, to protect them from the beasts seeking to enslave them. All the Children agreed to live inside the cities of mud, but secluded from the beasts in their own secret villages, surrounded by the mud, yet protected from it. Over the centuries this system has remained, with the cities and kingdoms expanding, and along with them the secluded mages, until the mages were more similar to what tribe of beasts they lived surrounded by than each other. Those that could even bred with the beasts, and spawned halfling hybrids that, if not raised in the embrace of Magic, would grow weaker and weaker until their gift disappeared entirely, only to emerge from the mud once every seven generations, when Mother Magic is at her strongest."
"This was the breaking of Magic, for her children had become deaf and hateful towards each other, growing less and less powerful as they turned away from their Mother, devolving into little more than beasts who could perform a few special tricks using the piece of her gift inside them, no better than the Children of Mud."
"However," Blaise said, leaning back in her chair, "there are still those of us who remember our Mother, and those of us who still give her thanks for our great gifts. She may have retreated to the higher lands, but on the liminal days, those days where the boundaries between real and Magic thin and blur, we can hear our mother calling, seeking to feel the love of her children once more."
"And that," she said in a more normal tone of voice, "is where the story ends, and written history begins."
"Wow…" Iris said, blown away by Blaise's impassioned storytelling.
"It's quite a bit to take in, isn't it? I had the same reaction when my mother first told me."
Iris looked around at the others.
"That's about the same story we all got." Daphne said. "Of course, there are some variations, but overall, that's the origin of magic and the muds."
"So," Iris said, "you guys… you guys use rites to commune with Magic?"
"Exactly" Theo said, breaking the silence the others had fallen under, "They're called rites, actually, 'the Old Rites' in particular. The main rites occur on the six major holidays, when the boundary between the Summerland and the world is thinnest but thing is, you can do a rite, at any time, for any reason. Like, even if you're just feeling down, you can try to connect to Mother Magic and feel her love, and you don't have to use any of the big rite diagrams or anything like you do on the holidays. I know when my crup died, I did rites for a half a week straight, and it was the only thing that helped me move past it."
"Woah…" Iris said, eyes wide, "what does it feel like to do a rite? I mean, I went to church with my aunt and uncle, and no offence, but I don't think that type of stuff's for me, y'know? I don't think I'm the religious type."
The sixsome chuckled. "Iris," Draco said, "trust me, you really haven't seen anything close to what a real, true rite is like. That fake gold chalice shit the Christians do, praying to mud? It's not real, you don't feel anything at all. With the Old Rites… I mean, I can't even describe it, it's really really amazing..."
Blaise cut in as Dante trailed off: "The thing you have to understand, Iris darling is that the Old Rites aren't just a magical religion, like the Christianity the Nics practice, but it is actual magic. Just like you can cast a cheering charm and feel a real effect, you can feel a real effect when you practice the Old Rites. I agree with Dante though, there's nothing like it. I know you say you're not one for religion, but trust me love, you'll be taking your vows ten seconds after your first rite."
"Vows?"
"Part of the rite," Daphne said, "or what happens after I suppose, depending on your perspective. Nothing onerous, you just vow to love magic as your mother, and commit yourself to her fully and entirely, what every mage should be doing the first year they can understand it. In ancient times, it was common for parents to lead their children through their vows after every single rite, but it's truly only necessary to complete them once in your life."
"Oh that's right", Iris said, cutting Daphne off excitedly, " Theo mentioned holidays!"
"Indeed, darling, there are six, and always six, with the seventh being the constant dedication we feel daily. They have different names in every culture, but I believe here in Britannia, they use the Celtic terms. Frist in the year, there's Yule and Litha, the solstices, all about growth and development. Yule, or Saturnali as we call it back in Genoa, is about growth in harsh circumstances, like the evergreen plants in the winter. Misdummer, or as they call it here, Litha, is growth through nourishment and love, just like the summer plants."
Blaise shot Iris a saucy wink, leading to a thirty second pause until Iris stopped sputtering. If Iris thought Blaise's flirting was bad before, it had nothing on how it felt now. Merlin, her spine was a puddle of goo…
Theo picked the conversation up with a smirk: "the next are Imbloc and Lammas, the fading of winter a summer, which are all about trying to achieve prosperity. Imbloc is the prosperity you can control the achievement of, like hard work and dedication, and Lammas is the prosperity you can't, like blessings and good fortune. The next holidays, the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, or Ostara and Mabon, are a bit similar, but still different in an important way. The fadings are about achieving prosperity, and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes are all about celebrating once you've achieved it. Ostara's about celebrating Magic's bounty, and Mabon's about thankfulness, and giving back to Magic."
"Ostara is also known for its connection to sexuality" Blaise said, wrapping an arm around Iris. "Trust me darling, some of the Ostara rites I've been to end up being quite… electrifying."
"Down girl", Daphne said, rolling her eyes. "The final pair are the beginnings of summer and winter, or more properly, the Spring and Autumn Cross-Quarter Days, are associated with life and death, the afterlife, and rebirth, along with the harmony and balance of the life-death cycle. The Spring Cross-Quarter day is associated with life and rebirth, and is called Beltane here, or Floralia in most other prefectures, while the Autumn Cross-Quarter Day is associated with death and the afterlife, and is known as Samhain, or Armilustrum to the adherents of the Roman naming tradition."
Draco snorted, breaking the silence the end of the explanation had brought: "…Damn Daphne, did you eat a textbook or something? You don't have to sound so formal and proper all the time, y'know."
As rest of the sixsome laughed, Blaise looked pensive. "Speaking of…" she said, drawing the attention of the rest of the group, "Saturnalia is coming up soon, it's almost the end of December… Would the rest of you be open to performing a celebration together? It would be a good introduction to the Old Rites for Iris, and it would nice for Dante and me to have friends around."
The rest of the group turned and looked at each other, nodding their heads. "Iris, you up for it?" Draco asked.
Iris didn't know what to think. On the one hand she'd never had any reason to like religion, and all these rites and vows sounded a bit over her head. This would also serve as a huge line in the sand between her and every Christian student, which included almost every muggleborn, and the members of her blood family she didn't completely despise. But on the other hand, the fiasco with Hermione had shown her that she really shouldn't be all too concerned with the opinions of mudbloods anyways, and the Old Rites seemed to come along with the new political worldview she was developing. Also, the way her friends described the rites sounded… well, they sounded like something Iris wanted very much.
As she thought about it, Iris became more and more convinced that joining in the rite was the right thing to do. She loved magic, she truly did, from how it lit up her skin with little sparks every time she used a spell, to the way it lifted her above the horrific monsters of her childhood. The idea of dedicating some part of herself to loving this incredible, central part of her soul sounded downright appealing.
"Yeah", she said, turning to Draco, "I'd love to".
AN: Skip this AN if you don't like my worldbuilding, because it's gonna be looong. Time for citations and explanations!
Name of the chapter comes from verse 42:1-3 in the Dao De Jing. The full verse refers to the creation of the universe from nothing, and how it obeys a dualistic cosmic truth (yin and yang). It also mentions how people in power go against that natural order, and so are made miserable, which I think is absolutely perfect for this fic.
"The Dao made one, one made two. Two made three and three made the myriad things. All things submit to yin and embrace yang. They soften their energy to achieve harmony. The things people dislike are only to be alone, lacking, and unworthy; yet these are what monarchs call themselves."(If you're wondering about that last part, royalty in Ancient China would use terms like 'this orphaned one' or 'this unworthy one' to refer to themselves.)
—
Name of the book comes from the Theogony by Hesiod, or "The Birth of the Gods", the Greek epic poem which recounts, well… the birth of the gods. It's one of the main authorities on Greek mythology. "Hemogony", therefore, means "The Birth of Bloods", from Greek "hema".
—
Fic rec is The Well Groomed Mind by Lady Khali. This is such a fantastic look into a realistic scenario with an antagonist Dumbledore, and a Voldemort who's not a completely evil guy. Very common concept, but this is probably the best executions of it I've ever seen, and certainly the most unique.
—
Gilgamus, Incitus, Humambia, and Nephistium are all the Latinized Greek forms of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Humbaba, Ut-Napishtim, four of the principle characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the first piece of literature ever recorded. I figured it's only fitting that the magical world have a completely reversed take on the oldest muggle myth, which vaguely follows its plotline. Saurur is Sharur, the mythological club of the god Ninurta.
The "Ship of the Bear" is a very, VERY oblique rendering of the Sumerian "Ur-Shanabi", the ferryman to the afterlife. Ur-Shanabi became Oursanabios in Greek, which became Ursanabius or Ursanabis in Latin. Through the similarity of their sounds, "Ursanabis" was reinterpreted as "Ursa Navis", which means, you guessed it, "The Ship of the Bear", and that meaning spread to most of the world. In in Blaise's version of the story it was associated with the Roman Charon, the ferryman on the River Styx, and "Charon" became another title of the boat.
The 242,000-year rule comes from combined regnal lengths of all the antediluvian kings on the Sumerian King list, who, in this universe, are all just different names of Gilgamus. The actual number should be 241,200, but I've added a few decades to round it up, because of the numerological significance of four and two in this magic system in relation to creation and destruction.
Fun fact, Ut-Napishtim, also known Atrahasis, is the origin of a very well-known biblical story. The gods are angry at the earth (for being too noisy, unlike the "sinfulness" of the Bible's version), and so decide to send a giant flood to kill everyone and everything. The God Enki warns Ut-Napishtim/Atrahasis, who then builds a massive boat and takes two of every animal onboard, surviving the flood and restarting human society, after offering a sacrifice to the gods, who promise to never again send a flood. Remind you of anything?
—
If you're curious about the Yule/Saturnalia thing, that's just the difference in the rites practiced in Britain (the "Celtic Rites") and the rites practiced in most other countries in Occidentia ("The Roman Rites"). You also have the Germanic rites for those in muggle Germanic countries, but since none of the characters are from there, they aren't really relevant right now. The difference between the rites is mainly superficial, dealing with names and basic appearances of metaphysical concepts.
—
Also, I would just like to clarify, the views expressed in this chapter do not necessarily reflect my own. Remember, the story you hear is written by a specific group of people, seclusionist, pagan mages who consider normal people to be particularly clever and dangerous monkeys.
If you've ever done criticism of religious texts, whether personally or professionally, please give me feedback on the Hemogony myth, because I tried to include lots of traditionally religious themes and writing styles in it (e.g. the parallelism of Gilgamus using heartblood to ascend to power with Saurur, and then being killed by the "heartblood" of the Euphrates).
