Chapter 9: The Light is Dim

Areti tumbled helplessly through the strange vortex, the conduit around him crackling and heaving with energy. His small gifts of magic were nothing to the pure, elemental force that surrounded him, and he was lost within it.

But it ended as abruptly as it had begun, and Areti fell into open air. He had just enough time to feel chilled before he landed in a deep pile of snow which covered the landscape.

Areti was partially buried and mostly upside-down, and his heavy pack of supplies made it difficult for him to reorient himself. Struggling and flailing, he felt his feet kicking at nothingness while he clawed at the snow around his face. It melted upon contact with him, and then abruptly re-froze, leaving him with icicles forming on every feather while he got wet to the skin. And beyond all of these catalogued facts, he was deeply, profoundly afraid.

However, a few moments later, a hand wrapped around his belt and hauled him bodily out of the snow, hefting him high in the air. Areti twisted to try to see who was there, but a cloak and hood masked the face, and he was swinging too much to see clearly. The only obvious sight was that of the glacier that stretched in every direction endlessly, illuminated only by the full moon in the sky.

"Let me go!" he cried. "How dare you? Who are you and how have you brought me here?"

"You have two choices," returned a voice that was tantalizingly familiar. "You may follow me to shelter where you can get warm and dry, and you will not be harmed, but you must agree to listen to all I say."

"That is one choice. What is the other?" Areti asked, trying to sound like the commanding Eldest he was and not the frightened fowl he hid away.

"I leave you here. Perhaps you make your way on your own, perhaps you do not. But your chances of survival would be effectively insurmountable."

Areti's mind whirled on the calculations and quickly he concluded that his abductor was correct — left without shelter, he would become hypothermic in minutes, dead soon thereafter. And as he was both unequipped to deal with these conditions and untrained into any sort of survival techniques that might mitigate them, he truly had one option if he wished to survive.

"Very well. Then I accept your offer and agree to listen to you if you promise to keep your word as well."

"Done. Follow me."

Areti squawked as he was dropped. He shoved his way back to his feet, having to run and leap over drifts and icy outcroppings to keep up with the much taller figure. The pack also slowed him considerably, but he did not dare leave it behind.

He was shivering badly, almost to the point of not shivering at all, by the time the figure paused at a break in the glacier — a cave. Areti was grateful to be out of the wind, but the air was no warmer and he continued to shake, his beak clacking and rattling with cold. After a few twists and turns in the near-total darkness, however, the tall figure finally stopped long enough to light a ready fire pit.

Areti drew close to the flames on instinct, scarcely aware of his pack and his wet robes being taken from him. He was wrapped in a thick blanket — woven and stuffed with fur, if he were required to guess — and the icicles on his head and hands were removed with surprising gentleness. A cup of something heated at the fire was thrust into his hands and he drank deeply of a floral, nutty tea that heated him to his core.

Finally, Areti blinked, his mind fully recovered and his body no longer so violently, distractingly cold.

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here?"

"The first time you asked, you wanted to know not why, but how," the other said. "Perceptive of you, but I expected no less."

Lit by the fire, Areti's abductor threw back his hood and let the cloak slide from his shoulders, revealing the former Eldest of Lemuria.

Areti almost dropped his tea in surprise, then very nearly again when he truly took in the man's appearance.

The Eldest had always been of a stature unusual even in Lemuria, tall and broad, with keen eyes and a square, strong jaw. Unlike Areti who was of a fowl lineage, his form was effectively human — though disproportionately large. His hands were brown and had always seemed roughened more than the other Elders; when asked, the Eldest would always smile and speak fondly of gardens and the work to make new life grow. His hair, raven black, had been long, tied in an elaborate plait that none had ever seen unbound in all the years of Lemuria.

Now, he seemed a shadow of his former self, a thin shade. Still tall, his limbs were nearly skeletal, bony and weakened. His hands were swollen and chapped with cold as was all the rest of his skin, and his eyes seemed sunken into his face. His hair was shorn unevenly at the shoulders, its proud plait long gone. He wore scraps of clothing, some of which might have been similar to the robes he wore in Lemuria, but faded and patched and layered with furs and leathers stitched together haphazardly.

And his eyes were darkened with grief so profound Areti could not fathom its depths.

The only outward similarity between this person who stood before Areti now and the Eldest he had last seen in the shadow of the Arcana's podium was a small medallion hanging on his chest. Areti had rarely bothered to take notice of it before — it having no obvious significance or markings that suggested great meaning — but it had always been present. Now, the red amulet seemed almost otherworldly compared to the wreck of a man wearing it.

"Before I say anything else, Areti, I say this and I beg you to remember it: what must be, will be. That is the way of prophecy, the way that Lemuria has followed since its founding. Destiny has led us all upon a path as undeviating as the SunSoul in the sky, and there is not one of us who could interrupt such a journey."

He paused for a moment, then let out a breath.

"And for this, know that I am endlessly sorry."

Areti cleared his throat with difficulty. "You...you betrayed Lemuria." The accusation gave him strength and his next words came more easily. "You were guiding us all to destruction, to our deaths, to the end of Lemuria and its obliteration from the world forever! But we found a way to stop you. It was not so impossible a path to disrupt once we knew the truth."

"Ah. Truth." The Eldest sat across the fire from Areti. "Truth is tricky, young Teacher. For Truth depends upon the facts, but it also depends upon the context of those facts. This chamber is still quite cold — that is a Truth. But you are warm here, when you were not outside. Truth is not so immutable as it seems."

Areti sneered. "Do not pretend your aims were at all justified. There can be no defense to allowing, even encouraging the Krateros to rise, knowing the destruction he will bring."

"All things end, Areti. Lives, civilizations, even the SunSoul itself will one day burn out. There are some things which may last forever, but even they will do so in a form unrecognizable to how they began. Look at me. I have lived longer even than Lemuria itself. And yet, I am not the man I was before its founding, nor since its fall."

"Lemuria has not fallen!" Areti found himself shouting. "We have preserved it!"

"No." The word was not said sharply, but resoundingly, echoingly slow and deep. Like a bell tolling in the distance. "You have engineered its end."

Areti was struck not just by the words or their tone, but by the guilt and sorrow in the man before him, and could not speak.

"You were indeed the one spoken of in the Four Thousand Epos, one whose teaching would form the future of all Lemuria, one to be remembered and honored. But when you entered the Diamond chamber, did you notice that there was no more information regarding your own Destiny in the version you found there? For all the hidden knowledge of the Krateros, did you not wonder at the lack of any regarding yourself?"

"I…"

"Or, did you even consider that, perhaps, there was some knowledge you were meant to find, and some you were not?"

Areti's beak moved, but no sound emerged.

"In attempting to thwart your own Destiny and that of Lemuria, to prevent its destruction and your death at the hands of the Krateros, you have unwittingly ensured both. And such was always meant to be your path, Areti. Such is your gift, and your Destiny."

"My...gift?"

"Every person has a gift, and in that gift lies their Destiny. You, Areti, are a Teacher. To teach is to require both deep and profound knowledge, and deep and profound trust. You must impart Wisdom and Truth, so you must comprehend both beyond your student. But you must also have faith that what your student learns is what you intend for them to learn. You must be able to share your knowledge, and know that your student will use it wisely."

He met Areti's eyes unblinkingly.

"Your gift in teaching is your grasp of knowledge, which will only grow, and your ability to impart it. But what you have yet to learn is how to judge which students are worthy of trust. This is something you were never meant to learn before today — but you must learn it now."

"I don't understand."

"S'arelmari is demonspawn, you knew this. Your defense of him in spite of his bloodline has been admirable, but unfortunately, in error. Before S'arelmari ever entered Lemuria, he had already given his true allegiance to another master. One whose name you know, but that we never speak."

Areti fought the bile that rose in his throat with anger. "Impossible! He was merely a child!"

"His apparent age was a bargain between him and his master. He is not as old as I, but he is many hundreds of years old. In order to gain dominion over this world and, in turn, this dimension, his master gave him the power to disguise himself so that he could appear to be harmless to gain our sympathy. And he has played his part perfectly at every turn for every moment you have known him."

"I don't believe it! I won't!"

"You must, Areti." The Eldest's voice was sharp. "For S'arelmari even now seeks an evil which could rewrite the very cosmos, past and future, for every life in the universe."

Areti thought of the cosmic key he was seeking, but said nothing. That nothing was enough for the Eldest, however.

"It is not what you assume. The item S'arelmari has sent you to find is a part of his plan, but it was also meant as distraction. For a year, he has made small moves, carefully hidden, working alongside those who are also of an evil mind — and he has kept it from you because his choices were subtle. Now that you have left the city, however, he moves openly, his evil on full display."

The Eldest rose from his place across the fire and crossed to Areti.

"Come. I will show you the truth of your student. Then you will better hear all I have to say."

Areti wanted to refuse. He wanted to shout about S'arelmari who was his friend, who had supported him when he was afraid, who was leading their people to a glorious future without fear of destruction. He wanted to declare that all the Eldest had said was heresy, impossible, beyond thinking. He wanted to resist, to return to the quest S'arelmari had given him and give his student the chance to capture the elusive, traitorous Eldest.

But something deep inside his heart held him still.

Something beyond his thoughts, his intentions, his will.

Some part of Areti's soul washed over his mind and seized him like an instinctive flinch, and he found himself nodding.

The instant he made his agreement to let the Eldest prove his words, Areti realized that he had already lost something precious that he would never recover.

Wrapped in the blankets given by the Eldest, Areti followed the man back out onto the glacier. The air was frigid, but it was nothing to the cold of dread that was growing in his chest every moment.

What if the Eldest was telling the truth?

And, if so, what had he done?

Some distance later, another bright swirl of magic burst into the air. This time Areti was beside the Eldest, so he could see that it was born from the red medallion the man wore. In all his study, he had never heard anything about such an item, or the power it appeared to contain. His curiosity was enough that he entered the vortex without hesitation, the Eldest a step behind.

They emerged into an open grassland, startling a flock of small birds into taking flight.

"How have we come here? What is this power?" Areti asked. "How is such possible?"

"I will tell you all I know of it when the time comes," was the only answer he received.

They walked again for a greater distance, then entering another magical conduit which deposited them on a rocky hillside. Then another to a thick, humid jungle. And, at last, they stood upon a familiar road, now facing the city from which Areti had departed not so long before.

The Eldest reached down and grasped Areti's hand — at the moment of contact, Areti felt a flash of cold run through him.

"We will now be imperceptible to anyone I do not wish to be aware of us," he said.

Areti remembered a page with a similar spell in the Arcana, and he blinked. "Did you write the Arcana?" he blurted out.

The Eldest gave a sad smile. "You could say that the contents of the Arcana wrote me instead."

Not sure how to understand that, Areti could only nod.

"Now. Let us see whose sight is clearest — yours or mine. Destiny can be changed, but only by those with the power to do so. It is written that neither of us has that power; let us see if Destiny concurs."

What they saw as they walked into the shining city would haunt Areti's dreams for thousands of years to come.

There was no atrocity imaginable that was not evident through their walk into the city. Death, pain, suffering, humiliation, torture, despair, and degredation haunted every step. The people of Lemuria who lived, and those were few, seemed barely able to cling to each breath as they endured their horrors.

"How...did I not know?" Areti managed to whisper.

"Because S'arelmari did not wish you to know," the Eldest said. "He needed you to help him, for you have gifts which he does not — and I do not mean your capacity for compassion. He is an effective tool for his master, and he has an acceptable grasp of tactics for individual conflicts. But his ability to think more strategically, or to employ subtlety, is far less than your own. He could have rampaged throughout the city without help, but he could not control it for so long."

Areti was certain that his heart could bear no more, and at every turn he was forced to bear it anyway. As they continued into the city's center, where he had spent all his time in the last year, that which had been familiar now appeared more sinister. The building where the children taken during the original conflict were kept was eerily silent — and Areti realized he had not once even visited to ensure their care was sufficient. The people he had seen every day he now realized must have looked at him with terror and loathing, but never where he could recognize it for fear of reprisals. The members of his council were not helpful advocates for the people, but puppets who delighted in spreading panic and pain as much as the one who had engineered all this.

"Please. Enough," Areti begged at last. "I can't…"

"You must," the Eldest said. "For there is one last act you must witness. It is not merely your Destiny, but it is your responsibility to do so. Your part in this was planned for you, but your choices will define the future of the very universe, and so you must understand."

Areti had rarely heard such steel in the Eldest's voice, and he could only follow.

The Eldest led him into the library, and to the Diamond chamber. Guards were forcing citizens onto the pedestal that descended into the hidden room, and they followed.

S'arelmari had set up a dais for himself, the Arcana open before him. The room was filled with people, thin and terrified and hopeless.

"Greetings!" S'arelmari called, and Areti shivered at the cold menace in the voice he had once found so friendly and comforting. "I thank you for your sacrifice today. With what I take from you, I will take this world and soon every galaxy above. Rejoice for your part in my glorious triumph!"

The working that followed was brutal and surpassed everything Areti had seen outside in every manner of cruelty and agony. More than once, he hid his face against the Eldest like a child in their mother's skirts, only for the Eldest to pat him on the shoulder and make him turn back to watch once more.

When it was over, one hundred people were finally dead, and their bodies were unmade. Their blood and bones and skin — along with their fear and suffering — coalesced in S'arelmari's hands into a glowing shape.

"And now," S'arelmari said, holding aloft a crystal that glowed with a sinister light, "once Areti returns with the item I seek, nothing will prevent me from claiming this entire plane of existence for my own!"

Pressure rushed into Areti's chest and overwhelmed him and the world around him went dark.

-==OOO==-

Areti returned to consciousness slowly.

His first sensation was pain and guilt and sorrow.

His second was confusion.

"What…?"

"I have placed a block into your mind," the Eldest said from nearby. Areti turned to look at him, noticing that they were in a different forest than that outside the city. "The details of all you have seen are still a part of your memory, but they will filter back to your consciousness slowly over the course of the next few years. For now, it is necessary that you be able to think clearly — there will be time to mourn and grieve later."

Areti pulled himself to a sitting position. He was grateful that his pain had been mitigated, but that also told him that the need for his focus was great.

"What can I do now?"

"What do you wish, Areti?" the Eldest asked. "Will you fight? Resist the evil of your student and attempt to atone for your part in all this? Or do you lack the courage to continue?"

The question was harsh and it made Areti flinch. His voice shook as he answered.

"I have never considered myself to be one with great courage. I have never truly wished to be a hero. But I...I cannot sit by and do nothing while this happens. Not just because of the role I played in bringing it about. It is...it is wrong to look away from evil."

"Good." The Eldest nodded. "I hoped you would say something like that. For you do have courage, young Teacher. But, more importantly, you have the ability to endure. Patience and resilience will be necessary for you on your path forward into your true Destiny."

"My true Destiny?"

"S'arelmari is the greatest threat this world has ever and will ever know that does not come from another world entirely — his master would be a far greater one. The Krateros, who shall also be known as the Mighty One, is the only being who can defeat him. Others may delay him, or resist him, but only the Krateros can truly destroy him."

"But…"

"Yes. It is still written that you will die when S'arelmari dies as well. There is nothing about that I can change. It is not within my power to rewrite Destiny. You must accept this, Areti."

Areti swallowed but said nothing.

"Your actions with the Moon power of the Arcana one year ago ensured that the Krateros will be born in fifteen thousand years. Until then, you are charged with three tasks:

"First, you must prepare the world for his rise. There will be many pieces to set into motion to ensure that the Krateros has the best possible chance to defeat S'arelmari, and it will fall to you to see them all true. Be warned — at times you must let evil occur, to ensure that later good is stronger still.

"Second, you will need to find the one who shall become the Guardian of the Mighty One. He will be born in five thousand years, and he will earn for himself an additional ten thousand years of life. Halfway through that, and you shall know when, you must find him and begin to prepare him for his own role. Just as you must guide and teach the Krateros, the Guardian will protect him so that he lives to see his final confrontation with S'arelmari — to say nothing of all the other evils only he can vanquish.

"And, finally, to you will fall the sacred duty to protect the item S'arelmari himself sent you to find. That which shall be known as the Cosmic Cap is a necessary power the Krateros will use in his battles against evil. You must not allow it to fall into S'arelmari's hands."

Areti found his voice. "How will I know when and how to do all of this?"

"When we are finished here, go to the city of Devokan as you planned. I have left you everything you will need to know to prepare you for the day you will summon the Mighty One to his own Destiny. The path will not be easy, and you will have little rest, but if you follow what has been written and allow your Destiny to guide you, you will succeed and the Krateros will arise with the strength to save the world from S'arelmari."

"Then why do the passages in the Four Thousand Epos say that the Krateros will bring about the destruction of Lemuria?"

"Because Lemuria has already fallen," the Eldest said sadly. "Before this day is over, Areti, only you and S'arelmari will be left. All the rest of us will be gone. And, someday, when the Krateros fulfills his own Destiny, you and S'arelmari will also die, and the last of Lemuria with you."

Areti forced down his grief. "Today?"

"Today," the Eldest affirmed. "We have one more task together, and then I shall leave you to your Destiny."

"Eldest...are you…?"

"I have lived many thousands of years, Areti. I have seen suffering and pain. I have presided over the rise and destruction of our blessed Lemuria. I am no less than eager for my chance to act one last time for the sake of all that is good, and to clear the way for you and the Mighty One."

Areti shut his eyes, not bothering to wipe away the tears that gathered and fell. He took several deep breaths until he stopped shaking.

"What must we do?"

"We will return to the city. You must retrieve the Arcana and escape with it and the Cosmic Cap. Take them to Devokan, and allow your Destiny to lead you."

"And what will you do?"

"I will save those in the city who can be saved and send them to their own Destinies. The peoples who descend from them will create their own powers which will be needed one day. Then I shall strike against S'arelmari with all my strength. It will not kill him, but the blow will be enough to prevent him from gaining more power for a time."

"And Lemuria?"

"When I die, so too shall the city itself. Our very land will sink beneath the ocean never to be recovered. We will become merely a myth, forgotten by all who remain."

Areti wanted to hide his face in his hands and weep. He wanted to scream. He wanted to turn away and never face any of these truths again. He wanted never to have been born to have wrought so much harm in his short life.

The Eldest laid a hand upon his shoulder.

"This burden is one very few could carry without descending into madness. Know that I have watched you all your days, and I have faith in your ability to play the part Destiny has written for you. You will stumble and falter, your heart will break, but you will succeed. It is written that your Krateros shall be victorious, and he would not be were you unequal to this responsibility. Trust in that. Trust in the Mighty One. Trust that his power and courage will uphold every sacrifice made for him."

Areti could only nod. But he committed every word to memory, already all too certain he would need them to hold him steady and strong in the long years to come.

The Eldest lifted the red medallion from his chest and hung it around Areti's neck.

"This is the Cosmic Cap, or will be once I have died. There is much you must know about it, and we have a very busy day ahead of us, so let us waste no time. You have a blank scroll in that pack you carry, yes?"

"Of course."

"Good. I haven't time to teach you this by rote, so allow me to dictate to you a map…"

-==OOO==-

After their preparations, the pair crept back into the city, just as the SunSoul was beginning to set. The Eldest and Areti made their way to where S'arelmari kept the Arcana, still in its place of honor as if Areti had never lifted it a year ago.

The map of portals showed that there was a portal in this very room that would lead Areti to safety, and from there he could navigate them to the city of Devokan.

Yet he froze as he lifted the Arcana down, his heart full of too many things to say.

The Eldest regarded him almost fondly.

"Do not mourn me, young Teacher. I accepted this Destiny long ago. I have earned my rest."

"Yes, but, Eldest…"

And to his surprise, he was pulled into an embrace.

"When the Cosmic Cap transforms, Areti, you will be Eldest in truth, no longer and never again the puppet of evil. The last of Lemuria, and its greatest hope. For in you lies the only path to victory for the Mighty One, and thus, the safety of every life in the universe for all time."

"I…"

The Eldest released him and faced him.

"It is tradition, just as you stood to center for the Right of Naming, that upon becoming an Elder one gives up one's previous name and receives another. There has never been another Eldest, and so if you would do me this one last honor, I would give you my name to carry you into eternity."

Areti could only nod.

"Then, by my power and duty as first Eldest, I commit my final act. As it is written, as Destiny has proclaimed, this Teacher is now and forevermore the last Eldest of Lemuria. And, with my blessing, let this Teacher be Named...Virgil."