"No," Bane agreed. "I am
not."
"I regret the pain I caused you
when I gave you the power to cast Arkonen down. It was
necessary."
"I understand. I am no stranger
to pain."
"I know. We are allies, you and
I. If not for you, the Black Lord would now own my domain. You are
still too young to have defeated him alone, but, in time, you will
grow more powerful."
"And I am grateful for your
help."
The Lady glanced at Mirra. "Of
course. It was worth it, even though it cost me dearly. We have
both suffered for the other's sake, and it is well, for neither can
claim to have been ill-used. Grudges between gods are ill things.
You have much to learn, but already the most valuable lessons have
been taught."
He inclined his head. "Yes."
"Now you have a task to
complete."
"The wards."
"Yes. You must restore them to
complete our bargain. But you must use the dark power, far stronger
than the blue, and create wards that not even the Black Lord
himself could break, and certainly not his proxy. In his
foolishness, he has given me the means to seal him below forever,
and, with Mirra's help, you have turned to me. I do not presume to
command you. It is something you know must be done."
Bane nodded, glancing at Mirra,
who gazed at the Lady with a rapturous expression. The Goddess
turned to the girl and took her hands, a sweet smile curling her
lips.
"And you, Mirra, how well you
accomplished your task, saving Bane. You suffered greatly to do
this, and I am grateful to you. Whenever you should need my help or
guidance, just ask, and it will be yours."
Mirra's eyes sparkled, and she
curtsied. "Thank you, Lady."
Lyriasharin released her hands
and looked at Bane again. "Your task awaits. We shall do it
together. Mirra will return to the temple, to await you there." She
turned to the healer. "My child, go and tell the good healers that
they may rejoice. I shall restore the land."
Bane glanced down at the grass
that spread from Lyriasharin's feet, and now furred the entire hill
upon which they stood. It lapped at the distant forest's roots, and
trees at its edge sprouted green shoots. She gave life back to the
land with her mere presence, and her power filled the air and soil
for miles around.
The goddess
gestured, and Mirra vanished. The Lady turned to him. "Come,
My Lord, let us begin."
Chapter
Sixteen
Atonement
The Lady clasped her
hands, and the landscape changed. They stood upon the plain beside
the fallen seventh ward. The wind hissed through the brown remnants
of the long golden grass that poked through the hard grey ash that
covered the land. The wind had scoured stretches of ground bare,
which yielded a bounty of dust for it to play with. The stone
colossus lay cracked and broken, its crystal cap scattered about it
in a million shards, sparkling in the sunlight like a bed of
diamonds. The goddess gazed at it.
"You did a good job on this one,
did you not?"
"Yes."
"Your powers are
impressive."
He glanced down at the greenness
that spread from her feet. "As are yours."
She laughed.
"Indeed,
My Lord, such is the
lot of gods and goddesses."
"Do you fear me?"
Her amusement faded. "If I did
not know you as well as I do, I would not be standing beside you.
But I could escape you easily. Now, it is time to restore the
seventh ward and complete your side of the bargain. The Overworld
is not safe until Arkonen is sealed below forever."
He gazed at the monolith. "Will
my power affect you?"
"No,
My Lord. I have no mortal body for
it to sicken. If you wish to know if you could harm me with it, the
answer is yes, if I could not escape you. My power could also kill
you, if you could not escape it, since you possess a mortal body
still. But, if you were clad in a dark form, like Arkonen, I would
be powerless against you, since the light is not meant for
destruction. That is why I needed you to cast him down, for you
have the ability to wield it as you did, and I have
not."
"So Arkonen could have conquered
your realm if he had been able to corrupt Mirra."
"Yes, unfortunately. The demons
did not dupe him as they tried to do to you, and they did not know
you have no wish to conquer my domain. Do not think that that is
the reason I protected Mirra from his transformation, however. It
would not have given him the power to corrupt her. To do that, he
had to seduce her, which he could not. It was her love for you that
foiled him in that respect. I protected her for your sake, for had
he transformed her, she would have been driven mad by it, and the
only escape for her then would have been death."
"I could have undone it."
She shook her head. "It would
have been too late. Her sanity would have been lost forever."
"I thought she was immune to the
dark power."
"She is, in so much as it cannot
kill her, but she was powerless, and therefore vulnerable to
transformation. You could have done it to her, had you wished. But
you never tried, did you?"
"No." Bane frowned down at the
greenness around his boots. "He did not seduce her?"
A look of intense compassion
came over the Lady's visage. "You thought he had?"
He rubbed his brow. "I feared...
I was unsure."
"Why did you not ask her?"
"I could not."
"I understand.
No,
My Lord, be at ease, he
did not. I watched over her while she was his prisoner. I gave her
strength."
Bane turned away to hide his
expression as intense relief swept through him, washing away the
burden of guilt and despair that had weighed upon him since Arkonen
had taken Mirra. For several minutes he gazed across the blighted
grassland, lost in thought, then he faced the monolith again. The
battle with the Black Lord had ended his need for rune cutting and
potions. It had opened the channels of power permanently, and the
shadows flowed into him when he summoned them. Now that the dark
power had been banished from the Overworld, it would be a little
more difficult to summon, however, since it was not so readily
available.
This meant he
had to perform a Gather before he could raise the ward. A minor
inconvenience. He spread his arms, and the seven runes flared under
his shirt. Shadows rushed to answer his call, and he
focus
sed it upon the fallen
ward. The black fire flowed over the stone colossus, sparkling with
red, a sign of the strength he now possessed. It had only taken six
runes to destroy the ward, and that had almost killed him. For the
first time since the dark magic had been banished from the
Overworld, he wielded his full power.
The earth
rumbled, trembling under their feet. The stone creaked, and rocks
rolled towards the greater mass of the ward. Bane increased the
power, drawing it from the thrumming earth. Shadows streamed into
him from all around, a faint banshee wailing accompanying it. Rocks
and boulders rolled, bounced and slid towards the ward, leaping
back into the cracks and crannies whence they had come. Like time
running backwards, the ward reformed, the cracks
clos
ed and melded, the chips
and shards rushed back to their niches. Dust rose from the plains
and flew to the monolith, and it lay once more whole.
Bracing himself, Bane leant
back, his hands outstretched towards the fallen ward, the black
power flowing through him. With a soft creaking and grating, the
massive pentagram rose. Its weight dragged at him as thousands of
tonnes of stone lifted from its grassy grave. The black fire sang
as it raised the ward, following the gradual upward movement of
Bane's hands. The colossus towered upright, tottering as it settled
once more into its foundations. The snaking crevasses closed, and a
deep rumble shuddered the ground. He gestured with a lash of power,
and the crumbled runes reformed upon its five sides.
The ward loomed over him, its
jagged crystal crown glittering. Bane squinted, turning his power
on the sea of crystal that surrounded them. It tinkled and chimed
as his will touched it, then rose like upward-falling rain,
sparkling in the sun. He gestured, and, with a chiming of sweet
notes, the shards flew to the monolith's top like a flock of
shining birds. Diamond bright, the restored crystal stabbed his
eyes with rainbow rays.
Bane ascended on a column of
dark fire, drifting up to the top of the colossus. Standing on the
air, he described a shadow pentagram and flicked it into the
crystal, where it shattered into a million images. A pure, sweet
chime rang out as lines of power hissed from the base of the ward,
forming a web just under the ground, a barrier through which no
spirit god could pass. The seventh ward was restored, the Black
Lord trapped below once more. He floated down to land beside the
Goddess, who gazed up at the ward with a smile.
"The Black Lord will be tearing
his hair out, about now. Or at least he would, if he had any."
Bane nodded. "He can burn down
there for eternity."
"Such uncharitable thoughts,
Bane, although I echo them."
"He deserves no better."
The Lady sighed, her glowing,
translucent form, at once real and illusion, brightening. "My
husband was once a great man."
"Your husband?"
"Yes. The Black Lord is my
husband."
Bane stared at her vivid face,
incredulous. The Goddess sank down cross-legged on the warm, grassy
ground and patted the earth beside her.
"Sit, Bane. Let us talk for a
little while. It has been a long time since I had someone to talk
to." Bane settled beside her, and she smiled at him. "You should
know how this monster who tortured you came to be. Perhaps it will
help you to come to terms with what he did to you." She paused, her
gentle smile sorrowful.
"Aeons ago, when the universe
was still young, my father, the great Grey God Kayos, created the
first domain in the God Realm that exists beyond this domain. First
he created a light realm much like Eternity, for himself to live
in, for the God Realm is a dark and dangerous place. When it was
done, he found that evil lurked within it, for all things must have
balance.
"He disliked its presence, so he
created an Underworld in which the evil might dwell, and the demons
that the dark power birthed populated it. But again there was
imbalance, for the two realms were uneasy together, so he created
an Overworld between them, where the two powers might mix, becoming
the blue neutral power. This worked well, and he was pleased, but
although the Overworld was beautiful, it was empty, so he filled it
with all manner of beasts.
"Again, he grew unhappy with it,
for the beasts did nothing but what they were meant to do. They
followed the laws he set within them without question, and he
thought to create something more interesting to entertain him. So
he brought forth men upon the land, and watched over them with
loving eyes. He enjoyed his new creations, and thought them fine,
but he could not speak to them as equals, for they worshipped him,
and he was lonely.
"So he created a child, to have
someone with whom to share his triumph, and was content. But aeons
ago his first domain was destroyed by a dark god who rose from the
Underworld much like Arkonen did here. His child was killed, and he
fled back into the God Realm, where he created another domain. This
he did many times, until, several aeons ago, he created this
domain, and me. I loved him dearly, and we watched and discussed
the doings of men, which were good back then. They multiplied and
became numerous, steadfast in their worship of my father, and no
evil tainted them.
"I used to come down amongst
them, clothed in a far more solid form than this, since I had more
power then. I enjoyed walking amongst men, talking to them,
learning about them. Then one day I met a young man of surpassing
beauty and intelligence. Though he was a common peasant, he was a
prince amongst men, honest, forthright, gentle, loving and clever.
His hair was spun gold, his eyes as blue as the sky, his visage
handsome beyond imagining. My father had bestowed his power upon
me, making me a goddess, but he had made me as he had created all
women, and I fell in love with this wonderful man. His name was
Arkonen, and he loved me just as I did him.
"My father was not pleased, but
indulged me, although he warned me that men were not the same as
us. Still, I was besotted with Arkonen, and I raised him up,
bestowed half of my power upon him, and made him a god. We were
happy for millennia. We laughed and dallied together in my father's
kingdom. I bore a daughter, Ashynaria, and she was the sunshine in
our lives, as golden as her father. She grew into a beautiful
woman, and that is when it went awry. Arkonen had been raised up to
be a god, but he had not been created one.
"Unknown to me, my husband began
to look lustfully upon our daughter. He pursued her, made his
intentions known to her, and she, in her despair, opened the Realm
Gate and fled into the God Realm, where dangers lurk that even we
cannot always overcome."
The Lady's eyes shimmered with
tears. "She became lost to us, swallowed up by time and space,
untraceable. Even if she wished to, she could never find her way
back to Eternity. I was enraged when I found out. My father, in his
despair and sorrow, went after her, even knowing that it was
hopeless. My fury was such that I cast Arkonen down, stripped him
of the power I had bestowed, and made him a mortal man again.
"I expected him to repent, to
regret his heinous deed, but he did not. Instead, his love for me
turned into a terrible hatred, the likes of which I had not thought
him capable. He became a powerful man, and spread the seeds of
dissent amongst the people. He filled their minds with evil words,
and led them to commit terrible deeds. It was he who used his
followers to chase the good people from the Old Kingdom, raising an
army of rabble and criminals, stained by his corruption.