by Davis Ashura
Amongst the Humans, they say a mother’s love knows no bounds. She will do all in her power to see her children safe. Can such a dream be true? Our Mother’s love is barren.
~From the journal of SarpanKum Li-Charn, AF 1752
Li-Dirge stood on a stony plateau south of the Privation Mountains, where the land sloped along a series of jagged hills before flattening out into the Hunters Flats. The air was warm and heavy in the late evening, even here in the heights, but it was a mere hint of the summer to come. The sun set quickly in the foothills, streaking the sky with bands of violet, red, and orange. Bats darted in the air, turning sharply in ways no bird ever could. If not for the smell of roasting meat and the raucous shouts of the Chimeras camped at the base of the hill, it would have been peaceful.
Li-Dirge was a Bael, one of the feared commanders of the Fan Lor Kum, the Red Hand of Justice. However, he was no ordinary Bael. Li-Dirge was the SarpanKum, the general of the Eastern armies of the Queen, Mother Lienna, She who the Humans named Suwraith, the Bringer of Sorrows.
He considered the events from the day prior, when his Chimeras were engaged in battle with an Ashokan caravan. He switched his tail in annoyance as he listened in on the casualty report. So many brothers dead. The battle with the Ashokan caravan had ultimately been successful, but it had been costly. The Humans, all three hundred of them, had been utterly annihilated, but they had not gone down easily. The price for their deaths had been steep; almost five thousand Chimeras lost from what had originally been a full Shatter of fifteen thousand.
He glanced down at the fires below where the Fan Lor Kum were encamped, celebrating as they feasted on horseflesh, the meat of the Human warriors, and even the bodies of their own brethren. The additional food was most welcome. In general, the diet of a Chimera consisted of Chauk, a thick stew made from whatever grass was available and the boiled meat of a Phed, the beast Mother Lienna had created specifically to feed her Fan Lor Kum. She must not have worried over much about the taste since Phed in any form resembled dirt and bitter roots. Mother had also proscribed the hunting of any other game, but She had relented when it came to eating those who had fallen in battle. As a result, meat of any other kind was a delicacy.
Thus did the Fan Lor Kum gorge themselves on the plunder of yesterday’s kills. But then again, in their minds, they had earned their feast. Many of their crèche brothers had died, and today had been difficult as well. Li-Dirge had pushed his warriors hard, wanting distance from the site of yesterday’s battle. They had covered over forty miles and were exhausted.
Let them eat their fill.
Tomorrow would be no easier than today. Li-Dirge wanted to regroup with the rest of his forces. All told, he had sixteen Shatters under his command, over two hundred thousand Chimeras – the Eastern Plague of Continent Ember. While most of his forces were widely dispersed, there were three full Shatters gathered far to the southeast, in the Hunters Flats. He needed to reconnect with those warriors. He felt vulnerable out here in the hills, no more than a few weeks journey from Ashoka. There was little chance any force from the city might come for his Chimeras, but there might be another caravan nearby, a larger one and one led more competently. And besides, why take any chances? Humans were unpredictable.
For example, consider what had happened during the battle. It had not gone at all as Li-Dirge would have wished. He frowned in remembrance of the day’s events. The Ashokans had fought hard and fought well, but unfortunately, their commander had been a lackwit. The man had trapped his warriors on a high mountain ridge with no way off. If not for the Human commander’s decision, some of his men would have surely escaped the noose the Fan Lor Kum had thrown about the Ashokans – in fact, Dirge had been counting on it. If the Queen had not been observing – for the past month, She had been strangely lucid – Dirge might have even managed a means by which most of the column might have survived. Sadly, such was not the case.
He recalled the battle and wondered about the four he’d seen fighting so fiercely, especially the one who tore through the Fan Lor Kum like an engine of destruction. Those four had escaped. Li-Dirge had seen to it himself. It had been a great risk, but one he had been all too happy to take. The SarpanKum only wished more of the Ashokans could have fought free of the Chimera trap and fled into the night.
He sighed. The battle had been a success, but still, the Bael wished things could have gone differently. Better.
Most Chimeras had been created by Mother Lienna millennia ago from the twisted wrecks of many species. She had shaped fertile breeders for each of Her various types of warriors, but those made for Her armies were all mule males. From snakes and ferrets, She had made the Braids; from Shylows and monkeys, She had formed the Tigons; Ur-Fels were a mix of dog and rat; while the Balants were a disgusting blend of elephant and baboon. No one knew the inspiration for the Pheds or the Bovars. Of all the Chimeras, they were the only two breeds without the gift of speech. They were dull creatures, empty of thought, although none of the Chimeras could really be said to be intelligent. All of them were irredeemably stupid as far as Li-Dirge was concerned.
Except for the Baels. The Baels were unique. Born like all other Chimeras in groups of five – a crèche – they had been the unexpected offspring of the bovine Bovars. But unlike their brethren, the Baels were not merely powerful, they were also intelligent. They were everything Mother had sought since the creation of the Chimeras. Prior to their birth, the Fan Lor Kum had been disastrously led by the Tigons. It was with the rise of the Baels that Her armies became far more lethal, and the Human caravans became far easier to kill, their cities easier to sack.
And centuries ago, the Baels had rebelled. Their very intelligence, so prized by their Queen was the reason for their betrayal. They eventually came to understand Mother Lienna’s pogrom against Humanity for the evil that it was. Their awakening had changed the Baels, every last one of them. As a race, they had chosen to stymie the Queen’s will at every pass, never hinting at their hatred for Her. They no longer hunted the Humans to extermination. Instead, at great personal risk, they ensured casualties amongst the caravans were as limited as possible; generally no greater than one quarter of the Human warriors. They would have managed even lower losses, but Mother Lienna insisted on a tribute of Human heads every six months, a pile as tall as a Balant.
If only his fellow Chimeras were capable of understanding the truth. It was a pity, but they remained slavishly devoted to the Queen.
Thus, the Baels were alone in their rebellion. And no one could learn of it, most certainly not Mother Lienna. If She ever became aware of the true feelings of Her Baels, She would extinguish them. Beyond simply killing them out of hand, without Mother Lienna’s blessing, all Chimera breeders were infertile. Only the Pheds and Bovars could procreate without Mother Lienna’s direct intervention, but She could simply kill the bovine Chimera beasts of burden out of hand. The extinction of the Baels would occur through simple lack of reproduction.
Li-Dirge put aside his thoughts. He sensed the approach of his Queen, Mother Lienna.
Li-Reg, his SarpanKi, his aide and brother – they had been born from the same crèche – hissed warning. She was nearly upon them.
Li-Dirge schooled his unruly thoughts to silence, focusing instead on the prayer all Chimeras spoke at night, re-affirming their love for Mother Lienna: the Prayer of Gratitude:
By Her grace are we born
By Her love are we made
By Her will are we shorn
By Her fire are we unmade
And are reborn once more
A storm – a sound of thunder and coruscating lightning – was the harbinger of Her arrival. Her voice was a howling scream carried on the wind. A calm and warm Mother she was not, although She believed otherwise.
He and Li-Reg fell to their knees, followed instantly by thirty others of their brother Baels. Here were gathered all the surviving Vorsan and Sarpan, the leaders of the Fan Lor Kum. All their foreheads were pressed to the dirt,
and they silently incanted the same night prayer Li-Dirge had used a moment earlier to cleanse his thoughts of treason. The rest of the Chimeras, including the junior Baels remained encamped on the northern outskirts of the Hunters Flats, awaiting the return of their commanders. And not for the first time did Li-Dirge wish he were amongst them, safe from Mother’s scrutiny.
Her attention was always dangerous.
“My SarpanKum: to Ashoka you will send Our most trusted child,” Mother said. Her voice was the sound of nails on glass. It tore into Li-Dirge’s mind. “One there, a servant of Mine will venture forth, past the accursed city walls and greet him. To this servant I instruct you to give him this trinket.”
A knife, small and plain with a dark, wooden hilt fell from the sky and into Li-Dirge’s hand. He had a moment to study it. What he had initially taken to be dark wood was actually maple stained with blood. Further inspection would have to wait for Mother’s departure.
“And how shall I know him?” Li-Dirge asked in a firm tone, with no hint of a quaver and no sign of fear. Mother genuinely believed Herself to be gentle and loving. Should one of Her children display even the merest wisp of trepidation toward Her, Mother considered it a cardinal sin. She dealt with such heresy accordingly.
She spoke once more. “He will be the SuDin to their Sil Lor Kum. He will use the trinket to unlock the gates of Ashoka so that I may lay it low. I will smash her tall towers into the ground such that no brick will be left standing atop another. And then will I turn my gaze to proud Hammer and finally bring an ending to that cursed city as well.”
Li-Dirge held still, no longer surprised by Mother’s inconsistencies. Hammer had fallen centuries ago, and yet the Queen persisted in believing it a threat. Early on as a young Bael officer, Dirge’s seniors had explained the situation to him, but he had not fully grasped the magnitude of Mother’s tenuous grip on reality until he rose through the ranks and had direct contact with Her. Often were the times when She mistook living cities as being dead and dead cities as being alive; not to mention Her irrational demands and paranoid fears, most of which had no basis in fact. Dirge knew the truth, as did all the Bael: Mother Lienna was insane. Not that it mattered because She was still their Goddess, and they had no choice but to obey Her dictates, despite how contradictory and difficult they were. However, they often dreamed, in the deepest depths of their hearts and souls, for matters to be otherwise. They dreamed of freedom and a world without their Queen.
“Now. Go forth and rend My will!”
With that She was gone, taking the whirlwind and the raging storm with Her.
“That was most unpleasant,” muttered Li-Urge, one of the Sarpans, the commander of one of the two Dreads of the Eastern Plague.
“Is it ever anything else?” asked Li-Brood, the other Sarpan. “Something not unpleasant, I mean.”
“Never,” Dirge sighed.
“What did she give you, brother?” Li-Reg asked, glancing at the unsheathed knife in Dirge’s hand.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like the feel of it,” Dirge answered. “It tingles against the skin as if it is unhealthy.”
Brood snorted. “Nothing from Her hand is clean.”
“Even us?” Urge asked. “We should simply lay down our lives then if we believed so.”
Dirge silenced them with a hiss and an angry lash of his tail. “Mother had our birthing, but not our forging. We were an accident She was tempted to abort.” He shook his great black head, his bright feathers jangled as his ebony horns caught the last of the sun’s rays. “It was Hume who had our forging. We are his creation more so than Hers, cleansed by his charity through the love of Devesh.”
“Yet he charged us to find a way to pass on his heritage,” Urge said. “Generations of our brothers have failed him. We have failed.”
“Since Hammer fell,” Brood said.
“But we will find a way. His heir will be found,” Dirge promised.
“His heir will be found,” the other Baels intoned.
Far above the world, Lienna, Mother of the Fan Lor Kum, the Mad Queen and Bringer of Sorrows, floated amongst the racing winds of the high heights. She wondered about Her life thus far, measured in long years and millennia. Though She was ancient now, She was but a child compared to Her parents. She shied away from that memory. Mother and Father were best forgotten. It was wise never to think of them at all, else they might speak to Her as they too often did.
Instead, She recalled Her recent conversation with the SarpanKum of her Fan Lor Kum. She smiled. The Bael was a fool. So trusting and noble. So humble and devoted to Her. The Baels had always been Her greatest creation, but they were also Her greatest failure. They were too much like the detestable Humans, and so in the end, She would have to end them as well. For now, however…they had their uses.
“You were once Human,” Her Mother murmured in Her ears, a voice only She could hear.
“Silence, shade!” Lienna shouted to the sky. Lightning arced all around Her as thunder pealed in counterpoint.
“Daughter, you are a fool to trust the Baels,” Father told her. “They seek to destroy You.”
“You think I know it not?” Lienna laughed. “Though their appearance is vastly different from that of a Human, still their heart is quite the same.”
“The only good thing You have ever made,” Mother murmured.
“The only good thing You will ever make,” Father said.
“Begone! Both of you,” Lienna shouted. “You are dead.”
“As You would know better than anyone,” Mother murmured, Her voice fading.
Lienna seethed at the reminder, lightning forking across the sky with thunder and wind following. She eventually forced stillness to Her heart, but even then echoing rumbles of Her anger still made their way across the cloudless sky. Her Mother and Father were dead, but who then were these Others who spoke with Their voices? It must be Mother and Father’s revenge.
Or something else.
A sick dread made a cold and damp path through Her mind. What if Mother and Father were alive?
Impossible.
“Hammer mocks Us,” said a voice, gentle as a spring shower, biting as a blizzard.
Lienna winced. Had She a face, it would have been frozen in a mask of fear. Arisa, the unknowable Spirit of the very earth, Lienna’s Goddess and Mistress to all Creation, terrified Her. “I have done the best I can,” Lienna said, hating the sulky note in Her voice.
“The best You can?” Mistress laughed derisively. “With all the gifts I have granted, this is the best You can do? You are a fool. I curse the day I ever listened to your entreaties. I should have chosen another, one more worthy, you stupid girl.”
“No. I can do better,” Lienna whimpered. “I can accomplish what…”
“You have accomplished nothing!” Mistress’ voice was a whiplash. “Succeed with Ashoka, and then destroy Hammer. She is the key to ending the blight of Humanity.”
“And then My Baels will usher in a new golden age?”
“As I promised.” A cold dagger slid into Lienna’s mind. “Try to achieve more than mere incompetence.”
“What would You have me do?”
“Gather the Fan Lor Kum upon the fertile fields of the Hunters Flats. The Shylows must be taught respect or hunted to extermination.”
“I thought We were to destroy Ashoka?” Lienna whined.
“You think? A wonder for the ages.” Mistress laughed again, that same derisive taunt. “Do as I command. The Flats first.”
“Then Ashoka.”
Mistress sighed, seemingly reaching the bounds of Her patience. “No. Then Hammer.”
Lienna recalled something just then. “Is Hammer not destroyed?”
She winced as She sensed a building rage from Her Mistress.
“If it was destroyed already, why would I want it destroyed again?” Mistress thundered.
Lienna was too scared to answer. Mistress Arisa was fearful and disturbing at the best of times. And this was
not the best of times.
“Fine. I see where Your mind wishes to go. Ashoka then, coward.”
“And the Baels?”
“The Baels are Our greatest ally.”
“A new age will issue forth from Our loyal servants.” Lienna said, speaking fervently.
“Yes. But only if You gain the merest grain of wisdom, dull and stupid girl.”
Her orders given, the Mistress was gone just as suddenly as She had arrived. Lienna shivered in relief.
“The Baels will betray you,” Father said.
“I’ll kill them all when they are no longer useful to Me.”
“You were once loved by all,” Mother murmured. “Your name means ‘gentle soul’. Now, all fear and hate you, even the Baels.”
“Our greatest ally,” Mistress Arisa said.
Once again, Lienna wondered which voice She should believe.
The crucible of tragedy teaches us the truth of our dharma: we sacrifice all so others need not. It is a weighty burden.
~The Sorrows of Hume, AF 1789
Rukh knew when Brand Blended. Worse, he knew how Brand Blended. This was a Talent given over only to the Murans and Rahails. Never to the Kummas. But then again, no one other than a Kumma could Annex their Jivatmas, and yet, Brand, a Rahail, had been joined with Rukh, Farn, and Keemo only a few minutes earlier.
What did this all mean? And should he mention his possible abilities to the others? He didn’t want to. It went against everything he had ever been taught. It was wrong. He was wrong. And if he spoke up, loathing was the best he could expect from his friends. It was how he would have reacted if one of them admitted to something so repulsive. In that case, wouldn’t it be better to just keep it quiet and not say anything? It would certainly be easier. After all, why did anyone need to know this one little secret? He could just keep it to himself. No one would really be hurt if he remained quiet.