This time, Glaide chose a more intermediate series of movements. He performed more complex attacks, as well as feints, though the movements remained basic. While preparing this show he had rehearsed this series especially much, because it was longer than the one before, and it had taken some time for him to remember everything.
Once again, he completed his performance perfectly. This time, his performance drew strong applause, along with a few cries of encouragement. “That’s not all, guys,” he thought to himself with a smile. “Now watch this!” The boy took up his guard position again, then held it for a moment as he took the time to focus his thoughts.
He intended to show one of the more complicated series that Kezthrem and taught him, which was filled with dodging and deflections, parries, and with each attack more convoluted and complicated than the last. The connecting movements weren’t easier; he had to somersault and jump. In addition to all that, this was a much longer series of movements than the other two. Glaide had worked on this series for a long time without ever managing to execute it as perfectly as the previous two. Complete silence fell on the group, as if they understood that this swordplay required all of his concentration.
Glaide began.
He quickly realized that he would have to slow the series down, because he found he couldn’t remember the techniques rapidly enough to chain them together properly. Additionally, the power behind his blows began to drop as he was concentrating so hard on his next movement—he couldn’t think about everything. More than once, he hesitated, or even lost his balance as he got up after a somersault. Nonetheless, he finally reached the end of the series, exhausted and with perspiration streaming down his face.
He took the time to return to the guard position, then lowered his weapon and looked at his spectators. No one moved or made a sound. The young man suddenly felt ill at ease. He made his weapon disappear, and was about to leave the room, but as he opened his mouth to excuse himself, he heard someone begin clapping their hands. He looked about to see who it was, but failed to spot the person, because soon all of the soldiers joined in, and the applause grew and grew. They began chanting his name, turning it into a veritable ovation for Glaide.
“Incredible!” exclaimed one.
“Just like Kezthrem himself,” added another.
“Amazing,” a third said appreciatively.
Glaide didn’t know where to look; all around him, people wanted to congratulate him and shake his hand. He thanked everyone warmly, forcing away the tears of joy that clouded his vision. One thought sobered him, though. Why wasn’t his master there? He wished so badly that Kezthrem could have seen his feat. Hadn’t he brought honor to his master? Suddenly, a voice reached the ears of the young man over the rest of the noise.
“Would you have time to chat a bit?” Glaide turned and saw the smiling face of Koeris. Without it being said, Glaide knew that this was who had begun the round of applause.
“Of course,” he replied. The monk motioned for him to follow him, which Glaide did, while thanking the soldiers one last time. He promised to return again before they left, which would be in two days, if Kezthrem stuck to the plan. Koeris led the young man back to the main tower. From there he took various sets of stairs while he began to explain why he’d sought the boy out.
“Kezthrem said that you were here to learn as much about our history as possible. You already know a great deal about the katana, but I want to talk to you a little more about the past, especially about the elves and dwarves. Since you have some free time, I thought this would be an excellent time for it.”
“Koeris,” Glaide interjected quietly, “I know you’re probably not the best person to answer this question, but why have I not been spending time with my master?” The monk stopped at that and turned toward Glaide. His face showed that he didn’t understand the meaning behind the question. The young man raised his head to look directly at him. “Is he embarrassed by me? Why haven’t I seen him for three days? He’s always with Ralon. Have I become a burden for him?” Glaide’s voice had risen as he spoke, and he choked up suddenly. He thought he’d overcome the resentment and sadness that he’d first felt when he’d found himself abandoned by Kezthrem. But when he heard Koeris mention his name, and mention that Kezthrem wanted him to learn as much as possible about Galadria’s past, all of that had risen to the surface once again. The adolescent felt like Kezthrem was holding him at a distance. He had asked that someone else teach him these things so that he wouldn't have to do it himself, as if his student had become a terrible weight on his shoulders. Koeris stepped closer and rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“As you know, Kezthrem is a regular visitor here in the temple, and has long been a friend of Ralon’s. I, however, had never seen him before we met in the woods, so I don’t know him very well. I wanted to learn more about him, especially because I was surprised to find that he was so well-known here, while I’d never heard of him at all! But in speaking to Ralon, I at least learned this about Kezthrem: if you think that you are a burden for your master, then you still do not know him at all.”
Glaide looked hard at the man, trying to understand exactly what he meant, but he wasn’t sure, and Koeris continued to speak.
“Listen to me. It is not for lack of respect for you that Kezthrem has left you alone, but because he himself has to deal with parts of his past. He represents many things for you: he’s made it so that you can continue your mission here without having to fear for the lives of your companions, he’s given you a home, and above all else, he’s given you hope and a future. Today, you are ready to find your friends again, and to accomplish great things.” Glaide nodded slowly as the monk continued, “But have you ever asked yourself what you are to your master? Let me tell you. For him, you represent the same hope, that same will to advance, that he inspires in you. You know that before you met him, he wandered alone, haunted by the loss of his magg. Despite all of the disciples he’s had, he’s never been able to forgive himself.” Koeris paused for a moment, and Glaide felt his heart beat a little faster. Was he really that important to his master?
“I think,” the monk declared finally, “that you represent the absolution that he has sought for so long. Whether or not you are the Destroyer isn’t important to him. He just wants you to follow your convictions, to continue to advance despite the obstacles, and to overcome instead of giving up, like he did.”
“But...” Glaide hesitated a moment. “I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself like he’s had to if I were to lose one of my friends. If I’ve succeeded at anything at all, it’s purely thanks to this world. It’s exactly what I’ve always dreamed of discovering. Otherwise, I would never have had the courage to leave my friends to look for a needle in a haystack...”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. What is certain is that your master is an incredibly strong person, and I’m not talking about his skill in Iretane. Your coming here is as much to help you learn as it is to help him move on in his own life. He has no desire to cast you aside, Glaide, but rather to be worthy of you, even when you reach your best.”
Glaide’s eyes grew wide at that. “How could he think that he isn’t?” he murmured. The monk sighed, but didn’t reply. The two had reached a room on one of the upper floors of the tower by then. Koeris entered first, followed by the adolescent who had, in a short time, cycled through feeling guilty first for doubting his master, then feeling as though nothing could hold him back after what he’d just learned. There was still much to do—too much, perhaps—but as he looked back at everything he’d accomplished so far, he had to say that, if there was one thing about Galadria he was sure of, it was that here, nothing was impossible for him. “Destroy a god, give hope to all the people, find my friends again... Why not?” he thought to himself, a smile slowly spreading across his lips.
Chapter 15
“RIGHT,” exclaimed Koeris then. “Where should we begin?” It took the young man a moment to realize what the older man was talking abou
t, but he finally replied.
“Uh... Well, if I’m supposed to learn more about the past of this world, why not start by telling me how the different races of Galadria made their appearances here?”
“The beginning of our era,” murmured Koeris, becoming lost in thought for a moment. “Yes, that's a good idea.” He motioned for the adolescent to take a seat on the cushions on the floor. He chose one himself, and once he was comfortably settled, he began the story.
“First, you should know that we don’t know all of our history ourselves. The only things we are sure of belong to the era of Novak, which is to say about five hundred years ago. Before that time, we only have a limited amount of information, so if we want to go back to our own origins, we must pass into the realm of legend and suppositions.”
“It doesn’t matter,” replied Glaide. “Just tell me what you think is true.” Really, the young man wanted to compare the origins of this world with his own. Perhaps he could learn more about what Galadria actually was.
“In that case,” began the monk, “the story isn’t so very complicated. We know one thing for sure: this place where we live, the Known Lands, is only a small part of a much more vast world. I don’t know how big it actually is, but if what we can see from the tower behind the temple is any indication, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to talk about hundreds, or even thousands of miles. But, since no one in recent years has passed outside of this kingdom, we have no information about whether other civilizations exist or have existed there.”
“And do you know if, in the past, humans lived outside of those limits? I mean, is it possible that before the time of Dzen, people lived outside of the Known Lands?”
“If they had other technology than we have, I don’t see why not. Unless a single event was at the origins of the natural barriers that surround us, in which case there is no reason to think that people couldn’t, at one time, have moved much farther to the north and the east, and perhaps even to the south and the west.”
Glaide nodded slowly. “That seems logical enough.”
“But we would have no way to verify anything like that today,” declared Koeris. “However, over the centuries, we have discovered many strange things on this earth. Sometimes we find ruins, other times we find things that appear to be sculptures, and many other equally mysterious artifacts from the past. I know that five hundred years ago, when all of the races of Galadria still lived together, they had a practice of getting together to discuss these discoveries. Thanks to the memories of the dwarves and the elves, and from what they could deduce, humans were able to write volumes that supposedly detailed the entire life of Galadria.”
“The life of Galadria?” repeated the boy, astonished. “Do you mean they were able to trace what had happened thousands of years ago?”
“Guesses, Glaide. Only guesses. Nothing is certain. And as you said, there are thousands, probably even millions of years grouped under the name ‘The Days of Yore’, which is to say, the years before the elves, orks, and dwarves arrived.”
“So that has nothing to do with Dzen and Novak.”
“No,” agreed the monk, “because we are talking about millennia. That kind of time is necessary to change things so profoundly.”
“What do you mean? What has changed?”
The man hesitated a moment before responding.
“According to the volumes I was talking about, it is possible to divide the history of our world into three broad chapters: the first two make up the Days of Yore, while the last one is our own time, including Baras and Aras, the Destroyer, and everything that we know for sure.”
“The Days of Yore are older than the gods that govern this world?”
“Yes, and it contains things that are difficult to imagine.” Glaide hung on every word of the monk. He couldn't imagine what he was about to hear, but he was certain it would be something incredible...
“Now, mind you,” warned Koeris, “I’m only telling you about what we have guessed and supposed. But this is what was contained in the Days of Yore, according to our ancestors. The latter part, the part nearest to our time, was made up of millennia—two, three, or maybe four at the most. This was a period of emptiness, at least as far as intelligent creatures are concerned. According to our documents, this was an era where no humans, dwarves, elves, barbarians, or other creatures lived. There were only trees, plants, vegetation, and minerals.”
Glaide felt perplexed. “That’s not very surprising,” he thought. “On Earth, things were like that for millions of years!” Koeris hadn’t finished, however.
“The strangest and most incredible thing, however, is the connection between the first part of the Days of Yore and the second. It seems that the millennia of time without animal life followed many thousands of years, or even millions of years, where intelligent creatures reigned here.”
“Wait,” exclaimed the young man. “I don’t understand. Do you mean to say that the three thousand years before your own era were just a... transition?”
The monk nodded.
“But that’s impossible!” the adolescent cried. “Galadria sheltered a civilization, or perhaps even more than one, then returned to being empty, virgin land, before finally welcoming the creatures that live today?”
“That is what the ruins that we’ve discovered would suggest. They could well be the work of beings who lived ten thousand years earlier.”
“Wait, wait,” interrupted Glaide. “How much time did they estimate passed between when the land had no inhabitants and the time of Novak and Dzen?”
“Well, first there were the strange mages who created eorens, and then they disappeared, then the elves, dwarves and dragons arrived, along with the orks and the other monsters. Then it took some time before the cities like Shinozuka were constructed, while others were destroyed, giving birth to legends. In all, that probably took three or four thousand years.”
“So everything that the dragon told me about his memories, all of the artifacts like the katana of Aras that came from outside of the known lands, the fabrication of the eorens by our distant ancestors, and all of that was just the final part, just the third chapter of the history of Galadria, after the Days of Yore?”
“Exactly. And this third chapter as you call it, represents our history. We have our heroes, our stories, and our memories. What passed before matters only at the level of the planet itself. And after all, why couldn’t this planet have sheltered many civilizations? There is no reason why, after millions of years, one race couldn’t disappear, then, millions of years later, another could be born, develop, construct and create in turn, and then die out themselves, with the process repeating until the end of time...”
Glaide felt dizzy. In a few seconds, he caught a glimpse of the scope of what the monk had just revealed. “If I apply all of that to my own world, that would mean it wouldn’t be the humans living now that would see its destruction,” he thought. “We’re merely the inhabitants of a young world. We’ve developed, built things, created history, and worshipped gods, but why should Earth disappear the same time we do? Why couldn’t there be an ‘After Humanity’? And that’s without mentioning elves or dragons. Why couldn’t we have some new generation of humanoids? They could descend from monkeys, like some form of renaissance, millions of years after our era draws to a close...”
“In the end,” he murmured aloud, “‘Galadria’ is only a name. Is it possible that the place where I find myself today is... Earth, but in a future incredibly far off? The Known Lands could be situated on any one of the seven continents, probably a different one from my own, and this civilization that Koeris mentioned, and that disappeared long ago could be none other than... mine!” Glaide shook his head to clear his thoughts. “But no,” he thought, “there’s magic here. The basic laws of physics are being violated. How could fire or ice appear through thought? On Earth, no one ever spoke of a ‘magical flux’, and no one could heal wounds by simply placing their hands on them!”
; But that changed nothing. Despite the proof he’d just recited to himself, his conclusions remained, though they passed human comprehension. The man in front of him spoke suddenly in a soothing voice.
“I can see that my words trouble you, and I think I see why. It seems that there is a major difference between your world and ours: magic.”
“That’s what I was just telling myself.”
“Well, here is something that might reinforce your doubts: it seems that the civilization that preceded ours came to a sudden end, though we don’t know what caused it. Perhaps they destroyed themselves, or perhaps there was some form of external cause, but there is no reason why that sudden cause couldn’t have been the arrival of magic. Who knows?”
“Would I have known that time if the guardian hadn’t come?” the boy asked quietly.
“Glaide, it is possible that our two worlds are connected, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. We use the time of Dzen and Novak as a benchmark, because it is like our own, and it is near to us. We also have many legends and epic tales of adventures, of great wars thousands of years ago, and of structures that seem elfin or dwarfish that were destroyed or lost long ago. That is our history, and it is not for us to look farther back, because nothing there is certain, and again I must say, that distant part of the Days of Yore has nothing to do with our own.”
“He’s right,” thought the adolescent. That made him think that there could have even been an era before the dinosaurs when intelligent creatures lived and built things. Then, they could have been destroyed by prehistoric creatures or anything else, so that we could have been the second to inhabit Earth, or even the third, if you counted the era of the dinosaurs. In that case, the inhabitants of the Known Lands could be the fourth, or perhaps even the fifth or sixth! Who could say how much time might have passed? Or that could all be false, and Galadria could be another world, in another universe, in another galaxy. Who knew? Glaide tried to calm himself. Solving this riddle would accomplish nothing. It would be better to simply store the theory away in his head as an idea to discuss with his friends someday, and to concentrate on the present instead.
Chronicles of Galadria III - Lessons Page 11