Helios
Lord Zee
DX3214
Vec
From the west came the great temple, casting a long shadow on the sea in its approach to the great island north-eastern island of the continental chain. Seen from the coasts and high points of the isle came the shimmering temple of gold, the gargantuan form that was Thaa hung beneath its spiral towers and tower domes of the layered temple. His great eye peered out at the isle he now approached for he had come across other islands in this chain and sought further collection even as he had as of yet failed to meet any of his sibling deities.
He kept his purposes to himself, for the least matter that he had not yet encountered any to explain his actions. In the great halls of the Vescii Temple he had collected some wildlife already, a kind of shark that found itself walking the land and a peculiar crab which he thought he could find some use to put it towards.
Although such additions were a bare fragment of the space in his grand temple, he was not selective for lack of space. Thaa simply had found little to be impressed by those landed creatures he had yet encountered on the journey, for he knew there would be a great many that he could find a greater purpose for from merely the dead that had yet come to him.
And so his gaze continued, settling to examine the land as the Temple approached, to examine its land for any life he might find useful for his purposes, and of course to watch out for signs of his fellow deities. Even as he kept himself attached to his temple through the masses of the sympathetic corpses that he kept as his form, he kept some free in loose chains hanging down, he found they were useful in collecting the life he found of some interest.
Unfortunately, perhaps, for the life beneath the temple, it was the black of night, meaning there was, indeed, activity below. Particularly, right beneath the temple at the moment, there was a young night elf female picking some dewy mushrooms by a crevice creek. The temple’s quiet, predatory approach was inaudible even to her, and she had no way of seeing it, as dark as it was on this night.
Thaa’s gaze shifted along the landscape below him, and while it did settle upon the young night elf it did not linger long. That did not mean he had no interest however. In the dark of the night the loose chains of corpses brushed down to the land below and reached and plundered it. Here the grasping mouths of fish tore grasses and plants from the dirt and soil, and over there a stray animal, or insect was caught by the simple grasping talons of a predatory bird. All were lifted upward to the grand Vescii Temple.
Amid this sudden cacophony of action, of the bare escapes of a few and the squeals and cries of the many captured, a chain reached for the elf and even the mushrooms she picked. Grasping arms and hands reached to lift what Thaa sought to the sky, although safely even in his rapid attempts at acquisition.
The screams from above had tilted the elf’s head upwards in a curious manner, but it had been much too late. She was drawn upwards by the chain, kicking and screaming all the way up. “HELP! HEEELP! CAYEN! ROSE! ANYONE?!”
“What is your name, little night elf?” The voice echoed around her, seemingly drowning out any other noise even as it was not quite itself thunderously loud. The chains continued their work, Thaa continued to take samples and examine the land for more even as he spoke to the young elf.
She didn’t respond at first, too frightened of the voice. Eventually, though, she caved: “Ci-Cinnamon,” she responded shudderingly, frozen completely with fear.
“It is good to meet you Cinnamon. I am Thaa, Protector of the Dead and God of Death.”
“H-hello,” she replied and looked down. “Wh-why have you taken me?”
“You are going to lead me to others of your kind and then we’ll all go together to other lands where you will all have a much better time while you live your lives.”
“I-I--...” Cinnamon took a deep breath. “Do you mean you’ll… Take us to the afterlife?!” She began to hyperventilate. “I-I-I-I… I can’t! I don’t wanna die!”
With those words the great disk and eye of Thaa shifted to look at Cinnamon, gliding over the great mass of bodies that the chain was slowly drawing them towards. “No. Not until you have died in whatever course you choose to let life bring you.”
“Why do you not wish to die? You have a long time before your life gives way but you do not embrace death nonetheless?”
“B-because!” Cinnamon swallowed. “B-because I’d leave my family behind - my friends. And death is, is scary.” She shook her head. “Please, Thaa - great Thaa! Sp-spare me!”
“You will not die yet, or for a good many decades, nor will you leave behind your friends and family. There is nothing to be spared.” Thaa paused before switching tracks, “Why do you pick mushrooms by a creek?
“T-to eat. The air is moist there, s-so the mushrooms grow large and, and juicy. Oh, please, great Thaa, I don’t, I don’t want to leave here!”
“There will be many more things to eat where I will take you, many better things to have, it will be easier there.”
As Thaa stopped speaking the chain went into a great motion once more, taking Cinnamon up into the great upper levels above where Thaa perched below. She was set down safely in one of the great halls of the Vescii Temple, having taken through a gate into one of the many domed structures that helped form the Temple. What little light there was in the dark night shone through the great windows of the entrance hall, deeper into the Temple where Cinnamon had been recently set free and the chain that was part of Thaa still sat in the golden hall.
After setting Cinnamon free the chain of ‘corpses’ shifted, and a cornucopia of life sprung out around Cinnamon. Soils flooded the floor around her, and mushrooms half again the size of the largest from the creek sprung up. Flora collected from the land grew anew around her, more lush and if tried succulent than normally on the land below.
“You and your family, your friends could have this and more, not just in my Temple but you would have a new land to live upon, one that suited your needs and made life all the easier, you need not fear this young Cinnamon. Where do you live? What is it like that so entices you to stay?”
The night elf did not seem particularly enticed by anything at the moment; rather, the slew of magic and divine growths around her clearly frightened her, for she dove for cover underneath a mushroom cap and started sobbing.
Thaa was nonplussed, it was the nature of life to be so ill designed that it had to fear from every such thing. He could only pity that such creatures were made in the first place by such cruel and despicable gods. Thaa did little more with Cinnamon, he did not comfort her for he knew the attempt would likely to more damage than the temporary suffering she was undergoing. When she died he could comfort her in all the horrors that had been inflicted by life, for now he had work to do.
Outside the Temple, Thaa’s eye searched onto the land once more, looking for more of the night elves to take with him, as well as any other creatures that he could think of some use for.
Nearby, merely what would’ve been a thirty minute walk from where he had found Cinnamon, a small grouping of animal hide tents leaning against canyon crevices stood out in the darkness. The village centre was buzzing with silent activity, as night elves villages did at this time of night, but as the keep approached, the activity halted and all the elves ran for cover inside their homes. A small band armed with sharpened sticks and rocks was all that remained in the village centre.
The chains descended once more, a few circled over the village as if looking for more subjects. All around the village however, chains dived into the ground around the village. Soon the ground the village built on and into, a great portion of it was lifted out of the land below. It was held together by divine energies as Thaa kept the village intact, merely taking the whole of it into sky.
The chains of ‘copses’ that were a part of Thaa made their purpose clear in circling above the village, in keeping any of the elves from getting off of the platform. Only upon reaching up high to a gate in the Temple did the platform split, taking in the whole of the village in pieces into the great halls of Temple, each piece was brought settled down in that same room he had left Cinnamon to cry in.
The elves tumbled into the room, screaming and crying in terror and shock. Cinnamon, who had begun to calm down, tried her best to calm her friends and family down, but to no avail. The guardian band that had stood ready to protect the village fared little better - some ran to make certain their families were alright; others hunkered down and tried to shut out all the panic. Cinnamon had managed to find the chieftain, but even she was completely lost to her instincts, hiding inside her still-intact tent and trying to convince herself none of this was happening.
Even if Thaa knew that this was the manner of life, he could not do nothing. Clearly the creators of these beings had been cruel, to make them live, to give them an existence which was so begotten by the need of fear and terror at change for the danger it might present. But their cruelty was no excuse to act poorly on his own part, and while he knew it would not be easy, it would not be moral to do otherwise.
In the center of the grand hall a shining silvery ball appeared, it was faceted not as a purely smooth orb but rather a gradually sloping series of plates, each in turn shining out soft divine light into the room. Although the light shone out in Thaa’s divine sense, to mortals they could not see, for rather than a light such as that of the sun, this light was of a feeling a sense of serenity. Everywhere the light touched, with each beam that shone out briefly then disappeared again, fears and worries slide away, all over the great hall, no matter the coverings or where the elves cowered, the light put them at ease.
Although a brute force solution of divine power and influence, the Orb of Serenity was something that might be a tool to help at least. Thaa was not one to use brute simple solutions alone however. Whispers, whispers at that combined, in parts and pieces in different places to say different things. Thaa spoke not just to the night elves as a whole, to but each group or family or quivering individual, he explained what was happening, why he was doing it- to bring them to a better land. He spoke to them to ease their worries, although cheating perhaps with using an artifact of divine power rupon them at the same time.
The elves settled down eventually, the gentleness of the orb oozing through the hall like a gentle perfume. While many of them still struggled with the trauma of the experience, they didn’t show it - everyone instead sat down in a circle in the centre of the hall, eyeing the surroundings curiously. Cinnamon rubbed her eyes tiredly and looked up. “What did you do to us?” she asked the presence.
“Forced Serenity upon you, it is temporary while the Orb remains. Your own feelings and sense will return gradually after it is removed.” Thaa’s spoke to them although most of all of his form in the chains had retreated from the room.
One of the elves, an elder female, rose up. “I am chieftain Alspise. Cinnamon whispered to me the gist of our situation… You say you will take us to a land much richer and greater than our home of Scenta? Where?”
“The Hreelcii Isles is the ultimate goal, although I will be passing through many lands collecting many others before then. Most directly once I am finished here, I plan to head north to the islands there. Why do so ask Chieftain Alspise?”
“Well, up until a few moments ago, we were living below in harmony with the land and each other in accordance with the law of the Great Peace. Then, like a sapling trampled over by the buffalo hordes, you ripped us from our soil by the root. I believe we have the right to know, since we evidently don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“An interesting proposition, a right to know. A novel idea I must admit, I do not believe it has been one that many of my fellow deities have decided to uphold. I hope you were not too attached to the idea as it may not be very popular. And what is this law of the Great Peace that you speak of, if we are to be sharing such that we know.”
“What is the law of--...” started the chieftain as if someone asked her to explain why water is wet. She cleared her throat. “W-why, the Great Peace is a rule upheld by nightkind all across the land - silence and quiet are to be upheld at all times, so as to not disturb your fellow men and women, whose ears would be much too pained by all the noise. This is why we speak as we do, play our music as we do, sing our songs as we do. You ripping our village out of the ground, however - that breaks this sacred law.”
“How cruel a creator you must have had, I did not realize they were so clever so as to make such a race with a necessity such as this. While this is all very fascinating and I would like to keep speaking with ones such as you Chieftain Alspise, I am going to bring more of your kind to this Temple and bring more of them with me. You have a choice in that you may be able to help me to do so. I would ask you to tell me where other villages of your kind might be, and if all of your village are present now?”
The chieftain shook her head, internal emotions evidently battling with her ability to express them in face of the Orb of Serenity. “We are all here, but we will not give up more of our kin. To have ourselves rooted out this way - we wish it not upon anyone else. We are sixty here already - can you not be sated by that, great Thaa?”
The last chains in the room finally shifted, instead of the long chains they retreated to the entrances to the hall, sealing them with a wall of ‘corpses’. Thaa remained silent for a long moment as he did this, he finally responded. “My name is ‘Thaa’, no need for this ‘great’ nonsense. And no, I cannot be sated at this Chieftain Alspise.”
“I can proceed without your assistance, I would have hoped otherwise but it shall have to work for now.”
“So be it,” said the chieftain and sat back down. One could tell that her inner emotions were erupting within her, evidenced by the shivers running up and down her body where she sat. Her tribe members, Cinnamon included, all huddled around to comfort her, quivering immensely as their emotions were suppressed still.
A small chain of bodies reached for the Orb of Serenity now that the conversation had finished and Thaa prepared to move onwards.
