All That Is Evil Is Not Dark/Chapter 54

The Drakel storyteller paused to drink water and Jano shifted his position and looked around. Despite his reservations about the Drakel culture, he was finding it very pleasant to be their honored guest. The storyteller's manner was masterful and the food was quite excellent. He could almost allow himself to forget his misgivings.

As it happened, it was one of the senior councilors who brought the issue to his attention afresh during the break.

"I imagine you will wish to see Lord Tralin's family tomorrow. I am sure he took this opportunity to send a message to them."

Jano weighed carefully how to respond. The council could reasonably know of his ignorance in this regard and might find out later.

"I desire to meet the T'Palo's family, yes," Jano said. "But I do not bear missive from Tralin. He has never mentioned his family to me. I suspect the late king knew of it but I was never privy to that confidence."

"Ah yes. Tralin does seem to take his role rather seriously, stoic even."

"That is a word for it... having however seen the depths of his fury, I am sure its a social presentation."

"Of course it is," the Drakel responded. "Social presentation is much."

Jano felt discomforted anew. Why had Tralin not told Jano about his family? Surely Tralin knew that when Jano acted as Tralin had instructed him, his family would suffer for it. Jano was bothered that he was to be the instrument of innocent suffering in a culture he could not begin to understand, no less agree with.

The Drakel position on taking the side of ANY deity was clear. When Jano revealed, as Tralin had instructed him, that Tralin had openly announced himself communicant of the spirit lord, there would be very real repercussions; Jano had no reason to believe they would be anything but swift in their response.

Tralin's breech might be taken all the more seriously since he was supposed to be T'palo.

"Shall we continue?" the storyteller asked. "Yes? Good..."

The Brilhado's arrival from the other world was quite a shock to the temple of Light. They attempted to compel them, as you might have already heard, but the results of this attempt were a fabulous failure. Hundreds of faithful followers of the Lord of Light were slain that day. When the temple called down the ban on the Brilhado and named them Fallen, demons, they reveled in the charge.

The people already warred and the Brilhado used this to their advantage. Indeed, they selected a time of war to begin their march precisely because others would do much of the damage for them and be unprepared for their wrath.

The first target of their rage was the airborne Githari. In their efforts the Uncreator aided them. The elemental dragons already were caught in their rage for supremacy of the skies and the Githari were a natural obstacle. Even while the dragons fought themselves, they all turned on the Githari. The Githari were generally peaceful, predators to be sure, but unequipped to go to war with the likes of the dragons and certainly even more so unequipped to deal with the raging Brilhado.

The angels descended on their rookeries first, killing the young and the infirm en masse. Their violence knew no bounds and no mercy. Not a single fledgling was spared their raging bloodshed. Even while this happened, the dragons were whittling away the number of Githari warriors and bringing them low. The results were devastating, and the Githari numbers rapidly plummeted to critical levels. Left with no place to hunt, and their aeries and rookeries destroyed, the Githari tried to seek the aid of the land dwellers below, but most mistrusted their motives and others feared that aiding the Githari would turn next the Brilhado on them.

They suffered the false belief that the Brilhado raged over the sky and would not turn on them. The Githari were left defenseless and the conclusions drawn were severe. Trying to gain mastery, they sought to steal the Wind Orb from the air dragons, hoping to increase their natural defense and survive.

The air dragons were wise to the ploy and the Githari suffered utter defeat in their attempt. To the knowledge of the peoples, the last of the Githari died in that attempt, but not before they destroyed the Wind Orb. They believed that this would weaken the Brilhado as it weakened all other airborne creatures. They were unaware of the Brilhado's true nature and the results for the air dragons and for many of the other wind creatures was swift.

In a way, this proved a boon: the fire dragons, seeing how fast the Brilhado turned on the air dragons, surmised correctly that their rage would not end so long as they did not rule the world entire. They took the Fire Orb and sequestered themselves deep within the mountains. They shunned the skies except for flying short distances to hunt. The other dragons too became leery of this and fell back from the ravaging Brilhado. That is to say, most did; several individuals, bent on their own power, stayed and aided the Brilhado in their destruction, confident that in time they could turn upon the would-be oppressors.

It was this turning to ground that likely saved the dragons from extinction. The Silari were not as lucky. A desert people, the Silari's only camouflage was the raging sands. These the Brilhado used to their advantage, driving the sands into fierce storms and forcing the Silari to come to ground. The Silari were the great victims of the plague of undeath. Given the fear of many undead of sunlight, one would think it not so, but the Brilhado magic aided them in this attempt: at dawn, the sands of the desert filled the sky so completely that the sunlight was blocked and then submerged the wandering dead beneath the sands until the new day dawned. If anything, the dry desert environment strengthened the undead, for it retarded decay and preserved those who would otherwise quickly rot.

The Silari finally abandoned their homes for the plains and lowland forests of the moglin. The moglin at first feared to receive them, but in the end, a very small number, less than 200, who survived were secreted into the moglin caves and burrows. The Silari proved adaptable and it is from these races that the elves, and probably humans as well arose. We cannot speak with any assurance about the humans, for they developed many hundreds of years after we ourselves had gone to exile in the walled K'elds.

In effect, the Uncreator felled three of the ancient races and the Brilhado and the wandering dead fed in fear. The Drakel people were not immune to the influence of the Uncreator's manipulations and, unfortunately, the Amilani were the unwitting aids to this effort. We did not know that the Amilani could live on land at all and less so that they could interbreed with others, so we were surprised by their arrival in our cities. They argued that they were likely to be the last target of the masses because of their watery homes but that they still wished to aid us because they knew, in time, the Uncreator would turn to them. It was Amilani who discovered the Drakel's talent for science was backed by a talent for the arcane sciences as well. Prior to the Amilani coming, no Drakel knew the magical arts, but their arrival forever changed that. The Amilani also had many communicants to the Water Lord with them and these set to work establishing their religion among the Drakel people. The Amilani were backed by the arcane and for 50 years we drove off the Brilhado with their aid. We kept our warriors at the fore but, ashamedly, we became sure that the Brilhado were gone. Water Casters and communicants among the Water Lord abounded. Several mages considered that if Drakel could gain power by serving the Water Lord, what power might they gain by turning to the other elements as well, and in time Drakel mages were dedicated to each of the gods. All the while the Brilhado, and the Uncreator, watched and waited. With the Amilani, we researched several very powerful magics and we sent them out among the other people to help the few survivors resist the wandering dead. Unfortunately, they sought to use them amongst themselves.

Then Xilar, long silent, spoke anew. In the midst of this, he rose and spoke of elemental supremacy. To the peoples he spoke long of the heavenly war and that it was a war to be fought here. We must sunder the Brilhado and determine forever what the master element would be.

The Drakel were by now leery of Xilar; we had come to suspect that one of our own though he may be, he was an agent of other forces. Amongst us, we rejected this decree, but the Amilani took to it. Water creatures, protected by the depths, and did not all life and all creation depend on water? It was not obvious that energy or cold or heat was needed for survival but water was undeniable. Seeing this, a council of Drakel was convened. Amongst them were the most reasoned mages from every sphere. They agreed that the elements were more powerful in unison than alone and reasoned also that it was in the singular nature of the Brilhado that they might be defeated. We sought to gather back our artifacts and to prepare an assault on the Brilhado, but such was not easily done.

We cast out first the Amilani who returned to their depths; later, they would breed with the elves and the water elves were born; ocean-dwelling tribes likely have Amilani blood as well. By the time of their interbreeding, however, the Amilani recanted of the Uncreator's influence. For all we know, there are Amilani people in the great depths even today, but as the undead soon took over the seas as well, we cannot say. We can only say that none have been seen whatsoever in the 200 years since we first sent emissaries out beyond the K'elds.

Yet I get ahead of myself. The mages decreed that none should focus solely on one power, for if Uncreator encouraged it, surely it must be our downfall. Many, however, had been born and raised by that time to be loyal to their element. Among the most numerous of these were the Water Casters. It was met and discussed and finally the Water Casters agreed to quit the K'eld. For their part, it was a natural choice anyway, as they could be closer to their magic-sustaining waters outside of the Drakel walled cities.

With great magics we combined forces and built the great walls around the several K'elds and set to battle the undead. Our armies were killed en masse; very few survived the slaughter that resulted. To our dismay, several of the other races, including the giant cave-dwelling spiders, the Kresh, joined the Uncreator in his forces. We cannot conjecture the reasons for this, but it was clear we were outnumbered and that we could not gather the magical artifacts we needed, not only from our own people, but also from races older in the magic then us. From the dead Githari, from the dragons, from the hills and forests, and, at last, we discovered, from the powers themselves. Scattered throughout this creation, items of extreme power that were given as gifts by the powers when the world was very young and the gods yet walked on it directly.

We searched and we died. Finally, we determined to drive of the Brilhado and we gathered at the place known now even as the Hills of Blood for the blood that was shed there. All of the races fought: dragon, moglin, Amilani, Silari, and even possibly some few remaining Githari who managed to survive. Reports after the campaign were varied. We can only report what we ourselves saw. The mages gathered together and, using our strongest magic, opened a portal to another land. We drove many of the Brilhado and the wandering dead into this land and lost several of our own to it as well before the portal closed. It was not until much later that we realized what damage we might have done to that other world, for we knew nothing of it. The Brilhado that remained we attacked with fury; it was the rallying dragons which made the difference in this effort, but many of their kind were slain by a great shadow dragon that served with the Brilhado. His malice was legend and the other shadow dragons greatly feared to attack him, for he possessed the Dark Orb.

In the end, the casualties on all sides were enormous. Creation had been destroyed. Not a tree grew in the forests, so had undeath pervaded. Plants even knew the kiss of undeath and their dark was pervasive. We withdrew in horror. The Brilhado had been driven off, but at what cost was their coming and their going? We shut our borders down utterly. Few knew even of the Drakel's existence, for our magic kept wanderers away, even from those Drakel living in exile outside the cities. For 300 years the exit doors opened only to exile those found guilty of breaking laws, to the De'me'thar. No De'me'thar could return and their families went with them, at first out of love and loyalty, and later out of fear that, seeking revenge, families would turn. After 300 years we opened once every 4 years to accept applicants to the position of bond servant and after 600 years we resurrected the position of T'palo and allowed the De'me'thar and the other outcast people to apply. For the last 200 years, a full 2500 years since the fall of the Brilhado and the loss of the peoples, we have finally opened our doors again and began our search on the outside. In the past fifty years, we began to see evidence of the wars among the humans and of other activities, which suggested that the Uncreator was again at work. We learned quickly that among the general populous, the powers had been thought for hundreds of years to be warring in the heavens. The dark legend renewed. We began to fear the Brilhado's return before it was even evidenced slightly. We knew that not all had fallen, and certainly they could reopen in 2500 years a portal to another realm.

We heard legends of eerie calls and undead rising in the people's tales and we became certain that, in fact, the Brilhado and the undead had already made raiding parties. It is unfortunate that some among the temple of the Dark Lord resumed the practice of necromancy. They assured that the undead were linked tightly to the Dark Lord, so rather than a god of sleep and rest, he became one of rot and decay.

This, Lord T'palo, in brief, is the History of the People. The Cycle of Creation. Still it turns. Still the wheel grinds toward infinity. This time, however, we can be assured that the Brilhado shall not stop. The Uncreator will not rest until all of creation falls to him.

Jano exhaled sharply. "It is quite a story. One with many insights into your people and I appreciate greatly your sharing it. Though if it might be forgiven, I grow tired and wish to return to my chambers."

"Yes, of course," one of the councilors said. "This has taken many hours in the telling. You are the first human to enter this city since the last human bond servant and his family entered. You are the only one to have entered this K'eld or any other as T'palo, so we are eager to hear from you, your thoughts and insights, but it can wait till tomorrow evening. Now is for rest and tomorrow you can see Tralin's family and the other humans who live here."

"But you just said..."

"Lord T'palo, I said that you were the first human to enter the city. Humans of both genders have entered the city of old and have lived among us for ages. There are also elves and moglin in the city, and other things in the mountain beyond... in due time, you will learn much, but please... rest..."