All That Is Evil Is Not Dark/Chapter 50

In the beginning, the elemental realms were as one. Lorithia, the Great Creator, shaped the world of Lore and presented it to her brethren, a vast land of great beauty. Its varied climates held the elements in balance.

The Elemental Lords were these creation, whose power ruled above the others: Water and Earth, Light and Darkness. Light was wed to Darkness and their children were Heat and Cold. Water was wed to Earth also and their children were Energy and Wind. Lorithia felt alone and, looking at her brethren, who were paired and who had children, also paired, sought to make for herself a consort from creation and she imbued of herself the energy of the gods to her creation so that the two were of one power. The new lord found no interest in the creation and sought instead to live among the gods in peace. The youngest of the brethren, he sought to learn and grow...

The other gods looked at creation and saw a vast potential unrealized, but they did not agree on how it should be realized. Then Lorithia said, "Look, all of you each have your elemental servants and these are the creatures of life and that is all. Let us instead cause the earth to live and grow." So the Dark Lord and his companion the Lord of Light created life and, with it, death so that the land might be peopled and that the people might grow and reproduce and love and, in the fullness of time, die. The world would then not be overrun. Then the Earth and Water Lords created the ancient peoples: in the mountains arose the Drakel, in the desert the Silari, in the lowland forests and plains the Moglin, the deeps were home to Amilani. They filled the land also with all manner of life that might grow into its potential, the plants and the animals, everything that had life. These were the firstborn of creation. Seeing the earth and the seas full of life, the Wind Lord looked to the skies and saw them as expanses unexplored and he created the Githari, the great intelligent eagles, and the Elemental Dragons also that they might rule the sky. Then he created every manner of bird also to fly and live therein. So it was written in the book of life and the cycle was begun, and for near a thousand years it continued unchanged. The elements interacted on every level. Without all of them, life was impossible. The people reverenced the world as a whole and their magics and learnings used the cycle in its fullness.

Now Lorithia's consort, who was entropy, looked at the world in a moment of unease and beheld creation and was jealous and concerned. "Sister, Wife, creation is full of peoples, look how they live and grow and learn. In just a thousand years, see how they have advanced their power. They will advance their power and thus their position; surely they will overtake us should we let them. Let us then stop this."

Lorithia loved creation and to see it grow and live and would not be persuaded.

"It is best this way," she chided and her consort grew more discomforted. So the Uncreator sought to divide creation from within. He found among the Silari a warrior of great ambition whose name was Xilar and he trained him as his tool of war. He then turned him loose among the people. Between the Drakel and the Moglin, he built distrust by suggesting each sought the other's forests for their own. He turned the Githari against the land by playing on their dread of the dry height, yet none was as damaging as what he spread to his own people and to the dragonkind. He turned the elements against each other.

"Look, brethren," Xilar proclaimed, "the gods are at war in the heavens. Every day, we see the struggle of the Dark Lord and the Light Lord. Now the light that we can see is warm and safe and has no secrets, but the dark is not warm and has many shadows. The nights grow longer even as the days grow shorter. The gods war and surely the darkness is winning."

Now the people did not trust this proclamation, for surely the coming of seasons always foretold this transition. Yet still, the learned people paid much closer attention to the cycles and they noted that surely the darkness grew longer and that the days and nights grew colder also. So they turned to Xilar to seek more.

"Be wary," Xilar proclaimed, "for it is not only these who war. Look upon the sky as the warm and cold air collide."

"We mark it."

"They war themselves, but they hide a more vicious war also. Look how the Energy and Water Lord turn their animosity toward each other. Even as the rain strikes the earth, the thunderbolts fly to dry them up into vapor lest the Water Lord gain greater dominion."

The scholars looked and it was just as Xilar said: always when the Water Lord's fury was shown, so did the Energy Lord make his response.

"Mark the fire and ice war also."

Now the people were confused, for they thought the ice to be but frozen water.

"Nay," said Xilar, "better you mark him as the Cold Lord, for even as there is warmth, there is cold and surely they war. For we build a fire to drive off the chill and use we not ice to drive away pain when touched by the fire?"

The people were afraid, for they knew these things too were true, and there was much distrust and wars broke among the people who chose one side over the other in hopes of bringing prosperity. Xilar watched and, seeing that his master's will was done, retreated to the temple.

The center Drakel who had spoken on Jano's arrival raised his hand. "That is enough for now. Lord T'palo, you must hunger and thirst; let us eat and drink and speak of other matters. We shall continue the Cycle of Creation later."

Jano nodded, though on some level he wished they would continue now; he had found the Drakel accounting of the original creation fascinating. He had known there had been other ancient races before, but never had he heard their natures and of their kingdoms. He tried to imagine what life would be like with the elements in harmony but found it to be unimaginable. He knew, however, that his time among the Drakel was to be long, so he allowed himself to fall into the other conversations.