Elaina J. Davidson's Blog, page 57
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Ancient Terra excerpt: the Realms explained
12th hour /36th minute to 13th hour
LATER, alone with Chitty,who stroked her neck, her hand trembling, Torrullin said, “Your society ischanging.”
“By the moment,” sheagreed.
“We have learned muchsince arriving here, and thank our lucky stars we landed up with you and yourCircle, but we can no longer wait it out. We cannot stay here, Chitty.”
She did not respond.
“There is much that isdeceitful moving through this local ether in the present, and it will get worseunless someone steps into that arena.”
“You intend to do so?”Chitty questioned.
Scratching at his lefttemple, Torrullin grimaced. “We are not permitted to interfere in another’ssociety, and yet every part of my being wishes to right the wrongs here. Still,who am I to judge? Perhaps there is much wrong in my society also, and Icannot see it unless an outsider points it out. Will I welcome that? Probablynot. Yours won’t appreciate our interference either. It may lead to a civilwar, Chitty, and that is ever to be avoided.”
She leaned forward,clasping her hands tightly together. “But, my friend, we are engaged incivil war and have been for generations, and I’m not talking merely male versusfemale. Every Nascent Season, clans war on each other. Men kill each other withimpunity. Have you not wondered why our population is somewhat low?”Straightening, she added, “Someone needs to interfere.”
He sighed then. “Iguess the rules are different in Arianne.”
She sniffed. “And thereis the prickly subject you keep avoiding. Look around you. We are alone, and ifyou prefer, we will remain alone while you tell me. Let them have their lunchand then go on with daily tasks. After all, much has gone undone recently,given most of us are spending our days in this dome.”
He smiled,acknowledging that. “It would be better if someone with your wisdom decides howmuch is proper to reveal to her charges. While it isn’t contentious, the taleof Arianne is a fantastical one, and most will not believe it.” He stared ather. “I will not be called a liar.”
She sighed. “Very well,you and me, and no other will enter while we speak.”
“I need Elianas,” hedemurred.
“Why?”
“He needs to agree withany action I put forth.”
“Which action has you concerned?”
“Heading south to stopan army in its tracks,” he growled.
Smiling, she murmured,“I believe Elianas will agree with such action.”
“He will, but it is thehow he will temper.”
“Ah, say no more. ShallI send for him?”
“No need; he is on hisway.”
“He hears you?”
“He does.”
“Are you lovers as wellas rulers?”
Torrullin closed hiseyes. “Does it matter?”
“No, not to me, but youare at pains to hide it.”
He reopened his eyes.“Elianas prefers his privacy.”
“That I sensed withinthe first hour of meeting you, yes, and it is as well that you say nothing. Menon this world will string you up, or try to, given they need to hide their ownproclivities. Women, after all, are things and where is the pleasure in that?While I am aware no one will be able to hang you, you need them to hear you.”
His eyes glittered, andthen he straightened, moments before the dark-haired man entered, and Chittyunderstood then how very aware of each other they were.
“Welcome, Elianas,” shesmiled. “Torrullin refuses to talk unless you are present.”
“As well,” Elianasmurmured, “for the Valla can be impulsive.” He took a seat beside Torrullin andnudged him. “What are we talking about?”
“Leaving the enclave tostop that army, and Arianne.”
“Ah, the big stuff.”
Chitty, wisely, movedthem along. “How you deal with an army is not something I can have much say on,but I have a feeling, this odd sensation, each time you mention Arianne. I wishto know. Please.”
Elianas glanced towardsthe entrance. “Will this remain private?”
Chitty nodded.
“Good. It will sound asif we are spinning a story and if someone calls me a liar, I will call him orher on it.”
Torrullin’s eyescrinkled at their corners. “I said something similar.”
Completely opposite andyet exactly the same, Chitty mused. They knew each other well. “Arianne, Isuspect, is the name of this space we swerve through,” she then prompted.
“You are Master ofReaume, Torrullin. You tell it,” Elianas murmured.
“We are Mastersof Reaume, Elianas.”
“If you say so.”Elianas did not look at him.
Pressing his lipsbriefly together, Torrullin rose to pace. “Elianas is right in that this storymust begin with Reaume. Imagine, Chitty, a giant bubble.” He drew an imaginarysphere in the air. “And another.” He drew one next to it. “They are separate. Theyalso overlap.” He moved his outstretched hands closer to each other as ifherding his imaginary bubbles together. “And they occupy precisely the samespace as well.” His hands imitated two spheres becoming one. “These threestates are continuous, and all three exist at the same time. They behavedifferently, and are therefore separate. One can access the one from the other,and that is where they overlap. And yet, one exists because of the other, andvice versa. Therefore, they are one.”
As if pulling theimaginary bubbles apart, Torrullin’s moved his hands in opposite directions. Hethen pointed at the one on his left. “This is Reaume, a mighty space filledwith a multitude of worlds.” He pointed to his right. “This is Arianne, asgreat a space but not as populated. Both are real because of each other.Avaelyn and Lykandir are part of Arianne. We call this the realm of lonelyworlds, for planets are spread far apart and rarely interact with each other.Mostly the isolation is not due to distance, however; it is because the worldsare too different from each other to allow for visitation. Yes, I see thequestion. Avaelyn is similar to Lykandir, and we move ever closer to eachother, which negates what I just said. Avaelyn, however, was not conceived inArianne; she was born in Reaume, and we, Elianas and I, brought her intoArianne deliberately.”
Chitty could only stareat him.
Chuckling, Torrullinresumed his seat. “While fantastical, I believe you are able to accepteverything I said with due thought, suspending what you know about science torely on the supernatural instead. It means, yes, that Elianas and I have greatpower, far greater than all your High Mages put together since time began here.We can, for example, remove Avaelyn from the approaching alignment, but thatmeans returning her to Reaume.”
“We are not ready toreturn to Reaume,” Elianas muttered.
Chitty blinked. “Tellme about Reaume.”
Torrullin relaxed,perhaps realising she was not in a state of disbelief, rather one of astonishment.
“There are isolatedworlds in Reaume also, but often that is a factor of either distance or choice.For the most part, worlds, and there are many worlds, interact with each otherall the time. Some of that is achieved via magical transport, but most of it isdue to space travel, the flying ships we spoke of before, and those vesselstravel at speeds one cannot put numbers to. They cross the dark space betweengalaxies as if it is of no matter, and yet those distances are truly vast.Reaume is busy.”
“We chose isolationfrom such busyness,” Elianas said.
“Why?” Chitty asked. “Iwould imagine that living on a world there is much the same as living on aworld here. Daily life is daily life … surely?”
“Not all societies arepastoral, but those that are, yes, life there is as life here, perhaps with theodd spaceship overflying added in. The city-worlds, however, are somethingelse. The entire planet is one city, buildings pressing against each other withnary an open space between. Hundreds of billions live on those worlds. To seeit even once is enough to know what not to do on one’s homeworld.”
“Hundreds of billions,”Chitty echoed.
“Reaume is home to many,Chitty, and they all wanted something from me and Elianas. We have power, andtoday someone needs us to reverse an avalanche, tomorrow someone implores us tosave them from an evil autocrat, while last month we world hopped chasingmarauders, and next week we may be called upon to return a Warlock to thenetherworld. It was too much; we had to leave.”
Elianas, head bowed,stared at his hands, and remained silent.
“You were exhausted,”Chitty whispered.
Torrullin nodded. “Tothe point we became something to fear.”
“Because you startedpushing back, hoping they would leave you alone?”
“That was part of it,yes, but one becomes what one chases also. For the sake of our souls, we bowedout.” Torrullin glanced at Elianas’ lowered head. “For the sake of the love Ibear Elianas, I needed to find my light again.”
Elianas’ head hadjerked up. “You dare?”
“I dare,” Torrullinmurmured.
Closing his eyes,Elianas dropped his head, and said, “For the sake of the love I bear you, Iwill let that pass.”
Chitty murmured, “Ithink the two of you must have some epic … battles.”
Neither man said aword, but both smiled, one with lowered head, the other directly.
Rubbing her handstogether, Chitty stated, “There is something you are not telling me aboutReaume and Arianne.”
“The rulers of therealms,” Elianas took over, straightening to look at Chitty, his dark eyesunreadable. “There is no Mother Goddess; she is merely the concept ‘life’ tous. There are no gods, other than those who style themselves such and trade onthe feelings of the desperate and needy. There is no Lykan, Chitty, but mostneed someone greater to look up to, to invoke, to talk to when lonely, for theact of believing in something more inspires people to be more. What happens, infact, is that we inspire ourselves. The belief fostered is merely the means,and there is nothing wrong with that. If it works, fine.”
Chitty held a hand up.“This is what happened to you in Reaume. You were seen as gods.”
“Something like that,”Elianas nodded.
“Flawed gods,”Torrullin muttered.
“Don’t interrupt.”Elianas sent him a look. “There are beings, however, far beyond godhood thatfew know of. One needs to be regarded as a god,” and he grunted before goingon, “to see these beings. Every world, here, there, inhabited and deserted, hasa resident sentience. The world guardian. Few know that and yet, if known, onecould say the guardian should be the true god of a world. It, however, wouldnot function if revered, for it is neutral, cares for the very earth, not thesouls walking upon that earth.”
She was now sureastonishment would add a thousand wrinkles to her visage, for her facecontorted oddly at every new piece of information. “Lykandir has a guardian?”
“Yes,” Torrullinmurmured.
“Have you met a worldguardian?”
“We have,” Elianassaid, and went on. “These guardians are connected in Reaume, as they areconnected in Arianne, because of the true rulers of these realms. These are notmen or a council of beings sitting in a mighty palace keeping the realmsfunctioning according to their whim. These are beings much like the worldguardians, in that their focus is on the great space, every atom of matter andevery current of energy within it, and not on the behaviour of the souls daringto claim territory.”
“They do know, though,”Torrullin said.
“In Reaume, yes, butnot so much in Arianne. We call the rulers of Reaume the Syllvan, and they aretree-like beings exceptionally wise and strong. Arianne’s are known as theDryad, vine-like creatures, but they are not as wise.”
“Certainly strong,”Torrullin put in.
“The Dryad are theoffspring of the Syllvan, see, and explains how the two realms are indivisible,and Arianne is Dryad training ground until they mature from vine into tree.This is why, we believe, Arianne is the realm of lonely worlds. It curtails themto some extent. Children, after all, like to play pranks.”
Chitty merely gaped,not caring about wrinkles. Then, “Gobsmacked, I am.”
Torrullin rolled hisshoulders. “Arianne can thus have contrary rules and modes of behaving, such asgreen air for a world out there, such as motionless seas here, such as thoseunmoving waters inexplicably shifting into motion. It isn’t sorcery, or not ofthe kind we deal in; it is the magical result of a vine perhaps chasing a vinein this region.”
She glared at him. “Ican’t tell them that. They will think I am the liar, that I lost mypebbles in the heather somewhere!”
Elianas spluttered intolaughter.
Grinning, Torrullinmurmured, “Now you understand why we say little.”
“I do. Tell me, both ofyou, is what you have shared here your belief in a great tale or is itthe truth? Be honest, please.”
Torrullin and Elianaslooked at each other, and Elianas said, “Isn’t it wonderful to be questionedagain? They don’t just accept it as they did in Reaume.”
“Can be tiresome,”Torrullin laughed, and faced Chitty. “We regard the Syllvan as our friends,having dealt with them many times. In fact, to save them at one time, Elianasand I fought Dryad on their behalf, but that’s another story. Chitty, we knowwith every certainty that this is real.”
Shaking her head, she muttered, “I think I need a drink.”
At the end of the Lore Series, TorrullinValla and Elianas Danae vanish into the mists with their homeworld Avaelyn, butthe story doesn’t end there. What happens to Tristan Skyler Valla, for example,about to embark on a Timekeeper journey with Alusin Algheri? Where is KarydorDanae, the reincarnate father Torrullin has yet to meet?
In EURUE: The Forgotten World, acentury later, we find out about Tristan and Alusin’s future as they pit theirtalents against a man half-dead, half-alive lying in a hidden casket somewhereon Eurue. Gabryl embarks on a campaign to rouse the realms to Eurue’s forgottenstatus, using the strange spinning orbs known as daetal to further hisambitions.
In FAROCHIN: The Terraformed World,we meet Karydor as he wakes up to memory loss on Farochin ages before Torrullinhas ever stepped forward as the power he will become. Karydor and Echayn Valla,his brother-in-law, soon find themselves racing to save Farochin from Felix ofthe Murs, who seeks to undo the terraform in order to become a god. Karydorseeks to atone before he meets his son.
In LYKANDIR: The Measured World, twokings look up to see a world on approach. King Androdin in the south and KingDrakan in the north understand that it will lead to chaos, utter change. Asclansmen, watchmakers and wer-men scramble for solutions, the kings findthemselves face to face with the men from that world, led by Torrullin Vallaand Elianas Danae. It seems Lykandir and Avaelyn seek to occupy the same spacein the realm Avaelyn vanished into.
In AVAELYN: The Enshrouded World,the timelines align once more. A thousand years have passed, and Avaelynreturns to her designated place. However, many wish to keep Torrullin andElianas at bay, and thus is their world wrapped in a shroud that blinds all totheir presence. Meanwhile, the children of Reaume suffer to keep it that way,and that is simply unacceptable.
In AVIOR: The Mythical World, thetrue enemy is revealed, an Ancient Valla who seems hellbent on creating a seatof tyrannical power. To the world Avior, which most regard as a myth, allforces are summoned. The entire Valla family strides into battle, foronly the Vallas can stop this Valla. What they discover below the surface is heart-breaking.
From the realms of time to the reality of lostsouls, through hope and cruelty, we reconnect with familiar characters, andmeet a host of new ones. An old sword with an agenda reappears, while a newtalisman is forged from desperation … and so much more. An epic adventure,indeed!
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