The Symphony of Life and Death: Trio prologue 'The War of Disobedience'
This is a first draft
The War of Disobedience
Dolomius, Father of the Gods, had just fallen. Ripped apart by humans, stronger and wilder than they’d ever been.
“We must retreat, father”, Alponi begged the great Avandair. First brother to Dolomius, and in all rights and purposes, now King of the Gods, and Father of the Gods. “Too many are falling, too many have lost their connection to their domain. Something else is here, on the planet, it’s consuming not only our source of strength, but our magic as well”, the young God of the Mountains said.
“Where is Leorr?”, Avandair asked. “Where is your brother?”.
“The Silent Commander foresaw the attack. He warned us all, in the back. It’s thanks to him that we’ve survived, Lord Father”, Grivali, son of Creaturia said. “He left to the White City, taking the twins with him”.
“I am not your Lord Father”, Avandair said.
“I’m terribly sorry, my King. But in this very moment, with all those who have fallen, you are our King, brother”, Brinse, Goddess of Winter, said.
“I .. I’ve no interest in being King”, Avandair said. “I .. have other plans, other goals..”.
“And now you must stand for us all, and lead us, brother”, Calavis, Goddess of the Fall, said.
“They’ve noticed us, an army is coming this way”, Yorkal, God of Summer, shouted, from atop a tree.
“How many?”, Brinse shouted back.
“At least five thousand, possibly even more than that”, Yorkal, son of Creaturia, looked around, for signs of other life, other groups of Gods still standing and fighting. “Over there!”, he shouted. “Treebandum and Creaturia are ploughing their way through the human defences to rescue .. I think that’s Sealvy, and a few others as well”, Yorkal shouted.
“You all make your way to Treebandum and Creaturia”, Avandair told his fellow survivors. “I will hold the enemy here off for as long as I can”.
“No, you can not”, Brinse said.
“Do not worry for me, sister”, Avandair said. “Now that Dolomius and his sons have all fallen, I have full control over my domain and my lightning”, the God of Truth said. “If I am to fall, I shall take them all with me”, he picked up a shield and sword from a fallen enemy and took two steps forward before stopping and turning back around to his sons, sisters and nephews; “Be safe, all of you”, he told them. That was the last anyone would ever see of Avandair, first brother to Dolomius and the God of Truth. A last stand that would earn him a status as a legendary hero, never to be forgotten, even thousands of years later.
“Quickly now”, Alponi urged on his aunts. “We can not let my father’s sacrifice be in vain. We must survive, we must honour him!”.
“I’ve lost track of my father and Treebandum”, Grivali shouted.
“I see survivors on the ledge, over there”, Calavis yelled. She pointed at a single rock in the middle of a field of raging humans. There was no path to reach the top, and the surface was too smooth to climb. The humans were stuck shouting angrily at them and trying to hit them using arrows, and other ballistic weaponry. “How the hell did they get up there?”.
“Treebandum must’ve placed them there, and the rock”, Alponi replied.
“And how do we get there?”, Brinse asked. “I’ve drained every ounce of magic I have left, I need to rest, I need to return to recharge..”, she looked at her sisters and nephews; “..and it looks like I’m not the only one”.
“Can anyone still use enough to fly?”, Grivali asked, but none answered.
“Maybe we should look for a different place to be rescued?”, Calavis asked.
“Where would we go?”, Alponi asked. “Look around”, he gestured at the battlefield, of which they now had a clear vision. “There are humans as far as the eye can see. The lights of the Gods are dying, one by one. Stormed by too many at once, too many for any single God to handle.
“But some are still fighting, for us, so we can survive”, Brinse said defensively. “Look at them, we can not give up and let their sacrifices be in vain.
The battlefield covered nearly thirty percent of the continent. What were once thousands of lights emanating from Gods, were now only hundreds, as more fell every few minutes. As if swallowed by a sea of black.
“Someone has control over this battlefield”, Yorkal, who had been quietly observing the fighting, finally spoke up. “We may have lost our immortality, and our connection to our magic may be weakened. But it is not normal for these humans to put up such a fight”.
“What do you mean?”, Grivali asked his younger brother.
“Look at them”, he gestured at the battlefield. “They are all clad in a dark armor, almost as black as the night itself. Their eyes are shimmering with a red colour, and they are ripping Gods to shreds with their bear hands, they’re unnaturally strong”.
“You’re saying someone is giving them strength and working against us?”, Alponi asked.
“But that would mean that someone wants to end God-kind”, Brinse said.
“Worse than that”, Calavis said. “It means that there’s a traitor among the Gods”.
“No”, Yorkal said. “It could be worse still .. When we left this planet, it was still rich in magic. What if .. what if humanity created their own Gods”.
“That’s ridiculous, humans can not create Gods”, Alponi laughed.
“Then how would you explain the disappearance of nearly all magic in the land, Alponi?”, Yorkal asked. “Do the mountains still whisper to you?”, he asked.
“.. Yes, but there words are not as clear as they are in normal circumstance. Like a dying voice, begging to be saved, or released from its suffering ..”, Alponi said, his eyes looking sadly at his own hands, and then the mountains in the distance.
“Do any of you still hear the whispers of your domain and those that inhabit it?”, Yorkal asked. “Because I no longer do”, the God of Summer said. “Who else could do such a thing, but a God?”, he said.
“That does not necessarily mean that humanity created their own deities, brother”, Grivali said. “It could still be ..”.
“A traitor?”, Yorkal asked. “Does that sound more logical to you? That one of our own kin would betray us, and destroy us? That one of us would use darkness in .. such a way?”, he gestured again to the battlefield. “Who of us controls the dark?”, he asked.
“.. no one, right?”, Grivali asked the other, who all nodded.
“Exactly!”, Yorkal said, smacking his right fist on his left hand. “Which means something, or someone, was created that controls the dark, which means someone created thèm”, he paced back and forth. “None of the God-kin would ever create such a thing, which leaves humanity. Just look at how vile they are, how vengeful, evil, and murderous. They are like hungry wild beasts, strengthened even further by the darkness the clad as armour”.
“I .. I’m still not convinced”, Alponi said, quietly.
“I see Sealvy!”, Brinse shouted. “She has spotted us!”.
“Treebandum is coming from this way”, Calavis said.
“And I see Creaturia, he has seen us as well, we’re saved!”, Grivali cheered.
“Is this all that is left of us?”, Treebandum asked, his normally serene tone had taken on a sad tune.
“Avandair .. he held the humans back so we could escape”, Brinse told her older brother.
“Perhaps we can still save him, if we’re fast”, Creaturia suggested.
“No”, Treebandum said. “He knew what he was doing, and how little time we have left to save others .. they all knew..”.
“It’s just like the others”, Sealvy said.
“The others?”, Calavis asked. “What others, sister?”.
“We’ve found several groups, on the run. Our kin, deprived of their magic, drained like dried meat”, Creaturia said. “They were all saved by those who still had their magic, holding off more than they could handle, let alone count.. We’ve lost many today”.
“But we’ve saved many as well”, Treebandum said, serenely. “And now we have saved the last of our kin”.
“You can’t just give up on the others”, Alponi shouted. “You can’t just give up on my father”.
“We’re not giving up, nephew”, Sealvy said. “We too must recharge, we need to return to The White City, with the last of the survivors, once we are there, we can discuss what to do next”, she said.
“It is time we left this place”, Treebandum said. “It seems we’ve been spotted”. The God of Roots grew a flower from his hand, whispered to it in a language older than any, the language of the First Seed, created by Thime. Small glowing orbs fell from the flower and began to float towards the top of the rock on which the other survivors had been secured. “Everyone grab an orb”, Treebandum said, and as soon as they did, they were transported instantly to the top of the rock. Soon after, Treebandum opened the path towards The White City. It was such a spectacle to behold that the fighting had stopped, distracting nearly every human around, who were witnessing something they never before seen in their lives, giving the remaining Gods, who would later be named The Grounded Gods, time to escape. The War of Disobedience came to an end, leaving humanity victorious and hungry for more. Soon after, their War on Magic began; which birthed The Hunt. In which forces were specifically trained to sense, spot and kill God-kin. These powers they gained by drinking the blood of the Gods, and eating their flesh during their initiation. The Hunters would become addicted to God blood and flesh, and when deprived of it long enough, would lose all sense of reality and turn into wild vicious beasts. These beasts were highly sensitive to light, but thrived in the dark. They learned to feed on the dark, and the light of the moon. Eventually, they would transform even further, become even more monstrous. Cursed to live forever, they would later become known as Shadow Beasts. Hunters would use these beasts to sniff our magic and God-kin with even greater precision. It was only thanks to the sacrifices of both Treebandum and Creaturia that not all magic and Grounded Gods were erased from existence. However, their sacrifice came too late to save magic on Earth, leaving the planet with nothing. Eara lost her life, turning Earth into just a normal planet, and no longer a celestial body. The Tree of Thime was destroyed as well, but Thime herself had successfully escaped. Only The Free have ever seen Thime in her new form.
Many truths will now unfold, new and old.
