Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Zereto: Niragi's Storm ❯ Chapters 1 and 2, a Time of Strife and Simplicity ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Note

This book takes place on an island called Zereto. Zereto has a rich and complete history of interactions with magic and other species and must be documented. The Song of the Seal is like an encyclopedia to the people of Zereto and is documentation of the history and prophecies made about it. The Song of the Seal was first documented by the seals where its name originated and various excerpts will be read in the story to tell of the history of the planet, the island, and the universe of these people. Below is one such excerpt from The Song of the Seal. It is the first verse and depicts the brief history and future of Zereto. Events described here are written of in more detail later in the book.

 

The planet of Zereto is old. It did not begin as Zereto but as a place called Kusmek bu San, the realm of light. The name is written in the ancient dragon script that is the first language. From this place came the origin of life, those who are pure essence, known now as sprites, they were made of purity. Love life and laughter. Water and fire, Earth and wind. The next life to appear was in the place known, in the dragon tongue, as Rujha bu Re, the river of life. Mortal creatures like humans came from here along with trolls, golems and the Ðeñathøu. Trolls and golems were crafty but peaceful and content, but the people were greedy and wanted an island of their own. So out of greed the human race was given an island, and it was called Zereto. The Ðeñathøu were strange in the fact that they were not human and they were not animal, they had some animal features and when faced with the light of the moon they could remove their animal spirit. For a Ðeñathøu who's spirit was a cat, in their own form they might have they eyes, ears, or tail of a cat, but if they were too remove their spirit from their bodies, they would be a pale skinned human with dark eyes and black hair, with the cat sitting in their palms. The next place was called Voti Semsehli, the fire garden. From this place came creatures we think to be mythological, dragon, phoenix and gryphons, They called them selves in dragon speech, Hikamo, Hyture, Lujoha. Some of them lived forever in the fire garden while others came to the Isle of Zereto. Though all had been in peace, this could not last for long, a place called Ko bu Gunya came to be. The ocean of greed it was named, and those who came from this place shared character with their homeland. The meryin were as greedy as the seas and came to the Isle of Zereto where they warred for many years before hiding reclusively in the seas. These merfolk has eyes that stormed like frothing seas and were filled with hate, malice, war and deceit. This is the history of how the worlds came to be but the Isle of Zereto has history in itself.

The Isle of Zereto began with a queen but no magic to speak of. The queen is now spoken of as Pariah. That was not her name to begin with, but it is known to no one. She was a vain queen and used her powers to make her self more beautiful. Everyone toiled and the land died. This maltreatment of the island brought upon her the wrath of those known as sprites. The sprites are said to be made of life force. They are all powerful and can be killed by nothing. They are above the magic that is known today on the island and their wrath upon pariah sent her into her own dimension where she could harm nothing. Now the land was free from the tyranny of Pariah, but had no leader, no order. Their way of life diminished until one decided to venture into other dimensions. There were other worlds known to exist. The realm of light, the river of life, the fire garden, and the ocean of greed, were all known to be. Mediko believed that other worlds existed where magic existed and could be used to bring order to Zereto. She traveled through the worlds and found the magic in the form of a basket of seeds. She rushed through dimension carrying the basket; she flew so quickly that most of the seeds flew out. This magic was brought to other worlds but by the time she reached Zereto, only one seed remained. She told the people of Zereto that this would save them. They scoffed and said it was only a seed, a bushel for a penny. Mediko planted the seed and it grew into a tree. A fruit came from the tree and she gave it to the children that watched. She sliced the fruit into many pieces and gave the hopeful children each some of it.

“Horamni, you will be of the earth. Genjou, you will be fire song. Sonsa will be Spirit River, Ini will be dancing mountain. Pacitorami will be the weaver of sunbeams. Titaoa will be the spinner of shadows. You will be the first six mages and will have powers of magic.” This is what she said to the first six children, and then she turned to the seventh.

“To eat the seed of the magic fruit will make you goddess. To be goddess is to be devoid of life love and laughter. This lack of life force will not make you cruel or evil for you will have no feeling. Your soul will live and guard the island of Zereto for all eternity; do you wish this fate upon yourself?” The girl nodded and she became Rebushi, goddess of life. Her children became gods and goddesses. They were called Votimtha the goddess of fire, Hebushata the goddess of water, Gusando god of darkness, Kemulatas god of air, and Hytovum god of earth. They reigned for millennia when a new goddess arose. This goddess was Niragi, goddess of death. Her coming brought balance for some time. Niragi grew in a power and so grew in malice hate and greed; her death will bring true balance to the isle. A prophecy exists of those who will bring this about, but her death will only begin their journey in search of universal equilibrium.

 

The first six mages

May travel between

Are immortal

Never dieing

Greatest power

 

Lesser mages

Do not see beyond

Our isle of Zereto

But death strikes

Four remain

Genjou Sonsa Iny Horamni

Nine there must be

To defeat the queen

Five a new must arise

 

For the dark one has fallen

Anew she will rise

She will be killed when all light dies

 

Zereto

Part 1

Journey

 

 

 

Chapter 1

A Time of Strife

The high priestess of Rebushi walked down the halls of the temple. Shadows filtered through the high windows casting eerie shadows and flickering lights on the tapestries. The drapery whispered like wind rushed through the grass. A thin wind blew through the trees outside, a storm was coming; she could feel it in her bones. For nearly ten years she had served the king in the royal temple, only a courtyard away from the palace. Her sandals slapped the cold stone and her long robe brushed the floor, swishing quietly as she walked. Trees groaned outside, a ghostly sound that seemed to come from another world, tonight the priestess might have believed that. Some said magic still existed but she didn't believe it, she thought the time of the gods was coming to a close, a new era was beginning. That was her belief until tonight; she has worshipped the gods, prayed daily, paid tribute, until her parents died in a flood.

Ten years she had been high priestess, she had come to the temple as a young girl, training until the age of eighteen, she had been an apprentice for the four years required, and then three years into her time as a full priestess, she had been nominated. Since then she had always believed the gods favored her, that Rebushi had her sacred eye upon her.

Then her parents died in a flood. If the gods watched over Zereto then how could they let her mother and father die? She had lost her belief but had still worshipped and prayed. Now on this fateful night it all returned.

For ten years she had held great pride in these walls, admired the tapestries and gone about her life with fervor. Tonight a strange occurrence took place. Though she had not seen magic in her life time, nor had her parents seen mages casting spells in theirs, that which must be magic took place. The king of Zereto had always insisted on having a mirror on the wall of the tribute to Rebushi. He had neither specified a reason nor told her what it was; only that it must be there. For many years it had hung gathering dust until tonight. With the message that she carried the priestess no longer took joy in these walls; only turned her head from the frightful scenes depicting battles and ceremonies. A gust of wind sent her hair into a whirlwind; she hurriedly gathered her hair and drew her hood around her face.

She looked out across the courtyard into the storm; the flames in the lamps had been blown out by the ferocious wind and rain and only the faint outline of trees could be seen thrashing wildly. The priestess ran across clutching her robe, her balsa wood sandals slapping against the stone, she burst into the door on the opposite side and saw the throne room before her. The room had certain majesty about it, the awe of the ceiling, so high that it could not be seen in the darkness, the ominous shadows from the lofty pillars with sculptures of each of the seven gods and goddesses. Rebushi the goddess of life, Niragi goddess of death, Votimtha the goddess of fire, Hebushata the goddess of water, Gusando god of darkness, Kemulatas god of air, and Hytovum god of earth all looked down upon the throne room.

She couldn't help looking up and down the awesome room but this glance was brief for she carried a terrible message from a terrible source. She flung her self to the floor in front of the king though protocol didn't call for it.

“I carry a terrible message,” she murmured, the sound would have been very audible but the room echoed in eerie booming tones.

“And what is it?” The king sounded impatient.

“It has come from the mirror,” the priestess whispered. The king who had been slowly rising from his throne stopped and sat down hard with a thud.

“What did you say?” the king's tone dropped.

“It came from the mirror.”

“What was the message?” the king slumped in the chair, tired, resigned.

“It came from Rebushi.”

“As I would suspect, if a message ever came from that mirror it would be from her.”

“She said that Niragi demands a temple of her own, of a size to rival the grand temple and built out of dragon teeth.”

“And what does Niragi plan on doing should we refuse this offer?” the king asked.

“Rebushi said that Niragi would set the seas on fire if we do not please her,” the priestess answered, her head drooping. The king rubbed his brow and sighed.

“This is when having mages would come in handy,” he said.

“But my lord, the magic is dried up, gone! Mediko may have put the fruit in the river but it is so diluted that there haven't been any mages for many years. The only ones remaining are four of the first six as they are immortal,” the priestess explained. The king only nodded. “So I suppose Rebushi wants us to make some sort of sacrifice to her doesn't she, what is the price?” the priestess shuddered at the question, she felt nauseated by the thick smell of the oil lamps and she had eaten nothing that day.

“She requests that we send her five new mages to help defeat Niragi and aid those four who survive,” even as the words escaped her, a sense of despair and foreboding came over her. The task was impossible! There were no other mages on the isle of Zereto. The king stood up, outraged.

“How can we send her any mages, let alone five? There are none to be found!” The king bellowed. Suddenly a presence came into the room. The statue of Rebushi glowed with a faint green luminescence.

“There are five mages in the land of Zereto;” a great voice filled the room, the voice of Rebushi, “in this time of strife five will arise to aid those who remain in a battle for balance. It has been prophesied since the rise of Niragi that she must fall to nine mages. The magic has spread through everything but it will come again together, look for the one called Earth Speaker!” The voice left the room abruptly but the words remained, written in distorted green fire.

 

Chapter 2

Simplicity

Parani shivered, the thin scrappy blanket had fallen had slipped off her shoulders and now resided under a sleeping tiger. Her experience told her that the tiger could not be woken easily so she wormed close to the sleeping cat and pulled her arms inside her blouse. The sun had not yet risen and the window was framed with delicate icy crystals. The room was small and bare; a cot on the edge was the only noticeable furniture though a small table was pinned against the wall, hidden by the bed. A warm furry shape pressed up against her.

“Titicho, Shhh!” she whispered at the fox, Titicho, who was licking her face. Titicho's nose was cold, wet and slippery and Parani recoiled at its touch.

“At least you're awake now,” Titicho laughed. Parani shoved her off the bed and leapt for her cloak. The cloth snagged on the splintered floor but Parani jerked it mercilessly towards herself leaving it more threadbare than it was to begin with. She draped it over her self and pulled the edge up to her chin.

“I'm going back to sleep Titicho,” Parani said defiantly though, considering the current temperature, sleep was not likely.

“I'm hungry, and Soniak would be too if we woke him up,” Titicho shrugged.

“We can eat when we get into the forest,” Parani laughed and turned to the sleeping tiger. “Soniak, we're going to the forest and if you don't want to have to hunt you'd better wake up now,” she whispered in the tiger's ear.

Every morning it was the same; sneaking out of the window and hiding in the woods all day. Her mother, Morgenthau, was cruel and spiteful, hiring her to neighbors to make money. If Parani had made even partial profit from this work she might have agreed to it, but not so. Perhaps it wasn't Morgenthau's fault; perhaps some financial strife caused her to lower her self to this station, but never the less it was easier to not be around the house. Her father managed to escape the ranting through drink. Parani chose not to follow that evil and simply removed her self from the situation. The years had not been kind to Morgenthau; her teeth were stained from smoke and her hair had never been free of fleas. Her skin was sallow and scarred from sores and her eyes were milky and bloodshot. Her nature was to be mean and her meanness was her nature. Parani supposed it couldn't be helped that her mother chose to scam and steal from others. Still her brother told her that their mother was beyond help and that they should seek education somewhere else.

Parani slipped out onto the floor and winced as the frost covered floor boards touched her feet. Hastily she pulled sandals on and climbed to the window. From here she climbed the cherry tree down and made for the store house. Using bent wire she picked the lock on the store house door and pulled one of the dried salmon from the rafters. She wasn't sure if her mother knew of this daily theft, but Parani spent smaller and smaller amounts of time in her own house. Her mother had ceased to notice her absence, or her presence for that matter. If Parani slipped into the woods forever Morgenthau would not notice.

Since they were young, Parani and her brother Sanji had snuck into the woods and played childish games, until they had realized that when they were no longer children, they would have to make their way in the woods. Sanji, being the older sibling, searched out a tutor in the village and together they learned how to read. For eight years she had lived like this, a wraith in her own home, only returning at nightfall. Though they were separated by nearly four years of age, Sanji and Parani were like twins, not in appearance, but it spirit. Parani was of medium height, had thick black hair that stretched to her knees, and light green eyes that were perhaps a little large for her round, pale face. Most of her features were small and pale; her complexion had never darkened in the far north forest. Her brother was taller and stockier, his skin darker and his hair lighter, his eyes were silvery blue and reflected a deep imagination and love of fun. Since her ninth birthday, she had been taking lessons, but today wasn't a lesson day; today was a time to keep warm in the cold frost.

She delicately picked her way through the lightly falling snow, a shiver running up her spine. She pulled her cloak around her more tightly and walked down the path, slowly, carefully; wincing as her feet grew numb to the freezing temperature. She was thirteen now and couldn't afford to go back now, her mother would remember she had a daughter. So she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, letting the dull pounding of her feet keep her mind awake.

She entered the village with feet that were a deathly white.

“Come on feet, just a little further,” she whispered to her self, using her hands to pull her up the stairs to the tutor's house. She stood on one foot and rubbed the other, wincing as a little feeling came into them. She knocked; a tall middle aged woman opened the door and let her into the house, glaring at her bare feet. An older woman was sitting in an arm chair studying a book and she looked a little shocked when she saw Parani.

“Parani? You shouldn't have come in such weather, look at your feet!” the woman called. Parani looked a little guiltily at her feet that she had neglected so. They were still a stony white but a little blood leaked out from the bottom from walking across sharp walks.

“I couldn't stand being in a house with my mother, I'm sorry mistress Kina,” Parani bowed and stumbled to the table.

“Meda, fetch some bandages and heat water,” Kina said to the tall, strait woman.

“Yes mistress,” Meda answered and hurried off.

“I'm sorry for bothering you mistress Kina,” Parani bowed even kneeling on the floor.

“It's no trouble to me child, I only wish you would pay more attention to yourself, if your body is screaming at you, your mind won't be able to concentrate and coming would serve no purpose anyway, now sit in the chair,” Kina pointed to a small wooden chair on the other side of the table.

Another knock sent Meda flying to the door. A tall boy of probably 17 years of age, stepped in, his feet in the same condition as Parani's.

“You forgot to wake me up sister!” he called into the room where Parani and Kina sat. He shook his unruly blonde hair free of melting snow.

“Sorry Sanji!” Parani called out in a sing song voice. Sanji entered the room and, bowing to Kina, sat in another chair half way between his younger sister and their tutor. Meda followed holding two pails of lukewarm water.

“Thank you Meda, you are dismissed,” Kina nodded to the servant and then turned to her two young charges.

“Well, I must say that since I wasn't expecting you to come in such cold conditions, I have not prepared a lesson for you,” Kina apologized.

“What will we do then?” Parani asked, her eyes growing wider.

“I don't know!” Kina laughed and through up her hands and laughed, “What do you want to do?”

“I'd like to learn more about the history of Zereto,” Parani asked a little shyly, her silky black hair falling over her face.

“Of what part? The history of Zereto is very long indeed, filled with many tales of splendor, and many prophecies and telling, wars, and intrigues and innumerable scandals,” Kina spread out a number of books on the table.

“Wars!” Sanji cried excitedly, Parani shrugged, she didn't care what she learned as long as she was learning.

“Very well,” Kina selected a book and read aloud; “the purpose of the Meryin was to be the nemesis of the ever growing human race. The Meryin were filled with hate, greed, envy, everything that humans strove to avoid. For years, the Meryin ruled the oceans, terrorizing fishing vessels and stealing food from port cities. It was then that the people of Zereto called upon the first six mages for help in fighting against the Meryin. The problem with fighting against these ocean dwellers was that for two armies who take oxygen from that which the other can not take from, too fight against each other would be impossible. The Meryin didn't want to fight; they wanted to live their conceited lives, unchallenged. The Meryin hired a massive mercenary army, so at now the armies of Zereto could fight against something in their own medium. The two armies clashed against each other on the shores of the ocean, the Meryin watched, only surfacing to claim the dead corpses. But the army of Zereto has another advantage, the power of mages, fire use, water use, weather use, stone use, earth and creature use, and the powers of Titaoa. Titaoa was one of the six first mages, she was at heart, no more evil than any normal person, she had moments of jealousy and anger, but that is after all, human. Though Titaoa was not full of hate, people feared and despised her for her dark powers, the power to kill, and the power of necromancy. The power to kill could not be used so often, the energy used to kill a man was so devastating that she would feint afterwards and sleep for a week and a day. The power of necromancy however, was easy to use. Frightened souls wanted dearly to return to the realms of the living, so they gladly returned with little coaxing. The odds were bad; the army of Zereto had lost too many, the mercenary army out numbered them, even with great numbers of fallen soldiers. Titaoa turned towards the mostly killed army, and prepared to perform the necromancy. Meanwhile, the other mages continued to fight; Sonsa, the water mage, used the ocean to her advantage and swirled the water around in and watery tornado. Pacitorami, the weather mage, conjured a massive wind to blow the opposing army away. The wind of Pacitorami hit the water tornado of Sonsa; the tornado sent the wind ricocheting into Titaoa. Titaoa lost her balance and swung around disoriented as her spell completed. While she had meant to raise their own army, she had, through no fault of her own, brought the dead from the other army, back into being. She had been near the corpse of a dead mercenary, when he awoke he took his sword and shoved it into her gut. Titaoa felt the rush of blood, and she died. The odds were now worse than before and the army of Zereto was defeated, the Meryin ravaged the army in peace.”

“I feel sorry for Titaoa,” Parani said when the telling was finished.

“Everyone pitied Titaoa, and with good reason, she was killed through a small mistake of her friends. You would pity her more were you to read the story in its complete form, this is just a brief retelling of the event,” Kina nodded gravely.

Life seemed simple then, reading stories of ancient lore while the wind howled outside the door, it seemed to Parani that it was an adventure just to read of the adventures of others, but this simplicity could not last, because she was to be thrown into a legend in the making.