Fairy Opera Chapter 6: Gods

 

Gods

Tae swung her feet back and forth against the tree branch we were sitting on. The monster cats prowled around the trunk. Apparently they couldn’t climb. The storm raged above us, but the canopy blocked most of the wind and rain, with just a few drops hitting my head and shoulders every minute or two.

Tae turned to me. “Do you remember, when we were kids, that time that we tried adopting that racoon?”

“Oh, yeah.” I chuckled. “Pansy. Such a great pet. She tore up everything in my house and Uncle Jack had to kick her out.”

“And then she showed up at my doorstep every day for months.”

“I didn’t hear about that part. She did?”

Tae laughed. “Yeah, she did.”

“So what happened to her?”

“I don’t know. One day she just stopped showing up.”

“Maybe she found a better place to get food.” I looked down at the cat monsters.

One of them hissed at me. I made a rude gesture at it.

We sat there in silence for quite some time. Eventually a rope lowered through the canopy.

“Rock! Tae!” Orion spoke through the communication spell. “Grab on! The storm’s passed!”

We both grabbed the rope at the same time.

“Oh.” Tae stepped back.

I held the rope and it lifted me up, and then stopped to allow Tae onto it. Then the rope rose through the canopy. We burst through the treetops into a clear sky. The storm had passed. Storms in the open sky came and went quickly.

We climbed back on board the boat. Jak hugged me. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

“Yeah. I’m okay.”

Orion turned the boat towards the east. “Okay. We’re off to Amberpol.”

“How long is the journey?”

“In this ship? About three days.” Orion adjusted the wheel. “We can eat skyfish. I also have a spell to create water.”

“How much energy does that take?”

“Not much. There’s always a lot of ambient moisture in the air, no matter how dry. All you have to do is collect it in one place. That doesn’t take much energy.” Orion turned to me. “As we travel I will educate you. You need to know as much about magic as possible before you attempt to rescue your sister.”

“Okay. I’ll do whatever you say.”

Tae and Jak looked at each other. “What about us? Is this knowledge something that we shouldn’t know?”

“You’re already wanted by the Empire. There’s no reason for you not to know.” Orion tapped his forehead. “You might learn something useful from the classes.”

“Can either of us use magic?”

“Yes. But you must first learn scode.”

“Um, okay. Then teach me.”

Orion handed Tae a scroll. “Have a look.”

Tae looked at the scroll. “I can’t even read this. What language is it?”

“Scode.” Orion shook his head. “Exactly. Rock is a descendent of the technomagus. Thus, he is capable of parsing scode without thinking about it.” Orion took a regular scroll from his bag. “Here. These are the five most important symbols in scode. Scode is written as a logographic language. Unlike Common, which uses an alphabet, each character in Scode represents a different word. The characters are made of up of two hundred and eleven separate radicals. A radical is a sub-unit of a character that represents a specific thing, which when combined with others, creates a new word.”

“Okay.” Tae took the scroll.

Orion pulled a brush and ink pot from his bag as well. “Stroke order matters. Follow the order as you practice.” Orion also gave a scroll and a brush set to Jak.

Jak and Tae sat at the boat’s only flat surface, a small crate that was holding rope. The ship’s swaying motion probably made it difficult, but neither of them complained.

I turned to Orion. “Why does no one use magic, if it’s possible for everyone to use it?”

“Because the Empire has stamped out its practice.” Orion shook his head. “After the God Emperor came to power, he decreed that all magic was criminal, except by the cardinals and inquisitors.”

“Like the man who kidnapped my sister.”

“Exactly. The God Emperor destroyed the three magical orders. The order of the Magus, the order of the Staff, and the order of the Scroll. The loss of these three bodies plummeted the world into a magical dark age.”

“But we still have skyships. Those are magic, right?”

“In a sense, yes. But not formal magic. Skysteel is impregnated with magical power. When heated, that magic comes to life.”

“Okay. I think I get it.” I watched Tae and Orion practice their characters. “So what now? Where do we go from here?”

“It’s up to you. After you save your sister, of course. But you can never go back to your original life. That life is gone now.”

“I won’t care as long as my uncle, sister, and Tae are still alive.”

Orion’s expression turned pensive. “I appreciate your optimism.” He appeared forlorn. “In any case, it’s getting late. I’m going to keep first watch.”

The sun was getting low in the sky. The horizon stretched in all directions, without an island in sight, the skyfloor beneath us an endless ocean of green. Tae and Jak continued to practice their character writing until it got too dark to see. Then we did the best we could do to find spaces to sleep on the small boat. I wedged myself in between two posts and looked up at the sky. The stars were out in force. Millions of pricks of light sparkled above me. I stared at it for a while before I turned around and went to sleep.

I was in a dark place. Something smelled, a chemical odor, not bad, but difficult to place. A patch of black tentacles slithered into view. They curled up as they pulled something towards me.

A gigantic black oozing being came into the diffuse light that surrounded me. It was covered in tentacles and yellow teeth. Two bulbs rose from either side, each one containing dozens of eyes. I felt a darkness enter my heart, more than fear, more than disgust, something deep and primal.

The being spoke. Its words came out like the slithering of a snake, but I could understand it.

“Boy. You have been chosen to resurrect us. You have no choice in this matter. Either follow our commands, or be destroyed.”

“Who are you?”

“I am eternity. I am the blindness in between the stars. I am everything.”

“What do you want with me?” I was barely able to keep myself from breaking down into a scream.

“I want you to destroy the God Emperor.”

“Why?”

“Do you wish to understand?” The being appeared to be genuine.

“I do. Show me.”

The being gurgled and I was teleported to the skies above a massive city. The buildings were made of pure glass and towered above the streets. Little beetle-like vehicles rushed back and forth on those street. Something resembling a bird but with straight wings flew overhead.

“The time before.” The being gurgled again. “The age of technology. This is what your species was before the rebellion.”

“The rebellion?”

I saw fire. I saw an explosion so bright that it blinded me. Through my closed eyes I could see the bones in my hands, outlined as if there was no flesh on them. Then the light dimmed, but the noise came. It was enormous, the death of a thousand worlds. A cloud rose into the sky, resembling a mushroom.

Then the scene disappeared. The being spoke. “You are the chosen one. You will be given a choice, and that choice will decide the fate of the world.”

“What do I call you?”

The being’s voice turned thoughtful. “You may call me Ryheleth.” Then the dream ended and I woke up with a crick in my neck.

It was still nighttime. Orion was sitting against the control wheel. When I moved, he looked at me.

“Ah, Rock. You appeared to be having a nightmare.”

“I, I did. Do you know anything about the old gods?”

“Ah, the old gods.” Orion toked a tobacco pipe that he had on him. “They were the foundation of the mage orders. Each order worshipped a single old god, of which there were three.”

“What did they look like?”

“Beautiful angels. So good to look upon that your heart filled with love when you saw them.”

“Oh.”

Orion puffed. “Oh what? Do you not find that interesting?”

“No, I just, ah, I had another impression of the old gods.”

“Do tell me.”

“No, ah, I’d rather stay quiet on that front.” I paused. “I have a question. About the fairies.”

“You can ask Ruby about that.” Orion blew a smoke ring.

I tapped the gem in my pocket. Ruby transformed and climbed out. “What? I was sleeping.”

“I want to know about the fairies.”

Ruby stuck her tongue out. “You wake me up in the middle of the night for that?”

Orion puffed his pipe. “Just tell him, Ruby.”

“Okay, Orion-sage.” Ruby sighed. “Fairies are people too. We’re just smaller and can fly and are better at magic and probably everything else as well.” Ruby put her hands on her hips. “That’s it. That’s everything.”

Orion chuckled. “Right. The fairies used to live in harmony with humanity and the other sentient races of Tris.”

“Then the God Emperor tried to purge us.” Ruby sniffed. “He almost succeeded.”

“Tell me more about the God Emperor.” I turned to Orion.

Orion shook his head. “Later, perhaps.” He leaned back against the steering wheel. “On another note, once we lose this tiny dinghy, I’m going to have to train you in combat. You’re going to be facing a lot more situations where that will come in handy.”

“Right.” I looked at my hands. “I already fought against monsters and peacekeepers. I mean, I’m actually starting to get used to it.”

“That’s not a good thing, but it’s a necessary thing.” Orion looked up at the stars. “In any case, I should probably get some sleep. It’s your turn to take watch.” Orion wrapped himself up in his cloak and closed his eyes.

Ruby and I watched the stars for a long while. Neither of us spoke. Then Ruby wrinkled her nose. “You ever wonder what’s up there?”

“In the stars?”

“Yeah. Even the fairies don’t know what’s going on with the stars. Though we know a lot of other things.”

“Maybe there’s a magic spell that can take us to the stars.”

“Perhaps.” Ruby then returned to silence.

The dawn sun peeked over the horizon. The stars began to fade. The light illuminated the skyfloor, which was as green and endless as ever.

Tae woke up. She stretched her arms and looked at me. “You’re awake.”

“I was keeping watch.”

“You could have woken me if you wanted to switch. You must be tired.”

“I’m not.”

Tae looked towards the morning sun. “Well, I’m awake now.” She tapped Jak on the shoulder.

Jak snorted and woke up with a jolt. “Ah, uh?” He looked around. “Oh, right. I’m here.” He sighed. “Any updates? Did anything happen over the night?”

“Nope.” I shook my head.

Jak sniffed. “I’m hungry. Hey old man, can you catch us another fish?”

Orion looked up towards the cloud bank above us. “I don’t see any nearby.”

Jak whistled. “Then it’s time for an old-timer’s expertise.” He took his hands and placed them in a peculiar position around his mouth. He breathed in and then let out a long, piercing whistle. The whistle echoed through the open air and caused the trees of the skyfloor to rustle.

A school of skyfish poured out from behind a cloud. Jak lowered his hands and looked very smug.

“Orion, your turn.”

Orion laughed. “Leave it to an adventurer to know something like that.”