Writing History

"Among the gods was the folk of the Decla, although they were not gods themselves. Truly rotten were their minds for they had sinned in the old world and they hated the gods. On every step of the way, they tried to undermine them, going so far as to kill a warrior of the gods. The minor gods pleaded to Geyre that he should send them to Abirt to stop the torment of all. But Geyre, in his eternal wisdom, gave them the book; for the book told them how to return to the right part and contribute to creating the new world."

So I, Hekan, was told by the Descendants of the Decla. Although I must assume, that the addition of the book was not part of the original mythos and only added after the Decla were conquered by the Keeper of the Book. Unfortunately, I was unable to recover the real story as the leader of the Decla knew my quest to record all stories was approved by the Keeper herself.

"Still with their hearts mostly changed, the gods did not trust the Decla completely, and so they were always kept under the watchful eyes of Erits. All this although the Decla were the most hard-working. That was until the rebellion of Drakgin. Had it not been for the Decla unchaining themselves and putting themselves in the way of Dragkins Emtif, Geyre himself would have fallen. Afterward, the Decla were accepted among the rest of the people. From this day onward, the Decla treated other people with respect, not malice. We must uphold this virtue until the new world ends again. Only then will we Decla truly be redeemed."

It makes sense then, why the Decla choose to live by trade with wanderers far and wide, even though the river nearby has enough fish to feed all the Decla. They are friendly to outsiders and do not expect them to uphold humility like the Decla do for themselves. It does explain why they were so open about sharing their oral traditions with me. Still, they were surprised that I wrote and not remembered their stories. I suppose the Keepers had yet to share the invention of writing with the ones they conquered.

As I wandered downriver I encountered a less friendly people, the Emtif Etain. In fact, they would have killed me, had I shown the slightest sign of fear in front of their warriors. Thankfully Geyre has blessed me with an unending curiosity until I have finished my task. Being "fearless" I was allowed to accompany them to record their story. The Emtif, like the Decla, see their origin in Dragkins defeat:

"Other warriors split up to serve the other gods instead. But one warrior, her name was Etain, chose to retake the land that Drakgin once conquered, the land lost to the beasts. She battled day and night for 7 days, always close to defeat, but never succumbed by fear. For who succumbed to fear, succumbed to the beasts. And so in the end, she won. It is because of this warrior, that we can stand here today. But the beasts linger at the edge of the land retaken. We must all be without fear, like Emtif Etain or the beasts will take what was once theirs."

The Emtif Etain make no difference between men or animal. If it shows fear it must be slain. Had I more time, I would have liked to see one of these beasts for myself, as I do not know whether their story can be trusted. But I must carry on. The next city, Kalefheit, shouldn't be far.

Before I continue with the next story I think I first need to give some context. Imagine hearing the clacks of a horse's hooves. Now imagine the horse walks in a specific way so that the sounds of its hooves come around in a specific sequence. These sounds are referred to as "music". Its purpose is to motivate people to work. The Keeper of the Book once told us about "music", but I never grasped the concept until I heard "music" myself.

It came from a settlement in the mountains on my way to Kalefheit. It originated from a cave closed off with fur in the middle of the settlement. I was only able to take a brief glimpse inside the cave, but the only things inside were tools of music. And from the Keeper's word I know that these were tools for more than one person. But the music had left as long I gazed into the cave. What's more, the cave, or the strange creature inside it, could talk. Here is what it had to say:

"Oh, I remember the old world. I have a few memories I am fond of from that time, but nothing worth a story. I spent most of the time in my room playing music and cooking as I do now, although my equipment wasn't as rudimentary. I suppose I did also play around a lot more. I was still young after all. Sometimes Robert took a sample of my blood, I needed to do a bit off physical activity or was asked some questions by one of the doctors, but that was really it. I do wish Stanley would have come more often to visit, but I know he had a lot of things to look after."

From the context, I have to assume that the people the cave was talking about should be minor gods from the old world.

"But from one day to the next they were all gone. I waited for I don't know how long before I left my room and the site, or ceitu as you call it, in search of my friends. In the end, I never found them. At least I can help these new people with their daily activities. I miss Robert."

After our conversation, the cave yelled for the chief of the settlement that "the dish was ready" to be served. As I later found out, the cave had not only continued to play music throughout our discussion but also cooked one of the most tasteful meals I have ever eaten in my life. I left after my meal, as I always do.

As I continued, I felt getting closer to find out the truth about the transition from the old to the new world. The chief of the settlement warned me, that the area I was headed in was often swarmed with bandits, called the Riders. I paid no mind to this warning. After all, bandits also have stories to tell. But Geyre did not want me to encounter the Riders yet.

Instead, my ways led to a field full of minor ceitus and beautiful plants. A few people were there, picking fruits for the nearby ceitu, that these people had settled in. My initial belief was, that the appearance of more ceitus was due to the home ceitu being nearby, but the people living here have a different theory:

"The home ceitu was the place of Geyre and his followers before the beast Sikayt took it. But this field here bears the power of a different and older kind of god. They were called the Five-Eyed and they could see everything that happened in the old world. But the new world turned them blind, so they despised it and most of them left the new world behind. A few places like this garden were left behind, trying to preserve the old world, so one of the Five-Eyed could keep watching. We can take from the field all we want during the day, but at night they send out a single Emtif warrior to watch over the garden."

At this point, I had heard a lot of stories, but this was the first one I found utterly unbelievable. Or so I thought at first. Why would Geyre have sent me to a place like this? Would he not have sent his emtif instead, if he desired this lie to be gone. As I was not sure what to make of this, I asked for further information. I was told they still had scriptures from the old world in the ceitu the people resided at night. It seemed to be the only place the Emtif warrior did not pay attention to.

It was true, I found the scripture and it had the symbol of Geyre. Eager to get a direct translation, I was surprised to find out, that the people here only knew what it said because of what their forefathers had told them. I spent the rest of the day trying to decipher what the scripture had to say but to no avail. I had already wasted too much time at this place and wanted to go. I ignored the people's warnings as I knew I was protected by Geyre.

But Geyre's protection did not reach this garden.

I was already on the outskirts of the garden as the warrior caught me. It looked like a human used as soil for the flowers and vines that spread out of the warrior. It walked to me in a straight line and begun hacking at my arms with a tool in its hand. I fled in a straight line across the fields. The warrior went around the fields and was still able to catch up to me and break me more apart, to use me as soil, I recalled. When I finally left the garden behind it had broken my left arm and hand, several hands, and left a laceration at the back of my head. One thing was sure. If these Five-Eyed truly existed, they were not benevolent.

The warrior left me there, laying on the ground. It was maybe three or four hours I lay there, unable to move. At some point, a group arrived and took me with them. They were the Riders. The few things of value I had, they took from me only leaving me with my notes, probably because they did not understand the value of the written word. I asked them, where we were headed, and they told me, to Kalefheit. I chuckled. It seemed Geyres had already decided on the path he wanted me to take. I wonder what stories will await me there.