The memory shifted again Yystrix was standing at a window high in the Tower to Heaven looking out over the surrounding area She glanced upward seeing that the maroon clouds were very close above her She was now on the 399th floor Soon her view from her window would be completely obstructed
To describe the historian Elhume as moody would be an understatement He was more natural force than a living being always shouting or swearing or crying or preaching There was only one place where he could be silent on those game boards He even made several variations to wargames in the wake of skirmishes with Nether forces perhaps to alleviate his sense of responsibility by increasing our combat ability
None of it made a difference Our people were evenly matched with the Nether But for all the raw emotion coursing through his being my spouse was extremely practical And interacting with me I believe I gave him the last bit of inspiration he needed to develop a very desperate plan
If he couldnÆt make our people stronger the only way to improve our military strength was for there to be more of us Of course life energy was constant An increase in our population was impossible without extreme methods
Yet one day a miracleÆ occurred its sudden arrival like a bolt of lightning splitting the tallest tree in the forest We the animals came out of our secret living spaces and were aghast But our historian proclaimed it was a cause for celebration His vehement words whipped up a grand jubilation to mark the event A couple had given birth to three children Within a few months such miracles began commonplace Elhume became our prophet proudly declaring that the time had come for us to return to Eden with our newfound strength
Do you want to know how he managed it Yystrix asked softly But Randidly didnÆt need much of an explanation The memories had gotten so sharp that he could see how diminished these new beings were their inner light was dim and muted Randidly couldnÆt just intuit the method but he remembered the mad experiments of Thomas Karmin on Earth
Something spiritual had been cut out of the original Aether being and placed into another body The wound had healed as well as it could but what had grown in the stolen soulÆs place was more than slightly wrong Randidly could sense
The window in front of Randidly blurred and vanished Then Randidly felt a sense of immense speed as the world slowly came back into focus He was rushing forward over orange highlands Although Yystrix didnÆt turn to look Randidly could sense that the Tower to Heaven was behind him The further than Yystrix proceeded the denser and lower the maroon clouds became
Gradually she rushed forward into a land of shadow The Badlands home of the Nether
I stated previously that I ran away from Elhume And that was true But I was also purposefully looking for something Maybe even what I was looking for was a clean death Because there is no way to describe my methods but foolish
Periodically Elhume would travel into the wastes to scout out the area IT quickly became a point of pride amongst my people that our historian was a powerful warrior Yet I watched him every day how could I miss that every time he returned from that place more miracle births would follow
As you can see those Births created individuals that were dull is the term that seemed to fit It was all too easy to miss at first however Because of the overwhelming joy of the miracle several of the elders gave up their lives to have multiple children All at once the grand and bright lights of our people dimmed
But our numbers soon swelled to a little under a thousand ElhumeÆs hatred was a beast that could now stalk openly through the halls of the Tower to Heaven He practically leaked emotion with his every brutal action All of Hallohm revered that beast and praised it endlessly He was transforming right before my eyes
The stones transformed from orange to black as she continued to run forward The sky too was completely black It was a lightless place illuminated only by the light from YystrixÆs own body She rushed forward while ignoring the changes I arranged for an accident It detained Elhume and I rushed into the wastes in his place I had hoped I donÆt know I had hoped for an answer
And in that darkness I met an agent of Nether He was wounded and desperate or else he might have detected that I wasnÆt my husband As it was by the time he realized his mistake it was too late
Amongst the rocks that were thoroughly soaked in shadow a figure gradually emerged in front of Yystrix He was large larger than any of her people and possessed two sets of thickly muscled arms The Nether man was hunched over and a portion of his substance seemed to be gradually seeping into the surrounding air Great wounds covered his torso and his essence made use of them to waft off of his skin in thick waves
You The Nether being seemed troubled as he looked at Yystrix Who are you You how
Stunning
Then the memory froze leaving Randidly staring at the strange innocence in the eyes of the Nether being in front of him IÆm sure you have questions about what I am telling you But just believe that this is true I do not wish to share my talks with this Nether King Suffice to say that I learned much including the fact that the Nether were just as pathetic a people as the Aether ones were
And I also learned that Elhume had been meeting with this man to appropriate Nether methods to mutilate our people and subdivide them into more bodies He was a butcher of the soul justifying any amount of suffering in order to appease his hatred
The frozen memory shifted In the next scene the Nether being was more hunched His essence that was wafting off his body had thickened even though the wounds that covered him had vanished Memory snapshot after memory snapshot flashed in front of RandidlyÆs eyes showing the gradual transformation of the being of Nether
We continued meeting secretly after I discovered this extremely confusing relationship of my husbandÆs The fact that he a constant font of vitriol and propaganda that painted the Nether as uneducated savages would somehow meet and work out a deal with a Nether King even now doesnÆt make much sense to me
But it does prove one thing necessity always guided ElhumeÆs hand He would do anything to achieve his goals
As Hallohm became increasingly frenzied in his preaching I would sneak away and meet the Nether King We would spend our time just talking I learned much about the problems amongst the Nether people but those arenÆt my secrets to share Nor is it really relevant But it was incredibly nice to know someone who would listen to my troubles without judgment It was a much needed release valve that kept me sane Because as I ascended the Tower to Heaven the pressure was mounting for me to give myself to the children
Elhume was not the principal source of this pressure of course Even then I think I was special to him Yet all of his dim followers didnÆt view me in such a favorable manner I was the wife of the historian using ElhumeÆs influence to avoid my duty And in a way they werenÆt wrong
But I was so inexplicably afraid Afraid that my three or four children would be dim and brief things within the cold grasp of ElhumeÆs hatred And after that being of Nether called me stunning I couldnÆt bear the thought of becoming anything else
Eventually Elhume and I argued This was when I ran for real It wasnÆt a time for my secret meeting with the Nether King but I just went anyway I was selfish
Then suddenly the frozen memories were gone and Yystrix was radiating palpable fear A cracking twisted figure hidden in the deep shadows of the wastes slowly straightened It was a being of Nether with a segmented body like an ant twisting and clicking as it sensed Yystrix Then it twitched and struck
I encountered a Nether patrol and was grievously wounded Heh the great irony was that I was incredibly weak After reading so many reports about skirmishes with Nether I was well aware of what I should be capable of As I fled I couldnÆt help but wonder if the war games actually served a purpose after all