Everville: The Rise of Mallory (13 page)

What Governor Jahal and the other Alarians did not know was that they themselves were responsible for a genocide of their own, as well as for the division between The Other In Between and Everville.

In the distant past, the negative energy in The Other In Between attracted the Alarians as the perfect place to nourish their offspring, but the cries of now Governor Laveda and those that would come to populate the second city were ignored.

At the time, Governor Jahal did not bother to check what might be underground in the land where they were about to seed their eggs. Being shape shifters, they simply transported their offspring directly into the ground. When they did, they nearly eradicated an entire species. Those who remained did not see the culprits; all they knew was that those responsible were not from this world.

The bulk of those that survived the seeding of the worms decided that the race of species responsible, and other as of yet unknown species, represented the greatest possible threat. A great debate ensued between The Keepers and other races that surrounded The Other In Between.

The survivors of the seeding wanted to use the element to find and destroy those responsible. They also wanted to use the element as protection from other possible invaders. The Keepers believed that the pursuit of power would corrupt those that sought it. They believed possession of unlimited power would turn them into the same evil they sought to fight.

The Keepers refused to allow them unlimited access to the element. A great division grew between them, and the survivors made a decision. The survivors, and any others that chose to join them, would concentrate power by using one of the special properties of the same seeds that destroyed their people. The creatures in the region soon discovered that those who tasted the flesh of the eggs that were seeded in the ground could transform into shapeless energy, a byproduct of the shape shifters. Those that gave up the corporeal form could unite into one mind; the more that joined, the more powerful they became. Once enough had joined, it was no longer necessary to eat the flesh of the eggs. Others could join by free will and through their actions. A few detractors remained in both camps, but the bulk of the survivors made the decision together. From that point on they gave up their physical form and became known as Them.

Once the Alarians were all in position above their moon, they began transporting to the underground land of the giants. They arrived slowly at first. They were so high above the armies that initially they went unnoticed. Soon, however, they increased in number and in speed. The size of their increasing numbers blocked the glow of light that permeated from the underground walls of the giants. The light was stolen by the darkness, and the armies of Everville braced for war.

The Alarians did not limit their arrival to just the land of the giants. In order for them to succeed in eliminating the mineral rock and other artifacts used to contain the element, they would need to destroy the catacombs in Everville and the walls of Vermogen in Brackenbone. They divided their numbers in three, a third going to the land of the giants and the remaining being divided equally above the land of the Fron and Brackenbone.

“Sako?”

“Yes, Toe?”

“I’m afraid,” Toe said trembling.

The Alarians slowly descended from above, still out of reach of the armies’ weapons below. The shape of their bodies gradually came into focus, and soldiers could see the bizarre ancestral form of the Alarians. The pitch-black color made them difficult to discern at first, but slowly the seven legs at the base of the creatures and the three arms on their sides became visible. The holes and protrusions in the three different sections of their bodies were the last to become visible.

“I’m a little worried myself,” Sako replied to Toe. “But I believe we will be victorious, just as we always have.”

“Yes, but at a great cost,” Toe said.

“The cost of freedom,” Sako finished.

The Alarians were now in range of the weapons, but General Varrick and the leaders in charge in both Everville and Brackenbone waited. Mallory and the dragon were still nowhere to be seen, and the Alarians hadn’t yet attacked.

Mallory, being the coward that he was, decided to send the Alarians ahead of them in the hopes they would weaken the armies sufficiently to ensure Mallory’s safety. Rathlar, however, was eager to fight and getting anxious.

The Alarians came closer and closer. Their approach was tepid and slow, so as not to startle the armies into premature action. Governor Jahal wanted the armies to get a long and clear look at whom they were up against.

The Governor communicated the order for the Alarians to transform into dragons. In Everville, in Brackenbone, and in the land of the giants, the bodies of the Alarians enlarged. They grew at a rapid rate, transforming into giant dragons, larger than those the armies had fought in The City of Worms.

Governor Jahal led the charge from the air in the land of the giants. His massive dragon body flew rapidly towards the line of soldiers protecting the center monolith.

The bodies of the dragons were beautiful. The skin was composed of shimmering greens, opal, and translucent white. It was blinding. Governor Jahal spread his wings back preparing to lunge towards the monolith. His wings spanned over a thousand feet. He opened his jaws and cried a deafening roar.

Toe stared into the mouth of the dragon and saw the first spark of the flames that escaped the dragon’s throat.

The Alarians had attacked and the war had begun. For better or worse, now was the time to make a stand.

Chapter 14

The Third Pillar of Truth

I
n the Black River Valley, Owen Sage had just passed through the mountain bluff. Grenmar’s eyes filled with tears, not knowing when he would see his friend again. Felix and Asher wondered how long they would need to wait and see if Owen would return back through the bluff. They looked at each other, not sure what to do.

Once Owen passed through, a total darkness surrounded him. He turned around, but the entrance behind him vanished once he crossed the threshold. It was the blackest he had ever experienced, blacker than any dream he had ever known.

He walked straight ahead.

“Hello,” Owen said, waiting to see if there would be a response.

“Hello. Is anyone there?” Owen asked after a few more moments had passed.

Only silence and blackness greeted him. He continued to walk forward, turning his head every once in a while to see if he could catch a glimpse of what was there, but there was nothing.

Owen continued to walk, unable to tell which direction he was going or how far he had traveled.

“Hello. Are you here? Pillar?” Owen asked.

There was no response. He continued calling out into the darkness every few minutes; eventually he called out less and less, waiting longer between each call.

“Hello. Is anyone out there? Is there something that you need me to do?” Owen asked one last time.

Again, silence was the only reply. He continued walking, alone. Even his footsteps made no sound, but he kept walking.

The absence of any sensory feedback made it difficult for him to gauge the passage of time or the distance he was traveling. He had no way of knowing other than counting in his head, so that’s what he did.

“One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand,” he began.

He tried to estimate each step and each second to see if he could at least make a rough estimate. If he were not already within The Third Pillar of Truth, then he must arrive at a boundary of some sort eventually. If that was the case, he could estimate the diameter of distance between the entrance and the first boundary he came across. He thought it was unlikely, but at least it gave him something to do to stay occupied and to stay sane.

Owen followed through with his plan. For an unknown period of time, he continued pacing, continued counting, and continued waiting for The Third Pillar.

“Three hundred fifty thousand one-thousand,” Owen continued. By his estimate, he had walked for at least four days and must have covered a distance of at least three hundred miles, give or take. Oddly enough, he wasn’t tired or hungry. He grew increasingly convinced that it must be a test, and if it was, he would not fail.

He continued on. “Three hundred fifty thousand two-thousand, three hundred fifty thousand three-thousand.”

A tiny light appeared in front of him, the tiniest of tiny in what looked like a far off distance, perhaps the light at the end of a very, very long tunnel.

Owen stopped to try and inspect the light. It grew larger. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it got brighter. Owen did not move, but the light, a soft glow, grew larger over time. After what must have been several minutes, the light was finally bright enough to illuminate where he was, only there was still nothing, nothing but a slowly growing light.

Finally, a figure appeared. The image was featureless, other than a basic humanoid form, the embodiment of light.

“Owen,” the figure spoke in a soothing, deep male voice.

“You have demonstrated yourself worthy of the test.”

Owen thought to himself that this was the test.

“As you know, all but one of the worms were destroyed. That solitary dragon, Rathlar, possesses a large amount of element that must be given up or destroyed if your world is to survive. There are only two possible choices here, Owen. Like before, one of the choices is to simply destroy the dragon,” The Third Pillar of Truth stated.

“What’s the other choice?” Owen asked.

“You will have to convince Rathlar to freely give up the element. I have seen all possible outcomes, and there is only one way that you will be able to convince Rathlar to do that,” The Pillar continued.

“Which is what?” Owen asked.

“I must send you back to the race who seeded the worms, shape shifters known as the Alarians, who come from a universe outside your own, on a planet called Alaria. You will have to go to the beginning of the first Alarians, eons and eons ago. You will have to live as one of them.

“From the time of their inception, the Alarians do not die as you know it. They live on. They will go on to outlive their universe and escape its death to the safety of ours. They can live forever until the energy within their form falls below what is needed to hold itself together, and then they simply dissipate into nothingness.

“You must accept their form as a child and live on as an adult Alarian through tens of billions of years until they pass into your universe. All the while, you cannot tell anyone about your life on Earth or any knowledge that you have outside what is known by the Alarians, with the exception of your understanding of what is good and what is just.

“At this very moment, the Alarians are above Everville and the land of the giants. They are on the precipice of a great war, the eve of destruction among both their people and the races in Everville and The Other In Between. Like the battle that ensued in The City of Worms, half the armies of your allies will be destroyed.

“If you are successful, if you live out your life in a time long ago and hold true to what is good and what is just, your knowledge and wisdom of the Alarian people will be sufficient to convince the dragon, Rathlar, that he should willingly give up the element. Once Rathlar gives up the element, Mallory’s strength, along with the Alarians, will not be enough to harm Everville. The Alarians will return to their moon and Mallory will be defeated,” The Third Pillar said.

“What will happen to me?” Owen asked.

“Just before the moment of Mallory and Rathlar’s departure to the land of the giants, I will transport you in your Alarian form to Rathlar. It is then that you will have to convince him to give up the element. If you succeed, you will be transformed back to your human form and will exit the mountain bluff from whence you came. The knowledge of your life as an Alarian will be erased, but you will possess the knowledge that you succeeded, though, you won’t know why. You will also retain the character and understanding of honor that you experience as an Alarian. It won’t be a literal knowledge, but rather an implicit wisdom that adds to your own inner self. You will be a greater man, but you will not be aware of the change.

“So which will it be? Will you destroy the dragon or will you make the latter choice?” The Third Pillar of Truth asked.

By that time, Owen had forgotten there was even a choice. Instinctively, it was clear that the latter choice must be the right thing to do. He did think about it for a second, though. If he destroyed the dragon, the dragon would be dead and nothing else would have changed. Of course, that’s assuming that The Third Pillar of Truth would let him go through with it if it was the wrong choice.

The second choice also had potential pitfalls. Owen would not only have to keep the knowledge of Earth and his world a secret, he would also have to stay true to what he believed was right and just. Still yet, he would have to convince the dragon using that knowledge he gained through his experience as an Alarian. More importantly he would have to have the patience to see it though. Tens of billions of years was a long time.

“I’ve decided to pick the second choice,” Owen said.

“The second choice it is then,” The Pillar said.

Owen was transformed into an Alarian child, freshly hatched on a distant planet in an unknown universe billions of years in the past.

Owen opened his eyes with a form that was unknown to him, yet strangely, it felt familiar. He possessed all the instincts that an Alarian child would while retaining every last bit of knowledge of his human life and his experiences in Everville.

Owen tried to communicate, and he felt that he could speak and even take human form. He quickly caught himself, though, as there is no way that an Alarian that had just hatched would have knowledge of humans, their shape, or their speech. As such, he acted like a newborn Alarian, oblivious to what was expected or how to speak, but possessing the instincts that would lead him in the right direction over time.

For a species that was from another universe, the Alarians had customs and social conventions that were oddly similar to those of Earth. There were families, most of them nuclear, but some not. The children went to school; some excelled, others didn’t. Most of the adults had jobs, but some were destitute and a few were lazy and chose not to work.

What Owen found most striking was that the Alarians rarely shape shifted, but instead, held their ancestral form for most of the time. There were times, though, in moments of extreme emotion, celebration, or exploration that the Alarians did shape shift.

There was one thing, though, that was vastly different from the human culture. The fact that Alarians could shape shift and the nature of their physical composition meant that they usually did not feel pain and they rarely died. They did not have disease, and it was almost impossible to die from what would be a conventional attack. Most other forms of war generally required energy, which would only make the Alarians stronger.

The Alarians’ difficulty at engaging in self-inflicted physical harm drove introspection and built character among the species. That did not, though, prevent evil. Emotional harm was still quite possible. Theft still existed in the form of stolen energy and power. The greatest capacity for evil, though, came from the Alarians’ ability to inflict harm on others.

There was a constant internal struggle within the social and political structure between those who had developed a great character through introspection and those who sought to maximize their power through theft of resources from other species, even intelligent ones. There were also many shades of grey, and then there were also those who lived outside the struggle and chose their own pursuits—some who cared and others who didn’t.

Early on Owen developed great friendships. One friendship in particular would transform his life as an Alarian while deepening his understanding of what it meant to be human. In Alaria Owen was called Alvaro.

“Hi. My name’s Chesna,” a girl said to Alvaro in the Alarian language of clicks and musical sounds that Alvaro now understood.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Alvaro,” he replied.

“You know, I don’t really know anyone here and I don’t want to study alone. Would you like to go study at the library?” Chesna asked.

“Sure. That would be great!” he replied.

It was Alvaro’s third year in what closely approximated a university. Alvaro had lived his childhood learning what it meant to be Alarian with the memory of humanity etched into his shape shifting brain. Now, though, he had exceeded his experiences as a human. He had lived longer as Alvaro than Owen Sage. The first two years at the university were uneventful. He held deep platonic friendships with longstanding friends. This year was different, though. Alvaro knew that he had tens of billions of years in front of him, and it was time for him to truly live as one of them.

Several months had passed into Alvaro’s third year and his feelings for Chesna had deepened.

“Chesna, would you like to go to park this afternoon?” Alvaro asked.

“Sure, I’d love to!” she responded with enthusiasm.

They arrived there a few hours later. He gave her his hand and helped her get comfortable after finding the perfect spot.

It was a beautiful day. The twin suns shone down with the perfect amount of illumination on the colorful, temperate vegetation of the region. They sat there together facing the families that walked by.

Chesna watched as the small children played with their siblings and parents. She imagined having a family herself one day.

“Alvaro, what do you think it all means?” she asked.

“What does all what mean?” he replied, knowing exactly what she meant.

“You know, everything, our place in the universe, life, family, the future?” she asked.

It had been a while since Alvaro had to parse what he said for fear of violating The Third Pillar of Truth’s warning not to tell others what he knew about Earth or his understanding of things outside of Alarian society. During this time in their development, the Alarians were at a similar cultural and technological development as Earth was during the early twenty first century, with substantial differences in certain things.

Alvaro continued. “I don’t know. I guess that’s the big question, but I think there is an absolute truth. I believe in family, friendship, and honor. I think it’s important to live a good life and do what you think is best for yourself while helping others find what’s best for them. I think happiness is the ideal, and perhaps you need to be true to yourself and have good character in order to find that happiness.”