A Story of Forever

Part 6

Meanwhile Karkion and Geyna were having children as well. Karkion and Geyna had a golden child named Thrash. And they doted on Trash much, just like they dotted on their other children. They wanted to raise Thrash to be the perfect Uzra.

But in Thrash's young childhood, his parents gave him to Mamon to take care of. And take care of him they did. They taught him to be kind and soft and gentle and good. They taught him to not seek glory and power and wealth and fame. They taught him to not to see the Yemars as lesser beings and to treat everyone equally.

Thrash learned these lessons. By and by he loved Mamon. But still, Mamon wished they could truly raise him the way they wanted to raise him, the way he deserved to be raised, rather than the way his parents told them to raise him.

But as Trash grew older, he also learned lessons from his parents. Lessons on how to be violent and demanding and haughty and arrogant and sure. He was taught that the Uzras were better and the Yemars needed to be kept in line. And as he grew into a young man, he became the perfect Uzra just as his father and mother wanted him to be.

He was violent and destructive. He was smug and egotistical. He regularly beat and threatened Mamon and the other Yemars. And Mamon was very sorrowful indeed to see their child grow up to be such a menace.

But long before Thrash turned evil, there were other young sons of Karkion who turned good.

Sheen was the oldest son of Karkion and Geyna. He was much loved and adored by the Uzras. They saw him as the shining heir to the throne. The manifestation of all that the Uzras represented. And they made sure to teach him their ways.

But he did not want to learn their ways. Not him nor his younger brother Holder nor his girlfriend Monnia. They looked at the lands and the empires of the Uzra. And they couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Something was twisted. Something was evil. They looked at the Yemars, and they thought that they were people too. And the three youths didn't understand what they themselves were thinking, what they were feeling. They didn't understand what they had to do. But they knew that they had to get away from the Uzras.

For if they stayed with the Uzras, the Uzras would teach them their lessons and would turn them into loyal followers of the Uzra party line.

They went to the Yemars for help. They needed to get away from the Uzra and their corrupt teachings and their twisted, arrogant, hierarchical ways.

The Yemars made a plan with them. But the plan would require the ultimate sacrifice.

Earlier that year, Karkion had gotten wind of the fact that Oellon was bursting with life and the people there were free together. He felt a great rage and hatred in his heart. How dare the dead rise from their desolate slumber?

So he went to Oellon and he crossed the bridge. Molia would not let him pass, though, and demanded that he leave this place. For this place was not his. Karkion was getting ready to fight her when the council came to see what was going on.

Karkion saw the young girl who had done all this. And he thought that he could easily take her on in a fight. The girl was tiny, and young, a girl, and a Yemar besides. He thought he would easily counter her and he would show all the dead Yemars that he had slain their saviour. And that would crush their spirits and placate them forever. He challenged the young girl to a fight.

He bound the terms of the fight with unbreakable binding spells, spells that no one, not even he himself, could break. And he laid out to her the terms. If she won the fight, Karkion and his followers, and all the generations of his followers after him would leave forever the lands of Oellon and would not move to affect the land at all. Only the dead who followed Oella would be allowed in. He would not even ask Ryan to look upon the lands. But if she lost he would invade and would subjugate the lands until they were back in the state he had left them as.

Oella did not want to take the deal. But she knew it was the only way to protect her people. It was the only way to ensure they lived free from the fetter of Karkion. For Karkion was powerful and could invade at any time. And only the binding magic of Karkion's oath could save Oellon from his wrath.

And so she said yes. And she went to train for the battle.

Oella had never had the chance to be a child. From the precious age of four she was forced to take on responsibility that was too large for her small shoulders to bear. The responsibility of walking the wastes of Oellon alone. The responsibility of putting hope into the hearts of the people she loved so much, who loved her in return. The responsibility of mediating the council meetings. The responsibility of fighting the most powerful Uzra.

But she trained and she trained and her people helped her train.

And the day of the fight arrived. She stood with her shoulders high, looking straight at Karkion as he stood on the other side of the bridge, glaring down at her. And she was afraid, deathly afraid. On her shoulders rested not only the fate of Oellon but the fate of the universe. And Karkion could see her shaking. At the sight he smirked.

But Oella used all the magic she had to fight against his magic. She fought with every ounce of herself and with every ounce of her terror. And ultimately her magic overpowered his magic and she was left standing there, victor.

Karkion was enraged and humiliated. But there was nothing he could do. Oella had won, and now the binding magic locked his people out of Oellon forever. And that was how Oellon came to be the only safe place free of the wicked Uzras.

But before leaving, Karkion chained a great dog named Fyrer to the only exit from Oellon, so that no souls could leave the place and they would be trapped there forever.

Of course Oella and the dead Yemars quickly made friends with the dog and regularly brought him food and kept him company. They all longed to free the dog but they could not, as the chains binding him were too strong. But the dog let them pass whenever they needed to pass. Only, it wasn't safe for the dead to enter the world of the living.

And that was why the three young Uzras, fresh with youth and wide-eyed and pensive, could go to Oellon and only Oellon to be safe. But the magic of the place would only allow the dead to enter there, and only the dead who were enemies of Karkion. To enter, the three youths would have to be dead.

But the three Uzra youths agreed to this deal. They were willing to sacrifice anything, even death, if it meant escape from the destinies that the other Uzras set out for them.

And so they made a plan.

There was nothing in the cosmos that could kill Sheen. Nothing except for one thing.

Sheen's mother Geyna had had foreboding dreams of Sheen dying. She had therefore gone out to all the things in the land and forced them to promise not to kill Sheen. Coerced by her, all things in existence promised. But not little mistletoe.

For mistletoe was young, and weak, and fragile and dying on a rocky tree of an outcropping when Geyna went out to find it. She took one look at the weak plant and thought that there was no use getting its promise. It would die soon anyways.

Mamon disguised themselves as an Uzra woman and asked Geyna why nothing could hurt Sheen. Geyna explained to them, who she thought was a her, that all things in the world had made a vow not to kill Sheen. Mamon asked how Geyna could be sure she hadn't missed anything. Geyna responded that she had meticulously made sure to demand an oath from every single thing in existence, except mistletoe which was young and weak and dying.

And so Mamon went out to the mistletoe plant. And they saw that it was growing with fresh, new life. They asked for one branch and explained why they needed it. The mistletoe gave them a branch and bade them good luck on their quest.

Manon entered the great hall where the Uzra were partying. The Uzras were playing a game where they threw all sorts of weapons at Sheen and marvelled at how all the weapons bounced away. Mamon surreptitiously passed the mistletoe dart they had fashioned to Holder and Holder threw it at Sheen.

Everyone gasped as Sheen bled out and died. They took one look at Holder and decided to kill him for his betrayal. And so Holder died. And during the funeral of Sheen and Holder, when they were burning the bodies on a funeral pyre, Monnia pretended to be so grief-stricken that she could not go on anymore. And she threw herself into the fire and burned and she too died.

The party of three went over the bridge of the dead and were welcomed into Oellon. There they spent time with all the Yemars who had died after suffering in their lives. And the three young Uzras learned the lessons of the Yemars, they heard the stories of the Yemars. They learned about all the pain and the injustice and the struggle and the hardship. They learned about all the hope and joy and love. They learned why they must oppose the hierarchies of the Uzra.

And they trained for the fight against the Uzras. They were going to play their part. They were going to do what they could.

But after the three died, Karkion looked through Forkava and found them not there. He sent a messenger to Oellon to bargain for Sheen and Monnia to come back. The messenger got blocked on the bridge and was not welcome into the land of the dead. But Oella went out to meet him. And she told him that she would give the youths back to life only if all the world cried for them.

This was a lie. She could not send the souls of the dead back into life. But she had to lie in order to keep too much animosity from building up amongst the Uzras.

So the Uzras that were yet living went out to all the lands and coerced everyone into crying for Sheen and Monnia. And everyone was afraid of the Uzras so everyone did cry. Even though they knew that the two youths were exactly where they wanted to be. Still they cried, for they had to protect their loved ones from the wrath of the Uzras.

One lady, however, did not cry. This Yemarian lady was at the end of her life. She was all alone. She had no-one around her who could be said to care for her. And she was about to die soon herself. So she had nothing to fear. There was nothing that the Uzras could threaten her with.

She said that the Uzras had caused great pain and suffering to her people and to her personally. She said that she would not cry for the Uzras and she didn't care what they did to her. And the Uzras didn't know how to threaten her. They didn't know what to do.

And thus, the three Uzra youth stayed in Oellon, learning and growing and becoming. Becoming softer. Becoming kinder. Becoming liberators. They learned how to be one with nature and how to be one with the oppressed. They learned how to be one with the future.



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