Book Three
In Our Waking
We Hold
The Worlds
Apart
Ten
Now, the Dark Age has come.
Plant the Ursunam, the Name of God.
It is not the season to plant other seeds.
Do not wander lost in doubt and delusion.
-Sage Imbeth Atanambyl
The west road
That night they stayed in a town called Washedaw which lay beside the West Dunes and three days southeast of the Great Forests. They were not poor, and though Ohean had spoken of taking the Princess Imogen away in secret, he did not seem terribly concerned about it now, so they took three great suites in the inn. Beneath them they sat eating dinner and now hearing men talk of the end of the war two years back where Prince Anson had come back a hero having, they said, handed the king of Daumany’s ass to him on a platter.
“They say that King Cedd was so jealous he bit off his own nose, but of course he had to pretend to be glad. After all his brother saved the nation.”
Beside Ohean, who sat blank faced, Anson’s usually untroubled face looked embarrassed.
“No one here has ever seen you,” Ohean said, calmly eating his curry. “Just carry on like you’re any other very goodlooking, bronze haired soldier.”
“Ohean,” Conn said, more to take their attention off of Anson than anything, “May I ask you a question?”
“Only if you want to know things.”
“What is the Third Creation and the Second and… what was that you were speaking of?”
Wolf put down his chicken leg, because though he had not asked, he wanted to know as well.
“The Third Creation,” Ohean began, “is all this you see around you. The world you know now is the Third Creation.
“The First Creation, or the first we know of, who can say how long it lasted? But it was the age borne of the Time of Dreaming. In those days the Gods still walked the Earth, for they were the Earth, and their First Children walked it with them, as well as the Second and Third Children, who are called the Fair Folk. The Vomor and the Ystrad, the Elves, walked along side them. In those days one could easily see the tree spirits and the spirits of the earth and men and Gods lived upon the earth together. But also other things walked the earth, those things that the New Faith calls devils, and in the end the world was destroyed by a great flood. The Flood would have lasted forever had not the High Gods intervened. Some stories say that all that breathed died, or that only one ark survived, and that is nearly, but not completely true. Most men died, and it is said that most men surviving were the children of Medwyn, or Urubpak. Sometimes he is called Noach. His name differs. But other men had great knowledge, magic and craft as well, for they were more than human. They were of the Gods and the Elder Folk, and these men sailed far west and established the great land of Atle. From these were born the Royan. It should be said other people were born of that land as well.”
“Yes,” Conn said in a quiet voice, “It was always said that the Royan came from the Far West.”
“The fathers of the fathers of the Royans,” Ohean said, “The men of the Far South and of Chem and old Achaea and Axum share the same blood. As do many of the Sincercians. It was the time of the Second Creation, when Atle became a mighty power, and in the east, Caldé and its great tower rose. These lands were full of magic. Between them also rose the mighty land of Axum in the Great Sea, and also there was and is Chem, the Black Land. In these lands was the ancient wisdom. But then a great shadow arose. Some say it was pride and some say it was a true shadow, that the greater the light, the longer the darkness it can cast, and some say the Gods and demons walked upon the earth again, though in the Second Creation it was different.”
“Why?” Gabriel asked.
“Because the Flood had truly altered the world. It was not new. It had come out of its Dreaming, and now that it was real and solid, it could not bear the full weight of the Gods. The Gods could no more enter it successfully then a storyteller can enter his own book.
“But a storyteller could write himself as a character in his own book,” Conn said.
“Ah,” Ohean smiled, “Yes. And that is what the Gods did. That is what the avatars are, the way the Gods enter the world, and they did so, and there was, in time, battle, though the battle was a thing all good men attempted to divert, and in this battle the great island of Atle fell beneath the waves. That was the end of the Second Creation.”
“But how,” Wolf said now, “could an island sinking be the end of the whole Second Creation?”
“Wolfling,” Ohean said, tenderly, “do you remember Kratow?’
“The Volcano? Didn’t it exploded around a hundred years ago?”
“A hundred and fifty, really. But, yes,” Ohean said. For those who did not know he said, “Kratow was the great volcano in the far Southern Sea that exploded, throwing its gas and debris all over.”
“And that whole year nothing grew. They called it the year without summer.”
“Yes,” Ohean said. “There was plague here and ice storms in the Two Hales, and that was from one volcano, a very great one, far to the south. Well Atle was an entire continent. And it exploded. This is what men called the Great Cataclysm. If the avatars were not present, if the Gods themselves had not removed the Veil and stretched out their hands to do a work, then all life would have ended.”
Ohean suddenly sang.
First was the mage
Who moved from age to age
And second was his hero strong
Third was the starry maid,
who lived in trees,
whose wood would never die
Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down
Conn had heard this tune, this song, or some of it. Lorne had been singing it the first time they had all gone out onto the roof to enjoy the wind of early winter, but Lorne had only sung one verse, and he didn’t seem to know what it meant. Nor, as Ohean went on singing, did he offer to explain.
Four is for the lady who fits inside
men’s hands
Who gave up arms and legs to
be an arm again
And Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down
Five alive, the Great old Man,
the mighty Oaken Tree
Mighty rash, who bore the Ash,
and Ash and onto Thee
Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down
They say a man gave up his
land to be the Woman’s Key!
Oh! And Seven came down
Oh, and Seven came down
Of all of them I’ve spoken
Except the one who’s broken
But he did not have to explain, for these, surely, must have been the avatars, those who had repaired the earth and who, it seemed, continued to do so.
“All the world would have ceased, continents been flooded, the air filled with poison. Great magic was made to hold the lands in places and drive away the smoke, to save lives which would have died. In the end Caldé survived, but diminished, and so did Axum and Chem. No other lands survived that second creation. Chem had been founded by the people of Atle and of Atle all that was left was Solea. For some time the survivors of Atle all came to Solea, but at last they traveled further east to the newly risen land of Ynkar. There they founded Chyr and in time Ynkurando. The Blue Priests came from Atle and established the first Blue Houses on this land, your own being one of them. There an ancient magic was stored, for there are five orders which preserve the Third Creation from destruction, and to this day by their work they still the tremors and keep the world from falling apart, the wizards of Calde, the wizards of the White Tower, the Witches of the Silver Hand, the Women of the Rootless Isle where I was born, and the Blue Priests.”
Conn blinked in amazement.
Ohean nodded.
“Atle sank thirty five hundred years ago, long to you, but short in the history of all things. There have been three creations, and I and those I mentioned are bound to preserving this one, for it is said there will not be another save the dawning of the Age of Love, and that is something different entirely.”
