A tale of Nala Part of Elara's Journal
Once, Ael’s infinite light stretched in every horizon, pure and bright. Stories of its warmth and wonder have been etched upon the ages, though we do not tell them often. Remembrances of his radiant kingdom, Valaen, are as tender a torment as could exist in this world, aching as only memories can.
Ael was all that was good in creation, but he was not perfect. For eons, he lived in despair and loneliness as he roamed the infinite emptiness of the universe; the fears in his soul crept into the fringes of all he made, including Valaen. These shadows clawed their way forward, devils bathed in darkness. To cast their evil out of his kingdom, he confined them to a hellish prison he called Bezda.
Our home, Nala, grew in between Valaen and Bezda. Light and dark. Creatures pulled in both directions emerged from the soil, and Ael watched in curiosity as they grew. He saw shades of himself flickering in their faces. Some were wise and winsome. Others were sharp and curious. And a few rare beings expressed exceptional powers that rivaled his own.
Those who abused their powers were banished to Bezda, lost to the light for eternity. Those pure of heart were invited to enter Valaen and became his Faithguard.
I wonder sometimes if distancing himself from darkness was Ael’s great mistake. Had he not denied those qualities as wound into his flesh as skin and bone, he may not have been so blind when one of his own Faithguard betrayed him. Ah, but it does not help to think what might have been. All that matters is what is, and what – or rather – who was born from it.
All that matters is Kavel and the blight he’s sown across Nala.
Because of him, I’ve watched the faces of my brethren turn sallow, their skin slack and eyes filmy. I’ve seen their poor, shambling skeletons dance in graveyards they once called home, gnashing their teeth on honeyed nothings and rattling their bones like husks of leaves in a dead winter’s wind.
If even Ael could underestimate the patient, scheming evil that burned in Kavel’s heart, what chance did I have?
Fortunately, Ael taught the rest of us patience, too.