Chapter 141: Voice of Tayun (2)
{Music Recommendation: Makinoa by Voice from the Earth }
Remember...
A whisper, a sweet serenade wisped across Nova’s mind, sinking deep within her until it slipped between the gaps in the final chain wrapped around her. It broke and disintegrated into dust.
Mist billowed across Nova’s features, sweeping back her short hair, the moisture slicking it back as the fog disbanded from her mind.
Nova breathed deeply even as she was aware of the water surrounding her.
But it was like a weight lifted from beneath her eyes. Light and warmth thrummed along her veins, sweeping across her body, heating up the chill that had crept over her from being stuck in the depths of the lake
Then, the floating sensation beneath her limbs suddenly released and like a rug yanked beneath her feet, gravity dragged her down. A scream tore from her throat as she reached for something, anything in this strange place. There was nothing.
White streaks blurred at her peripheral as the stars whooshed past her and she was once again standing beside Moon Lake, her eyes wide as she saw Chad reaching for her in slow motion before water crashed around her and she was falling and falling, floating among galaxies until that same voice whispered along her body like a soft warm breeze.
Inside water? It should’ve been impossible but then Nova remembered this was a dream, a memory of what happened the day she fell into the lake. What was it she was meant to remember?
Electa...
They need you...
Nova landed again, this time in her blue dress from the night she fell into the lake, heels gone, hair dishevelled as she stepped silently through the jungle. Night had fallen over Tayun, and only the nocturnal creatures moved, sneaking around, eyes wide and bright as they clung to trees, hiding behind bark and slithered beneath the underbrush.
The forest grew dense and thick, her feet getting caught in roots, slowing her feet that wanted to continue moving, forcing herself forward. Vines snapped and groaned at breaking, pulling away. Nova persisted until her sight was almost entirely blinded in the dark.
She moved aside some low hanging leaves and froze, her breath catching. She stood among a hill, near the Sacred Lands, the sky bright, purple and orange with the stars pulsing with chaotic energy.
Dread tingled through her body as the voice spoke to her again, sounding more like a hum, the ancient language like an ember in the dark.
Balance is the harmony of life...
Before her eyes, as though watching a film, the night sky gradually became lighter, the moon descending to the earth, the sun rising and streaming golden light along the land.
Different voices, old in time, but not that of the ancient one then spoke in whispers from multiple people.
’The sun has dried the lands. Our flame mother is angry. We must feed Solkara to bring her warmth back to balance.’
The earth had grown dry, cracks formed in parts of the forest as Tayun was going through its dry period of the year. But these people did not understand it yet. They blamed Solkara’s ire for what was normal on an island such as this.
Before Nova, horror clenched her eyes shut as tribesmen prostrated, their foreheads to the ground in front of an altar, mothers cried, reaching out for their children and babies but they were held back, heads bloodied from being beaten as the screams of children hushed the island into a deadly silence.
Nova’s knees buckled, she didn’t want to see the horror. Her knees hit the dirt as she covered her ears. She knew they used to sacrifice to appease the Kairan but this... It was so sickening.
The warmth fled the earth and the sound of a mother’s cry haunted Nova’s soul. It was Solkara. Nova knew it in her bones, with whatever knowledge was being passed onto her.
For the children that burned in her name, pain festered along the lands for a long time. The rain returned but it could not wash away the sorrow of hundreds of mothers. Solkara’s pain manifested the first of the Ancients.
From the earth mothers’ sorrow drew upwards into long black shadows of grieving women who sought vengeance. The Cihuateteo were created.
Nova’s hands covered her mouth as the ancient was let loose on the land, sweeping along the jungles, to the tribes in search of new victims. Sometimes the men were guilty, other times innocent, but the ancient could not be stopped.
"Why have none of them shifted?" Nova asked, her voice nothing more than a breath, a whisper in the wind.
Blood for blood. The Cihuateteo could not be stopped, until the first guardian was selected. The ancient was pushed back to a secluded spot. Nobody dared go near it. Lives were still frequently lost, with the lack of knowledge this Yiska held, he could not keep them under complete control.
Years passed, and the bloodshed reduced, but the Gods were more wary of those on the island. Solkara weaved their destinies, and in an act of worship, they’d killed their own.
The mortals still did not learn. They did not follow any rules nor were they taught them. The next Kairan to cry out was Aqualeth, the whispering deep, of waterfalls and sacred pools, holding secrets and memories not their own.
Those who had ventured into the caves, past waterfalls, and gazed upon the pools, then began to abuse the nature that was Aqualeth. Many had become enchanted by the colourful waters and what the goddess would show them.
Her pools reflect not what is, but what one needs to see...
Nova watched as tribesman failed their gods again. They followed the ways of Akura, and sacrificed their blood, letting it drip into the waters, all to succeed in stealing memories not their own. If that did not work then they bathed in the pools, their wrists slit, blood seeping into them while their eyes were unfocused, pale and white with the reflection of either their own or others stories.
To touch memory without humility is to unleash the sea’s grief...
Their foolishness could not be stopped by Yiska, and so was born the Akhlut. It came to the shores in a rage the water goddess could not even summon.
Nova’s breath caught as she looked away from the bloodshed. The wolf beast at least five times her size dragged screaming villagers into the seas, where they drowned and bled before feeding the wolf that transformed into the dangerous mammal of the seas.
She could see what Tayun was trying to show her.
But why was it showing this to her and not Yoa? He was the guardian...
Before she could question even more, another scene played out before her, revealing why the Ichtaka was born. Tempakar was the god of storms, and his temper flared at the mortals constantly asking for more rain or sun from Solkara, trying to control the weather, even by prayer without sacrifice.
One tiny storm from Tempakar produced the Ichtaca that swallowed people whole and disappeared in shadows. Again, only the guardian could keep the creature at bay, but only after watching it, noting its weaknesses. There had been no manual book or knowledge passed down to fight this creature then.
There was a reason for each of the ancients, though, and it was clear they were there to stay, ready to react whenever the islands’ people started to corrupt the earth again.
Although there was one god that laughed in joy at the islands misfortune, and that was Akura, god of ambition and forbidden power. She would gladly burn the sky, for she was disliked by the other gods.
So, when opportunities presented themselves, willingly, Akura snatched at them. People became misguided. They assumed none of the Kairan loved them. That all the gods wanted to do was play with them by showering them with the riches of the earth and magic that flowed through the very dirt beneath their feet, to then have it taken away and create anarchy.
They did not see the fault in their past nor pass the knowledge down to their children, and instead, feeling forsaken by them, they turned to Akura. It was only a few that followed through with the sacrifices needed that would ultimately offer them power they sought.
Akura was seen as kind, always offering them power and so their greed grew and they sought more of it. They sacrificed animals, mortals of all ages. Her worshippers grew and formed a separate tribe, one that wanted to be stronger and faster than any other tribe on the island, to prove who they should have followed all along.
Akura, the goddess of celestial fire, divine judgement, ambition and forbidden power, had always been the outcast of the Kairan. It was known even among their mortals. The other gods dismissed her, and cast her aside as a twisted, power-hungry god.
But if she was so twisted, then how could she grant their children with everything that they wanted?
So, when their beloved children started to turn on them and seek her out, she laughed and offered them love and power, finally perceived as the great god she was.
The people wanted to move like mist, like blurred figures in the wind, faster than the eye could see and fly.
Akura’s magic was beyond anyone’s comprehension. She happily granted them all of these powers, and they became exactly what they wanted.
A powerful race. One unstoppable.
The first vampiras of Isla De Tayun.