Elä’Ahrûna

For a moment I was speechless.

“Why?!” I blurted out when I got my voice back, closely followed by a disbelieving “How?!” from Reeza.

The daimon lady before us just smiled, a little bit uneasy it seemed to me.

“Forgive me, but the answer may take some time, for it reaches back, deep into the past.”

“We have time.” replied Lily unperturbed and crossed her arms.

“Well, some parts of my story could indicate that I am the villain in it, and for some parts I certainly was, so let me first assure, that I come in peace and mean no harm to any of you.”

Her deep, sweet voice, her posture, her face, all of it spoke nothing but the earnest truth. But I saw that Lily already started losing her patience.

“Al’Reeza, Illyára, I saw you recognized my name.” addressed the daimon lady our two magicians calmly. “Would you please share with Vilém and Lily your current state of knowledge?”

The addressees looked a little bit uncomfortable, but Reeza gathered her courage and started.

“The name Elä’Ahrûna is an ancient one. It’s the name of a legendary daimon heroine who supposedly lived about three thousand years ago. Without her, it is said, the world as we know it would have ended in a catastrophic cataclysm, nothing short of an apocalypse, and all sentient beings would’ve been wiped out. She is believed to have ended these dark times of catastrophes, famine, disease and war.”

The lady before us nodded, smiling lightly and turned her head towards the ælf.

“Yára?”

The girl shrugged and shook her head, unhappy.

“We also know the legends about the apocalypse that nearly destroyed the world. But in our lore it was a whole group of heroes who saved the world, and Elä’Ahrûna was just one of them. Don’t take it personally, but as the story goes, she killed the other heroes and then ruled as a cruel empress over most of the populated lands, until she was overthrown and killed by an uprising of her own people.”

Again the daimon lady nodded and smiled.

“But there is more, isn’t it?” she added, firmly looking Yára in the eyes.

“Yes,” said the ælven girl, her voice growing uneasy. “But I’m not sure if it is of any relevance. It seems impossible. During my studies in Æthyëra I stumbled upon an ancient stone relief, depicting a fierce battle. The central figure, a daimon warrior empress, had very similar features to you.”

The blue lady nodded and smiled a third time, although a bit sad this time.

“You are right.” she said with a deep sigh. “I am the Elä’Ahrûna from your stories, although at the same time not anymore. Many, many centuries have passed and I have changed too. But I will come to that. Please, answer me one last question: How did humans, oruc, dwarves and giants come into this world?”

“How is any of that relevant?” interrupted Lily, severely irritated by now. But the blue daimon simply raised her hand to silence the beastess.

“Be patient, Lily. Please. I promise to answer all relevant questions today. But for now, Reeza?”

The daimon girl nodded.

“Giants are the oldest and most primitive race.” she said. “Oruc evolved from giants, and dwarves and humans from oruc. That's common knowledge as far as I know.”

Elä'Ahrûna smiled again, like a teacher who has gotten an especially well prepared answer.

“Do you agree?” she asked the other two girls, who both nodded in agreement.

“Then may I ask, how is it possible that there are ancient skeletons found from daimon and ælves, dating back tens of thousands of years - alongside with their ancestors and precursors - but none from giants, dwarves, oruc and humans?”

We all fell silent. I of course couldn't answer that question, but the girls all looked, as if it never was of any relevance to them.

“They just perished or weren't found ‘till now. What are you getting at?” asked Lily.

“Well, today all goapes, monkeys and ramperts have two thumbs on their hands.”

Elä'Ahrûna held up her right hand to illustrate.

“But no similar one thumbed relative of giants, oruc, dwarves or humans has ever been found.”

The girls looked at each other, shrugging.

“They died out.” stated Lily simply.

“And how do you explain that no bone of any human, dwarf, oruc or giant ever found was older than three thousand years?”

Lily's gaze became pensive.

“How do you know that?” challenged Reeza the older daimon.

Elä’Ahrûna smiled sadly.

“Because I was there when humans first landed on the surface of Liyúra and brought their slaves with them.”

The girls looked reasonably shocked and I too had the feeling of losing the ground under my feet.

“They came from outer space?!”

I literally screamed these words and of course immediately all curious eyes landed on me.

“What do you mean by ‘outer space’?” asked Yára.

I saw the smile on Elä'Ahrûna's face and nodded towards her.

“Ask her, I think she knows.”

All questioning glances swung back to the blue skinned woman.

“I am aware that I am the only witness to all I am about to reveal, so I can’t expect you to believe everything that I am going to tell you. I can only ask for the benefit of the doubt, within reason of course.”

We all just looked at her and she deeply inhaled.

“Alright, here it comes: The human race developed and originated from Liýranda, not Liyúra. That is their initial homeworld.”

Stunned silence.

“And how did they come?” asked Lily dryly.

“They arrived in big round spheres.” Elä’Ahrûna answered. “As I said, I was there when they descended from the skies with a deafening roar, destroying everything around their landing site with huge flaming arcs coming from the bottom of their vehicles. I was there when my father first met with the newcomers in their bulky armour. I was there when we read their minds and learned what has happened to them and to their world: Why they came to us, to Liyúra, even if our world was not completely to their liking.”

“The gravitation must’ve been too high for them and the atmosphere too thick.” I suspected. “Here they weighed probably two to three times of what they were used on Liýranda. They came from a moon, I came from a planet with certainly higher gravity than theirs, and I struggled here.”

My comrades looked at me as if I was talking complete gibberish, but Elä’Ahrûna nodded affirmatively.

“Yes, that is right. At the very first beginning they could only move around in their bulky armour that somehow supported them and boosted their strength. And as I said, they had their slaves with them.”

“Let me guess.” interjected Lily, her tone still dry as desert sand. “Oruc, dwarves and giants.”

The daimon lady nodded.

“You are right. At least their ancestors. At that time the differences between these races weren’t as pronounced as they are now. They evolved over time and are still evolving. But still: the humans back then possessed a level of technology we have never reached - and frankly never needed. We always had magic, they had technology. And they used it to make themselves servants, slaves for lesser work. Or as they put it, they optimized the bodies of their own kin for specialized tasks: strong, aggressive warriors for war, big, massive simpletons for heavy labour, and small but stocky workers for mining and underground work.”

The girls stood paralyzed in shock, but I saw where this was going. Too much sounded similar, albeit not quite the same as what I knew from Earth. Therefore I listened on because I wanted to know the decisive differences between this world and mine.

“The elites have fled Liýranda. They had ruined it completely and their civilization was collapsing catastrophically.” Elä’Ahrûna continued. “Their numbers had grown vastly beyond what their homeworld was able to sustain, and they had plundered almost all of its natural resources. They had lived like locusts: multiplied exponentially, consumed beyond measure, and in the end died when they had nothing more to consume. Just a small fraction could escape their self-inflicted purge and landed here, on a world so much bigger and richer than they had ever known, or had ever been used to.”

She fell silent. Nobody said a word. It was a lot to take in!

“If they were really such …aberrations, then why did you allow them to stay?”

I had to ask this question!

The daimon lady smiled once more, but this time it was a truly sad smile.

“Their destructiveness and gluttony is, as you should know very well, just one side of their contradictory and complex nature. Humans are capable of acts of greatest selfishness, but also greatest selflessness. They can be cynical beyond all imagination and idealistic until self-immolation. I don't know of any other species being so materialistic and spiritual at the same time.”

I knew what she meant!

“The arrival of humans and their slaves stirred a great deal of unrest, unease, anxiety and concern among us daimon and ælves, as you can imagine.” she continued.

“We discussed the matter at great length and depth because we had to decide if we would offer the arrivals our guidance and tuition, or simply eradicate them to protect ourselves, our ways, our resources and our world. But it turned out that ælves and daimon alike felt greater resistance against eradication - the easier way - than the hardship of tutoring and teaching our sentient relatives the way of harmony and balance with nature and all its manifestations.”

She let out another sigh.

“Unfortunately the majority of humans fell back into their old ways and started exploiting the local resources like on Liýranda - despite all their good intentions and promises upon their arrival. The vast expanses and resources here on Liyúra sparked their greed again and turned their ears deaf and their hearts cold. Not only did they reject our offering of guidance and tutorship, they even started attacking us, viewing us and our culture as inferior, simplistic, even barbaric.”

“Let me guess: that must’ve sparked the great war and the dark ages our legends are speaking about.” said Reeza.

The blue skinned daimon nodded.

“Yes, you are right. There was WAR! Catastrophic, widespread and destructive beyond all what anyone could have ever imagined!”