Damnation and salvation!

An amused smile crossed the features of the ancient daimon as she crossed her arms.

“What is it, that is on your heart?”

And Yára told the story of her adventurer group, the wildlife crisis in Tóràbun, about their mission to find out what had caused this mass migration of monsters and animals, and mainly how much they were able to find out …and what not.

“And that is what I wanted to ask:” she concluded her report. “What has caused the sky dragons to multiply in such numbers so far in the north? And what - or who - has caused their aggressive behaviour against us? To be completely honest: the golden dragon said that somebody had influenced them and ‘clouded their judgement of specific beings’, to quote him directly. Do you know something about that?”

The elder daimon woman had listened patiently and not interrupted once. Now she sighed deeply, a rueful expression on her face.

“I will answer your questions, but you are not going to like it. Because the kingdom of Tóràbun is almost certainly doomed. There is no way it will survive the coming onslaught of all the beasts on their way to the south. Five years at most and it will lay in ruins, in most scenarios even earlier, in two to three years. For the wave that is coming is something incomprehensible and unstoppable.”

The finality of her statement was shocking, but I had a hard time believing it. A whole kingdom overrun solely by animals, beasts and monsters? Where possibly daikaijus (the japanese term for giant monsters like Godzilla) among them?

But Yára was already inquiring.

“Please tell us, what makes you so sure? Is there something that we overlooked? How can a nation that has the help and the aid from the adventurers guild and is home to many battle hardened mages become overrun by non sentient monsters? Even earth dragons can be stopped by magic.”

Elä’Ahrûna sadly shook her head.

“You are right - partially at least. But you have to take into account both the scale of the process and the topography.”

She raised one finger.

“First: the Ochåtoskean Mountains are an almost impassable barrier for most bigger animals, especially when they come in high numbers. There is only one gap where they can pass through: the Amandus Valley, well, Canyon to be more precise. And what lies directly before this narrow passage?”

Yára and Reeza nodded silently, but terror and dread reflected in their eyes.

“The kingdom of Tóràbun?”

It was kinda obvious, wasn’t it?

“Exactly,” answered the elder daimon and held up one more finger.

“Second: The pressure from the sky dragons on all the other animal and sentient life will soon reach its peak. The oruc tribes and giants are already moving south, together with all the other beasts and monsters roaming the lands. Currently they are stopped at the borders of Tóràbun, where their numbers are accumulating. But the situation has worsened since you went on your expedition. The city of Mouran has fallen for instance, trampled into oblivion by an earth dragon stampede.”

Renewed shock washed over Yára’s and Reeza’s faces.

“Mouran! Dear Yurá! How was that possible? A whole garrison was stationed there!”

Even Reeza had a hard time believing it.

“Yes, and the garrison was the final straw that made an already dire situation even worse. The soldiers launched a stupid attack on the gathering earth dragon herd, trying to disperse it. Instead the wounded, angered animals went into a full blown stampede and destroyed not only the garrison but the city too.”

“But earth dragons don’t gather in herds.” Yára couldn’t help but notice.

“Yes, absolutely right.” answered Elä’Ahrûna gravely. “The strained situation forced them into a habit they are not accustomed to. That increased the stress they were under even further. Everything worked together to create a perfect disaster.”

I wondered how she was so well informed, but I wasn’t sure if it was wise to ask, so I stayed silent.

“And earth dragons are not the only danger to the cultivated lands around Lake Amæa.” the daimon lady continued. “As I said, oruc tribes and giants are also migrating south, and they are - though stupid by human standards - much more cunning than the wild beasts accompanying them.”

“When we left Iyexis, one of the countermeasures was to guide stray monsters and tribes through safe corridors to the other side of the mountains.” said Yára. “One of the problems we ran into, though, was the Ancalean kingdom, whose lands the corridors have to pass.”

Elä’Ahrûna nodded.

“King Caharas doesn’t want that, right? He fears danger and destruction in his fertile lands. He thinks it is enough to just block the Amandean Valley to protect his land, his people and his wealth, the fool!”

“So the situation still hasn’t changed?”

The blue daimon shook her head.

“Unfortunately not. If this progresses as before, both kingdoms are doomed.”

I wanted to interject, but Yára was faster.

“As I said earlier: from what I understand, the mass reproduction of the sky dragons in the far north is responsible for this situation. Do you know what could or would have caused it?”

Again Elä’Ahrûna showed this remorseful face. But this time she visibly hesitated to answer.

“In the end it was me who was responsible for this.” she finally confessed, exhaling deeply. Reeza's eyes widened, but Yára’s eyes narrowed.

“It was me who created these oases, filling out the calderas in the northern volcanic highlands with warmth and prosperous life.” she elaborated further, looking ashamed and embarrassed.

“The first one I made just to create a little paradise as a safe haven for myself. At that time I had no idea how to explore different timelines and realities. So I didn't foresaw the further development when sky dragons started using my thriving oasis as a breeding ground. I simply loved it when they hatched their young, how they raised them, observing as they grew and prospered.

Several hundred years later I had mastered the technique of future prediction and saw what was likely to come, how the world was changing and evolving and what paths its cultures and races were choosing and turning to. The same technique also allowed me to observe things, events, even whole societies over vastly great distances. So despite never being in direct contact I could always follow the flow of events that shaped the path of evolution, here, but also on other worlds.”

Now I understood how she was able to know so precisely what was happening in other lands and also on Earth!

“I recognized early on what path the human societies were following again and created new oases for further breeding of the sky dragons, knowing fully well what the result would be.” she continued, her expression and tone turning even more miserable.

“But it was a slow process and the humans were quicker. More than four centuries ago the first working steam engine was invented south of the Midlansea, and that is where I turned fully villainess. Not only from the perspective of humans, I betrayed the values of my own race and even more so the sacred values of the ælves.”

Her gaze returned to us and for the first time I could see the very distinct colour of her slitted eyes: a deep red gold that tethered between molten metal and liquid lava. But her expression was one of pain and shame.

“It was me who created the so-called wildeath, this incurable disease that turns humans into beastfolk.” she revealed, her voice now flat and expressionless, the opposite of what I’d witnessed yesterday.

We all froze and I felt a familiar numbness creeping into my limbs and my mind. I just didn’t know what to think or what to feel. Only Lily’s bestial face appeared before my inner eye, knowing now her tragic fate and what she had to endure due to this ghastly illness. And here, before us stood the one person responsible for this, and for so many more similar or even more tragic fates! Lucky that Lily wasn’t here right now! I don’t know what she’d have done!

A deep groan broke free from Reeza’s chest.

“That is not possible! Tell me that is not true! It can’t be! An ancient, a greater daimon betraying our deepest, most sacred value: never change a living being for just your own benefit!”

“And yet she did it, regardless of all taboos, values, teachings or sacred bans.” said Yára in a cold, frozen voice I’ve never ever witnessed from her.

“Let me guess: you convinced yourself to still act in the best interest of all living beings? That all other races would benefit from the immense crisis in the human lands? That technological advancement of humans had to be stopped at all costs to allow the rest of the world to thrive? That the beast form would maybe even benefit the human race because it would bring it nearer towards nature? Was that it? Or was there even more?”

Yára’s voice grew in emotion and volume the longer she spoke until she was nearly screaming.

Elä’Ahrûna didn’t flinch, nor did her sad eyes waiver even once.

She just nodded.

“Yes. That and many more thoughts crossed my mind, justifying the horrible deed I was conducting. It wasn’t easy, but I successfully convinced myself that it had been the right choice. After all, the invention of the first steam engine perished and disappeared without a trace in the emerging chaos of the war torn, plague ridden lands. The number of humans went down, and with the beast folk emerged a new race that was deeply connected with nature and the ways of natural lifestyle.”

Reeza's face showed pain and inner turmoil, while Yára's face showed pure hatred and repulsion.

“You also set the dragons upon us, didn’t you?” she said with this cold, fierce determination that reminded me of her battle with the dragons.

“And you nearly succeeded. All of our group died! Dúran, Massim, Hêrœ, Tásh’hà, Falur, Xyenjáya and all the others! Their blood is on your and your hands only! And yet, of all things the one small detail you orchestrated and had meticulously planned, Vilko’s summoning, was the tipping point that saved just a few of our lives!”

Coldly she gazed at the mourning daimon lady that looked anything but a villainess right now.

“How does it feel to have of all possible outcomes overlooked just the one where your targets escape through your own precautionary measures - and almost caused your own demise? Not the outcome you’ve planned, right? That was, what motivated you to duplicate yourself into your old body, wasn’t it? You simply couldn’t let go of this world after three thousand years of planning, observing, plotting and mingling! Now tell us: what did you really summon Vilko here for? And don’t tell us again it was just that he could be himself! What were your real plans with him?”

Elä’Ahrûna’s face showed one more of her pained smiles.

“Even if you don’t believe me, I told the truth yesterday. I summoned him here as a maximally disruptive element for the current human societies.”

She now looked directly into my eyes.

“The one thing you have wondered about, Vilém, why of all currently eight billion people on Earth I have precisely chosen you, is simply because of your unique abilities and features that make you the possibly most disruptive person for the current technological progress here on Liyúra. It is of absolutely secondary importance if you choose to use this gift for society or against it. You are a force of nature without even knowing it, and that makes you right now the biggest asset for maintaining balance here on Liyúra.”

Reeza still remained silent and I was at a complete loss of words. Meanwhile Yára’s open hostility grew with every word the elder daimon'd said.

“Disgusting!” she snarled in a vicious hiss I never thought she’d be capable of.

“Disgusting! You are a disgrace to all living beings, even if you succeed in your goal! It is built entirely on a wrong premise: that purpose justifies the method! Puah! You dare to criticize humans and are no better than them yourself! You should have transcended entirely into godhood and left us behind where we’d be free from your vile clutches! There is no forgiving, no purging, no cleansing and no salvation for the likes of you!”

Reeza wanted to cry out, stop her companion from condemning the figure before us with such concentrated hatred, but was unable to do so. But her words sparked something in me and I opened my mouth for the first time in this whole conversation.

“Here you are wrong, Yára,” I said, “even if I agree with every other word you said before.”

All eyes turned in my direction.

“There is salvation for you, Elä’Ahrûna, despite all the villainous things you did and currently seem to regret or at least acknowledge as wrong. Because, you see, despite following the flow of events, as you put it, and exploring parallel timelines and realities, here and on other worlds, too long you have been just a bystander, a passive observer who never actually immersed herself in an active good deed! For nearly three millennia you just looked, but never really acted. 

Now, if salvation is really something that is important to you, you have to go out into the world and help righting your wrongdoings, play an active role in balancing the different powers of this world and help in guiding humans onto a path that isn’t (self-)destructive. Then your self-incarnation may have actually contributed to something beneficial! 

I know, that is the hard way, but as you said yesterday: when humans arrived on Liyúra, the combined council of ælves and daimon chose it all the same! It’s in your nature. But you, you have chosen for too long the easy path that you so casually criticized in us humans. Now you have to choose anew: Do you want to follow the easy path again, or do you choose the hard path that suits you so much better?”

She looked at me in utter bewilderment, mixed with amusement, amazement, and in the end even pride. Finally she cracked a smile that shone brightly through her mask of grief and said: “Very well! It seems I’ve chosen right! You are a disruptive personality, and not only to human societies! And for that you have my thanks! I will take my leave now and reflect on what you said and seek a path where I can help this world and its inhabitants again in the most beneficial way!”

She turned and already bent her knees to fly away when Reeza suddenly leaped forward and cried out: “Take me with you! Please! As your assistant and humble apprentice! I want to learn from you and help in any way possible!”