Dusk's Origin

Ka’lace sat on the rocky outcrop over looking the village. As he watched the sunset, he held the lily he had picked earlier that day. Ji’bana had come and left without him giving it to her as he had intended. Yet now the whiteness of the lily seemed to pale in comparison to the oath he just swore.

As children, Ka’lace and Ji’bana lived deep in the mountains of the Purba Empire. The Village of the Wind had for centuries served as part of the agricultural backbone of the lands ruled now by M’lana, the White Empress. They had grown up along with Ji’bana’s twin brother Ba'yu in relative peace and quiet.

The rumors of the strange horned creatures coming from the mists in the eastern swamps had reached even their remote village, and the Empress had sent her personal representative along with the armies. The creatures had started raiding trade routes and remote tribal lands over a decade ago, but now an entire region of the east had fallen under a cloud of darkness. Now village after village was being stripped of their abled bodied men to meet the threat.

Ka’lace had asked Ji’bana to come and see him the night before he and Ba'yu left for the war. He had meant to give her the lily and ask for her to wait for him, but he had not expected the fear and tears in her eyes at their leaving. She confessed her fear for Ka’lace losing his life, but he had seen that the fear for her twin ran even deeper still. When she had asked him to swear to watch over Ba'yu he had.

“I swear,” he had heard himself say, “ I swear by Sada, the mother of life, that he will not fall while I live.”

*****

The camp bustled with noise as the soldiers readied for the battle. Ka’lace wove in and out of the horses and soldiers heading to the front line, his medical corp uniform allowing him to pass by the various check points among the tents. The twin circles of black and white marked him as a trained member of the medical corp, and Ka’lace smiled as another set of guards let him pass. Just this morning he had received the field commission that allowed him to take off the simple braided cord from his shoulder that marked him as only an apprentice. He would go into this battle a full healer to aide his people.

Ka’lace entered the the tent underneath the banner of Sada, the great white dragon that legend says brought life to the land. Inside he joined the line of other healers waiting for their bags of supplies. As he waited he reflected back on the last year of his life.

Ba'yu had distinguished himself quickly in their training, moving like the storm wind that was his name sake. Bay’s had received a promotion a year earlier than any soldier in history giving him command of his own unit. Ka’lace had shown more skill with herbs and lore than with a sword, and had been shuffled into the medical corp as an apprentice. But now that Ka’lace had his full commission Ba'yu had already put in a request to have him assigned to his new unit as their combat medic.

On the morning of the greatest battle in the recent history of the Empire, Ka’lace now knew he could keep his promise to Ji’bana. He would be by Ba'yu’s side to keep him safe, and than they would both return home as heroes.

******

Ka’lace swung his short sword at the thing before him. His unit, with Ba'yu at the front, had followed the front line troops into battle ready to render aide as they aimed to push the creatures back. But instead of pushing forward, they had watched the line in front of them broken by a flurry of horns and claws.

Ka’lace watched as Bayu brought his two handed sword down across the neck of another creature. His best friend smiled before turning back to the creatures pouring across the battle field. Ka’lace knelt by one of their fallen comrades and checked for a pulse. Not finding any, he quickly stood and moved closer to Ba'yu.

The battle was clearly lost. Ka’lace watched as unit after unit turned and fled, the fear of many making them drop their weapons, only to be cut down with no way of defending themselves. Ba'yu shouted at his own men, and somehow managed to rally them and others nearby on a hilltop. They became a rock of resistance against an ocean of the enemy. Ba'yu than ordered them to make a fighting retreat, slowly moving towards a canyon on their home side of the battle field, the closest place that might allow them a defensible position.

Ka’lace realized how much hope he had lost when the feeling resurged in him as he recognized Ba'yu’s plan. The faith the Empire had shown in his friend was clearly warranted. Ka’lace turned back to the battle just in time to see the monstrosity rise over the retreating soldiers…

*****

Ka’lace’s vision swam and his ears rang as he woke up. He stared at a clouded sky as rain began to pour, the blank canvas of moving gray interspersed with images of large scythe-like claws cutting through soldiers like stalks of wheat. Ka’lace reached his hand up to his forehead to block the visions, but was stopped by the pain in his shoulder. He reached his left hand across his body and found the stump where his arm had been cleaved from his body.

He rolled on his side and stared across a field of blood. The path Ba'yu had been leading his doomed retreat over gave a view of the slaughter. Countless corpses of man and beast littered the landscape, but Ka’lace only had eyes for one. Just 20 feet away, Ba'yu’s lifeless eyes stared as if piercing his best friends soul. The lower half of the body had been severed cleanly as if with one swipe of a large razor sharp sword.

Ka’lace blinked to clear his vision and opened them to a woman standing over Taraka’s body. Her frame was thin and gaunt, her eyes sunken and hollow. Ji’bana’s hair, once a beautiful mane of silver blond curls now hung in limp strands of bone white as she raised her gaze to Ka’lace.

“Sada has come to me,” the words escaped Ji’bana’s lips in a horse whisper. “As I felt my brothers soul severed from this world, I cried out to her for revenge. She heard my words, just as she heard the oath you gave in her name.”  Thunder crashed behind her as the winds carried the words to Ka’lace’s ears.

“Since you still live, you will forever know the pain of all those who fall by your side.

You shall live longer than is meant for man, long enough to forget your name and your home.

You shall pass from this land and never return to it, yet even as the world forgets you, the memories of those who you allow to die will haunt you forever.”

Ka’lace opened his mouth to speak, but screamed as pain arched his back and shot out of the stump on his shoulder. He bent forward and stared at two hands,  one roughened and covered by sweat and blood. The other a pale pink like the flesh of a new born baby. Ka’lace’s eyes traveled up the arm to the dark almost black stain of ink on the upper arm. As he stared at the stylized lines of wind he again saw flashes of a giant beast emerge from a sea of horns and claws. The lines moved and merged into the screaming face of Ba’yu as his body was severed in half.

Ka’lace turned to the shadow that was Ji’bana, horror etched on his face. Her blank stare turned from him, and she disappeared as a streak of lightning like a long serpentine white dragon struck the ground where she was standing.

*****

The Purba Empire fell that day. The army of its people, from it’s nobles to it’s peasants, was slaughtered by a horde of creatures that continued to sweep across the land. As men and women were slaughtered, villages and cities burned to ash, one man slowly walked westward away from the carnage. As the sun set on the ancient people of the east, he marched downcast into the dusk to the unknown of the lands beyond.

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