High War - Chapter 28.2

The crumbling mountain of books covers a vast area within the endless library. A rumble is heard as a book avalanche tumbles down one slope. The mountain’s top disappears among rings of floating bookcase clouds, while the rolling foothills of book pile hills stretch out for leagues.

A circle of chairs hangs within sight of the book mountain, suspended over the foothills. Teal looks around from her floating green chair. “What happened? Why are we here?”

Around the circle, there is silence. Zarah frowns at the endless library from her blue chair, then stares at the small child form of Rolf in the red chair beside her, who sighs and slumps to one side. Sitting together in a wide black chair, Sorrow and Joyous shake their heads.

A thin, translucent humanoid floats beside the two gray-skinned men. The incorporeal shadow’s head is an eyeball, and keeps turning from one person to the next, while the rest of its body seems to always shiver.

Between the shadow and Teal is another floating apparition. It looks like a large wolf with antlers, or a small stag with a canine muzzle. The smoke-like creature whines and sits back on its haunches in the air.

A few mewling cries come from behind Zarah. The half-human turns, as does Rolf. Joyous crawls over Sorrow and hops to Rolf’s chair to look as well.

Behind Zarah’s chair floats a basket of five slate-gray, squirming kittens. They waddle around, tumbling over their own feet and bumping into each other. A fluffy blue cat leaps out of the basket to the headrest of Zarah’s chair. A large black cat with a bright copper stripe down the back crouches behind the kittens, and growls when Joyous reaches out toward one.

“Oh, I get it.” Zarah faces forward in her chair again, and the blue cat curls against her neck. The half-human smirks and crosses one leg over the other. “So. Who are you?” She points a finger at the shadow floating across from her.

The shadow’s neck flaps open. “Please do not harm me. I was known as Fear.” It bows its eyeball-head at them. “I serve my dread lord as his eye.”

Everyone except for Sorrow leans away from the shadow. Zarah grimaces and holds up her palm toward it. “No more talking.” She looks around the circle. “I don’t know any dread lords. Anyone here do?”

Sorrow nods. “All Shades serve the Damned God, Miss Zarah. This man is a dead Shade.” He glances at the shadow, who bows its eyeball again. Sorrow blinks at the others. “It is an honor to be watched by a servant of the Damned God. Often it means one will soon die and go to serve him.”

Zarah raises an eyebrow. “That’s an honor? Right.” She turns and points to the canine creature. “And who or what are you?”

The smoke-like body of the creature shifts and coils about, but the creature only whines and hangs its head. Zarah’s eyes narrow, and she opens her mouth.

Rolf sits up with a start. “We may have a problem.” He turns to Teal, who is staring down at her void-black hand. The boy reaches his paper-white hand out toward her. “Miss Teal, focus. Remember what Miss Marta said. We must not all be here together. With four of us - ”

“That is not your cause for concern.” Marta enters the circle of chairs from behind him and crosses her arms. The lines in her face deepen when she frowns. “Only your minds are here. The First Dancer has elected to separate your minds and bodies for your first Dance, which means he is busy controlling them.”

The woman in the dark dress sighs, and taps her rainbow earrings. “Unfortunately, this is not the appropriate time for your first Dance. What could the First Dancer be thinking?” She sighs, and looks away. “But perhaps this too is as Whisper hoped would happen.”

Teal looks up from her hand and grunts. “When will we be leaving? I must go to my queen’s side and,” she blinks and looks down again. “And help. Find survivors.” She clenches her hand. “Destroy the Phoenix Army.”

“You are here until the Dance ends.” Marta shrugs. “The first Dance is the longest. All consecutive Dances are shorter, depending on how long it has been since your previous Dance. Do you understand your trouble now?”

Rolf shakes his head. “Miss Marta, why should it matter for us how long any future Dance lasts? And what exactly is a Dance? Does this have something to do with our Hearts?”

The woman in the dark dress nods. “This has everything to do with the pieces of Whisper’s Heart within you. We have time now to go over the prophecy. Will you all listen?”

Teal looks up from her hand. Rolf leans forward in his chair. Zarah pulls the blue cat into her lap and strokes it, frowning a little. Sorrow and Joyous nod. Marta clasps her hands together and closes her eyes.

“When this world was young, there were five gods. Two brother gods of life and death, and three sister gods of the past, the present, and the future. Their names are unimportant, save the goddess of the future, Whisper.”

“The five were quite busy with their world in those days. The gods of life and death codified and made physical the exercising of their power, and created special demi-planes from which they would govern. The goddess of the present made physical the world and all its forms of life, with advice from the goddess of the past. And the goddess of the future looked forward to every danger which would befall this world, and spoke many warning prophecies for the inhabitants. This is one of the prophecies Whisper left, known as the Dance of the Five.”

“Creatures known as demons will come to this world from another world. Their aim is simple, to consume everything and then move on. That is the way of their species. Whisper saw every way in which this event could play out, and none ended with this world’s survival. The war with the demons was as far as she could see, for after it the god’s people would be gone and the gods would die along with their world.”

“Whisper saw one chance for this world. Five would rise highest in the world’s defense. Their dancing upon the string of fate would do much for the world. Sometimes they even nearly succeeded in stopping the demons, especially when they were together. For this reason alone Whisper saw them fit to be granted additional power, and she guessed that this power must be that of herself. With her gone there could be no prophecies, another reason for which she could not see beyond that time.”

“And so, with every prophecy already spoken, Whisper split her essence into five parts. These became known as the Five Hearts of Whisper, and with their creation the goddess of the future was no more. Each part held gifts from the gods, and each part was to be given to one of the five. And that is what happened, more or less.”

“When the demons are nearly here, the Five will rise to defeat them. Their Dancing will be a dance of death, a dance for life, a dance to protect the past, present, and future of this world. The First Dancer will begin the Dance at the time of most need, and the other Dancers will join, no matter what worries or reservations they may have. Together they must Dance, and so the Hearts will bring them together.”

Marta opens her eyes and looks around the circle. “Those are the words of the prophecy. Because of it, when each of you was born you were given a piece of the Heart. In some cases the current gods used an envoy, for others they went themselves.” She bends at the waist and bows, her hair falling down over her face. “Your present selves are the result. Please use their gift to save this world.”

The others are still and silent. Rolf whispers, “Miss Marta, are ye are the goddess of the past?”

She stands straight and shakes her head with a soft smile. “No.”

The paper-white boy frowns and leans forward. “But that doesn’t make sense, ye know everything - ”

“I am the knowledge of the goddess of the past, Mar. Everything that has ever happened is recorded in this library, and her existence left a particularly strong impression. I am her memory, Marta.”

Teal frowns. “Then what is the Phoenix Army? What part do they play in this? Do they side with the demons?”

The woman in the dark dress shrugs. “In Whisper’s visions, at this age most of you are members of the Phoenix Army. You fight the demons as its leaders. I can only hope this turn of events has made you better able to stop the demons.”

Zarah sighs. “So these demons are evil? Reth seems alright to me.”

Marta shakes her head. “No more evil than an exploding star. They will consume everything and then move on. The demon war could result in the end of all life here, and many terrible things will happen in the process, but in the larger scheme the demons are merely fulfilling their purpose.”

Joyous glances at Sorrow, who blinks back at him. The lighter-skinned man bites his lip and turns to Marta. “Will this war be sad? I’ve had lots of fun since meeting my twin brother, but there were sad times too. I don’t like those.”

The woman in the dark dress smiles at the gray-skinned men. “That I do not know. Ninety-eight percent of wars are indeed very sad affairs for all involved. Casualty rates can be well above seventy-six percent even for the so-called winners, and of the survivors, over fifty percent often suffer irreversible emotional damage. But people fight while understanding these truths, hoping to be happy again after the war is done.”

“All nations know that war is inevitable.” Teal stares upward. “That is why armies are forged, and kept strong even in peacetime. It seems the armies of the world must unite for this cause.”

Rolf grimaces. “If they will even believe ye. It sounds as if when this demon army arrives it will be too late to stop them. If only there was some way to prepare the world for this invasion.”

“I got it!” Zarah grins around at the others. “We knock out Reth, bring him somewhere important, and tell everyone about the demon army making its way here. He’s all the proof we need.”

Sorrow shakes his head. “They will not believe he is a threat. Perhaps if he attacks the important place first with the beasts he gained. Though he would need many more to threaten a place of importance.”

Teal glares at the dark-gray man. “No, Sorrow. To allow such a thing to occur would be the worst crime.”

“Indeed.” The gray man stares back. “Father has taught me the difference between good acts and bad acts. But tell me if allowing one crime to prevent a much more terrible event is a bad thing. I have heard both ways.”

Those around the circle are silent for a moment. Teal looks away, Rolf stares at her, and Zarah smirks down at the blue cat in her lap. Joyous shakes his head and frowns at Sorrow, while the other man shrugs.

Marta disappears in a shimmer. Her voice continues, speaking from all around them. “Discuss these matters as you see fit. I will send you back to your bodies when the Dance is over. Until then, please be patient.”