“This much is true, it is the way of light for a mother to birth, tend, care for and watch life grow. It is however the way of darkness to kill, leech off of our glory days, and grow fat on the carcasses of our joy.
Do not be fooled. The earth is no mother. She is death. Let the moon and stars swallow her into the unending depths of darkness, that wretched ancient beast of dread.“
My most beloved father, Lord of the Stars. It is in great sadness that I come before you. My grief came upon me in the days following your greatest gift. Our children grew in beauty and laughter and so did our companionship. The fruits of Nore sustained us all and we enjoyed the gift of your everfire; the gift of life.
I suppose I should have wondered why all seemed glorious after my near slip at the start of all things. For you see, the earth had sought my life from me even then. Why I cannot say for the earth is my mother and your fellow commanding one.
When the earth failed to claim my life from me at the edge of stable things where land meets water, she returned to claim another. That ancient thief, that vile indigent of a mother set its gaze upon the flame of my life; upon my beloved Nore.
Father, she is dead. She is gone from me and it does not matter how much I call for her. She will not return.
So I curse the day that I broke apart from you and set foot upon the countenance that is the earth. Curse this great wood and the overwhelming sadness it has brought us. There is no greatness here apart from the malevolence of the earth and the sorrow your kin has brought upon me and my children.
In our joy, we did not see it. Death came upon us all as a stalker in the night. The night beast, of course, that ancient creature of darkness offered death cover. In the absence of light, the earth stabbed her.
The coils upon Nore’s crown immediately lost their moonlit sheen and her starlit eyes faded into a hazel din. When morning came and I beheld her, I assumed it was an effect of the birth and assured her it would relent. Father, how very wrong I was.
The earth it seemed had been feeding on Nore’s life force from the day of her waking. That leeching thief diminished the everfire you placed inside of her slowly until there was no more starlight left to sustain her. Then that devourer fed my flame to death.
The earth afflicted her. Nore crooned and bent over in pain. Her hair was blackened, stiff and dry and her skin wrinkled, cracked, and bled. It was not long before she breathed her last and alas would never speak again. Death had its way with her.
The ground swallowed her lifeless form and the trees fed on it. Their barks turned black and their leaves sprouted white as the hair that adorned her head. Now the earth wears my wife as an ornament. The thief taunts me in every tree I see with Nore’s beauty, yet deprives me of her.
Tell me you commanders and answer me you wretched ground. Have you raised us up that you should end us? Have you brought me here only to cause me great sorrow? If so I do not want to steward your great wood. I do not want any life that is without Nore.
You have touched the flame of my flame and snuffed out the light of my light. You wear her upon your blackened form like an ornament of achievement. Wretched beast! Foul monster! Thief!
Hear me now clearly and hear me well you harbinger of death. You shall not touch another as long as I have breath. I am the son of star, the prince of the constellations. His ever fire burns within my veins.
This much is true mother earth, you thief, you commander of death! I will avenge my beloved. I assure you, as light always overcomes darkness, I will surely have my revenge.
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