Linkedotter Creation Myth
IN THE BEGINNING, THE PEOPLE LIVED IN A GREEN WORLD.
They played and fought, won and lost, sang and cried, all around this colorful world. They had a deal with Sol and with Nyx. Sol would grow their trees, their plants. People could have these, sure, and so could all the other animals. Sol would grant them light, clarity, so the People could help the trees grow, the other animals to live.
Some said Sol gave us the fire, and some said we stole it from Sol. But we know now this was Nyx’s gift, that she had stolen from Sol. Nyx gave us fire to protect us from herself and from those creatures she armed. She said nothing as we praised Sol, who accepted the credit with stoicism.
Nyx would not encroach upon the People’s fire and her animal subjects did not either. The fire let the people play and cry and sing and fight outside the heavy gaze of Sol.
And Sol grew jealous.
First Sol sent envoys- lost to Nyx. Sol sent assassins- lost to Nyx. Sol sent Kings, Kaisers, Emperors- lost to Nyx.
And then Sol commissioned the Lighthouse. The men who most feared Nyx and her monsters did as Sol bid- they quarried marble, they bartered for Gold, they stole sapphires. But then when Sol bid them throw their fires into the Lighthouse, their fortitude broke. Under cover of Nyx, out of Sol’s gaze, they snuck from camp, to village, to town, and stole the fire from those poor souls closest to Nyx’s domain, and the Keepers put their stolen fire at the top of the Lighthouse.
Sol was displeased- this Fire was imperfect, would one day burn out, and so Sol demanded the Lighthouse be Kept. The Keepers told the People that Nyx had encroached upon their fires, and that only Sol’s Keepers could protect the People’s fire. They only must add their fire to the Lighthouse, and must remove no more than is necessary.
And so the Lighthouse grew, ever encroaching upon Nyx.
And so the Lighthouse grew, consuming ever more fires.
And so the Lighthouse grew, lifting the Keepers to the sky.
The Lighthouse grew so vast it blocked Sol from bringing up trees, but the Lighthouse would not grow trees itself. Its cold marble would shut out all creatures that were not Keepers, and none could climb it, not even the goat. The Lighthouse grew so tall and wide and hot that Nyx was nearly vanquished– until she took refuge in the hearts of the People, providing a new, dark fire where her first gift was meant to be. In a desperate play, Nyx granted the power the People begged for– and they felled the tower.
Sol’s Keepers had made it so high that they took the fire they had amassed and made the short jump over to Mars. But that glittering spire did not go so gently. As it fell it tried to take with it everything it had built, all it had maintained, and all that it couldn’t use as well. And it nearly succeeded, splashing the oceans up onto the land, drowning near everything but hope.
But Nyx convinced Sol to raise some trees, and she returned some animals, and, in the End, the People strove for a green world again.
The Implacable Guard of Dis
Her gaze will pierce right through me, forever, neither of us seeing the other as we gaze into each other’s dead stares. They would have put me back into the burning bulls if they weren’t going to figure out this hell will be so. Much. Worse. She’ll keep staring, long after this infernal city will decay around us, long after dark will render my blindness moot. I will see her face long past when the world will end. The light will fade, but I will see her, me, who sees nothing, will see her, forever…
Author Bio
Jeremy is an aspiring educator, a conflicted veteran, an escaped Kentuckian, and a feral child, listed in reverse chronology. His work aligns itself against the light and its encroachment upon the dark, whilst still attempting to explore the dark himself. He also takes himself just a bit too seriously and should probably calm down. Someday.