Ar'Kendrithyst

Mercy was an elmen of contradiction. Where all the other elmen rushed forward, to burn or to freeze or to swallow in power, Mercy sought to end all fights before they began. With a touch of ens paw, or a swipe of ens claw, Health and Shield were ripped asunder, but nary a hair was hurt on those whom Mercy fought. All rejoiced at Mercy’s mercy. To leave foes defenseless, to demand peace before Blood had been spilled, en was the most steadfast of all the elmen. En would never hurt without cause, and when cause came, en broke defenses like they were nothing, and like always, the other side gave up when all their defenses were laid low.

In this way, Mercy built a kingdom on kindness, a republic on rational war.

Ens pursuit of bloodless war was unlike what most of life demanded on the Continent, but ens very nature had turned enemies to friends, and with those friends, en pushed back the Monsters.

Look now to another side of the land, where an elmen named Destruction kept ens land free of Total War by spilling the Blood of all. Man or Beast or Monster, it mattered not, for Destruction tore at flesh and bone, ripping and breaking, in a way totally unlike Mercy. En attacked through it all, hoping for lasting damage, assisting ens most vaunted companion, Blood.

In this way, Destruction built a sparse kingdom by killing, a republic based on rampaging war.

Ens pursuit of a Bloody War was easily accepted by life on the Continent, for Monsters gave no second chances, and no one knew of Mercy around these parts.

Except for one.

Blood was ancient. Beyond ancient. More ancient than the stars, but not as Ancient as The Six. En had planned wars before. Many, many wars. En was planning one right now. This would not be ens last, and it was far from ens first. En did all this to birth more of ens kind, to increase ens power. For en was always at war with that wonderful child of Light and Water; Healing.

Healing wished for no war. No fighting. But that was not the Continent. War was a constant on the Continent, and so Healing had a job to do. En fixed up the broken bones. En put the flesh back together. En restored the Blood in the Body. And most importantly, Healing restored Health. And thus en made more war for enself, for blood contained was not the blood Blood wanted.

Blood was a bit of a bastard, for Blood was Blood, but under Health and Shield, Blood was more blood than Blood.

And here is a secret: Mercy was born from Blood, twice removed from the Six and a step to the center, off the path. Mercy was an agent of Blood in all but action.

Here is another secret: Healing was sibling to Blood. Another side of the coin, another side of the sphere. They were both one step from the Six, and Healing made Blood’s life all that much harder.

Here is another secret: Healing loved Mercy, like an aunt loves a nephew, for ens job was never done; Monsters were dangerous enough that Total War was a true tragedy best avoided. Mercy brought Health and Shields low, yes, but en did not harm past that.

And yet Mercy and Blood fought.

And here is the final secret, that is not so secret at all: While Healing, Mercy, and Blood, were all related, Destruction was of something else. Something aligned with the Darkness, because, as ens core, Destruction wanted to tear it all apart. War. Total War. Monsters. Kill them all and let the Gods sort them out. That was Destruction’s only way of life.

Theirs is the Story of the Continent, but it is only a small part of the Greater Whole.

- - - -

Erick left ‘Esoteric Elements’ open on his lap, and sat back in his chair. He looked around. Ophiel twittered on the perch nearby, happy to sing to himself in violins and harp sounds, while Kiri read her own books on the other side of the library. He turned back to his own book.

‘Esoteric Elements’ was mainly a book of multi-part stories each crafted to impart an impression on what each Element did, and how they were related to all the other Elements in their core story, and later on, how those multi-part stories each interacted with other multi-part stories that involved other ‘elmen’. The multi-parter Erick was reading now, was mainly about Mercy, Blood, Healing, and Destruction. Flipping ahead a bit, the next section was about River, Ash, Tree, and Rain, and had almost nothing to do with Mercy’s story. Mercy, by its part, had almost nothing to do with the previous section. But there was a common thread among them all.

The Six were always in the background, giving out boons to their close ‘elmen’ and disadvantages to the ‘elmens’ of the other Six, but Stone, Fire, Water, Air, Light, and Shadow, never took center stage. ‘Esoteric Elements’ was a story book of the children of the Six, aimed at children. This was a book that parents could read to their own youngsters, and when those children were older, and Matriculated, they could read the whole of the book, themselves.

The child parts were juvenile, for sure. A basic overview, at best. But still helpful for a multitude of reasons. The stories gave the reader a decent grasp of what the Elements were supposed to do.

But the true worth of the book was revealed in the other half of the text. At least half of the book, maybe slightly more, was written in Ancient Script, in footnotes to the sides of the text, crafted into the ink paintings, and with longer descriptions after each story, explaining, in detail, what the Elements were. Almost more importantly, were the spells that came after the stories. One example was always an [Elemental Bolt]. The other was always a [Ward] defense. These spells, when crafted correctly, would even have the Pure spell tag in their titles.

Erick could easily see how Esoteric Elements would keep a child’s imagination stoked for their entire life. From stories told when young, to well into adulthood when they implemented these spells on their own, and then past that, when those adults then had children of their own, and they passed this tome down to their own children. Some of the stories were actually good.

… Jane would have loved a book like this growing up. She would probably love to read it right now, too.

Jane was currently out with the Army, doing whatever it was she was doing. Talking to Killzone, most likely. She’d be back for dinner, and so Erick was going to make a good dinner. He did not expect Jane in the house until then.

He turned back to the book, and turned the page. Written in scratchy Ancient Script, Blood was described as the pointed lifeforce of a person turned into damage, or defense.