The daughter of a usurped king, Herleva was a rare human in that she possessed a nearly perfect state of balance. Her nature, parted in the middle, was half light and half dark, but leaning ever slightly closer to the embrace of the whole.Like the madman and his ilk who had reduced their once-great city to ruins, she was capable of wielding unspeakable horror and destruction. However, she did not exercise that capacity. To save what can be saved and help those who can still be helped, she instead used to their best advantage all the weapons that were in her keeping, ones that were forged in light and darkness alike.
It was through the clearness of her vision and the steadfastness of her leaders.h.i.+p that her people and their land were s.n.a.t.c.hed from the brink of oblivion and became poised to someday become truly great again.
Ellanher"s coming was like a seal and benediction to a monumental feat she had already accomplished. To many, his presence was a sign that they were on the right; to some, that they needed to be watched closely, lest their use of the enemy"s weapons make them no better than what they had just defeated.
As for Herleva, she neither turned her G.o.d away nor welcomed him. She offered him grat.i.tude but not wors.h.i.+p, respect but not deference.
Meanwhile, Ellanher did not meddle in the mortals" affairs, except to allow them to form their own conclusions or, in a queen"s case, to make strategic use of his mysterious presence as she saw fit.
What the G.o.d had truly intended, only he and his mother knew, and whether or not Amalasuintha had foreseen what would happen if he followed her counsel, even Ellanher could not say. From a cordial indifference and a simple recognition of similar core natures, the mortal queen and the immortal G.o.d fell in love with each other.
They formed a union welcomed by all, and she was to have been his anchor, the one who would stop the pendulum"s swing.
But when their union bore fruit, a G.o.d"s love was not enough to spare Herleva from the realities of life and nature. She died in childbed, leaving not just her companion but her people bereft. She also left without a mother a son and a daughter.
When her spirit pa.s.sed through Ellanher"s keeping, the G.o.d had been tempted like never before to interfere with a mortal"s choice. Between proceeding to his father"s realm to be renewed and returning to the earth, Herleva had chosen the latter – she had done all that there was there for her to do and bore no more poison in her spirit. She had attained peace.
To Ellanher, her loss had the opposite effect. Far from the pendulum becoming still, its swing became a spiral. What he failed to achieve by way of careful balance, he thereafter sought by a mercurial drumbeat: now of light and order, now of dark and chaos.
With nothing but the might of a grieving G.o.d, he conquered lands and subdued communities, and he imposed his own nature upon them – a methodical disorder, a vulnerable strength, a perfect imperfection. Never again would he allow his people to sink to the depths of evil they were capable of, and neither would he allow them to aspire so high that failure would crush them and even achievement would ruin them.
Three communities of peoples, he spared. The children of the stars continued in their way of control while those of the earth kept to their way of strength.
The third he did not conquer was Herleva"s home and people. They had been united in their support of their beloved queen, and they"d been so as well when she found her happiness. Not only did they lose her, however, but the one she"d given her heart to had chosen to honor her memory by limiting humanity"s freedom, which she"d fought so hard to win back in full. Thus, her people had been united in turning their backs on Ellanher and parting ways with him in every sense.
That is, in every sense but one. Aware of what had been taken from them – and of so much else that their mortal minds were unprepared to know – Ellanher had left in their keeping his daughter, half-divine and entirely her mother"s child, that she may one day lead them in her place.
But though they accepted Herleva"s daughter, who was also beloved, their grief over their lost queen was never a.s.suaged. Even after the G.o.d-conqueror disappeared and his memory faded into oblivion, the land and people he shaped into his image continued to draw their undying enmity.
These were the affairs of mortals, fleeting yet weighted. Meanwhile, the earth continues to turn and revolve, rocks and b.a.l.l.s of gas continue to drift across an unfathomable expanse of empty s.p.a.ce, and the keepers of the earth and of the souls of creatures born to suffering, they go on.
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