"Are gods and zlos really real?" , Akan asked excitedly.
His grandma Martha was sitting in a chair beside his bed. This was their daily night time ritual. The eight year old Akan always looked forward to his grandma's stories.
After his mother, Lily, completed her daily chores she would go outside with her friends in the neighbourhood. The ladies would gather around, making a fire in the open ground. Sometimes they would put away some embers beside the fire for roasting potatoes. Then they would sit there on the ground surrounding the fire, talking and sharing their thoughts with their friends.
If they had potatoes they would peel away its outer covering and then taste it, while blowing softly to make it cool down.
That was the time when little Akan would grow sleepy and tug his grandma's hand , leading her to his room. He would make his grandma sit in the chair, then burrow in the covers. He would blink his dark hazel eyes innocently on Martha as he begged her again for yet another new story. Martha would melt and smile gently at her grandson, her eyes holding wisdom beyond her own old age. She would stroke his soft hair and humm in a low voice, as she is now doing.
"Grandma!"
"Ah! You scared me Akan. Don't shout. Your mother may hear and..." Martha teased , coming out of a trance.
"Then tell me! You aren't even listening!" , Akan whinned.
"Alright, alright. Gods, zlos. Got it. But my boy, why do you want to know about them?" , Martha asked.
To Akan it was her usual questions. She would ask thousands of questions before she even answered his one question. It annoyed Akan to no ends who was always impatient.
To Martha , this question was asked in the light of her old fear. Has the time come? But isn't it too soo ? He is only eight....
"I want to know because a pixie in the school died. That greeny pixie you know..." Akan waved his hands widely before continuing, "the one which lives in the trees beside my classroom. That one! She died and the teacher called some fatty man who did something with his glowing hands and whoosh!!!!" , Akan mimicked the motion of that man and said " The pixie disappeared into glitters which flew away. The whole groove they glittered the whole afternoon! Kian , my benchmate asked the fatty man how can he do that. That fatty man said " My God Neith gives me my power to send the dead back" Akan finishes.
The fatty man is a grim reaper who collects souls from the dead and takes them away to the Underworld realm which is the gateway to the realm zlos and demons. This gateway has ghosts and the creatures stuck between life and death. The grim reapers takes the soul there to be recycled from where other people took charge. What Akan doesn't know is that the teacher didn't call the grim reaper, but he appeared on his own.
Martha hummed. She asked yet again ,
"You have come across their names and tales in the village so many times. Why the curiosity now?"
Akan thrashed his legs wildy as he shouted ,"Grandma! Just tell me already!"
"Fine. Fine. Yes they are real. Thats why everyone believe in them or believe that they are real. This old hag doesn't know" , but she did. Martha is an fortune teller and a mage. As the matraich of the Wordspear clan, as the mother of the long gone royal fortune teller , if anyone knew the gods were real, sbe was one of them.
Seeing Martha wasn't going to continue Akan patient has run out.
" Grandma! My sweet grandma! please, please tell me more! I really really want to know", Akan blinked his long lashes at Martha and Martha's wall cracked. She knew someone had to tell him sooner or later. He would study it in his higher classes anyways. If Martha told him the tale, atleast she would be rest assured that he would know some form of honest truth rather than sugar coated, twisted history they taught at school.
" Alright, fine. Stop blinking your eyes that hard."
Immediately Akan grinned and watched in apprehension as Martha stood. She waved her hand a the ceiling of his room transformed. He watched, awestruck. The ceiling has been transformed into the illusion of space. Of thousands of stars and galaxies.
Martha hummed, this time loudly and in tune, as if she was going to start singing. She did. But not a folktale or a ballad or really any known song.
" Hmm..hmm...a lord ruled the universe..."
Martha snapped a finger and an illusion of Neith apperared in all his charm and allure.
"Neith, the life, the death, the supreme void!" ,
images after images appeared in front of little Akan's eyes. Of Neith giving life , of him giving death. Of him with dark shadows consuming him, making him, the void king.
" Neith, the King of Gods...all hail the supreme being"
, an image of Neith with all the monarchs of different realms and his own people kneeling before him.
"the gods rules high. All seeing. All judging. A species reigning peak"
"the zlos, the demons rules high. All watching. All countering. A species checking gods."
"Julian, the King of Zlos, the demons , the monsters, the evil beasts. All hail to the checking being"
" The Universe, the time, the void, the supreme being, checks all"
"Into the deep valley we go, sure you want to know?" Martha asked as she moved closer to pinch Akan's chin lightly, even as images flashed above, ever changing, in time with her words.
Akan nodded eagerly.
Martha smiled and turned and as she lifted her hands dramatically.
"So we go. Slip slip shadows. Where you go? To charm the mind of Neith ?"
"Drip drip tears, why you fall? From the eyes of God into the madness"
"The valley without an ending, still we go"
"All hail to the God losing his mind"
"Madness creeps , Madness creep"
"a lord used to rule the universe goes mad"
"why you ask, my flower? Who knows?"
"Resting in his chambers, the evil smiled"
"The God smiled back and blew away into the shadows"
"the ministers rush. Rush to take the fall"
"off they fell with the God."
"Claws which tears, tears away the fabric of universe"
"And so the balance ruptures"
"And so the realms fall"
"And so the God came, All hail"
"Save us, our lord, save while you fly away"
"And so the sealing happened, of the zlos , of the gods"
"And we were saved , At last all hail to our saviour ...."
The ceiling dimmed again after flashing the last scene of Neith sealing away Heavenly realm and Demonly realm so that his own madness doesn't spread to the rest.
Martha came back to sit in her chair.
Akan pouted ," I didn't understand a thing! You just made that up yourself didn't you!? Your poetry making skill sucks"
Martha chuckled, pink staining her cheeks as if embarrased, as she explained,
"The gods are the species which are at the top of the universe. Their king is called Neith. He rules over everyone, but he lives in the heavenly realm. There angels, nymphs and other gods along with many other creature who has taken shelter there. Zlos are the opposite of gods. It is believed that the univere created them to keep gods in check. Zlos are the advanced, higher form of Archdemons. They reside in Demonic realm ruled by Julian. They have same powers but zlo's powers come into being only when gods breaks rules or like in this case go mad. Otherwise they are just the peak of demon race. Some believe Neith grew power hungry so darkness entered his mind and he went mad. Zlos came into power and confronted Neith. As the balance of all realms is the reflection of the balance of Neith himself, when he went mad, his balance started affecting every realm. Their monarch panicked and demanded that Neith remake himself or do something about this. Therefore Neith sealed himself, thereby freezing or isolating his balance, and most of the Heveanly realm along with demonly realm, as zlos and demons will remain free without the gods, which was a risk he wasn't willing to take. This is how we are now. Away from our gods. Only unsealed gods and demons are free right now. Lord Neith left them becauuse someone was needed to maintain the natural order of things. Julian was given equal power as Neith that is of life and death, but that only manifests when things go wrong with gods. That happened six hundered years ago..."
Martha looked at Akan, coming out of her thoughts to find the little boy already asleep.
She patted his chest, finding the amulet still there under his shirt. Relieved she kissed his forehead and left the room.