Naane laid in the arms of her lover for over an hour doing nothing but bawling her eyes out. "They took our son from us Nashi…our beloved child. They killed him without mercy", Naane cried out as she shed tears in his arms.
"I'm sorry I could not be there to keep you and our son safe", Nashi said as he shed a tear of his own. "No, don't apologize. I know you could not help it. It's all the fault of those god damn villagers. Even after everything you and the other spirits have done for this chiefdom, they still decide to stab you in the back", Naane said, rage building up in her heart.
"None of it matters now any way, the die has already been cast", Nashi said suddenly. "What do you mean my love?" Naane asked as she pushed back and looked Nashi in the eye. "Since our son's soul isn't fully human, he'll most likely join the route to reincarnation. I'll do everything possible to make sure his soul goes through successfully", Nashi informed Naane.
"So, are you saying that our child will be reborn once again?" she asked him, her eyes showing her anticipation. "The chances are very high but it will not happen in this generation…probably not in the next few millennia either", he responded to her. "It doesn't matter. As long as he gets to live the life that was stolen away from him this time, I'll be content. Please promise me that nothing will go wrong", she said to him and he nodded in response.
With the promise out of the way, Naane removed herself from his embrace and walked to the center of the cave. "Since my love and my child no longer exist here, there is no place for me here either. But before I leave, I must pay back all debts. Will you help me?" she asked Nashi who nodded and floated closer to her and stood before her as she knelt on the ground. She picked up the sharp rock once again and slit both her wrists this time.
With the blood flowing from her wrists onto her hands, she began drawing a large ancient ritual circle taught to her young self by Nashi when the spirits shielded the villagers from the effects of the war between the gods and the chaos beast. The ritual circle was meant to serve as a last-ditch effort to protect the humans, but the war ended before there was a need to use it. It could be used for mostly anything depending on the one casting it, and as long as there was ample supply of mana.
Since mana no longer existed on the planet, Nashi had to assist her. As she drew the ritual circle, Nashi poured a large amount of his spiritual power into it. As she drew the circle, she began to cast the ritual incantation. "Ancient spirits, here my call…with my blood I cast this curse…until the blood of my blood is reborn…may this land fall into an era of destitution and desolation".
With her last words spoken, the curse activated. The entire mountain glowed mildly as dark clouds hid the light of the full moon in the night sky. A shockwave of wind the likes of which had never been seen before shot out of the cavern, blowing across all five villages, even rousing them from their beds.
After the glow of the circle died down, Naane's pale body fell to the ground. Nashi knelt beside her and held her hand. "Your task is done now my love. It's time we left this mortal plane", Nashi informed her and she nodded with a smile. "Yes, let's go my love. I can't wait to spend the ages with you", she said finally as her last breath escaped her lungs.
Using his power as the great spirit of the air, as well as the power of the mixed blood still in her body, courtesy of their late new born child, Nashi extracted her soul and transformed her into a lower-level spirit. Her physical body dried up into a husk and turned to dust, blowing away with the wind.
Holding Naane firmly in his embrace, Nashi stretched his hand towards the curse seal. Their bodies glowed together as a power flowed from his outstretched hand into the curse seal. The seal glowed once more and disappeared. He then turned to the bark, reopened the gateway back to the spiritual realm and walked through it with his lover in tow.
With the advent of the curse upon the chiefdom, the villages experienced nothing but despair and desolation. There were mass genocides due to civil and inter village wars. There was never a moment of peace. To make matters worse, there were severe cases of drought which further caused animals, that served as prey for the hunters, to migrate far from the chiefdom.
Rebellions upon rebellions happened as Chiefs were impeached over and over, all for the goal of acquiring the limited resources in the hands of these leaders. Rage and hatred built up in the less fortunate and they joined together to once again repeat the cycle.
For the next few millennia, the curse remained strong, bringing down a chiefdom of close to a million strong down to a mere fifty families. The devastation of the once great chiefdom was laid bare for all to see. These families were surviving on the little they could scrounge up from the forest and the harvests from their poor attempt at farms.
In front of the tattered home of one of these families lay a pregnant woman who looked like she was about to burst. Her name was Ajarma and she was the only daughter in a family off six boys. At a young age of thirteen, her father had married her off to one of the few remaining foragers in their small village in exchange for more resources.
After two years of nightly abuse from her thirty-five-year-old husband, she finally conceived a child. With her young physique and limited resources, she had grown quite lean and sick looking but she cared for her unborn child all the same.
Judging by the size of her stomach, one could assume that she was in her final trimester and would soon give birth. However, she was in fact now in the latter stages of her second trimester. Basically, she was just six months pregnant. She was constantly in a lot of pain.
It didn't help much that members of their small village who passed by her inferred her pain to the supposed demon she was carrying. As they remember it, no pregnancy in the history of their village had ever manifested in such a way. How else could they describe the situation other than – she's having a demon baby.
She lived alone as her husband had just died a few weeks prior while out on an extended foraging trip. Her widow title only served to generate more untoward rumors. The death of one of the few foragers was a huge blow to the village. They had no other way to rationalize their loss than to accuse and deliver hate towards the innocent woman. She very well could not take it anymore.
Once the pain in her womb subsided, she steeled her will and, after packing a few things, left the village heading towards the mountain. No one had any intention of stopping her as they assumed this situation was the best solution to their problem, and besides, it was one less mouth to feed.
Ajarma trekked slowly up the path towards the mountain and arrived after a few hours. She found a pathway up the mountain and followed it carefully.
She soon came upon a deep cavern in the side of the mountain and entered it. It looked like no one had stepped in before but it was still roomy enough for a person or two to live sans comfort. She cleaned around the cavern as best as she could and found soft shrubbery and lay them on a large flat slab of rock at the corner of the cavern.
She then removed a large piece of cloth from her bag laid it on the shrubbery to serve as a barrier between it and her skin. She followed this up by finding dead leaves and twigs and lighting a fire to warm up the cold cavern. After getting the entire place set up, she laid on her improvised bed to rest.
For the next few days, she found several shrubs full of berries and nuts hidden in the cliffsides and behind rocks. With this miracle, she lived on a berry and roasted nut and insect diet that seemed to keep her healthy and hearty. She lay on her bed, rubbing her belly as she hummed a song to her baby. "I love you … I'll always love you my sweet child", she whispered with a smile as she kept humming the song as the night stretched on.