Chapter 2: It Begins
"He calls himself the Compassionate One," said Lord Morganstern. His clothes were all wet from the rainstorm he had just walked through. The sound of thunder could be heard outside.
Morganstern had pledged his loyalty to the new Emperor, as the other lordlings had. To do otherwise would have invited instant death, at the hands of that freakishly strong white woman with four Wisdoms. Obviously her mutations--in skin color, and number of Wisdoms--was clearly Anber's work. Such things were always Anber's doing. Whenever Anber had access to the Womb of the World, he created monstrosities such as these. Bemos, the candelabra of Greatness, would create strong and healthy men, and kind and compassionate women, all in the Womb of the World, but Anber would create nothing but monsters and freaks.
No doubt Anber had a hand in creating Cunha as well. Rogan and Tara had kept him well hidden from the rest of the family, and for good reason, if half the things Morganstern had heard about the man was true. Morganstern didn't quite know the real reason Cunha was sent over the Unending Sea, but with the sudden and unexplained death of his parents, it wasn't hard to guess why.
Morganstern slapped Atarz on the side of the head. "Haven't you been listening? He's called the Compassionate One."
Humbar Atarz was one of the most renown scholars in all of Aridor. His specialty was history. He studied old dusty books written in now incomprehensible languages. Normally, there wasn't much demand for his skills, except on History Reading Days. But now there was a great demand.
"Yes, yes, I heard you," Atarz said, rubbing his sore head as he turned the pages of an old tome. "Compassionate One. The Compassionate One. I'm sure I've heard that name before...."
The house creaked and groaned under the winds of the fierce rainstorm outside. The sounds of the downpour filled the air.
Atarz turned a page of his tome. "No. Oh no. Not him."
Morganstern looked at the page. It was written in a language he didn't know. But the page had an illustration. A drawing of a giant man with short dark curly hair and blazing eyes. A giant man with candelabras all over his chest. "Can this be...."
"Yes," said Atarz. "The Compassionate One. I remember now." He looked up at Atarz. "The Compassionate One is Sauda Hommed."
A flash of lightning nearby made them all blink, and a second later there was a strong roar of thunder which chilled their bones.
"Sauda Hommed?" said Morganstern, his jaw dropping. "But... Sauda Hommed is just a myth. A fairy tale to frighten small children.
"Sauda Hommed is no myth," said Atarz firmly. "He was responsible for the deaths of thousands. Massive wars were fought to push him out into the void."
"What does he want?" Morganstern asked.
Atarz gave a bitter laugh. "He wants everything. The Compassionate One, as he sometimes calls himself, delights in the pain and suffering of others. He does little on his own. He has others who are his senior Captains. Organizers, they are called," said Morganstern, and he was reading again now. "The most famous of them left their own marks throughout history: Sanjayata, Pedrogomz, Jamolaban, Hanan, Mahmood, Murshad, Hormuza... Alyssa Feinberg."
"I have never heard of any of them," said Morganstern.
"You wouldn't have," said Morganstern. "Great heroes pushed them out of our realm. They retreated to one of the lands which periodically connect to Aridor, though quite infrequently."
"In frequently?"
"Perhaps once in five hundred years. If even that."
"And so if Sauda Hommed is stranded in this other realm...."
"He may be looking for a new way to enter ours," said Morganstern.
"How could he do that if his land does not connect to ours?"
Atarz shrugged. "That is not known. But with the resources of the Empire at his disposal, he could accomplish almost anything he wanted."
Morganstern nodded slowly. "This new Emperor must be stopped."
"By whom?" Atarz asked. "You?"
"If necessary," said Morganstern.
********
Selvanna was not happy. She was never happy when that whore of a younger sister, Zaragoth, was sitting directly by the Emperor's side while she was forced to sit on the steps leading up to his Throne, almost like a commoner. But that distance neatly symbolized the strength of the two. Zaragoth had her tender hooks into Cunha now. Not her.
Where had she gone wrong?
Selvanna was always strong with the Powers of the Roots of the Earth. Ever since she started Making the Change, she felt a strong level of
ahmen
within her. It was only natural to learn the skills the Compassionate One offered her, and to become his willing tool to enable his return to the world. Zaragoth also had the Power. But her Power was weaker than Selvanna's, just as her Wisdoms were smaller. Still, in an act of sisterly love, Selvanna taught her some of the secrets which the Compassionate One had imparted on her, so she could assist Selvanna in her sacred duties.
The day she snared Cunha and helped him Make the Change, the
other
Change, the big one, was the happiest day of Selvanna's life. Sanjay had stressed how important it was to snare Cunha, that this was her reason for being, the reason the Compassionate One had persuaded Anber to squirt the Global Womb with the special hot wax needed to create Selvanna.
At first, everything was grand. Cunha loved her and even married her, in a ceremony which was joyously marked by the beheading of seven peasants. And then a year later she ballooned up and started baking the first of two meat pies for him, one of which would be Karibdis, and two years later, his younger brother Tripoli.
It was then, while she was engorged with the meat pie which would later morph into Tripoli, that Zaragoth struck.
Selvanna cast a blind eye towards her husband's wanderings, especially when she was heavily bloated with meat pie. It was quite understandable. Cunha was a man, men have candelabras, and candelabras have needs. Their hot wax is being continually generated by their wrinkled plums, and it leaks out of them if not properly used. Selvanna understood that and accepted Cunha's nocturnal missions as well as his nocturnal emissions.
But what she
couldn't
accept was finding out that Cunha wasn't simply being juiced by some whore in the village--Cunha was bangsticking her very own sister!
The first time Selvanna caught them at it, she tried to hide her shock. She was heavily engorged with meat pie, and came into the bedroom to find Cunha working his candelabra in and out of Zaragoth's Sacred Gorge.
"Cunha!" Selvanna cried, grabbing her belly.
"Oh, hi," said Cunha, still shamelessly working his shaft between Zaragoth's legs. Zaragoth looked up at Selvanna and winked.
Selvanna left the room. But afterwards, she calmly conversed with Zaragoth about it.
"How dare you!" she said, slapping Zaragoth in the face.
Zaragoth's eyes grew hard and she rubbed her reddened cheek in surprise. "What's wrong with you? What's the harm in a little fun? He does it with all the village sluts."
"But you aren't a village slut," said Selvanna, grabbing her arm.
"How kind of you to notice, sister," Zaragoth smirked, pulling her arm away.
"Listen to me. Listen very closely," said Selvanna. "You are never to touch Cunha again. Never. Do you understand me?"
"Perfectly," said Zaragoth, slinking away like a cat.
But it was too late. By the time Selvanna had caught them at it, Zaragoth had worked her claws too deeply into Cunha. She faced the indignity of giving birth to a child of a father who no longer loved her. Oh, Cunha mouthed the words. He even occasionally performed the ritual of reproduction. But he was all Zaragoth's now. Somehow that trollop had stolen him right out from underneath her!
Selvanna didn't understand it. She was stronger in the Power than Zaragoth, stronger by far. She had bigger Wisdoms than Zaragoth. Zaragoth even tried eating moon melons to make her Wise Ones grow bigger, but all they did was sag. What was it that Cunha saw in her?
