I believe in you

A tale from the Chronicles of Sword

(A prequel to Sword)

By Manuel Sieunarine

Author’s note:

It is the oldest story of all, when a man and woman fall mutually in love. The circumstances, however, are rarely the same. This story honours that ageless union from which all stories begin, for love is felt most keenly in a universe where its deities have lost it.

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Here is scripture before the time of Mekor-u, written by the prophetess Fidelity.

In the beginning was The Two. It was good that They were together. All that is seen and unseen was crafted by Them using an art only known to creator gods. Their children filled the ten thousand planets of the galaxy, and looked with wonder at the mystery of The Two, the male descending from the sun by day, the female descending from the moon by night. Separately, They gave counsel and law to Their children, but together, They roamed the Endless Dark, touching each planet where Their seed lay.

For a time, it was good.

There was one planet, hidden in the outer spiral of the galaxy’s light, which The Two touched. However, this planet was not of Their making, nor were its living beings Their children. Marveling at a race that was not Their own, Sword willed subjugation, while Sheath willed understanding. The race, possessing a spirit outside of The Two, would not bow to Them. Angered by mortal insubordination, Sword lifted His hand against Them, but Sheath intervened, warning Sword that the race and the planet were not Theirs. Amazed and angry that His mate would honour mortals above Him, Sword raised His hand against Sheath, and She fled the galaxy.

Though She is not here, She waits, just beyond the rim where the planet that separated gods lies. She thinks oft upon Sword, her children, and those mortals that caused rending.

Alone with Their children, Sword determined to mete out His law so that none would defy Him. At the galactic core from whence stars were born, Sword built His Forge. There arose such a hammering that its tremor inspired dread among the ten thousand and one planets for millennia. Gathering the ten elements of Flesh, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Gravity, Darkness, Harmony, Serenity, and Spirit, He created ten swords in His image, each resonating with their unique element.

Emerging from the Forge, Sword found His children in turmoil at the long absence of their parents. He spoke, and His voice silenced a galaxy. Promising kinship to His divinity, He tempted them with the ten swords. Forgetting their common mother and Her teachings, the galaxy vied to possess ultimate power in bloody contests where innumerable children died. At last, ten rose victorious, and were transfigured by the Force of Sword as their hands touched the elemental blades. Angered by their loss, the galaxy knew war, brother against brother, and sister against sister. Disturbed by the ensuing chaos, Sword commanded His ten generals,

“Go, my Sword Masters, my Kajin-u. Enforce My law.”

The ten Kajin-u divided the galaxy amongst themselves, and thus were the ten sectors determined. Though the war was terrible, far more horrendous was the manner in which peace was wrought. Entire planets disappeared. Species genocide occurred. Astonished at the savagery of these ten young gods, the galaxy surrendered.

For a time, there was order.

Sword bent His formidable will upon the planet named Earth.

“If you will not obey Me, I will break you.”

Humanity was stubborn and persistent in their denial, but how much more committed is a vengeful god! After one million revolutions of Sol, humanity was broken upon the will of Sword. The Kajin-u, Serenity, settled upon Earth at His behest.

“Here you shall stay, and here you shall rule. All who come after you shall join with your motherly spirit, which shall mind these mortals even as a female once pitied them.”

Thus honouring the memory of Sheath, Serenity became a multi-being, layered with the many souls of female Kajin-u who rose to inherit the Earth. Throughout the ages, the nine other Kajin-u always held Serenity in high regard, and Darkness guards her jealously.

For a time, there was law.

Prophecy was a gift unheard of until The Two was reduced to He Who Forges. Male and female, these oracles spoke of the reunion of The Two, and did much to guide the spirituality of the galaxy while Sword forged. Only on Earth was there a variation of this constant foretelling. The prophets of Earth are considered heretics, as they speak not of Sword or Sheath, but The One to come.

“I bring not peace, but a sword.”

These are the watchwords of the Earth prophets. Most call it foolishness, but all remember that humans do not belong to Sword or Sheath. Prophets of The Two are mindful of prophets of The One, seers whose spirits are moved by a force beyond the gods.

Rebellion is the reason Kajin-u wield their swords, but few expected rebellion among the Kajin-u themselves. When the galaxy had known Total Law for but a short time, the Kajin-u of Fire and Water conspired to overthrow their brethren in arms. Much sorrow was wrought by they who brought fire and ice to the unresisting flesh of mortals. The suffering of innocents drew the attention of the eight other Kajin-u, who chose Spirit and Harmony as their champions.

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Here is the tale of Spirit and Harmony as told by one whose pseudonym is Observer. Writers and storytellers hold Observer in legend, as he or she has written stories spanning eons, yet no mortal’s lifespan is beyond a thousand years as decreed by Sword.

Author’s aside:

In this enlightened age one can see very far and travel anywhere in almost an instant. This was how I came to view the events that shook faith in the Kajin-u. Learning of the conflict involving four of the ten Masters, I employed Psycho-Void transport, that wondrous process whereby one end of space-time becomes bent and deposits the traveler on the other end of space. I landed on an uninhabited moon on the outer reaches of that solar system, as Kajin-u are notorious, and revered, for cosmic altercations.

Knowing that the Kajin-u would fight among themselves (what other outcome could there be, when gods dispute?) I was uncertain that my little moon, so remote that its star was a dot in the morning sky, would survive the battle. However, even at this distance, personal sight travels long, and the psychic potency of the Kajin-u, unrestrained, makes their thoughts and words apparent from one end of the galaxy to the next (especially Harmony, whose voice could lull dust motes to slumber on the plains of Effrygm while moving the gas giants of Herstathon!). I admit that curiosity overrode my personal safety. If I could make a record of this clash, that will resound throughout time, what is my own limited life in return?

Year 1,005,333 of Sword, as people reckon time since Sheath’s departure. The day and planetary time are unimportant, as no-one will bother to remember them.

A mixture of poetic triumph and sadness stirred my heart as I watched and heard this first generation of Kajin-u argue amongst themselves. Triumph, in that such events are their own prose, and sadness, that Sword’s first attempt at bringing peace to the galaxy had culminated in civil war. The Masters made no attempt to hide their thoughts, as this event concerned all life.

“What arrogance has moved our brother and sister to mutiny?” asked Flesh, calling to the others from his galactic sector with the ease a neighbour calls next door.

“They are possessed of great skill, perhaps too great,” noted Wind, whispery breath shushing the inter-space routes.

“I condemn their foolishness. With us, they brought order out of chaos, yet the chaos of their hearts is not stilled?” Earth pontificated. Serenity stretched forth her veil, covering the Terran solar system with her ineffable calm.

“They shall not move the planets under my charge,” she declared.

“Agreed,” boomed Gravity, “They must not be allowed to extend their reach beyond their own sectors!”

“They will suffer if they do,” hissed Darkness, “They will fall before my blades.”

“Before war is brought to us, let us bring war to them,” Harmony sang.

“They shall be overcome,” Spirit affirmed, “Those who cast out Sword shall be cast down.”

“Who will bear this burden of subduing our siblings?” Serenity queried. The galaxy held bated breath. I could not help but wonder what Water and Fire thought about this final judgment, but they were silent. It is one thing to be doomed, but doom without the hope of mercy is a frightening thing. Did Kajin-u, lords of the galaxy, know fear?

“This is not a test of whose element is greater. This is a test of whose will is stronger,” determined Wind, and all eyes turned towards Spirit, who bowed.

“I am honoured by my brethren, and so they gain honour.”

“What better to delight the spirit, than the sweet sound of victory?” suggested Serenity in surreptitious praise to Harmony, whose trill delighted the hearts of gods and mortals alike.

“Thus it is decided,” whispered Darkness, “May your swords be swift.”

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It was then I went to the place Fire and Water were; the fourth planet from the star ‘Aaen’. It was no great secret; all who had ears could hear the screams of torment these brash gods ripped from the throats of their people. With cold eye I observed their cruelty until the heroes arrived.

“What’s this? Competition?” laughed Fire, twirling her molten scimitar.

“Honourable combat?” shrilled Water, tracing the battered ground with liquid katana, “Who would have thought our own brothers and sisters to be this gullible?”

“It is not gullibility. It is the mercy of Sword,” Spirit frowned, “He watches you as surely as the stars shine. At any moment He could end your lives, but it is by His grace that we are your executioners.”

“His wrath caused Mother to flee,” Harmony sighed, “What are you in comparison?”

“Will you preach us to death?” snarled Fire, words crude and unshod next to Harmony’s chords, “Or will you join the struggle that began with Sword and Sheath, and is repeated today?”

“We have known naught but war,” Water howled, “Peace is maddening!”

“Then allow us to ease your burden of life,” Spirit drew his double-edged blade, “Not Sword, but we shall decide who dies today.”

This is true. When Kajin-u fight, the Force of Sword, the divine power that allows them to surpass all other foes, is negated, and only the skill of the Master remains. Skill, and the swords they hold. Harmony’s resembled a stringed instrument, hollow to allow sound to transmit and be magnified, yet flexible to allow a greater range of harmonics that concerts the cosmos. Only a god could have wrought Water’s blade: sharp, intact, while wholly of the element, and Fire’s flaming brand. Spirit’s double edge was deceptively simple in design, neither mystic nor strange, but this was to reveal a greater wisdom.

“Begin,” uttered Spirit, he and Harmony rushing to meet them.

The best recording device, one’s eyes, fails when comprehending the speed at which Masters move. It seems that one moment they are there, and suddenly they are elsewhere, with zero time intervals between. I was prepared for this (else this tale would be deplorably short), with a device over my inadequate eyes that slows down what it records. The battle lasted an hour, but it took me twelve days to watch it at a pace I could follow. The rest of this tale is what I saw, and is also available in most libraries with such seeing devices as mine.

For minutes in real time, they exchanged sword blows at such a furious rate that the air overheated an exploded, and this was not due to Fire’s presence. Tacitly they agreed to take their battle to space, as atmosphere has its limits in swordplay. Leaping through the ether, they nonetheless continued, blade biting blade until the stars surrounded them. In that brief quarrel I believe they went through all the motions possible with two-hand dueling, the art of one blade with two hands (or more, depending on species) at the hilt. From a distance one would view great flashes of light as the Kajin-u hit, withdrew, and renewed the attack.

Water switched his tactics. Dipping a hand into his blade, he pulled forth a second katana, making both shorter to accommodate the dual backhand stance known as Master Assassin Style for which Darkness is dreaded. It is also the technique that surmounts two-hand dueling. Aware of this, Spirit pulled his sword apart, yet both became larger and broader as he adopted the Dual Wield stance, the most chaotic of sword styles and the only known counter to Master Assassin Style. As each Kajin-u changed their swords, there was a distinct ringing tone, evoking the image of Sword hammering as He re-forged their blades.

“An impasse,” Water smirked, noting that Fire was employing the unorthodox Assassin Style while Harmony continued the use of traditional two-hand dueling, mixing fire and song. Wordless, Spirit proceeded, and such was Water’s skill that he defended his disadvantage, though unable to attack.

As the battle wore on and space clamoured with their rage, Water and Fire began use of their elements, he retreating to the watery second planet (the fourth now a smoking, frozen ruin) and she to Aaen, the star itself. Spirit and Harmony pursued their foes, their own strengths coming from within, not without.

“Sing and burn!”

As Fire flung the photosphere into space, Harmony hummed the song of cold. Each element has its unique sound. Though not all are audible, sound is within them all, for the universe was not created in silence. Louder through her sword, the cold notes chilled the solar flare to harmlessness, drifting past the second planet without incident.

Upon that planet, though, there was much incident. Oceans were rising against Spirit, continental breakers crashing about, making ripples from one end of the blue globe to the next. I pitied the life in those oceans, as they rose from the rocks where light could not reach to the clouds, and then falling again, in constant anxiety for their lives. Spirit surged through the waves as an ancient ship’s prow, leaving bursts of sea spray in his wake that formed rainbows in the distorted sun.

“Water!”

Every sword clash was met with retreat as the Kajin-u threw his element at Spirit to delay his inexorable progress. When Spirit’s swipes became too near a miss, Water swept his hands outward. The water gave way below them in a crater that exposed the crust of that planet. Clapping his palms, it all roared inward.

“You cannot withstand the weight of a planet’s oceans!”

Spirit chose the upward way, but when the seas met at the center, their only path remaining was also up. Smashed by the oceanic geyser into outer space, Spirit saw that the battle was turning in Fire’s favour. She had Aaen at her disposal, including the fifteen-million degree core which she now used to fling freak prominences at Harmony. Though space was cold with her song, the insistent interference created overwhelming noise. Any orchestra is ruined by a single instrument out of tune, and Fire was attacking without rhyme or reason. Her order troubled, Harmony fell back from the fiery assault.

“You are mute, Harmony!” she taunted, “Only I have mastered the melodies of flame, whose hymns warm the spheres!”

“Overweening pride casts down the mighty,” Harmony smiled, composing her sword to channel the sound of fire, crackling red.

“No!” was all the warning Spirit could give before Water, riding waves of ice into the black beyond, struck at him with the force of tundra. Spirit clove the wave down the middle, but Water flashed above, bringing the blade upon his opponent’s crown. White light shot from the wound as Spirit, plummeting to the planet’s surface, cried out in anguish.

“Fatal!” gloated Water, “Every stroke of a Kajin-u brings death. Not even our brother could survive!”

Her predicament brought fear and sorrow, and forgetfulness of Spirit’s warning. She continued building heat within her instrument, with battle’s cry, heart’s anger, lust’s burn and evil’s rage. These did not sit well with her purity, but she unleashed them upon Fire with sword strokes, and therein laid her ruin. Fire was mistress of all these amoral motives, being no stranger in her fallen state to the evils of the heart. She stunned Harmony with her own blast, forcing the good Kajin-u to face the horrors she had built up. Weak against the hideous invasion, Harmony fell.

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It would be well, dear reader, that the story end there. The six Kajin-u would have realized their error and rose as one to cast down the evil of Water and Fire, but alas, not all stories are that simple. Spirit and Harmony were ensnared by the victors, he at the frozen depth of the second planet’s ocean, she in the core of Aaen. Consciousness filtered through their minds slowly, as the moon rises to bring respite to fearful night.

“Cold…”

Spirit, stripped of his sword, was no longer immortal. He felt the biting cold of his prison through mortal flesh, dulling sense and numbing mind. His ears heard the wail of Harmony, though she was millions of miles above him. She, bereft of the Force of Sword, was kept alive by Fire’s will to suffer torment as no mortal could, singing and burning just as Fire had demanded earlier.

The galaxy waited.

“We were wrong,” admitted Wind.

“They must be destroyed now!” shouted Darkness, but Serenity checked his zeal.

“Have you no faith? Look, our brother is rising.”

Spirit stood, shivering.

“Sword… as you are alone, I am alone. We have only each other now. But I believe in you. I believe that you will not let more of my brothers and sisters… your children… die. I believe that the Kajin-u did not send Harmony and I to die.”

It is the common gesture of mortals to look up to the source of their strength, even though the ice cavern permitted no light or sound to penetrate. His eyes scanning the black ice, Spirit pleaded, “For the sake of the galaxy… believe in me.”

I heard a new sound. It rang, like the fall of hammer on fine metal, but the distortions were too complex, the sonorous quality too alive. It was not a new sword that the god was forging. It was a soul.

I do not know if it was Sword’s power manifest in reality, but Spirit became darkness for a moment, and naught but his silhouette remained. He lifted his hands to cover his bosom, and at the center, deep within his body – or his soul – there shone the infinitesimal image of… a sword.

Out of the depths cried a voice!

“FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE – EXTREME SPEED!”

The second planet erupted with such a cracking that the sphere split in two. Water had frozen it too solid, and now it was suffering the price of a sudden, extraordinarily violent shove from inside. The straightest line of light I have ever laid my eyes upon beamed from the broken planet and through Aaen the star. It was later explained to me the nature of this “forbidden technique”, so named because it gave the laws of physics a hefty kick in the face, thereby damaging the fabric of the universe as we know it. Extreme speed is so named because the Kajin-u surpasses the speed of light. Anything made of mere matter requires a warp field to achieve this, and a bit of room to accelerate, but Kajin-u can perform it from a dead start and decelerate just as instantly. Truly, it is the power of Sword. Using it, Spirit had freed himself and Harmony from their tombs, ending up somewhere outside the solar system.

Aaen was having some difficulty accepting that something had passed through it faster than its rays could catch it. Extreme speed breaks down whatever it touches on an energy level – not atomic, not even subatomic; reality is defied and energy is destroyed. Physicists debate that the Kajin-u absorbs the energy as he or she passes, but Aaen’s indigestion was spectacular nonetheless.

“It will nova!” Water said, horrified.

“No it will not!”

Yes, it will. And it did. Fire and Water were caught up in the blaze that necessitated my departure from the moon that was also swallowed up. Remember when I said that Kajin-u have the tendency to cause cosmic events? Water emerged from Psycho-Void, feeling Fire’s absence.

“She… stayed… against a supernova? The fool!” he despaired.

“You are too,” Spirit uttered gravely, holding his sword once more as Harmony held hers.

“I defeated you once. I will defeat you again!” he shrieked, not caring Harmony was present. She turned to Spirit, knowing full well he had saved her, and whispered, “I believe in you.”

Spirit’s sword of relatively simple design split apart with a pure clear light. The double edge moved away from the center. The grip rotated around his hand in two parts. The hilt orbited the middle. Hollow sword spinning on its own axis, Spirit dashed in a golden stream across the inky dark, and as Water’s liquidity moved in, Spirit’s sword closed around it. Water sword disappeared inside Spirit sword. The Kajin-u fought for control, but Spirit is so named because his will is stronger, thus he triumphed, cleaving the errant godling in half.

“I believe in you.”

Honoured were they, received among the host of Kajin-u with their swords, Harmonic Flame and Water Spirit. By Sword’s grace, they had acquired the elements of the fallen, and would be masters of two sectors instead of one each.

“Now we know, it is not power alone that Sword honours, but faith: faith in Him and each other. May we never be rent asunder again by such internal conflict. Let us believe in the galaxy. If the galaxy will not believe in us, let it believe in Sword, whose faith makes all things possible.”

The galaxy cheered Serenity’s wisdom. The next one to disturb this peace was Mekor-u, the one named Will Riser, and it is oft said that the reason he was able to triumph over Sword… was his belief in Sheath.

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