Chapter 11:  Under the Mountain

When the siblings parted ways, Silnethren traveled north, for a great number of souls called to him from near the mountain Milmota. As he traveled on the road, stands of trees burned black stood on either side. He continued walking until, among the charred trees, Silnethren saw on the road two figures. One whom he recognized, Colthan and with him a woman. Colthan seemed strong and healthy as though he had not aged a day since last Sil saw him. But the women seemed tired, wearing the worn garb of a healer. Wrinkles had begun to creep across her face, and a deep, ragged cough haunted her.

 “Silnethren!” called Colthan, “It makes my heart glad to see you!”

 “Colthan!” replied a shocked Silnethren, “Why are you here? You did not come to the council of the heavens and no god has seen you since your brother in Irrkengrond. Where have you been all this time?”

“I’ve been… wait… There was a council of the gods?”

“Yes! We couldn’t find you! Aientas insisted that you knew something important about what happened in Irrkengrond! It did not matter in the end Milyos told us everything that you did. That you went to Irrkengrond to alleviate the suffering of the people there and that you did so with a mortal woman. Is that who you are travelling with?”

“I… Well yes, that is who I am traveling with,” responded Colthan, with a start, “Her name is Corradrin. Please, my love come, this is Lord Silnethren, God of the Dead. He keeps all mortal souls in his halls. My lord, this is Coraadrin.”

 Coraadrin stepped to Colthan’s side.

“I fear I have chased you away too many times, my lord, for medicine is my craft. I hope that you take pity on me. I am Coraadrin, a mere human woman.” Coraadrin’s voice was strained, and she coughed when she finished, though even in her weakened state her wit and humor was strong and determined.

“Well met, lady and fear not,” smiled Silnethren, “my business is not ushering mortals to their death, only shepherding their souls when they die. Come, night is soon upon us. Let us make camp for the night and I will tell you the details of the council of the gods around a fire, and you will tell me what you two have been doing around the earth.

As the three settled down for the evening, Coraadrin began to cough, spitting out a dark mucus.  

“I fear it will not be long till I will be the business of our lord, my love.”

Her smile cracked across her face, her eyes alive with good humor though the campfire revealed her sickly and hunched frame.  

“Rest love, rest,” comforted Colthan, “Sleep. You do not need to stay awake late into the night. I will tell you all the great and mysterious things that Silnethren says here.”

A weak, baleful chuckle came from Coraadrin, “very well, love.”

She cleared a spot for herself by the fire. Colthan took his traveling cloak, crouched down, and laid it over her. She leaned up and kissed him. They held their foreheads together for a moment before Colthan gently lowered her back to the ground.

“Sleep love,” said Colthan.

“You know she will die soon,” said Silnethren. He did not look at Colthan as he spoke. His eye remained fixed on the frail sleeping human laid out next to the fire.

The stillness of the night surrounded the two gods. Colthan, still crouched by Coraadrin, looked out into the night.

“I know, Lord of the Dead,” Colthan said. His eyes glazed over the fire. “I know Silnethren. She will die and you will shepherd her into your halls. And I will be forever torn because to see her in your domain, I will be away from the people she loved.”

The god of death’s face was solemn. His gaze remained fixed on Coraadrin, seeking out answers in her sleeping body.

“Who is she?” the pale wanderer asked Colthan.

“Who is she?” echoed Colthan, his voice empty, as if speaking to himself.

“Who is she?” repeated heaven’s host, his voice now tinged with anger and swelling in force, his eye tinged orange by the fire’s light “Who is she? She is the most selfless person I have ever met. She has given and given and given. She healed and treated the sick before I met her and if I were like a mortal and would die before her she would go on treating them. She is the kindest and most compassionate of us all, among gods or mortals. Even when she became sick she insisted that we continue traveling! Continue caring for the ill! Continue teaching others how to care for those who are sick.”

“I met her in Irrkengrond. My mother was helping her care for her mother in secret. Coraadrin’s mother had fallen ill with the dreaming fever, and she could only slow its progress. So when Myliayar heard her cries for help, she stepped down out of the heavens in secret, so as not to draw the ire of Aientas. I followed her and found my mother teaching Coraadrin. And I was moved to aid Coraadrin too… She was so passionate in her work and fervor. All she needed was a fuller picture of what was happening. So, I gave her what she needed out of the library of heaven. Once she had it…”

He had stood and come round the fire as his passion and grief swelled till he was face to face from Silnethren. Corraadrin stirred in her sleep and Colthan stepped back from the Lord of Death as he spoke, turning from him and sitting next to the sleeping Coraadrin.

“As soon as her mother was well, she began to work to care for everyone in the city who was ill. Her compassion moved me. I could not withhold more aid. Even when Milyos came to see what I was about, I accepted any judgment Aientas may have for me.”

“I grew to love her after that. When the fever was purged from Irrkengrond she insisted we take the cure to every town we could find. I suppose that’s why I missed the summons to the council of the gods… We were married about six months after we left Irrkengrond. And now we’ve been traveling together for nearly six years. She’s been sick for nearly all of the last year.”

He turned his head away from Silnethren, shaking it in grief and frustration.

Silnethren’s voice was flat, in the night, as he reached his left hand into his cloak.

“Do you believe that you could continue her work without her?”

“What?” breathed the host of heaven, confusion writ on his face as he searched for the meaning of the question in the fire. “What difference does it make? She will go to your halls will she not?”

“Yes, unless she finds somewhere else to rest.”

Now Silnethren withdrew from his cloak a small purple gem. A crystal, no larger than a humming bird’s egg and cut with eight even sides. He held it out in the palm of his hand and Colthan took it.

“This is from your halls…  Are you suggesting?”

“From time to time there are souls who are troublesome, and the winds that I drive them with are not enough. They are stubborn, too attached to what is here, or they are confused, refusing to follow any direction. Some are simply immobilized by the sheer immensity of the change they have undergone. Embodied one moment, ephemeral the next.

“If they are in a state to not be moved by my winds, I bind them to a smaller crystal, and carry them to my hall, before setting them loose in the great crystals there.” As he said this, he lifted his cloak and on his belt about his waist were set many stones cut like the one he had given Colthan.

“I will teach you how to guide her soul into the gem if you so desire on three conditions. First, you must speak with her about what I have told you, and she must agree to this fate. If at any time she decides that she will no longer reside in the gem with you, you must bring her to me. I will set her free amongst the dead. Second, you must not guide any other soul into the stone. It must be hers and hers alone. Finally, teach this secret to no one else. I give it to you only because your heart is true and good. Dire consequences should follow if I learn that someone other than you has learned my secrets.”

“I… I will speak to her as soon as she wakes. I could continue without her but my work alone would not be the same. Thank you. But why give me this? Why give away your secrets?”

“The council held by the gods was… unsettling to me. As you know, I have intervened on behalf of mortals twice before, once on my own and once with Myliayar and Aientas. At the council, I saw just how easy it is for any god to steer the fates of mortals. We have such power, and we choose if our power is held over them or used for them. When we wield our power over them, they suffer. Acretia is the first example of this, my sister believes your brother will be the second. I am afraid of what will happen to them if we are not for mortals. You are for them, I think, and Coraadrin certainly is. That is why I give you this.”

“Why do you say my brother is to be the second?”

“Ah. I should tell you what happened at the council. Forgive me.”

Silnethren sat cross legged by the fire, gesturing for Colthan to sit with him.

There by the fire, Silnethren explained what happened in the council of the gods. How his seat was given to Tilsitar the bellows women, and how Aientas wished that Colthan were there. Silnethren told also of how Colthan’s brother, Milyos, had taken the tools of Kilomond and that he had forged for himself a phial to hold his power within it; that Milyos then took this phial and gave it to the city of Irrkengrond in the hopes that they could use it as they saw fit. He also described how Tilsitar the bellows women was gravely upset by this use of her master’s tools Then he told how some of the gods believed Milyos when he said his motivations were pure, but that others, Kalikel chief among them, believed that he forged the phial for his own gain.

“But it was Milyos himself that put forth his ultimate fate,” spoke the god of death, “He asked the gods to vote on banishing him from the heavens. I did not vote to do so. Nor did Ikata or Kalikel, though, they both seemed to think that he wanted to be banished. It is because of them I fear that he will be the second example. It is not clear what his rule over the mortals in Irrkengrond will bring. He will give them power to protect themselves undoubtedly, but what else may come… I do not know.”

“So it would seem to you that he is alright? Unharmed?” inquired Colthan.

“Yes. He is fine. No punishment was given to him that he did not choose himself,” responded Silnethren, “Do you know why he would choose this thing for himself?”

“No… Well not with any certainty,” said the host of heaven, “I guess… perhaps he thought that by severing his ties with heaven, Aientas would be less interested in his comings and goings since they no longer have anything to do with the heavens. They have always been of Aientas’ first concern, and it seems he only called the council because Milyos first transgressed his dictates, and then used the tools of Kilomond. Mayhaps he would be more willing to let the first slide, if it were not paired with the latter. For surely he found out eventually of the aid I have been giving to mortals and he has taken no retribution against me.”

“Perhaps. He did seem concerned about the use of the tools and Tilsitar the bellows woman was gravely upset by their use,” replied Silnethren.

“It is strange that you mention the bellows woman… We were passed on the road no more than six days ago by a pair of fire spirits. They seemed to my eye to have been servants of Kilomond – perhaps they drove a furnace, though I don’t know, exactly,” Colthan said, staring into the fire. Coraadrin stirred in her sleep. Standing and moving over to her, Colthan continued, “We heard them coming. We stepped off the road because I could hear their fire and the anger in it. They were letting it run wild. I cast a spell to hide us and they passed us by but in the wild fire of their rage they spoke of the bellows women who had called them to the great mountain Milmota to serve their master once again. They said that the bellows woman declared herself their master; they said that none but Kilomond could claim such a title. It seemed that they meant to try to kill her. I would have asked them about what they meant but I feared for Coraadrin’s life. They went on the road past us and continued north.”

“I see…” The god of death turned away from the fire looking to north towards the direction of the mountain Milmota.

In the morning Colthan listened as Silnethren taught him the secrets of shepherding the fiery souls of mortals into the crystals of his halls both great and small. After passing his knowledge on, Silnethren traveled north, seeking to see what had become of the gathering of the servants of Kilomond.

As he traveled the earth became scorched and cracked, and every trace of water was driven from the land. As he followed the road and the path of fire, he came to a town, called Elshrara, burned and charred with fires smoldering. From the glowing embers, the voices of those who lived there called out to Silnethren. He gathered them to him on his winds so that he could listen to each of them in their time. They told him of the fire spirits who swept up wild and raging from the southward road. They burned the road and the fields. The townsfolk sought to put out the fires that ravaged their crops but, in the end, their efforts only enraged the bitter spirits. In their anger and bitterness, the spirits turned on the town, burning it all to the ground.

So Silnethren set all the souls of those who dwelt in Elshrara on a cold wind that took them to the frozen well of souls so that they may find some rest in the great violet halls of crystal, though some he placed in the small crystals on his belt for they clung to their homes and fields. Then he continued to the mountain Milmota.

He came upon the mountain from the south and all of the south face had been burned clean of its foliage, such that nothing green was left on that face of the mountain. But the black fingers left by fire did not reach all around the mountain. The forests that reached up to snowy heights remained on the slopes that looked east, west and north. Silnethren set up the south face, and it became clear that a great many spirits had gathered here. Climbing higher found a great hole bored into the side of the mountain, its mouth camouflaged in part by the angle at which it was dug and by the way its black mouth blended with the scorched earth around it.  From within this pit came a great cacophony of grinding and digging. So the god of death descended into the pit, hiding himself in the shadows, seeking to find the source of the great noise. Heat rose up from the depths as he made his way deeper into the mountain.  He descended through the passage until opened up into a great cavern filled with the sounds of many spirits moving great amounts of earth to expand the space. The passage had placed him on a high ledge that overlooked the industry of those who toiled beneath, and as he looked from spirit to spirit he saw only those who had served Kilomond in his mighty forge. Fire spirits drove great engines that clawed at the mountain, moving great masses of stone, while others shifted soil into great mounds that piled high on the side of the cave closest to Silnethren. But what was perhaps most concerning were those who watched over mortals who they forced to dig in the depths, held under the sway of the minds of Kilomond’s servants.

A commanding voice rang out above the clamor:

“Dig fellow servants! Dive down deep for the return of our master! Let us return him to his earth so that we might return to making mighty and heavenly works! Let us once more shape all that is to the vision of our master!”

Following the voice Silnethren saw Tilsitar come up from where the digging was most intense, as other forge workers took her place to continue their great project. She stood in the center of the cavern looking over all that was in motion about her. Then a great tremor shook the earth, and two hands of dirt rose from one of the mounds growing into a body made of earth that called out in a deep bass.

“Why are you doing this to the mountain!? You need not do this! You weaken its very foundation!”

“I have told you why I must do this, Gilsgard,” said Tilsitar turning to face the earth spirit, “And I have said that the spirits of the earth may help us hollow the mountain, or not interfere with our task.”

As she spoke she bent over and picked up a great hammer. She clasped it firmly in both hands, squaring her shoulders to Gilsgard.

“What shall it be, earth spirit?”

A great roar echoed from Gilsgard and he slammed both hands into the mound of earth he stood upon and a crevice grew from where his mighty hands struck the earth, snaking towards Tilsitar. Tilsitar lept to the side of the crevasse and then rushed Gilsgard, bringing the mighty forge hammer down where the spirit stood only moments before. Slipping behind the bellows women, Gilsgard slammed his fist into her back, sending her stumbling away.

As the scene below him turned to battle, Silnethern heard a strange squelching sound coming from the tunnel he had followed, as though heavy, thick footsteps approached from behind. Quickly, the lord of death leaped from the ledge down into the cavern, careful to land behind one of the many mounds of earth – for he still desired not to be found.

As he turned his attention back to the battle between Tilsitar and Gilsgard, he saw the earth spirit take the full force of the bellows women’s hammer across the jaw, his head exploding into a thousand tiny fragments. The earth spirit’s body crumpled to the ground, stones and clods of earth falling to the ground where he once stood. Scratches and bruises covered the bare arms and face of Tilsitar. A grim visage rested on her face. She stared down at the pile of earth that was once the earth spirit. The sounds of the work behind her had never ceased. She watched as the smallest pebbles in the pile began to stir and draw together.

“So this is how it will go? You will try to stop us and I will beat you back until the day our work is finished? You will crawl away into the dark and build a new body and come again? Very well.”

Gilsgard’s body had begun to form again and crawl away from Tilsitar up towards where the tunnel that Silnethren had come through opened.

As the earth spirit began to stand a new voice echoed through the chamber. It was wet and thick. It seemed to flow into the cavern like a great number of slugs crawling across a rock, squelching forth words like deep mud.

“Dooo you…” oozed this new speaker’s voice, thickly inhaling as it paused, before exhaling as it continued, “lack the means to kill him…” A sickly slopping noise filled the cavern as a great black mass poured itself into the cave, spilling off the ledge that Silnethren had crouched upon. “Or only the will, Tilsitar?”

“Hello, Thalachou. It is good to see after such a long time. I wasn’t aware the prodigy of Kilomond would come to my summons after you declared yourself a Dragodas. I see your new rule has left you looking worse for wear.” 

The black mass shuddered in disdain at Tilsitar’s comment. “You know as well as I do of the resilience of earth spirits. He has not impeded our work so I saw no reason to exert the great effort it would take to kill him. Crushing every last one of his pebbles.”

Upon seeing the great, black mass begin to pour itself into the chamber, Gilsgard began to struggle more fiercely to escape the cavern, calling to himself each stone of his being as quickly as he could, dragging his half formed body across the floor. Thalachou began to close on the earth spirit, making a horrifying sucking sound with every movement.

“It…” He said, the hideous sloshing noises echoing across the cavern,  “Takes less time…” He contracted himself with an unsettling vacuous sucking noise. “When you eat them whole…”

Thalachou paused for a moment upon completing his statement. Then with a frightening burst of speed the mass of sludge flung itself across the space onto Gilsgard’s incomplete body. The earth spirit screamed as the acrid pitch began to eat away at the earth spirit. As the roiling sludge began to drown out the screams of the earth spirit, Silnethren burst from where he was hiding, summoning a great wind to drive the Thalachou off of Gilsgard. The monster clung fiercely to him, not relinquishing his grip.

“Let him go!” called Silnethren, “I have watched long enough and though I do not know exactly what you are doing here I will not allow either of you to end this spirit!”

Thalachou redoubled his grasp on the spirit, belching out, “WHAT DO YOU WANT GOD OF DEATH? WHY DO YOU CARE IF I EAT THIS PITIFUL SPIRIT?”

“Did you forget that I built the earth with my sibling, one of whom is your master? All the world is in some way my concern! I helped make what would become his home!”

“I have no Master! I consume the mountain because I desire it!” roared the hideous sludge.

The winds in the cave intensified as Silnethren bared down his will against Thalachou and, in spite of Thalachou’s efforts to claim the earth spirit, Gilsgard slipped away, scrambling towards Silnethren. The black mass howled in rage.

Once Gilsgard reached Silnethren, the Lord of Death urged him into the passageway and the two dashed away out of the cavern.

Stumbling out of the cavern, Gilsgard completed reassembling his body as the sun beat down on the bare mountainside. He collapsed upon the ground breathing heavily. Silnethren followed shortly behind him, grey cloak bellowing.

“What was going on under this mountain?” gasped Silnethren, turning towards the earth spirit.

But Gilsgard was silent, his breath not returned to him. He lay on the ground, limbs splayed on the dirt, weeping. Silnethren bent down and lifted the spirit up under his arms and placed him over his shoulder. Not knowing if Thalachou, that awful consumer, would pursue him, he set out for the heavens carrying Gilsgard, seeking the council of Aientas and hoping that Gilsgard might find rest there. After these things came to pass, the mountain Milmota’s southern face was ever blackened and scorched. Nothing grew on it and wild things did not tread upon it.