Prologue: Part 1

There is no beginning. Time marched on long before us. Time will toll forth our names when we are born. Time will see us to our graves and will continue to march after our memory is gone. No, there is no beginning. Merely continuation. What is, was, and is to be. Amen.

-The Beginning, Book of Kala 1: 1-3

192 B.C.E.

Birthed by darkness, called by light, served til death. 

Part 1

Ellesef had felt the tremors. The earth that rumbled and shook Denmark. The cold wind and purple skies which beheld the end of the day now rattled with the force of an earthquake. 

She told herself not to be afraid. That full grown women were not to be frightened of such trivial matters. However, despite her self affirmations, the twelve year old girl, and the youngest of all her family, huddled under the large blanket her mother had sewn for her and watched the sun set through the windows of her family’s house. Hundreds of years they had lived in this very town and, through all of that, never once had nature dared to threaten them in such a violent manner. 

Ellesef looked nervously around the large house. She was alone. She knew this to be normal at this time of day. Her father’s silver smith shop remained open into the late hours of the night and her six brothers stayed with him. This was standard for most men in the village. However, most of the girls had their mothers to stay by their side. Ellesef was not so fortunate. It was times such as these that she found herself bitter. Bitter with the spirits of the dead, that which were called N’kune in the temples and in the whispers under people’s tongues. They had stolen her away whilst she had given birth to her last child: a small, sickly thing that couldn’t even walk until she was old enough to speak. Ellesef never wondered why, only if it was worth it, for her. 

Getting up to light a candle, she ignored the shaking. If she didn’t acknowledge it, the sensation would go away. This, of course, was never the case. Ignorance never once cured anything. 

Dipping the long wax candle into the fire, the house was jostled enough to loosen her grip. As the wax began to melt, it slipped from her fingers into the flames. Instinct took hold and she reached after it only to burn her entire hand on the embers.

Fear finally took hold as all sensibilities disappeared under the weight of distress. Throwing the blanket from her back, she tripped over her own feet as she ran for the door. Picking herself off the wood, Ellesef flung aside the door and made a run for the well which was a few houses down at the center of the town square. It was a sprint which she had competed in many times. Every day, to be exact. The only difference was that she usually went to retrieve water at noon, when the sun was at the center of the sky. Now that the sun had died and was replaced by the moon, the whole village seemed so much larger now. 

Taking a step down the street, the world rattled her footing but she held firm. No more falling.

Allowing her feet to carry her forward, she continued past houses down the cobbled street. As she reached toward where her mind believed the well to stand, she was met by yet another house. Coming to a stop, she turned around and around again in search of her target.

Not a moment later, the earth split and cracked near the house next to Ellesef. She recoiled at the noise of wooden beams and stone foundations crumbling and falling away as the house collapsed into a pile of rubble. 

Her mind overcome by the sounds of screaming, the rumbling, and the darkness which surrounded her, she bent down, curled into a ball, and wished for death to find her as fast as it took her mother. 

Shutting her eyes hard enough for tears to fall down her cheeks, there came a voice. A woman spoke straight into her mind in a calm and gentle cadence that drowned out any other noise.

“Come to me, my child.”

Heart suddenly, and inexplicably relieved of its previous distress, Ellesef slowly stood and regained her footing. In a near trance, she began to walk toward the voice. Yes, the voice had come from inside her own mind but she simply knew where to go. It was as if she had always known. Was it her mother? No, it was more familiar. Older. Safer. 

Wandering off the main road, plodding past the confines of the houses and the village itself, Ellesef stared straight ahead as she met the darkness and overcame its malice.