Ossiria’s Darkest Day

Once upon a time, the boundaries between worlds were very thin.  Inter-dimensional travel was easy to accomplish with the knowledge or power—or both—to do so.

Five-thousand Earth years ago, Ossirians were one such traveling people.  Unlike some species, we did not wish to conquer the lands we discovered in the universe and had been lending a benevolent hand to younger races for centuries.  Earth was a personal favorite of mine and I visited often, leaving behind Protectors to help the humans that embraced me.

I returned home from my latest trip to find the palace silent as a tomb.  This wasn’t right.  People should be traveling in out discussing their daily lives.  There should be music.  Children running and playing in the village outside.  The scents of the rarely-closed kitchen.

Instead, I found blood and bodies everywhere.  Who could have done this?  Where was the army?  The guards?  My family?

Mama…Papa…

I ran through the halls to my parents’ chambers and found my twin brother standing over Mother and Father’s bodies, their blood dripping from his sword.

“Kalen, what have you done?”

Tremors ran through my body.  The display in front of me couldn’t be real.  It couldn’t.  Mother and Father were constant.  Always there.  Always had been.  But there was so much blood…and their heads…their heads were…

“Always late to the party, sister.”  He flicked blood off the sword and faced me.  A splatter of red hit the bed sheets.

“Why?”  Fury consuming me, I struck, binding him with unbreakable cords of my will.  My power was his opposite.  A counterpart.  If he was War, then I was Peace.

“Why? Why not? Father was weak, Kalana. We are gods, and yet he makes friends with mortals. Freely gives away our resources. I proposed a change of leadership. He didn’t agree.”

“There is nothing divine about our species, Kalen. We merely possess gifts some do not.”

“Tell me you don’t love the worship your little pets shower on you, dear sister. You can recite Father’s pretty lie all you wish, but you know how much power runs through our veins. Now is the time to use it. Release me.”

“And Mother? She deserved to lose her head to her youngest son, too?”

A shrug, much as he was able to move within the bonds of magic.  “Casualty of war.”

I vibrated with power fueled by rage.  “’Casualty’? 10,000 years and that’s all Mother was to you?”

He smirked, seeing the inner battle raging in my heart.  I wanted to kill him.  “You can’t do it, Kalana. You won’t take my head. You’re too soft. When was the last time you took up a blade? They call you the Goddess of Protection and Mercy, after all.”

I approached.  “You’re right, little brother. I can’t kill the only family member I have left. But you will be punished.”  I opened a pocket in space.  “Kalen, for crimes of murder and high treason, you are banished from Ossiria for all time.”

He laughed.  The man was truly mad.  “Can’t contain me forever, Kalana.”

I shoved him into that pocket of isolation, bound the doorway, and threw away the key.  No witnesses, no one to see the magic I’d done…no way out.  Since we were immortal barring beheading, he would live with the knowledge of losing all he craved for eternity.

Father probably would’ve sentenced him to death, but I couldn’t lose everyone in one day.  It was too much.  Kalen had been my twin for 10,000 years.  He’d already broken my heart, so should I lose a piece of my soul, too?

Maybe the age of immortals had come to an end and we should be gone.  Let the younger races grow and figure out life on their own.  Yes…  I had no desire to rule a dead kingdom.  I would put right this mess and leave Ossiria in capable hands.

Starting with burying my parents.  Left with their headless bodies, I collapsed, grief hitting for the first time in such a rush I thought my heart would explode.  I couldn’t breathe.  My beautiful, wise mother who never hurt a soul in her existence.  And Father…a more just emperor, Ossiria had never seen.  He was such a force of nature, tall, big, strong…gentle, and kind, with a laugh that echoed through these halls.  It was too quiet now.

So much blood.

Kalen killed everyone in his way.  Servants.  Cousins.  Brothers.  Sisters.  Had anyone fled and escaped?  I doubted they’d come back if they did.  The mortals called Kalen the God of War and he commanded the Valarakan army for centuries.  They were probably doing something horrible in his name this very minute.

When I could sob and wail no longer, a dried-out husk where tears and joy used to be, I went out to our people and told them what had occurred.  

Then the city mourned with me.

Next Chapter: index