In a World without God

In the sky, there were no drifting clouds, flowing clusters of stars, sun, or moon. On the ground, there was not a single blade of grass or a single grain of sand. Between the empty sky and the bare earth, only a child sat alone—a girl with silver hair.

“You know, I’ve chosen my name. Will you call me Lutea from now on?”

The girl looked as though she were about to unwrap a beautiful gift.

“I want to call you Orma. Is that okay?”

The thing called Orma nodded. The girl smiled.

“From now on, we’re going to name everything. Our ‘father’ is called Uraeus. I should probably start by explaining what a father is. ‘Father’ is the name that represents a relationship between a parent and a child.”

Orma nodded, not knowing how to speak.

“I want to call our relationship ‘friendship’. What do you think?”

Orma walked over to Lutea. She wanted to hug her, but her arms were too short, so it turned into a gesture that imitated something like a hug instead.

Lutea stroked Orma’s head and smiled. She knew that Orma loved her, and Orma knew Lutea loved her, too.

It used to be like that. Even without words, everyone knew what was on each other’s minds. Everyone wanted each other to be happy, and that made everyone happy.

How had it come to this?

Because of Orma. Orma ruined it.

Orma made Lutea sad.

It needed to be restored: a world where Lutea could smile again.

***

“You go first.”

“Enri! Are you going to let Ed’s death be in vain?”

“I can’t… I can’t leave Ed like that.”

Enri turned on his heel. The children around him tried to stop him but to no avail. Enri was more skilled in Black Fang swordsmanship than the others, and none of them could catch him.

“I’m sorry.”

Enri ran toward the square. Methena stopped Marie, who tried to chase after him.

“Let go!”

“Marie! Have you forgotten what Ed said? We are to be fangs that tear through the lies!”

“What about Enri?”

Methena shook her head. Her dried tears glistened in the moonlight.

“Please, Marie. We all feel the same way, but… we have to go.”

Methena tugged on Marie’s hesitant hand. Marie resented Lutea. Questions she’d held back for decades, questions she never spoke, bubbled up in her chest.

Why do we have the things we love taken away from us? Why do our prayers go unheard? Why is the world so cruel? Why is our life like this?

It didn’t take long for Enri to reach the square. The people who had been slowly dispersing stopped when he appeared. The three members of the Le Fay family glanced towards him.

“Isn’t that Enri? What is he doing here?”

“Is he also a child of the witch?”

People worried Enri might be as strong as Ed and that he might have come to finish what Ed had started. Enri knew he had to put their fears to rest. He walked right up to Dersh and kneeled before him, tossing his blade to the side and resting his forehead on the ground.

“Descendants of heroes! Heirs of the blood of one whose name our filthy mouths dare not utter! We, the blood of the accursed Ygraine, have committed a sin that should never have been committed, and we cannot even ask for forgiveness. I beg your pardon with my life.”

On hearing this, Dumuzi stood up and hobbled over to where Enri remained kneeling. With what strength he had left, he deftly kicked Enri in the side of the head.

“Yes! Die! Die, you bastard! Because of you, I…”

Ashur grabbed Dumuzi and dragged him away.

“Dumuzi. The people are watching. Act like a man of the Le Fay family.”

Dersh narrowed his eyes at the sight of Enri on the floor. Why was he doing this?

“What do you want, boy? Answer me honestly!”

“As descendants of sinners, how dare we wish for anything? But it is shameless and sinful to seek help from someone else to bury that wretched corpse. I only wish to bury him with my own cursed hands. After throwing him into the pit, I, too, will end my life beside him.”

“That’s all you want?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Dersh remained suspicious. But really, that was all Enri wanted. He wanted to bury Ed’s body respectfully himself before anyone could have a chance to do something terrible to it.

But Dersh shook his head.

“No. Burying the body, committing suicide, neither is acceptable."

Enri’s eyes widened.

“The body will be hung in the center of the square for all who pass by to spit on. And you will go to the Festival of Saints. If you want to die, you will die with some honor at the festival.”

Enri rested his forehead on the floor, unable to look up. Tears fell from his eyes and pooled on the ground.

“But my Lord. Why…”

“Enough. If you can’t understand, then go away. I don’t want to have a look at you.”

Enri didn’t want a coffin made of fine wood, white flowers picked by the dozen to decorate the body, or a considerable honorarium that would take five men to pull. He just wanted to lay Ed in the dirt. Enri wanted to lay him in the dirt and clasp his hands gently in front of him. Why wasn’t he allowed to do even that?

“Lutea,” Enri whispered, his head still hanging to the ground. “Do you really exist?”

No one heard Enri’s pleas. They all continued to move around him as if he didn’t even exist.

Despair curled in Enri’s stomach, black and sticky as tar. It was sickening. He wanted to let it all go.

“What have you done!”

On hearing Dersh’s voice, Enri looked up.

“I asked you, what have you done!” Dersh shouted.

Enri looked around in confusion as a strange scent hit his nose. It was sweet as honeyed milk, cozy as sun-dried wool, and reminiscent of a mother’s embrace. People around the square stopped and began to sniff the air as they smelled it, too.

“What is that smell? Is it alcohol or honey?”

“What’s that over there?”

“What in the world?”

Grass was sprouting from the cracks in the stone floor across the square. Blades of grass unfolded, stems grew, leaves reached out, and flowers blossomed—flowers of never-seen-before shapes, including a deeply beautiful flower that glowed silver.

“Ashur! Slit the body’s throat, pierce its heart, cut off its limbs, and tear it to pieces. Now!” growled Dersh.

Ashur approached Ed’s body and called out in shock.

“What is this?!”

As Ashur stepped toward the body, a green plant tendril shot up his leg. He tore it off and tried to approach the body again, only to have another sprout up and wrap around his other foot.

“Dumuzi!”

“I can’t use magic! It’s as if every one of those flowers is preventing me.”

“You’re telling me we’re supposed to just let this happen?”

Dersh pawed at the ground with his right hand. He tried to grab for his spear, but vines wrapped around it and pulled it out of his reach. All three had been using some of their Magick to stem the blood and pain from their wounds, and now they were struggling to stay in control.

Enri rose to his feet. The vines didn’t hinder his steps. He hurriedly picked up his sword and moved to Ed’s side.

Ed’s body glowed bright, surrounded by pure white Magick. A white flower blossomed from his hollowed chest. It dropped its head, bore fruit, and scattered its seeds across Ed’s body.

People gathered in the square, trying to see where the scent came from. As more noticed what was happening across Ed’s body, they began to move towards it.

The white light spread throughout the square like a mist, reaching into the minds of everyone gathered close by. Together, they began to share a memory.

They just wanted everyone to have fun and get along.

Doesn’t Captain Bosha want to play with the children?

The heart is like a newborn chick.

They remembered what it used to be like, how everyone knew each other’s feelings without words. They could understand each other’s joy or sorrow as though it were their own.

How did they end up in a world where understanding others was considered a miracle?

“Edulis. Who the hell are you? Enri whispered. Just as Enri reached out a hand to touch Ed’s face, a miracle happened—a miracle of understanding.

It wasn’t like reading a book or listening to someone tell a story. The memory leaped into Enri’s mind, unhindered by doubt and preconceived notions.

“Captain… Bosha?”

At that moment, everyone in the square became Edulis, who falsely claimed to be Granadilla, and stood alone against the lies to save the children. They knew that Bosha had risked his life to defeat the witch’s incarnation.

And now they knew that Ed was, in fact, the reincarnation of Bosha.

Gradually, their firm sense of self and longstanding beliefs surged like a tide. Fragments of understanding became embedded like shards of glass in people’s hearts. Some sank to the floor and sobbed; others shouted that it couldn’t be true. But most of them just stood there and said nothing, for the truth was too heavy to bear.

“Do not be fooled by the witch’s spells and visions. They are all lies! We will deal with the remnants of the witch, and you will all return to your homes!” shouted Dersh.

The people stood motionless as if they hadn’t heard him. Tendrils and vines slowly wrapped around their feet and legs, preventing them from moving.

“What are you doing, Ashur? Pull that body apart!”

Dersh tried to turn to see where his brother was. He knew he was losing his power over the people, and he was panicking.

“What’s wrong? Did everyone forget how to walk? Look at me. This is how you do it.”

A new voice echoed through the square. There was a hint of Magick in it, and even though it wasn’t that loud, everyone seemed to hear it.

A young boy suddenly came into view, not much past puberty, and strode through the square towards Enri and Ed’s body.

“Are you all afraid? When it comes to the descendant of a witch, you get so excited to throw stones, but you’re afraid to fight for the great Lutea? To stand up to the lies that are so obvious now before you!”

The crowd watched the boy with concern. His eyes glowed red.

“If so, then you are all witches. Nothing but witches who would rather take the side of lies than truth and suppress the light of Lutea just to save your own necks!”

The boy’s voice grew harsh, like the cry of a wolf howling in the valley. The people flinched and shuddered at the sound of his voice.

“Shut up, Ishkur! What kind of child would dare to turn on his own father?!”

“Father? What nonsense.”

Ishkur’s shadow lengthened. It grew longer and darker, rose from the ground, and began to walk around on its own like a separate person.

The shadow approached Ashur, who was still trying to get closer to Ed’s body, even though Enri kneeled beside it, protecting it.

Ashur was said to be the second-best fighter in the Le Fay family after Kindatu, but he was in no shape to fight now. His left arm was severed, and his Magick was weak. What he could use was focused on his wound and managing his pain to keep himself from passing out. His entire body was almost covered in vines, but still, he fought forward.

“Why are you here, Ishkur!”

Ishkur observed Ashur, his wound, and his struggle to free himself from the vines that continued to wrap slowly around him every time he managed to remove one of them.

“Looks like you could have done better, uncle,” he laughed.

Ishkur turned toward Dersh and spoke in a low voice.

“Dersh. There’s something I learned from you. When an opportunity presents itself, don’t let go, even if it twists your fingers.”

Dersh glared at him.

“You ungrateful bastard!”

“Ungratfeul? Ha! All the men in this family are like this. What makes you so shameless?”

Ishkur gave Dersh a wink and then turned back to the crowd, raising his Magick-laden voice to address them once more.

“I, Ishkur, will rise against false authority! I will serve those who deserve to be served and defeat those who sail the ships of falsehood and hypocrisy! As the night recedes and the morning dawns, so shall the truth lighten the darkness! Bosha, the hero reborn as Edulis, is here. What will you do? Remain a cowardly crowd and continue your lives as worms?”

As Ishkur spoke to them, the crowd began to stir.