Aetheel & Oetheel

Aetheel & Oetheel

Before the domains were created the Borgokog Feyjiji writhed in her flesh-chains for four years. During this time the specters of the Desolation circled her, sometimes from afar, and sometimes close enough that she could see into their mouths. At these times Feyjiji rattled her chains and shrieked so shrilly that the specters retreated. Then Feyjiji would gnaw at her flesh-chains, and after four years she had gnawed through them, and the taste was so foul she spat blood on the rocky ground, and where she spat a forest grew, and her severed flesh-chains became the roots of great trees. And the specters dared not enter this place, which was the Thelethy Forest.

So Feyjiji was safe in Thelethy for some time before she saw anyone else. Then one day the Borgokog Sluk-Sluk found the forest and entered. And when Feyjiji saw him she was amazed, for she had thought him dead. Then Sluk-Sluk asked how she made this beautiful domain, but Feyjiji said only, “I spat and it grew.” And Sluk-Sluk became furious, for he too had made a domain, but his was barren. And he was so angry that he drank all the River Drapth and peed it out onto Get Grove, and then he left. 

Then Feyjiji looked at the wet grass of Get Grove and wished their reunion had been more fruitful. And then from the soiled ground grew a beautiful form of the forest, lovelier than the trees of the grove, with hair greener than the grass. And Feyjiji called her Aetheel. And she took her new natha up into the trees and raised her among the branches, so she would be safe from intruders.

One night Sluk-Sluk returned and said to Feyjiji, “It is well that you have only one natha. I have many, and they do nothing but fight and kill each other. Please tell me how you made Thelethy so peaceful a place.” But Feyjiji could not tell him, so he drank all of Lindle Lake and peed it out onto the tree Lembremb. And then he left in anger. And again Feyjiji wished their meeting had been more fruitful, and again from the wet ground there grew a natha, this one with brown hair. And Feyjiji called her Oetheel. 

Now when Aetheel saw she had a sister she was afraid. For she had heard Sluk-Sluk speak of his natha killing each other, and she feared Feyjiji meant to replace her. So she resolved to run away. But Feyjiji had warned her of the specters of the Desolation, so Aetheel decided to wait until Sluk-Sluk’s next visit, then secretly follow him to his domain so he could ward off the specters. In the meantime she hid in the femblegrass at the bottom of Lindle Lake, which Feyjiji had refilled. And she ate some of the gerfish who swam too near. 

After four days she saw someone with brown hair swimming down toward her, and she quailed at being discovered. But when Oetheel joined her in the femblegrass she was weeping. “I thought I had lost my sister,” said Oetheel. And green-haired Aetheel hugged her, and both were glad of the other’s company.  

“I fear Feyjiji will only keep one of us alive,” said Aetheel. “Therefore I shall leave when Sluk-Sluk next visits.” 

“Then I shall go with you,” said Oetheel. 

Yet it was not Sluk-Sluk who visited next, but Vaka, another Borgokog whom Feyjiji did not know. And Vaka had six legs and a great flexing neck, and her face was like a skull. And Aetheel learned from the way Vaka spoke that her domain Vorgoftonk was as beautiful as Vaka herself, and there the natha did not fight. 

So when Vaka left, Aetheel and Oetheel secretly followed her out of Thelethy and into the Desolation, keeping far enough away that Vaka did not notice them. And the specters dared not approach Vaka, so Aetheel and Oetheel were safe as long as they stayed within sight of the Borgokog. But the Desolation’s terrain was difficult for these forest-dwellers to traverse, and Vaka seemed to choose the most difficult path available at any opportunity, so that the natha must climb great trenches and cliffs. 

And when they came to the Spotted Plains where the ground was rent with deadly holes there was nowhere to hide from Vaka, so whenever the Borgokog looked back the natha must drop to the ground to avoid being seen. So they strayed farther and farther behind Vaka so she wouldn’t see them. 

Then brown-haired Oetheel became suddenly still, and as she stood looking into the distance she said, “I see the specters.” And at that moment Vaka turned to look back. And green-haired Aetheel saw Vaka turning, but Oetheel was looking at the specters. So Aetheel pushed Oetheel to the ground so Vaka would not see her. But Oetheel fell instead into a nearby hole which Aetheel had not noticed.

Then Vaka continued toward Vorgoftonk, and the specters drew closer to Aetheel. And Aetheel could climb trees, but she could not climb this rocky hole to save her sister. So as the specters approached she screamed at them, but they were not afraid. And they came so close that Aetheel could not suppress her terror, and she fled toward Vaka and left Oetheel broken in that hole. And she heard Oetheel’s miserable moans until those moans were strangled by the specters. 

Still Aetheel followed Vaka to the great grim gates of Vorgoftonk all alight with blue flame. But the gate closed behind Vaka. And guarding the gate was a little winged spantz whose name was Sprakit, and when Aetheel approached the gate it flew at her and pierced her shoulder with its beak. Then she tried to open the gate, but the spantz pierced her cheek. So Aetheel waited for the spantz’s next attack, and when it flew at her she caught it in both hands and crushed it, and she cried out as its broken bones pierced her palms. But Aetheel did not have time to pry its seven bones from her flesh.

Instead she entered Vorgoftonk and heard the morbid music played on instruments of bone and sinew and skin, and she also heard the most terrible wailing any natha had ever known, for Vaka was singing for her homecoming. And all the Vorgofs danced and bled to their ruler’s macabre melodies. 

But then there arose a new keening so awful that the Vorgofs all turned from Vaka and looked at Aetheel, for she was weeping. And such was her misery that the Vorgofs thought her wails even greater than Vaka’s. So Vaka was furious and demanded that Aetheel stop crying. 

“My sister has fallen in the Desolation,” said Aetheel. “Please help her.”

“She is beyond my help,” said Vaka. “By now the specters have already sucked her soul. So your tears are useless.”

But still Aetheel wailed. And then Vaka saw the bone fragments stuck in Aetheel’s palms and surmised that these were the source of her sorrow. So with her front legs Vaka pulled out the seven bones of the spantz, and Aetheel whimpered with each pull.

But even after this Aetheel kept weeping. So Vaka said, “If you continue to cry, devastating rains will bring a drowning death to innocents.” But still Aetheel wept, and in our mortal world a whole continent flooded.      

Then more Vorgofs emerged from their homes of bone and flesh to admire the grief of Aetheel, so Vaka sent her home on the flesh-carpet. 

When Feyjiji found Aetheel back in Thelethy she asked where Oetheel was. “Do not make me tell it,” said Aetheel. But Feyjiji demanded to know Oetheel’s whereabouts. So Aetheel told the tale with so many tears that sorrowful storms flooded our entire mortal world. 

Then Feyjiji said, “You were wrong to think I would replace you. Now through your folly you have lost a sister and I have lost a daughter. Never leave this forest again.”   

After that Aetheel trained herself to control her tears. But to prevent a mortal drought she need only think on her sister Oetheel and her tears will water our world.