093 - The Witching Road

Kujata sunk down to the ground, her legs crossed and shoulders slooping. Each word carried a solemnity, an air of defeat; as if the days of ten thousand years past were not only very much alive, but weighing down on her.

"Earth. Insignificant, a world that for several thousands of years had no Celestials - forgotten about, abandoned, left to its own devices. Then . . then they came, those explorers - the brave and curious Earthlings, casting their strange metal vessels out into the void, piloting them towards distant stars."

Kujata paused for a moment, sighing deeply.

"What do you think they found? Well, I'll tell ya - they found the last thing they expected; humans! On all the planets they visited, on all the worlds - all were inhabited by the sons and daughters of man, all! They had not expected that - they believed that only Earth had humans and that humans had evolved on Earth."

"So . . did humans originally come from Earth?"

"Don't be daft, Magnus! 'Course they didn't! Humans don't originate from some backwater world like that! That is . . well . . these humans, these Earthlings were different, you see . . not like us. The people of Earth, without Celestials to guide them, to help them along their path in life, they developed . . strange ideas."

"You mean, without a Celestial to keep them in check."

"It really is . . . no. It isn't that, you're still young, you don't know Magnus." Kujata shook her head sadly. "Your totem hasn't developed yet, you don't know what it truly means to be a Celestial. We didn't used to be like this . . to be like, like, ah hells! To be so damn timid! To hide away in a stinking shrine, to be so damn afraid . . ah hells . ."

"We? How many Celestials are there now?"

"Yeah . . we . . ah hells, what the fuck am I beating around the bush for, eh? It's just you and me, Magnus. Just me and you. My disciples, my friends, all the Celestials - all of them - they are either gone for good or in the Alchemists bloody prison formation."

"Gone? You mean dead?"

"Not dead, no - just gone. Gone. As in, thrown into the event horizon of a black hole, defeated, destroyed - gone."

"Were the people of Earth so blood thirsty? They waged a war on all Celestials?"

"Oh . . no, not quite . . not at first. No - it wasn't like that at all . . you see, it didn't take all the humans of Earth to defeat us Celestials . . it only took twelve. Twelve men and women who came out into the stars with a message of peace. Twelve, against hundreds of Celestials, against hundreds of worlds . . only twelve."

"Twelve! Hells!" Magnus eyes went wide in shock. "Twelve men more powerful than Celestials?"

"I need to set the scene for you. When the Earthlings first came out into the greater universe they encountered all these other worlds full of humans just like them, living and thriving in just the same ways, and governed by us Celestials.

They came as curious optimists, naive explorers . . there were so few! We ignored them - thought nothing much of them - they were just humans . . humans who had travelled the vast distances between stars using science and logic and . . we were such bloody fools.

They landed on the planets in ones and twos and made themselves at home, made little difference at first. At first it was nothing . . but I remember . . even then they had the greatest distaste for Celestials. They did not view us as Gods, but as monsters."

"And?" Magnus squatted down on the ground in front of Kujata.

"And what?" Kujata's eyes flared. "I am not a monster! You . . you! Celestials are not monsters! We do not just devour mindlessly! Listen, you bloody minded fool! Celestials, just like humans, have their place in the Universe - we are part of the Natural Order, an integral part of the Logos, of the Above and Below! Our totems are the heavens, an immortal paradise - those who give themselves to us live forever within us. This was the next lesson . . I was waiting to tell you . . our place in the order of thing, it is only right, only proper that . . ah fuck it. Magnus, just listen to me, right? I don't want to excuse who I am or justify my bloody existence to you. You've seen a Dreamer, ain't you? That golden light, it is just like them . ."

"Just like who?"

"Like the Twelve. Forget it . . it doesn't matter . . it doesn't matter now, it never bloody did. The Poet - you asked who was helping me in the Ether, right? It was the Poet. Does that mean anything to you? You got that name in your memories now?"

"The Poet? No . . there are some stories . . myths from the Seers about an ancient man whose song could shake the earth and bring floods . . they write it as a myth."

"He could do a lot more . . Orpheus, the Poet. He is one of the Twelve, one of the Ascended. One of those responsible for our destruction - and make no mistake Magnus, your destruction! You, a Celestial - you cannot escape the bonds forged in the past, your fate is inevitably tied to ours!"

"Yeah, yeah. *Prrrrt!* Give the fearmongering a rest, right? Kujata, big sis, whatever - what did the Celestials do?"

"I . . . we . . the Celestials destroyed Earth. It was a mistake, even at the time . . you see Earth was a world unclaimed, billions of humans with no guiding Celestial hand - I remember, it was between Rashad and Ishmer - two young Celestials . . my first two disciples, were amongst the first. Rashad claimed sovereignty over Earth, Ishmer fought him. It was an honourable fight, Rashad won out in the end . . but the people of Earth did not see it that way."

"They sound like they were doing pretty damn well by themselves."

"You might see it that way. We did not. The humans fought, tooth and nail and, and . . and they lost. Earth was destroyed, that was our mistake. We destroyed Earth, but we did not destroy all Earthlings."

The silver bell by Kujata's side rang three times and fell silent, she did not move to look through the telescope or to take notes, instead meeting Magnus' gaze. She looked tired, her eyes sunk and dull.

"The destruction of Earth was our undoing. The humans who'd ventured into the vastness of space, they fled from us, taking their ships and flying into the depths of space - none of us could be bothered to follow, we saw no need to . . they left and they returned and they brought with thousands of ships, with thousands of weapons and methods that they had developed to fight us, and they lost and they fled again . . and they returned again, and again - each time we would think them defeated for good, but they would return, time and again, losing and retreating and coming back only to lose once more, until . .

Until they lost no more. Until their weapons pierced our skins and burnt our worlds. Until they learnt how to use the Logos, developing countless techniques - manipulating the Animus to create formations and produce potions, cultivating the Mens in order to strengthen their bodies and hunt us in the Ether, and the Seers - listening and learning the songs of the Universe and seeing the footsteps of the Dreamers.

I . . . I didn't mean to talk so much."

Kujata fell silent, her aged appearance turning once more vibrant and youthful.

"This is a tale of long ago, you are not to blame Magnus . . you are not at fault in any way. Being born a Celestial is no burden . . it is no crime. You should not have to pay for the mistakes of your predecessors. All I want to do in the now is help my own, hasn't it been enough? Ten thousand years!"

Kujata got to her feet, roaring to the skies.

"Haven't we paid enough!? El! Orpheus! Isn't it enough?"