“He never hated humans, but unlike the other demiurge who require obedience, worship and devotion, Father wanted silence and peace. He lived his years in solitude, caring for his kingdom. Even while the war raged beyond the edges of his forest, it meant nothing to him ... until the fight landed on his doorstep.”
“Humans set his forest on fire,” Lukan murmurs when Kellen goes silent. “They burned every tree. Every bush. They scorched the earth so nothing would ever grow again.”
My hands aren’t quick enough to stifle my gasp of horror. “That’s terrible.”
“He was a monster in their eyes. A devil. They accused him of luring children into his woods to devour. They blamed him when a healthy man fell sick or when a woman lost a child. Hewas the cause of all their misery, but they were careful in their resentment. Too afraid not to anger him further.
“Then, one day, a girl went missing. Then two. Then three. By the time they realized something was truly wrong, eight girls had vanished from their beds in the night. They sent a group of men into the woods and they searched all day, delving deeper into places they knew they shouldn’t venture. But that’s where they found them. All eight girls, stripped, cut and brutalized, and hung from a tree.”
“Oh my God!”
Kellen sighs and drops his gaze to the patch of carpet between his feet. “It became clear to them that day that the devil lived in those woods. A monster who craved flesh and blood. And if they didn’t kill it quickly, it would keep coming for their daughters. But you can’t just fight the devil. You have to make sure you kill it and the only way to kill the devil is by burning him.”
I have a clear picture of the creature I see in my dreams. Not his face, but the coiling roots twisted around his body. The majestic antlers extending up into the heavens. I want to understand their confusion, but if they had spent even a second with him...
The thought ends there.
It scatters the way my dreams do when I jerk awake and find myself alone.
Perhaps he was a monster. A malicuri that terrorized the villagers. Maybe he was responsible for their grief. I wasn’t there. I can’t speak with certainty to the allegations, but ...
He’s not a monster.
He’s not evil.
I don’t know how I know, but I feel it in all the places that pang with emptiness. The void I’ve had to live with for so long. It fills the cavity of my chest with pain. With injustice.
With anger.
I am fueled by a need to find these people and ... and what? Kill them? They lost their children. They were angry and scared, and grieving. This was an age before technology andMythBustersdebunking superstitions. They thought they were doing what was right.
And still...
“It’s all awful,” I say at last, heart breaking for everyone involved.
“It was one of their own who was hurting the girls,” Lukan mutters. “A pillar of their community who led the charge tofind the monster.”
“Father hadn’t been a monster until they made him watch his trees and animals scream as they were burned alive. He lost his kindness that day. His mercy. He no longer stayed out of the fight but charged into it with the full strength of his power. The new forest that bloomed from beneath the ashes was watered by rivers of blood. Everything regrew red. At the heart of it, Father built his kingdom. He had grown his army from only him to legions. Thousands of monsters from every corner flooded to him, giving him their swords to defeat the human race.
“And it started to work. His army out matched the humans and eventually, they drove the humans out. Shrunk their numbers until there were hardly any left.”
“No...” I groan. “They should band together and fight the demiurge for being so reckless and selfish.”
“But the demiurge never see themselves as reckless or selfish,” Lukan murmurs into my ear. “They created all and can destroy it all if they wish.”
“But Father was a demiurge, too, right? So, why couldn’t he talk to the other demiurge and tell them to calm down?”
“Father left the other demiurge when the wilderness began to take form. He fell in love with it and wanted to be left alone.”
I sigh and shift back to recline against Lukan’s side. I don’t resist when Roan rests his head on my lap. The weight of him in my arms, the warmth of Lukan against my side is a comfort I didn’t think I would need this badly.
“He sank his powers into the earth. He focused on creating life through nature, and all of it was torn away. Murdered before his eyes and him being powerless to stop it,” Roan murmurs. “He’s not a monster. He’s a father who watched his children get slaughtered.”
My heart aches. It breaks in my chest as every second plays through my head with painful clarity.
“Did he get the people responsible?” I ask, sliding the fingers of my free hand through Roan’s strands, stroking lightly.
“He did, but at the cost of his love. The loss and the carnage broke something in him. He became a rabid shell of hatred that began to consume the earth. Killed the soil. Destroyed the trees. The other demiurge realized he was about to consume the entire planet, they combined their power and imprisoned him. They locked him in his own kingdom.”
