His journeys south were always unpleasant anyway. The food was unfamiliar, the accents and local slang inexplicable, the skin colour weirdly pale, everything was just like someone had taken his home and replicated every aspect but made it all worse. And Land it was cold. Profitable, though. Amethysts that would be laughed out of the marketplace at home were snatched up here. And by nobility as well, not just merchant’s wives and those hoping to be one. Unpleasant but profitable.
But, as was traced in the sand by the wind, there was nothing so unpleasant that it couldn’t be made worse with the addition of a teenager. There had been good reasons, back at home, for bringing his son. He had to learn the trade routes, he had to learn how to behave down here, loads of excellent reasons. Doubtlessly. He was struggling to articulate any of them though through the welter of sulks, silences, sarcasm and shouting. He was coming in to the coaching inn now and once again the merchant asked himself whether strangling the kid and claiming they had been attacked by bandits wasn’t the best solution. On the one hand his family name would die out, he’d have to give the business to his idiot nephew, his wife would be sad. On the other hand…sweet blessed freedom from teenagers.
This was all cast from his mind though when he saw the state of his son. Bleeding from the lip and a cut above the eye, bruised, covered in mud and trying manfully not to cry. He hurried over.
“Have you been fighting Aarnav? What happened? Did the southern boys attack you?”
“No”. For a while he thought that was all he was going to get, monosyllables being his son’s preferred means of communication, but he was pleasantly surprised when his son continued, looking younger and reminding him of the fresh faced and loving child of five years ago.
“They were shouting things at me. They said we were cowards and that’s why we were conquered. They said I was wearing a dress and that I couldn’t say lovely lucky Laila” his northern accent mangled it to ‘yovyie yucky yay-ya “and that I was a heretic and an elementalist and they were going to call the Orthdoxers and…I hate it here dad. Lets go back to Kirasin. Never mind your stupid gems. I don’t even know what an elementalist is. It’s shit here.”
“Aarnav! Language!”
“Well it is.” He retreated into sulky silence, the touch of vulnerability gone. Sarthak sighed to himself.
“My uncle Darpan was an elementalist” he was careful not to look at his son, talking as if to himself. “If he’d heard them saw that he’d have changed their insides to rubies. And it would have all spilled out of their mouths like this” he mimed gagging on gemstones; eyes wide and playing it for laughs. It was a critical moment, if he could get a smile then maybe the rest of the night would be tolerable. If not, they would sit and glare at one another for the rest of the day.
Aarnav snorted laughter out his nose then tried to cover it. “No he wasn’t. Uncle Darpan was a gem priest. And he was crazy”
“Don’t talk that way of your great uncle.”
“You said he was crazy as well.”
“Did I? Well, I shouldn’t have done. It was disrespectful. But gem priests are a type of elementalist.”
“Gem priests are a type of priest. Like the Orthodoxers or the sand priests or whatever.” This was the way to handle him at times like this. Make enough statements that he could disagree with while sneaking in some education. It was like walking a tightrope.
“No. Or yes, or sort of. The Orthodoxers follow Land, he’s a god. The” finger quotes “gem priests and the sand priests and whatever work for the Elemental Gods. They’re different.”
“They’re all gods.”
“Kind of. Land was created by humans. Originally to make sure their crops grew, he was an agriculture god though obviously he does more than that now. The Elemental Gods are way older than humans. Older than the Shifter races even.”
“That’s just stupid dad. How can a god be older than humans, gods are created by humans.” He turned away to watch the common room. Damnit, he’d lost him. Ah well, it was worth a try.
“OK, sorry” he said mildly and picked up his wine.
They sat in silence for a few moments before Aarnav gave up. “Go on then. I can see you’re dying to tell me. How can they be. Educate me, Father, I am eager for your wisdom”
The Elemental Gods
“There’s no need for sarcasm. But ok. Right back, at the beginning of time, there were two beings. Order and Chaos. Order made things nice and, well, ordered. Arranged and structured. Chaos did the opposite. Or, they didn’t quite ‘make’ things. They sort of gave them off. Emanated them. And things that were too orderful got destroyed when they got near Chaos and the other way round. But neither of them knew the other one existed. Order can only see Order, Chaos can only see Chaos. They both thought they were alone. Now some of the stuff that one made got close enough to the other to be affected but not close enough to be destroyed. And then neither of them could see that stuff. It was too chaotic for Order to see, too well-ordered for Chaos to see. Everything else gets made by one and destroyed by the other, except for these few things that get altered in just the right way. And this stuff clumped together and became the earth. And the sun and the other planets and so on. And the mixture of chaos and order in it was enough to make it alive, though not in the same way we are, alive is probably not the right word. Intelligent? Do you know what sentient means? Something like that”
“I know all this dad. That was the First Age. Then they mixed and created the Shifter Races and that was the Second Age then there was the Orderstorm and this is the Third.”
“Did you? Oh well, I’m very sorry” This was the way. Drip feed him conversation. Let him feel superior to his silly old dad telling him things he already knew. Foot in front of foot on the tightrope. “Well, those things that Order and Chaos accidentally created, they’re the Elemental Gods. Sand and Gem and Sea and all the things that make up the earth.”
“Well they’re not gods then are they.”
“No, not in the same way as Land. I feel like someone said that only a few moments ago”
“Dad!”
“I’m sorry”
“But the gem priests don’t have Precepts do they?”
“No. All Gem cares about are gems. He doesn’t really care what you do, he’s not even really capable of caring. Usually he’s not even capable of noticing humans, or anything that’s not gemstones. You can recite some precepts to him if you want but he’s not listening. And wouldn’t understand you if he was. Doesn’t even understand the concept of language.”
“But surely he likes…” Aarnav thought for a moment “Fire must like fiery people. People who are always angry and…and fiery.”
“Nope. The most emotionless person in the world can be a Fire Elementalist, the most burning passion driven person in the world an Ice Elementalist. The Elemental Gods don’t care about emotions, can’t see them, wouldn’t recognise them if they did. They’re not created by humans, they don’t have any…any link to us. Fire cares about actual real literal fires, not metaphors or analogies or…or temperaments.”
“So how did Uncle Darpan know so much about polishing and mining spots and stuff like that. I thought Gem was telling him where to cut, when there were deposits, stuff like that.”
“No. Uncle Darpan knew so much about that the hard way. He studied, he watched, he made notes, he talked to other people who knew. Sand Priests, Gem Priests, people like that they don’t have any knowledge we don’t. They’re not even really priests, just specialist scholars, really. Usually. Uncle Darpan couldn’t have filled their mouths with gems, the” more finger quotes, his son rolled his eyes “Elemental Priests aren’t priests in the same way the Elemental Gods aren’t gods. They can’t do spells.” He thought for a moment then amended “Well, followers of Land can’t do spells, technically. They just ask Land to do them. Darpan could have asked for spells but, like I said, he wouldn’t have been heard.”
“Elementalists can’t do spells?”
Elementalists
“Priests in general don’t do spells, Aarnav, I just said that. But because the gods are created by humans they can recognise and remember us. When a human gives a god a lot of veneration, the god will be more inclined to do things for him, it’s a trade. Elemental Gods don’t understand the concept of trade, or the concept of humans or…yes, yes, I am repeating myself”
“OK fine, whatever, Elementalists can’t ask the Elemental Gods for spells?”
“They can, but no more effectively than you or I. It is possible to attract an Elemental God’s notice. It’s usually a really fucking…don’t tell your mother I said that…a really bad idea but it can be done. If I created, somehow, I’m not sure how I’d do it, a whole lot of sand then Sand would, briefly, notice me and I could use that link to ask him to do something. Ditto for any other Elemental God. If I could create a mountain of sapphires, well, I’d be very rich indeed, but also Gem would notice me and I could quickly ask him for a favour.”
“So if you could create a sapphire you could get Gem to create some more for you?”
“No, the Elemental Gods can’t create themselves. I mean, think about it. All Sand cares about is sand. If he could create sand, there would be nothing else. If Fire could create fire then nothing flammable would exist, if Sea could create sea there would be no dry land. They can manipulate and move and shape, but not create. If I somehow created a sapphire I could maybe get Gem to cut it or polish it for me or change it in to an emerald. But not create new gems. And a sapphire might well be too small, anyway. Lighting a campfire isn’t enough to draw the attention of Fire but fires are more common than gems, so I’m not sure.”
“But if I burnt down this stupid city I could make our campfires green?”
“Don’t even jest, Aarnav. And, also, no. I said it was a brief connection, remember. If it’s not used then the Elemental God will forget. You can’t store up charge in the same way a priest can. If you did burn down this stupid city you could make those flames green. But not the fire you started twenty minutes later.”
“Elementalists can’t do spells then. If there’s so many limitations then…well, they just can’t do it.”
“In all practical situations, no. There have been very few successful Elemental spells cast. Some were used in the construction of the naval base in Han – but that was a colossal project which beggared the Diarchy for generations. I’m told they’ve tried invoking Fire in the southern war by setting large sections of the forest on fire. But in practical situations that don’t involve huge amounts of resources, no.”
“Gem priests are Elementalists but all that means is they study something and know about it. They can’t do spells and even if they could loads of people worship some other god as well as Land so it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Mmm-hmmm” His son was clearly going somewhere with this and he was content to wait and see where. At least they were talking.
There was silence for a while. Well, not silence. They were in the common room of a bar – there was conversation and singing and a crackling fire and many other sounds. There was silence between the two of them for a moment.
“When they shouted it at me, they thought it was an insult. What’s their problem with Elementalists?”
The Diarchy’s Problem with Elementalists
“The whole of the south has a problem with Elementalists. They have a bad reputation down here for a lot of reasons. A lot of people went mad…let’s back up a little. I said you could communicate with them by creating a lot of their element yes? Well, there’s actually another way. Being surrounded by their element for too long without any other people lets them get inside your head. Having other people around anchors you a little but, well – you’ve seen Sand-touched people staggering in from the desert. That’s what’s happened to them. But Elemental Gods are just too different from our way of thinking, our brains can’t handle a link with them and we just break. Happens sometimes to sailors, too, and you get the odd Plant-touched, I guess you’d call it, lumberjack or logger.”
He sipped his wine and took a quick glance round the room.
“Anyway. There was a section of sea down off the east coast that was sentient – this was early on in the diarchy. And it was…”
“Sentient sea?”
“You told me you knew all about the Second Age? The landscape was shifting and changing. When the Orderstorm hit some parts stayed sentient, just like some weresnakes stayed weresnakes.”
“Oh. Yeah. The sleepers”
“The sleepers, yes. Well when they tried to put the sleepers to sleep it didn’t work on the Living Sea. Too big, too powerful, I’m not sure why. The attempt just annoyed it. Problem was it was a big enough section of sea that Sea could always sense it, so it could do Elemental magic at will. Lot of people died in tidal waves and the like, lot of people starved due to no fish. Lots and lots of people went mad. Sea-touched. Karadport, on the east coast, used to be a major city – it’s where the kings first came from. Basically a wasteland now, it never really recovered. It was a pretty unpleasant time, or at least from what I’ve read. Hundreds of years ago. I’m glossing over a lot of details here because I don’t want you screaming all night…”
“Dad! I’m thirteen!”
He chuckled “I don’t want you screaming all night. One of Mikhail’s Histories, “Living Sea, Green Sea, Karads”, is about it all and it’s quite unpleasant reading.”
“You just can’t control yourself can you. Just once I’d like to have a conversation that didn’t end in you recommending I read a book” he was grinning though
“Books are to…”
“Books are to knowledge what maps are to travel” he interrupted in a sing-song chant. “Yes. I know. You’ve said. So because a bit of sea got annoyed that they tried to knock it out they hate Elementalists?”
“I’m not sure the children you encountered know why they hate Elementalists. Or what an Elementalist is. It’s little more than a snarl word by this point. The clergy have a more nuanced view. They think, and I have some sympathy for the position, that those who travel too far down the path of Elementalism are…hmmm…are betraying humanity. The Elemental Gods don’t care about us or for us, or even reliably notice we exist. Devoting one’s life to them, well, I could see how it could be viewed as treachery. It happens sometimes, Sand Priests get a little…funny. Gem Priests less so, Darpan was crazy in his own right, nothing to do with Gem, but the…”
“You said that was disrespectful dad!” Aarnav cried triumphantly
“It’s also disrespectful to interrupt your father to point out his hypocrisy, so I’ve got you coming and going. Anyway. Spending too much time thinking about Elements isn’t healthy. For yourself or ultimately for those around you. As I say, you see it sometimes with Sand Priests. They go a bit funny and we have to, well, take care of them.”
Aarnav made elaborate finger quotes and repeated “Take care of them” conspiratorially
“What? Land, no! We take care of them. Care for them.”
“Deal with them” more air quotes
“It’s not a euphemism, Aarnav, and I’d like you to stop pretending it is. Anyway” he regarded his son with fondness “I think it’s time we ate. Do you want the bland and tasteless southern slop or the bland and tasteless southern mush?”
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