Niphredil
A Frustrated Story
The only thing Kauotoc loved. Born in the East, but of the blood of the Itie'lman, she was most fair of all created creatures. Beautiful, with long, dark hair. She dressed in silks of blue and loved to dance and sing in the glades of the cold Altaic Country.
When the world was still young, and the glass and steel towers of Qumran still stood tall, she met the war general Kauotoc who, despite himself, desired her. This desire was a black one at first. It was a lusting for something pleasing to the senses. But from this evil came the first light of realization: that he could imagine another person with personhood. So that black desire transformed. It didn't go without a fight; it was a hard time for Kauotoc. But at last, he saw with eyes now cleared that here was something beautiful, and that he did not deserve to have her and that he should not deserve to have her. He couldn't bear to see Niphredil anymore and left.
But then she sought him out, and for a time things were happy. But for Kauotoc loving her was like sidling along a knife's edge, and his black heart rose up again. He left her for the last time; this time not out of shame, but out of indignation and pride.
Kauotoc's story is a long and frustrated one. The woman was called Niphredil, named for the flowers that bloomed at her birth, and she died in the end, never to return to the world as her kind is wont to do.
Comments