"The Gift": Edward's Storyline, Ch 6, Part 2
Story by comidacomida on SoFurry
Hello readers, and welcome once again to "The Gift". Edward's Chapter 6 continues on with the 2nd Post.
Having elected to hold a round-table discussion about his new, obscure foe, Edward turns to all of his Spirits to gain as much information as he can about who she is and, more importantly, what kind of Spirit she may be. He ends up getting quite an earful, but still hasn't heard from one (or is it three?) important source(s). How will Edward approach this one? Here is what readers decided:
5) -- shook my head. "No. I said I wanted to hear from everyone, and if that means three different points of view from The Ancient One then I'll hear three. Let's go."
The Gift
Edward's Storyline, Chapter 6.2
copyright comidacomida 2018
Having taken the upper-hand in the decision-making I complicated it even more. "And, while we're on the topic, isn't it fair to assume that Medved or Tom or even Treboada could explain things? Hell... everyone could just as easily work together to explain it. If it's that complicated I bet I'd benefit from learning about whatever you have to teach me from multiple sources, right?"
Red took over entirely, his stoic, furred snout peeking through the glass at me and his serpentine eyes stared at me with an almost bored expression. "That would do not good for you, Edward. It would only overcomplicate an already complicated lesson."
He was right, most likely, but, like Ch'upikaq had said, sometimes logic wasn't the answer. Waving him back with one hand I turned off the shower with the other. Reaching for a towel, I made up my mind. "This is a group thing, so I want to hear from everyone. Besides, it's better than them arguing out there all night. Come on."
If I had expected an objection or argument from Red I would have been proven wrong. The furry red Dragon simply inclined his head. "Very well, Edward. We will go gather everyone together and let them know you have questions and would like an explanation.
There wasn't really much I could say in response except the obvious. "Thanks. I'm going to get dressed and I'll be right out."
It was about 2:30 in the morning when I sat down to a circle of Spirits waiting expectantly for me. True to his promise, The Ancient One had explained the plan to the everyone and, with Red acting as mediator, everyone was given their opportunity to try and explain things from their point of view. The only real limit I set was that anything they said was to help me understand what had happened that night and what was going on with that strange Human/Spirit/Bird/Girl. They all acknowledged my request, and then we got right to it. Considering The Ancient One had made the suggestion I evened things out by letting the other Spirits start and Tom, being on my left went first (I chose to go around our circle clockwise).
Since I promised to give everyone a chance to speak I didn't interrupt when the Rhino started talking about early life in the Middle East. I really didn't know where he was going with the story until he explained that he rarely if ever encountered Spirits older than himself. Tom pointed out that there were several generations of Spirits who had been around before him but most of those Spirits had died off as the World changed. One of the first Spirits he met, however, was already old and had been known to Humans by at least a half dozen names. She was, for lack of a better title, a Goddess of War.
Tom's first interaction with her was to his benefit, as it involved a battle between the kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon. At the time, the Kingdom of Judah had been oppressed by Egypt and the war allowed Judah to gain a degree of independence by paying tribute to Babylon instead. Tom, as it turned out, had been a Sentinel Spirit for the Kingdom, and the shifting power structure among the ancient civilizations turned out to benefit the people of Judah. Unfortunately, the Spirit of War was fickle and barely a half decade later war returned again to the Kingdom as it got caught up with more politics between the two larger Empires. The end result: Jerusalem and the main temple therein were sieged, sacked, and looted.
He finished his story by saying "Within another fifteen years the Kingdom had been attacked and pillaged so many times that was devastated and it fell apart. People left, unable to live under those conditions and remained practically uninhabited and ungoverned for nearly one hundred years. During that time I saw her again. I demanded answers, and she told me simply 'I do not rule the Humans, I only urge them to greatness... but for some to ascend others must fall.'. She is no one's ally and everyone's enemy, Edward. This is what war does and she gains power when mankind is at its worst."
Treboada, who was sitting next in line had a story of his own to tell. While he was kind enough to gloss over the specifics of Irish folklore, what he did explain was that the Spirit we were discussing had a lot of power in the ancient world of the Isles. He also said that Spirits measured their power by devotion and attention given to them by Humans, and one way to measure that was by how many names they had, and how well known those personalities were, and how frequently they were mentioned by the people who 'worshipped' them. Apparently The Morrigan was one of the primary figures in Irish mythology.
According to the Wolf, Morrigan had a number of different names, but the most well known were three sisters called 'the three Morrigna'. I guess they were supposed to be something like the fates from Greek mythology with a youngest, eldest, and middle sister-- Babd, Anand, and Macha but were also the name for the same individual. I couldn't help but notice a similarity in that and how The Ancient One functioned but I didn't say anything. Morrigan was also the wife of one or two ancient gods and was associated with a screaming ghost spirit woman called a Banshee-- I'm not sure of the specifics because, by that time, I'd pretty much suffered from Irish mythology overload.
Regardless, when Treboada finished saying what he had to say he summarized it nice and cleanly by saying "If'n yeh got 'er attention, lad, then yeh gotta know that most men o' th' old ages quaked in fear t'know they made her mad."
Medved, when he had the opportunity to speak approached his understanding of the Spirit in a much more scholarly manner with a strange, almost impersonal disconnect-- perhaps because he was the only Spirit present who had never met or interacted directly with her. He explained that she was a powerful Sprit because she was strengthened by any and all conflicts, not just war. Medved began listing countless homages to her via warfare, pursuing science to develop new ways to do war, artistic representation of war, and even fist-fights in bars or siblings hitting on one another.
Granted, according to Medved the most empowering of all things for her involved soldiers on a battle field, but she was an opportunist, and her list of resources were unbelievable. The closest association the Bear had encountered with her personally was a statute of the Goddess representation of the spirit which was sculpted and placed in Saint Petersburg in the 1700s and, he explained, she was a ROMAN goddess, who was honored as far away as Russia. It didn't end there either; the United States included her likeness on a volunteer patch during World War I. His final statement was a little more optimistic than Treboada's. "Yes, she is powerful, Nehed, but she does not have a Seer and if she has existed this long then she will be aware of her limits and will not be so eager to challenge us."
Red, apparently agreed. "This is true. While she may encourage mankind to follow their base instincts and inflame their passions she is not foolish. She will not waste energy on a grudge."
I'd been sitting on the couch for awhile, and so I started rubbing my legs as I answered. "That's good, I guess... nothing as annoying as a crazy stalker bitch who won't leave you the fuck alone."
The Ancient One, suddenly covered in rainbow scales and feathered wings coiled up on the floor and Ch'upikaq reached out his head to lay it down on the coffee table right in front of my leg. "Edward... I still have much to show you... to provide you clarity in understanding not only this Spirit that gives you such concern, but Spirits in general."
Red withdrew his head from the table, rising up off the ground as he wiggled effortless through the air, seemingly denying gravity's hold on him. "But I can show you more. You understand with your head... not with your heart."
Surprisingly, Green spoke up as well, though he didn't' bother taking possession of the body. His voice came out of Red's mouth, but it sounded tired, bored, and just a little distracted. "I know more of her than the rest here-- I was there when she came into being."
That statement got a lot of attention from the Spirits gathered together. I looked at all of them, then changed my focus to The Ancient One, who had once again lowered to the ground as Red seemed more inclined to draw less attention after such an unexpected statement. In the silence that followed, I--