Part 1: The Mountaintop
as told by Grandmother Hazel
Long ago, before that which the Emerald Empire calls “history,” two companions lived beneath the golden sun, in a lazy vale nestled between the peaks of two mountains that are now gone to this world.
The boy’s true name has been lost to time, but we will come to that later. For the sake of this story, we will call him Tanir. Tanir was a boisterous and curious young man who lived to run and laugh and shout. Every hill he saw was a challenge to see what view it shrouded. His greatest dream was to scale the mountains and go beyond his home.
And that is exactly where the story of the true nature of our world begins: with a mountain, with a friendship, and with a promise not kept.
There are many pages written—some lost, some remembered—about Tanir’s adventures, but I will spare you the details and jump to the story.
Tanir ran away from home, seeking to make a name for himself by climbing the frosted peaks that touched what is beyond the skies. He brought with him only a companion and a coil of rope.
The companion’s name was Andoda, or Doda as Tanir knew them. They were Tanir’s greatest friend and the brass weight to balance the boy’s rashness.
Doda was small, round faced, and slow to anger. Perhaps that is why they were friends. All the other children knew Tanir as a boy with a temper that could not be trusted. And for Doda’s part, well, no one had told Tanir their true nature, as I sincerely hope you’ve figured out is a powerful Spirit that takes the form of a gigantic turtle. They enjoyed the way Tanir treated them as a friend, rather than something to be revered.
As the companions reached the first steep incline, spring dew still glistening on the grasses, Doda asked Tanir what purpose such a climb would serve.
Tanir answered Doda’s question: “Why would anyone not want to climb to the top of the world and see everything from way up there?”
Doda shrugged and followed.
The climb was treacherous, but you know, it is very helpful in such circumstances to be accompanied by a being that can shift stone with only a wish. Everything seemed to just be as was needed for Tanir’s ascent. Boulders that had rested in a path for a hundred years chose that moment to roll aside. Ridges without a handhold bore rough stairs just around the other side. When they became lost, a hare showed them the way.
To Doda, it was an expression of thanks and devotion.
To Tanir, it was his own luck, manifested into the world. He never guessed the truth while he climbed that path. Not once.
Near the top, Tanir turned and pointed down below, “Look we are so high, I can’t even see our home.” Snow covered his feet, but he didn’t feel the cold. Doda smiled at the boy’s innocence. But then Tanir’s eyes went wide. He pointed further beyond. “And look at that! What is that place?”
Far on the horizon, stood a golden city of towers and walls that glittered in the sunlight. Tanir licked his lips, and Doda saw him glance back where their home nestled into the shadows of the valley. His face held disdain. Mouth slightly open, Doda heard him whisper:
“If people can make that, think of what else they could do. That’s nothing. Now that I know, I’ll show them everything they ever dreamed of. That’s going to be my home, and I will make it touch the moon!”
Andoda was so focused on the desire in Tanir’s eyes, they did not see the snow shift until it was too late.
The avalanche would have tossed Tanir from the mountain’s face like he was nothing. His body would have spun out of control, wind rushing past his ears, clouds obscuring his view for several minutes until they parted and gave him a clear view seconds before his body smashed on the rocks below. Perhaps Doda should have let the boy’s fate be as it was and all of history would have been left untouched.
But, no. It is a fool’s errand to second guess that which has already come to pass. It never was that way and all has changed ever since.
Doda lit the mountain with furious flames that shook the faces of the cliffs to their very bedrock. Snow hissed and melted. Stones split and flowed like rivers. Smoke filled the sky from horizon to horizon. Every tree smoldered like charred toothpicks. The mountaintop cracked and sundered and crumbled into depths below, swallowing all that had leapt to harm Doda’s friend. Deep, deep into the depths unknown the top of the mountain tumbled. Doda and Tanir stood at the brim of an infant volcano.
A hundred miles away in that golden city Tanir had fallen in love with, roofs shattered, walls collapsed, families wept in the streets for those who were crushed in the rubble.
Doda saved their friend, the one person who saw them for who they really were. Or so they thought until that moment when Tanir’s desire turned from the far away city to Doda themself. With a gulp, Tanir asked Doda:
“Can you teach me how to do that?”
Doda felt fear then. But even the Spirits have a way of reasoning with their fears. Their eyes were still clouded by love and friendship.
“Tanir,” said Doda, “you must never speak of this. You must promise me that you will never say a word.”
“I will promise,” said Tanir, “if you teach me how to do it.”
Doda shuttered. “No. That must never be done again. I only did that to save you.” Tears welled in their eyes.
But Tanir did not see the tears. “Then teach me another thing. If you can do something as great as that, you can do smaller things. Teach me one of those.”
Out of fear more than anything, Doda agreed and Tanir made the promise. Doda taught Tanir how to accelerate the growth of plants, thinking only betterment of the vale could come from it. Tanir made the grass grow chest high in the blink of an eye. This was the first time a person wielded magic, the first spell cast, the first step down a dark road.
When Doda taught, Tanir took in everything and he sensed something Doda did not. He sensed the magic spilled from Doda to enter him. He sensed the origin of the magic. He sensed that Doda held it and Tanir must draw it from them. This he kept to himself.
Tanir learned fast as they made their way back down, forests grew in pair’s wake, and that gave Doda a heart of hope that perhaps something good would come of that fateful day.
But when they returned home, they saw the vale was gone, everything they had known was destroyed by crushing stone. Doda felt as if the stones had crushed them too. Tanir only asked for more magics. When Doda refused, the pair parted from one another. They would not see one another until the world raged with war.