Page 114 of Beyond The Maples
Sibs gives me a look that can only be described as hopeful. She nods.
"Are there more Gods they tried to erase?"
Again, she gives me that hopeful look, mixed with something like pride.
"Yes," she says, strong and firm.
I suck in a breath.
"What are their names?"
"Hername is Silvanis." Sibs clears her throat, hobbling back to the couch to rest her body.
"Silvanis?" I repeat, rolling the name around my brain. A memory hits me then— sharp, almost painful.Sitting with my dad and a book at our dinette. "The goddessof light..." I whisper.
Sib's teeth show as her smile widens.
"See? I told you it was all there. Yes, the Goddess of Light, Day and Creation. Aethur's counterpart. Nature and magic consist of balanced dualities, and they were the first examples of this. Naturedemandsthis balance. Without it..." She gestures around us, and I understand; without balance, we're left with this. This world.
"Why did they erase her? Why did they erasethem?"
"I suppose, to hide the truth of what they did. Aethur was harder to hide. Our lore is so integrated with the stories of the beyond, and his cycling of souls in the underworld. Silvanis was easier. She's the quieter of the two."
The more I learn, the less it makes sense.
"What happened to her?" I ask, trying to pick my questions carefully.
"I don't know exactly; the details are too murky even for me to see."
"Well, what do you suspect?" I plead.
"I suspect she was bound. By whom, I’m not sure. But I can still feel her... Maple, do you know how wielders came to be?"
I nod, thankful to not be completely in the dark about something.
"Yes, they were the descendants of the Gods, through breeding with humans, we assume. Thousands of years ago the Gods had their way with some regular folk and boom—wielders," I say simply.
"You are correct, but—" She hesitates and I wait, almost begging her to continue, when she surprises me.
"Nature demands balance. Silvanis and Aethur... Think of them as the mother and father of the realm. The very fabric of our existence ties directly to their balance of light and dark. When the humans eventually came to be here, the pair were delighted. They finally had a true purpose––or at least entertainment, I suppose. As time went on, they needed help to maintain the sacred equilibrium. They chose four of the most devout; a divine number to balance and help aid them in the realm’s stability. These people were bound to our world. Those four new… Gods, began fathering and mothering their own lines of descendants. Some, but not all, received gifts through their lineage, and became what we know of today as wielders.Recognizing the imbalance of some receiving gifts, and others not, Silvanis and Aethur put a stop to it, in an attempt to maintain some sense of fairness, but it was too late."
My eyes widen.
"The four Gods we know and worship were once just... humans?"
She bobs her head, deliberating.
"No, and yes... they are direct descendants of Silvanis and Aethur’s magic. In a sense, they are their children, just not biologically. They areboundto this realm by them, sworn to keep the balance. And they did, for a time..." She hesitates again, deep in her own thought.
"I don't get it. This all seems... how did things go so wrong? What happened?"
Sibs shakes her head again, pursing her lips.
"Sibs, come on. We're so close. I need to know," I insist.
"I also have a duty, Maple. I have to hold the balance, too. I can only tell you so much without tipping the scales. If I did, I'd be just like them," she replies sadly.
"Just like who?" I ask.
