Eldana’s eyes looked into the sea like she was searching for something. Her heart ached. It was two weeks since she heard what happened to her friends. Two weeks since she had found herself in a strange room, recuperating, and under the care of Shewit – the person she had come to Piece Island to see. And what she learned was beyond anything she ever expected.
Shewit was the only being of Balance and Chaos to escape the sacrifice apart from Eldana. She had absconded from her presumed destiny nine hundred years ago and had lived unobtrusively ever since; despite the enormity of her powers.
What Eldana heard from Shewit made her sick through every bone of her body. She could not comprehend the sheer craziness of it. Shewit, drew power from Toas, she was better at it than everyone else as a being of Balance and Chaos, that was her power. But she also drew power from every sacrificed being. Eldana did not understand at the beginning.
“But does that mean you are a god too? Eldana questioned her counterpart.
“God..well. Everything that we do not understand or is more superior to us is godlike, isn’t it? What I saw back then, in the fight for my life with my beloved Ermias against Lull, was nothing else than the fact that we are the gods, Eldana.”
Eldana was still puzzled.
She kept going.” You see, Camin and Lowus are nothing else than Beings of Balance of chaos.” Eldana couldn’t believe her ears. “They live for millennium because every time one of us is killed, they get the rest of the life expectancy of this being. In fact, every being of Balance and Chaos gets part of the life expectancy. As stronger one of us was, the more years in life you’ll get. When we talk about the days of chaos, we only talk about the times many beings of Balance and Chaos existed and they fought about the country and more lifetime. “
“What happened to the rest of the beings of balance and chaos?” Eldana could already guess the answer.
“Well…they are all dead. It was a horrible fight but at the end, Camin and Lowus killed one by one. Till it was just them. The problem was, every 100 years another being is born. This being became another contester to their godlike status. So, they came up with a plan how to control them.”
“The sacrifices,” murmured Eldana while looking down on the ground.
“Exactly. It was a twofold win. One, the new beings of balance of chaos would never become a problem again, living in this fabricated heroic story that Camin and Lowus had created and two, they would make them the strongest fighters in Toas by letting them train with teachers from all parts of the country, just to kill them afterwards and drawing the most power out of their life.”
“And because they do this for so long, no one knows what they look like anymore,” she told Eldana.
Eldana just nodded in while looking to the ground. All seemed so surreal now. She still had unanswered questions.
“But what about the chaos? It is everywhere, even now. People die and go insane. That is not made up.”
“That is the saddest part,” Shewit answered her while looking at the wall. “You see, when people believe something, they will always find signs to prove it. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And Camin and Lowus support it by using their power…”
Eldana cried just a bit. “You mean to say, they kill them all…”
Shewit still looked at the wall. “Not all, but they support it, yeah! There, a volcano, here a bit of an earthquake, whispering lies and deceiving messages around. People are easy. They don’t need a lot to hate their neighbours.
It was just not real. Everything a lie, everything that she believed in, all a lie.
“Ah,” she added. “Sinto, Lull, the carrier of the child, there are two…did you know that? Beings of Balance and Chaos..just not as strong. The mark of chaos is not complete on them. The mark just says how powerful you are. If it is fully developed, you have the power to plunge the world into chaos. They don’t, so they do everything to adhere to the laws of Camin and Lowus to get their share of life expectancy. They have no chance, therefore just follow along. They always find a way to make a low level being of Balance and Chaos a carrier of a child, always.” Shewit laughed bitterly.
Eldana just nodded. It made all sense now. An empty silence in her body numbed every emotion. She had the days to think through her whole life, all of it, just a lie. They did not talk about it again. Eldana was too much in shock about what really happened behind the curtains.
Shewit had proceeded to train and teach Eldana everything she knew. At first, Eldana had thrown herself fully into learning what Shewit had for her. She wanted to key into the special power so she could go rescue her friends, who she heard were under capture. That vigor soon declined into frustration, and then indifference. No matter how hard she tried, she did not get to learn the new power. Her mind was scattered.
One night, she had told Shewit that she felt she was ready enough and wanted to go after her friends.
“Your friends knew what they were getting into.” Shewit had told her. “They were fully aware of the risks before getting into this quest with you. To leave now, you must have mastered your powers. Only then can you save your friends.” The same calm fire that was in Shewit’s eyes when they had first met was still there. The same awe when Shewit
