genessia | (video)

I might have to fight whatever or whoever drug us all here. If you can find out who did it, I can do the fighting. If they're defeated, we should all be able to go home.

"Dragged. While it would explain the way in which we awoke, not convinced we were drugged," [he said, considering. "and you wouldn't be fighting alone, kid."

S'what I just said!

[Huff. Why did grownups say stuff like that? They made no sense.]

Oh, no. Someone will just decide they need to makes friends with 'em, or something. Adults are nuts.

"And what would be so wrong with a diplomatic solution? That's how Barthis got Quilt, after all."

Because, they took us away from people we care about and who care about us. And they'll keep doing that until someone puts a stop to it. The only sort of people who'd do that are either actual monsters or just evil.

"Or they have some reason we don't understand yet. Or they're being forced to. Or it's a spell that no one is controlling at all. We don't know the story yet, so how can we know for sure that this is the world of evil people or monsters? And sometimes... Ah sometimes evil people are simply good people who have lost their way for a time."

There's never a good reason to kidnap people!

Because, nice people don't kidnap other people. They ask for help. And they don't hold strangers against their will, forcing 'em to get jobs and stuff.

[Link tugged on his necklace in agitation.]

We're tagged like dogs! To show they OWN US.

This is not a good place to be. It's something really bad, and I'm gonna fix it.

[He leaned back slightly.]

"Once there was a land called Maltak, a land so rich in the magics of its people that the land itself gained not only magic, but a limited awareness. It worked to help its people, coming to love them. It helped the plants grow more strongly, the water to be cleaner. This power was called the Akta, and there came those who learned to tap it. And with their help, deserts flowered, and life spread. But that threw off the balance of life, and Maltak had to use more of its magic to protect its people from the imbalance, and had less to feed to the Akta."

[He wasn't intended to tell this as a true history, but a cautionary tale. Besides, people seemed to come from other times here, and he wasn't Dominic. It wasn't his to decide who from his world, should they be listening, should get information that might be ahead of their time. So he was sticking to older history, and fudging the truth a bit. Also leaving out the names of people and tribes where he could.]

"About the same time that the Akta was waning, a group from a neighboring land who had noticed the flowering of the deserts and the richness of the fields coveted this new healthy land, and set out to take it from their neighbors. Before the Knights marched into their land, the people of Maltak were peaceful farmers and tribesmen. They shared song and food in abundance, and while each tribe had its own culture, few people knew of deep hatred, and war was a story of old, all but forgotten. But with the Knights, old stories that were best left as cautionary tales became guides for war. The people of Maltak stood to defend their land. And I don't think any would say they were wrong to do so."

"But the war changed them, and it changed the land. Memories of peace became few and rather than being coveted, they were seen as a sign of weakness. Tools used to till the soil turned to spill human blood. It was too much..."

"And it was not enough. The passion to defend their home, and a slight natural strength advantage was nothing against knights that had trained since childhood and worked in teams to make walls of shields and deadly advances of steel. And so those with the power of the Atka, desperate to save their people and their lands turned the magics of nature against the invaders. And the poison that had been a weed across the land in the wake of the knights grew deep roots and touched the core of Maltak. And a new power, rose. Or at least, new to the knights and the people of Maltak which had long since forgotten what lay sleeping at the heart of their land, what their seers warned them of when they first tapped the magic of the Akta. They awoke the Nakta."

"Like with most natural magics, there is a balance. Where Akta was life and health, Nakta was death and decay. And both are necessary. But the Nakta had been like breathing before. Automatic, and all but unnoticed. It was as much a part of life as the wind, but now they could grasp it. Use it. Mages of the Nakta rose, harnessing the powers of death and decay. And that proved a better weapon for killing than the Akta."

[Gee, wonder why.]

"Finally the people of Maltak stood a chance. And as bad as it was to weaponize the Akta and the Nakta, had it been simply that, they would have been able to heal their land after. But the stirring of the Nakta from its usual patterns attracted attention, just as the flowering of the land through the Akta had. And where the knights has come out of jealousy and greed, now came the Demons and their mortal slaves, the infernomancers. And they took people on both sides, and forced them or lured them to their cause. Promises of power to help their side win... in exchange for their free will and their souls. Some accepted just for the power, some were sure they'd never have to pay the price. But in Maltak, in those early days, most of those who accepted did so out of desperation. They knew they would have to fulfil their end of the bargain. They knew their souls would never rest with the land, that they would have no control over what the Demon made them do... but that power was better than standing and watching the knights torture and kill their families, turn the teeth of their tribe mates into necklaces and headdresses, wear their skins like pelts. And so those who knew better and those who did not both opened their souls to the infernal realm."

"But the Demons... few of them cared about the mortal war. They fulfilled their ends of the bargains, sometimes, but they were eying a bigger prize. They sought the power of Maltak itself."

"The war lasted generations untold, and hatred grew on both sides. Soon the people of the kingdom who sent the knights... many of them forgot how the war started. Lies were spread that the people of Maltak had attacked first, had stolen land belonging to the king and kingdom. The Nakta got more powerful than ever, and more and more of the people of Maltak came to venerate those who could deal swift painful death. More and more of Maltak returned to desert, parts the people didn't know had been desert to begin with. And Maltak suffered."

"Maltak was under assault from the Demons, from the invaders, from the war, from the imbalance... and now from its own people twisting it further and further from itself in an effort to get all they could out of the Nakta. And tribes started killing tribes. Hunting each other for sport, killing those who were seen as weak or who spoke against their leaders. The people fractured. Few tribes remained that were willing to work with the other tribes."

"Fewer still who were willing to work with outsiders, even ones that had just thirty years before fought alongside them against the knights. Soon the land one was from mattered more to them than the actions one had personally taken. And Maltak was dying. And Maltak was desperate."

Maltak used what power it could to summon heroes who could understand the Akta and Nakta and restore the balance. But the voice of Maltak, she had been corrupted by the poison of the land, and rather than being able to explain to the people Maltak summoned why they were there, she used all her energy to try not to attack them. And failed. That was torture. To know in her mind that she was once a good person, to still think and feel as a good person, but to also feel the creeping taint within her, to feel her arms moving without her volition to attack people that she knew KNEW could help cure her and her land. To remember that she had slain the person who held the job before her, not out of greed... but out of self defense. The cycle had always ben that the new one took power when her teacher died, this was a perversion of that ancient ritual. Now she did not die old and wise having taught the knowledge of the centuries to her successor, but young and disfigured, having taught what little she could."

"But Maltak had brought new champions, untouched by the poisons of the war, but who had still fight in it, in their own ways. A curse had been spread among the kingdom that had sent the knights, to make some of their people look more like the people of Maltak. And most of those people suffered for it. But some of them also grew strong, being different in a land that hated those who were different. They found people they could truly trust and depend upon and they grew. One of those was a woman steeped in magics of her own, and gifted the magic of a healing element. Another was a Necromancer certain of his own evil and accepting of it. He thought to take the Nakta and make it his own. There were other heroes brought, some who worked to unite the tribes that would listen, others to protect and defend, some just to show that the land of their birth didn't dictate their ideas or ideals. Diplomats, seers, mages, warriors, even a cat... and they each had their roles to play. Not even the seer knew when they entered Maltak how important each and everyone of them would be. Even he couldn't see through the miasma of war and demons and imbalance and hatred."

"In the end, though some thought they had come of their own will, only to learn they had been called, though some had arrived and had not known how or why, all that Maltak had brought were necessary, all had to become heroes, each in their own way, to save a land that for most of them.... was not their own."

"And the woman steeped in healing gave herself to the Nakta to empower the Akta. And the Necromancer who sought to steal the Nakta for himself learned instead its place in the balance, and helped her to restore that balance, and then drew her and the seer out of the darkness, saving them both from the Nakta."

"The land did not mean to kidnap or hurt anyone, it didn't think they way you and I do, my boy. The land was like a wounded animal, in pain and lashing out, but also desperate for help. Maltak needed a healing, and it got that, in the end. Because people who had been on different sides, who had hated each other had found peace in the middle of war. Because they found balance in chaos. And they saved the land, and ended the war, though that second part did take more time than the first." [Regicide had been somewhat crucial in ending the war, and the king had not been stupid enough to be present.]

"All the bad feelings did not just vanish, of course, and those cursed remained so cursed. But the door to peace was opened, and people on both sides saw people on both sides passing through it. The demons retreated, the infernomancers fled or died, and life and death became as one again. Maltak was restored, though less willing to freely offer magic back to any of the people. Most who could use the Nakta or Akta lost that power in the healing rains that fell, but seeing the desert once again bloom, seeing the souls of the dead resting peacefully in the Nakta, seeing people making peace and setting side weapons, they found they little missed their magics. For the land healed was magic enough for any people, really."

[Did the kid get it.... or had he fallen asleep?]

No one got to go home?!?

[Link looked absolutely lost. He missed Navi so much---she could explain stuff to him. Where were the goddesses in that story? Guardian Spirits? What did any of it have to do with this awful place? He began pacing like a caged animal.]

I'm in the middle of helping Zelda save Hyrule. They need me!

This place sucks. [ Link ran his hand down his face, hoping it might mask the fact he was close to tears.] I hate it. I want to go home! I promised I'd help, and now I'm here and it's making me break that promise!

"What? When did I say that? Of course we all got to go home after!" [Whoops. We....]

"Whoa whoa... hold up kid. Maybe being here is part of helping. My whole point is we don't know. We don't know why we're here or how. Helping Maltak helped everyone, every lad each of the heroes came from, and the healing spread to lands we'd never even seen. Every bit of good we put into a world, any world, ripples. It's like singing at the mouth of a cave. The echos are the good you sent out into the world, spreading out. Different, perhaps, but still good that only existed because you raised your voice."

....

[He did catch that slip, but, let it pass for now.]

If helping one place helps other places then, that means, I should have been left alone in Hyrule and me helping there should have helped here, if here needed help.

I'm telling you, this is a bad place. There's something bad-wrong with it.

....and singing in caves is a good way to get eaten.

[Similes were not something he'd had much experience with. Monsters trying to eat him, on the other hand...]

"It might be a matter of order. It is good to take a deep breath when you plan to dive deep into the water, but not so good an idea to take that breath AFTER you went under, kid. You might be right... but as long as it is possible that a peaceful solution could be reached, that has to be the primary path that we attempt."

"And I've sung in lots of caves. The acoustics are great."

...you and the other crazy guy would be great friends. He wanted to buddy up to the monsters that were killing people. Regular people don't matter to him either.

[Link sighed.]

Yeah. Where I come from, you'd be eaten.

"Regular people matter to me, I assure you. And I doubt I'd be eaten. Few monsters have such good taste, after all." [Grin.] "All the same, maybe you are right, I'd love to meet this other crazy guy, care to make an introduction? At least to start?"

He's a doctor. Or something like that.

He thinks monsters are more important than people who get eaten by them. If he's not eaten by one by now, I don't know where he is.

[He couldn't wait to go home and not be around adults anymore.]

"Where did you meet this... doctor or something like that?" [He now really wanted to meet this guy.]

The guy signed up for a bounty that I had signed up for too. I thought I could help people by getting rid of a monster, but, noooooo. Monsters are misunderstood!

[Link threw his hands up in the air.]

So, I won't make that mistake again.

[He chuckled.] "Introduce us?"

I dunno where the weirdo is. If he hasn't been eaten or killed, I'm sure he'll show up sometime.

"Well, if you run into him again, have him toss me a call?"

...you wanna go hug a readead or something together?

"Who knows, but at least if we're distracted with each other we'll have less time to pester you."

Yeah, but, I left him and I dunno where he went. Or if he's still alive.

I wanted to hogtie him and do the bounty alone, but, I didn't get to.

"Not... really the best method for dealing with someone, is it?"

I dunno. If there's a monster killing people, people are dead, their families are mourning them, and some weirdo starts talking about the monster being the victim? Hogtie seems pretty tame. Keeps the crazy guy from getting in the way, and it doesn't hurt him.

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