Legends of Forlienne

Chapter II: The Seraphim

Safrehk locked away his sister. He feared her and her power and he feared that she could take what he believed to be rightfully his. He didn't realize that as his opposite, she didn't share his greed. He didn't realize that she loved him possibly more than he loved her, and that she would never betray him she way he had her.

Safrehk didn't know this, and he locked her away. Her prison wasn't physical, not in the sense that you and I are physical. Her prison was like she was, in that magic was woven into its very being. It prevented her from leaving the night which she, by nature, ruled over. It stopped her from using her power in any way that mattered. Most painfully, it kept her from the planet she had come so love in the short time she had been on it.

But it wasn't enough for Safrehk to shut her off from all the good in her life. He had to replace her, to create something new which would prove to her and to himself that he didn't need her and that he didn't care about her.

He created the Seraphim. They were a race of beings who were imbued with the same celestial energy as the gods. They had the same glowing aura and golden skin and hair as their creator, as well as his humanoid form. The main physical difference was the splendid feathered wings which extended from their backs. They also did not share his personality. Not all of them, at least.

Safrehk had three generals who led the hundreds of Seraphim he made on that single day. The oldest and strongest of these was named Asali, and he was kind. He was more like Liysnah than anyone. There was not a cruel bone in his body.

The second of the Seraphim was Duja. She was the smartest of the generals. She had a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue. Her heart pined for Asali, but his heart wandered.

Suyikti, the youngest of the the three was the only one who shared Safrehk's demanding disposition, a disposition which Safrehk indulged. Suyikti was his favorite, and he never even tried to hide it. This should have bothered the others, but it didn't. They had been made to serve Safrehk; their creator; their father; their king. Their loyalty could never be in question.

That is, until Asali met the goddess who had been the reason for their creation. Each of the generals led a regiment of one hundred, and each regiment was assigned to a different task. Asali's soldiers were tasked with protecting Liysnah's prison. They couldn't enter it, of course, but they could stand at the border, guarding a prisoner who had done nothing to deserve her imprisonment.

Asali met her on a day when riotous celebration was underway in the sun palace. Ever the loyal soldier and dutiful son, Asali chose to forego the festivities to remain on duty. None of his subordinates were around when he first spoke to Liysnah, and nobody knows what was said that day, but love blossomed between them.

They spent years together, catching moments of intimacy away from the watchful eyes of Asali's comrades in arms. But to beings of such long lifespans, each decade is but a heartbeat, and they passed far too quickly.

Eventually, the inevitable day came when Safrehk found out about their passion, and he was enraged. Worse than that, he was afraid. He was afraid of what his imprisoned sister and loyal protege may have been plotting in the dark corners of their passion. He was afraid of them and he was jealous. He forbade them from speaking, going so far as to curse the very essence of Asali's being.

Safrehk made it so Asali could not set foot in the nighttime in which his love was imprisoned, and he took his wing. Safrehk tore off one of Asali's precious wings so that he could never fly again. Asali suffered. He felt guilt for betraying his creator, yet the pull his heart felt towards the night and its beautiful moon goddess kept him glancing towards her and her prison. No matter how much he wanted her, however, Asali believed the matter settled. He was cursed now. If he even went near Liysnah's prison, he would die.

Liysnah, on the other hand, would not give up. She went to her closest friend, the trickster goddess Nauefek. She asked Nauefek to find a way for them to be together, and Nauefek delivered. She provided Liysnah with a spell, one which would turn Asali into a creature of darkness rather than one of light. It would reverse Safrehk's curse, allowing him to walk in the night and only the night.

Liysnah cast the spell without asking Asali. He was gazing longingly the bright blue sky when he felt the wings on his back begin to burn in the light of the sun palace. He plummeted to the ground, seeking shelter from the burning sun. When night finally fell, he called on his followers to carry him up to Liysnah's prison, knowing that she was the reason for this change.

When she saw what had become of her love, she gasped. Asali's face retained its angelic beauty, but it had been distorted into something nearly unrecognizable. His mouth held predatory fangs which seemed perfectly suited to the tearing of flesh. His eyes were red, and where kindness had once lived in abundance, now there was only malice. His skin had lost its golden glow, seeming pale and drawn. His wings, once made of glorious golden feathers, had become leathery like those of a bat.

Liysnah was shocked, but she still felt love for the man beneath the monster she now beheld. She professed her love for him in that moment, telling him all that she had done for him, telling him about the deal she had made with Nauefek and about the spell she had cast, but Asali would not listen. In place of the love he had once held for her, he now felt only hatred.

You see, the light in Asali was a part of him. It was ingrained into the very essence of all that he was, and so, when that light was reversed and turned to the darkness, so, too, was everything else in him turned opposite. His kindness turned to cruelty, his joy to rage, and all the love he had felt had turned to loathing.

Asali laughed at Liysnah's pleading. He laughed at her and he scorned her, and when he had had his fill of her pain, he left her alone in her prison in the night sky.

When he returned to the planet below, he shed his name, and he shed whatever love may have remained within him. He took a new name, Damnatus, and [put something here]