The (New) World According to Lorannon
(roadhouse, travel with man and his little girl then stopover. more on new origins - but also need more coherent version :P)
"Father said that Paladins all learn the story and know absolutely everything you ever want to know about it," said Meadhi.
"Ohh, he did, did he?" Lorannon looked around sourly and spotted the man's back disappearing through the taproom door. It was, he had to admit, a nice dodge. "I see."
Meadhi stared upward.
"Yes, yes, no need to do the big-eyes thing," he said, and she gave a satisfied nod, climbing into the chair on his left.
"So-o?" she prompted, tipping her head for the lilt.
"No need to overdo it, either," he said. "You're cute. I know. Move on."
She obediently shifted down a chair.
"Ah ... right. Anyway. The Beginning of All." He started to unpin his cloak as he spoke, fanning his face a little in the inn's heat. "Before there was All, there was first Nothing: the Void. What Is Not still waits for What Is, but some of What Is is Divine, and Divine are Eternity where Void is Infinity."
"What?" said Meadhi.
"All That Is will never become All That Could Be; Nothing will never consume All That Is."
"Is this going to be a long story?"
"Oh, yes. Really long. With lots of capital letters in."
"What's a capital letter?"
"It's like a snake, but it comes in pink."
"I like pink."
He started to wonder if the huge, intent dark eyes across the table were going to get sleepy or bored any time soon. It didn't look like it.
"Okay, so here's the thing," he said. "First off there was a big, black nothing and the First Divine. Four of them. Or so. And they made a whole lot of other Divine."
"Why?"
"Didn't have the numbers to make a full kickball team. They didn't have a place to play kickball, either, so they got together and decided to make the world as well. The First World, that is."
"From what?"
"Stuff. So, they made the world and other Divines, and then a whole lot of people as well, since no-one was there to watch them and it was a bit quiet."
"And you couldn't go to the fair with just a few people."
"That's right. Very true. Anyway, in those days, people didn't die. Not really. Whenever they died, they always got up again straight away - the Divine just brought them back. How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
"Two brothers," she said in tones of doom. "I wanted a sister but Llu wasn't one."
"Well, in those days, you'd probably have had a few thousand of each. Or more."
"Would we all have had our own pony?" she asked breathlessly. "Or would we share?"
"Oh, strict pony rotations back then. You had to wait centuries for a ride. I guess it wasn't all roses back in the First World, actually." He fanned his face a bit more, wishing he had something nice and cool to drink. "Eventually it started getting really, really crowded. The Divines made lots more space and so on, but they couldn't just keep doing that forever, because the Void lasts forever and takes up space too, and it eats things. In the end it was pushed up so close against the world that every time someone new was made, they got eaten up straight away.
"Of course, that did mean that the immortal pony waiting list shortened considerably."
He paused, noticing an unusual lack of input. Meadhi's anxiously furrowed eyebrows faced him over the table, her eyes hidden somewhere below as she scrunched up a bit tighter in the chair.
He changed tack.
"Anyway, they started the Second World next," he said, deeming the 'Void devouring the First World' as a bit hard to brighten up with ponies. "Since they were a bit too strong and tended to break or bump into the walls where the Void was, the First Divines decided they wouldn't live in the world this time. All the other, smaller Divine they'd made went to live there instead. And they made another really nice place for people to live in, and they had a law this time that people would have to take turns at living - after they died, they'd have to wait for a few more people to die so they could live again. That way the numbers of people wouldn't get too big."
"Did they still play kickball?"
"Definitely. All the time. But unfortunately the Divines started arguing a bit over all their favourite players having to wait around outside the living world for so long, and everyone started doing silly things like killing people so other people would come back and live again, which isn't really fair."
She tilted her head slightly. "Is that why the Queen kills people?"
Lorannon barely blinked, though it was something between a sorrow and a comfort to hear more than ponies pass her little lips. Not a corner of all the northlands that those two don't touch. "No, sweetness, it isn't. The King and the Queen kill people so that people die."
"The King doesn't do that."
It was a correction without rancour, a child's utter conviction in a parent's voice.
He could have told her of open fields, black with crows and shed blood and near-palpable shadows of lingering hate. He could have told her of an all-destroying madness that often seemed as hungry and endless to him as the Void he saw in demon-eyes, a Darkness that white swords could only make worse.
But that would be the rest of her life. Perhaps it would eventually be her death.
What couldn't be prevented - what do we ever prevent? hissed the Voice - could still be delayed.
"The King does that," he said, shifting over a chair and flicking at her round little nose for no better reason than to be glad it was there, "but you never will. Where was I?"
"The Divines were fighting again."
"Yes, they like doing that, don't they? That was the first time they ever fought, though, and it was really very bad, and they accidentally ended up breaking the whole world with all their fighting. Then they made another world, the Third, but that got broken in a whole lot of wars too.
"Finally they decided the only way to keep everything safe was to only visit the world, and live in a place sort of halfway between the world and that further-away place where the four First Divine are, and to all promise never to have a war with each other down where everything was breakable.
"And to make everything fair and stop all the arguing - they thought - they also decided that all people who died would just have to give up their bodies and stay dead. That's why people in our Fourth World here all die."
"Father says driadhi and alcasti don't die," said Meadhi.
"They sort of do," said Lorannon. "Their spirits don't leave the world and go to any of the Heavens or Hells, though."
"Why?"
"That's sort of a different story. Maybe I'll tell it to you later - I'm a bit tired now. Would you like to come help me check on my horse?"
She nodded, but a vague dissatisfaction still faintly wrinkled her nose as she slid off the chair. "I don't think you really know everything about the world, you know," she said reproachfully.
"I think you're right," he said.
"Father said that Paladins all learn the story and know absolutely everything you ever want to know about it," said Meadhi.
"Ohh, he did, did he?" Lorannon looked around sourly and spotted the man's back disappearing through the taproom door. It was, he had to admit, a nice dodge. "I see."
Meadhi stared upward.
"Yes, yes, no need to do the big-eyes thing," he said, and she gave a satisfied nod, climbing into the chair on his left.
"So-o?" she prompted, tipping her head for the lilt.
"No need to overdo it, either," he said. "You're cute. I know. Move on."
She obediently shifted down a chair.
"Ah ... right. Anyway. The Beginning of All." He started to unpin his cloak as he spoke, fanning his face a little in the inn's heat. "Before there was All, there was first Nothing: the Void. What Is Not still waits for What Is, but some of What Is is Divine, and Divine are Eternity where Void is Infinity."
"What?" said Meadhi.
"All That Is will never become All That Could Be; Nothing will never consume All That Is."
"Is this going to be a long story?"
"Oh, yes. Really long. With lots of capital letters in."
"What's a capital letter?"
"It's like a snake, but it comes in pink."
"I like pink."
He started to wonder if the huge, intent dark eyes across the table were going to get sleepy or bored any time soon. It didn't look like it.
"Okay, so here's the thing," he said. "First off there was a big, black nothing and the First Divine. Four of them. Or so. And they made a whole lot of other Divine."
"Why?"
"Didn't have the numbers to make a full kickball team. They didn't have a place to play kickball, either, so they got together and decided to make the world as well. The First World, that is."
"From what?"
"Stuff. So, they made the world and other Divines, and then a whole lot of people as well, since no-one was there to watch them and it was a bit quiet."
"And you couldn't go to the fair with just a few people."
"That's right. Very true. Anyway, in those days, people didn't die. Not really. Whenever they died, they always got up again straight away - the Divine just brought them back. How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
"Two brothers," she said in tones of doom. "I wanted a sister but Llu wasn't one."
"Well, in those days, you'd probably have had a few thousand of each. Or more."
"Would we all have had our own pony?" she asked breathlessly. "Or would we share?"
"Oh, strict pony rotations back then. You had to wait centuries for a ride. I guess it wasn't all roses back in the First World, actually." He fanned his face a bit more, wishing he had something nice and cool to drink. "Eventually it started getting really, really crowded. The Divines made lots more space and so on, but they couldn't just keep doing that forever, because the Void lasts forever and takes up space too, and it eats things. In the end it was pushed up so close against the world that every time someone new was made, they got eaten up straight away.
"Of course, that did mean that the immortal pony waiting list shortened considerably."
He paused, noticing an unusual lack of input. Meadhi's anxiously furrowed eyebrows faced him over the table, her eyes hidden somewhere below as she scrunched up a bit tighter in the chair.
He changed tack.
"Anyway, they started the Second World next," he said, deeming the 'Void devouring the First World' as a bit hard to brighten up with ponies. "Since they were a bit too strong and tended to break or bump into the walls where the Void was, the First Divines decided they wouldn't live in the world this time. All the other, smaller Divine they'd made went to live there instead. And they made another really nice place for people to live in, and they had a law this time that people would have to take turns at living - after they died, they'd have to wait for a few more people to die so they could live again. That way the numbers of people wouldn't get too big."
"Did they still play kickball?"
"Definitely. All the time. But unfortunately the Divines started arguing a bit over all their favourite players having to wait around outside the living world for so long, and everyone started doing silly things like killing people so other people would come back and live again, which isn't really fair."
She tilted her head slightly. "Is that why the Queen kills people?"
Lorannon barely blinked, though it was something between a sorrow and a comfort to hear more than ponies pass her little lips. Not a corner of all the northlands that those two don't touch. "No, sweetness, it isn't. The King and the Queen kill people so that people die."
"The King doesn't do that."
It was a correction without rancour, a child's utter conviction in a parent's voice.
He could have told her of open fields, black with crows and shed blood and near-palpable shadows of lingering hate. He could have told her of an all-destroying madness that often seemed as hungry and endless to him as the Void he saw in demon-eyes, a Darkness that white swords could only make worse.
But that would be the rest of her life. Perhaps it would eventually be her death.
What couldn't be prevented - what do we ever prevent? hissed the Voice - could still be delayed.
"The King does that," he said, shifting over a chair and flicking at her round little nose for no better reason than to be glad it was there, "but you never will. Where was I?"
"The Divines were fighting again."
"Yes, they like doing that, don't they? That was the first time they ever fought, though, and it was really very bad, and they accidentally ended up breaking the whole world with all their fighting. Then they made another world, the Third, but that got broken in a whole lot of wars too.
"Finally they decided the only way to keep everything safe was to only visit the world, and live in a place sort of halfway between the world and that further-away place where the four First Divine are, and to all promise never to have a war with each other down where everything was breakable.
"And to make everything fair and stop all the arguing - they thought - they also decided that all people who died would just have to give up their bodies and stay dead. That's why people in our Fourth World here all die."
"Father says driadhi and alcasti don't die," said Meadhi.
"They sort of do," said Lorannon. "Their spirits don't leave the world and go to any of the Heavens or Hells, though."
"Why?"
"That's sort of a different story. Maybe I'll tell it to you later - I'm a bit tired now. Would you like to come help me check on my horse?"
She nodded, but a vague dissatisfaction still faintly wrinkled her nose as she slid off the chair. "I don't think you really know everything about the world, you know," she said reproachfully.
"I think you're right," he said.