The Legend of Cush

Confusion in Alonika

Chapter 3: Confusion in Alonika

King Isasda and his soldiers looted Matella, carried off choice captives, and left the kingdom in ruins. In such condition did the immortals in the goddess of Immortality, Ida, and the guardian of the Seven seas accompanied by Harabona the Wizard and the Priestess Ulele arrived to see for themselves the happenings what their acolytes have reported. They circled the city and again the guardian of the Seven seas gave off that fiery scream he did eighteen years ago as he watched Ukal’s son taken into custody by centaurs to be nurtured and groom for the liberation of his people.

The guardian of Abyssinia who is the Sun-god, with his most decorated shrine situated in Matella, the kingdom he inhabits and protects, did not stop Isasda because of the stubbornness and pride of Uka1 1V who refuse to heed the warning of the Sun god delivered by the hand of the god of Death.

“Time”, he growls in his animal-like voice, “is here for the return of the son of the gods. The one I have possessed, he is the son of the gods. No mortal shall defeat him, and he would go on to defeat even immortals’.

 As he spoke smoke billowed from his mouth like thick clouds. Instantly, as was his custom, he was off and with him the goddess of Immortality, a beautiful maiden, hurt by the treatment of the maidens of Matella and Alonika by Isasda because she is the patron of all the maidens in Abyssinia.

In all his wizardry, Harabona, the Priest of the Sun god could not divine the identity of the expected liberator of Matella spoken of by the gods; the gods always will play on the limited knowledge of mortals, and let them know what they should and not what they should not. Accordingly, he was kept out of the picture being not among the circle of the gods.  For all believe that Queen Ro, then heavily pregnant, perished with the storm of the invasion with her unborn child. But this is power-play on the part of the guardian to cater to his self-interest.

The Sun god had planned all alone to groom a human to fight his wars against the gods undermining his authority and power in Abyssinia, among them gods of Strength and War and when King Isasda took a war to Matella, the opportunity fell on his laps; he could have simply minimized the damage done to Matella by warning King Ukal 1V himself or saved the King’s family, but then he would not possess the soul he will use in his wars and now is a noble soul from his beloved Ukal clan. His will must be done and Ukal, after all, will still have a seed on the throne when the dust settles and the seed shall be the liberator of Matella. He had degreed that the young Ukal now taking refuge in the Seven seas kingdom shall not liberate his people; his possessed soul shall have that assignment. Now that the opportunity has come, he shall not let it pass by.

However, Harabona and Ulele were left to make a decision when the son of the gods should be called up to deliver his people. He rightly understood that the Sun god has given him instructions to that effect; however with the gods, time is immaterial, he shall take his time, but failure is not tolerated and will mean disaster for them. Though he knew not who this son of the gods is, or where he is, he knew what to do. He will summon the Lesser spirit to appear before him, it is he that will say where the liberator can be found. The friendly Lesser spirit is the intermediary between the Sun god and humans and had been faithful in his role as the guarding spirit of Matella for ages.

 Both, as the representatives of the Sun god are untouchables in all of Abyssinia, feared, revered, and treated as gods themselves since they speak for the god. Both from different pedigrees and backgrounds but have come to share a common fate that is uncommon among the populace which has earned them the prestige which comes with their offices. The priest and priestess of the Sun god do not marry or bear children; they are sacred mortals serving the divine purposes of the great deity in the universe of Abyssinia gods. It was a fate that far outweighs the privileges that go with the office of the priesthood, but yet not many are privilege to serve in these exalted offices. For Ulele, belonging to the line of the Ukals was all that qualifies her and was attracted to it from the pomp that goes with it. And for Harabona, whom fate was cruel to and only the intervention of divinity saw him seated today as the chief priest of the Sun god.

But in Alonika confusion reigns as power-drunk king Isasda led Queen Aqamasi, Itamadi the magician, and the conquered citizens to a celebration, offering as sacrifice seven virgins to the god of war, Zo whom he revered most and place a higher premium on than Libi his mentor. And during in his wild celebration was visited by the god of Strength, Libi and the god of Death, Soza at his feast on the twentieth anniversary his victory over Matella, his mortal enemy.

 As the celebration went on, a feast he holds every year for seven days since his defeat of Matella, the Sun god now ready to take vengeance, showed his power when in a fiery burning cloud roars over the skies of Alonika in a show of power and superiority over gods and mortals causing a great commotion among the people as they ran helter-skelter in panic. And the god of Death laughed a strange laugh, while Libi the god of Strength quickly understood that the age-old implacable wrath of the Sun god has arisen and nothing could be done to placate it until vengeance is exacted and his will done.

The physical appearance of the god of Death is one that frightens, not only mortals but even Lesser spirits are put to flight when they encounter him. He comes completely blackened, like one painted about with pitch, with a hollowed skull, bony frame, and languid looks but moves with a surprising energetic sprint in his strides. He seldom walks among mortals except on rare occasions to witness souls as they leave the fleshly frames of mortals in the transition to the world of the dead. When a man is dying, at the minute his soul lives his flesh, Soza, will make himself available, albeit invisible, watching as the souls' transit to another world, his world.

This god is pleased by nothing spiritual or physical but the death of a mortal man; when men die, he is exultant, however, he will not by himself initiate or instigate those deaths, he believes man has enough evil in him to destroy himself and does not need another to aid him, so all he does is watch as man destroy man or gods whom men worship destroy him just as he is privy to the plans of the Sun god against Isasda, Libi’s protégé. The least he does, and in his happiest moments is to warn, and in such instances, he is sent by the only entity he esteems, the Sun god. It was he who sent him to warn King Ukal 1V concerning Isasda so to test Ukal’s loyalty and obedience. But like all men, the king despised Soza, who is himself, death, and did not heed the warning which originated not from Soza, but the guardian god himself.

Libi is not a mortal to be frightened by the fiery passage of the Sun god in the skies, rather he responded to Soza’s reaction to the ominous sign.

“Oh death, you savor the moment of death for the mortal, you prowl on all sides, and now, what again you spirit of eternal darkness?”, he growled at Soza, but Soza, in his usual self, saying little or nothing to the various accusations of causing the deaths of mortals, bellowed out a stranger sound instead, shook his fist at the kingdom of Alonika and vanished. He is the least of magnified gods in Abyssinia universe of the gods.

Concerning the actions of the Soza, Libi called out to Isasda, “Oh King Isasda, the son of strength, oh that you linger not in celebration, for death has come to you”.

King Isasda emerged from within his palace, furious, “Oh, immortal one, did you bring death to your own? What then, is my victory in vain?

“Will you question Libi, oh King Isasda? The pain you caused over two decades ago for Matella has drawn the wrath of the Sun god, guardian of the Seven seas. Prepare now, for what has come against you is great, is great”, and with that, he was gone and the celebration ended abruptly.

The Sun god’s first ever response to King Isasda since his unprovoked invasion of Matella is to abort his biggest victory celebration yet by roaring across the skies of Alonika in his anger which is displayed in a cloudy ball of fire and that he did effectively putting an abrupt end to it. If the King didn’t reverence the Sun god, two-third of Abyssinians do, all in the empire feared him and none will see his fierce appearance as this one and remain outside. Indeed, before the self-willed king could notice what was happening outside, the entire square was emptied of all celebrations; the streets deserted which further stoke his blind fury.

With the people scattered, Isasda discombobulated and fumed with rage at no one in particular, and in that confusion summoned Queen Aqamasi and the magician Itamadi. He broke the bad news to Itamadi who came in first, in a drunken rage, “Death is at the door, Libi warned me and he left in anger for which cause I don’t know. What do I do?”

 “What angers him, my lord?” asked Itamadi, very calm, knowing Isasda is drunk and might have angered Libi to leave displeased.

“No questions, magician, get to work. Where is the witch?” Just then the Queen walked in, “King Isasda, what troubles you?” she asked.

“Queen Aqamasi, the grand witch, there is no time for probing, trouble brews. The Sun god of the Seven seas, whose grandson I have vanquished is wrath against my kingdom, and Soza, the harbinger of death is not far from us. I seek your counsel, witch.”

“Your strength was yet with you, where is Libi?” Aqamasi asked again, for Libi is central to King Isasda’s success and everything revolves around him protecting his puppet on the throne of Alonika, but Isasda dodged the question yet again and brushed off vaguely the idea of Libi as his mainstay with prideful words, “Mention not Libi, he has done his path, we shall do ours, witch”, he said, and the Queen and Itamadi looked on perplexed.

It is said that what destroys a man most, is not his little attitudes and habits which he indulges, but unchecked pride. Rather than tell his closest confidants his disrespectful confrontation with Libi, his strength, perhaps a way be found to appease him, he opts to hide under his authority, instead.