Origin of Adyll

There are many beginnings, and no Beginning. There are many endings, but no End. This is a record of the beginning of our Lady, but it is not her Beginning within the depths of the sky, for that is not for any to know.
A thousand thousand years ago, and still a thousand more, there were two half-brothers who lived on the Land, both sons of the Earth, one of the day, and one of the night. One was Thought, and the other Desire. Desire said to Thought, “This Land should be mine for I am the eldest.” 
Thought said, “If this brings you pleasure, Desire, you may have the Land.” And Thought built a boat and sailed upon the Ocean, and he was happy.
The Moon looked down upon the Ocean and saw Thought, and looked down and saw Desire. Thought was happy in a place he did not possess, but Desire was unhappy although he possessed everything around him. Moon had a daughter, the embodiment of all that is Good in the Heavens, which is where all hope and life have their beginnings. Moon asked her daughter, “Aisha, do you see these sons of my sister and brothers?” And Aisha looked upon the men and she wished to understand them, for there had never been men before these.
Aisha, the daughter of the Moon, decided to visit these sons of the Earth. She opened her wings and flew down from the sky, lighting not upon the land or in the Ocean, but upon the edge of both where the waves turn to foam upon the shore. Thought saw Aisha from his boat upon the Ocean and she was beautiful to behold, for she was made of life and hope. Her hair was sunlight, and her body was clothed in seafoam. Thought changed his sails and came closer to Aisha, for he wished to learn from her. Desire also saw Aisha walking upon the edge of his kingdom, and as he beheld her he coveted her life and her hope for his own, so he ran to her on the sand.
“You are mine!” said Desire. “You are on the Land, and all that is on the Land is mine to possess and do with as I wish!”
Aisha turned to face him, her face as beautiful as her mother the Moon. “I walk on the border between your realm and the realm of your brother, no one owns me.”
“But your feet touch the Land, and the water recedes!” called Desire.
Aisha looked at him with disdain and spread her wings to fly away. “My feet no longer touch your Land, Desire. I go to your brother.” And Aisha flew towards the boat bobbing on the waves of the sea. She lighted upon it and took her human form.
Thought smiled and said to her, “Lady, from whence have you come? I saw you walking upon the edge of the water and talking with my brother, Desire. How fares he upon his Land?”
“I have come from the Heavens in order to ask a question. Why is it that you have nothing but are happy, but your brother who has everything he has desired is unhappy?”
“Ah, my poor brother Desire can never be satisfied. It is his nature to covet what he cannot have. I am satisfied to watch, to learn, and be.”
And Aisha looked upon Thought, and she loved him.  And Thought looked upon Aisha and loved her. And she bore him a child, a daughter, with hair the color of gold.
Desire saw the family on the waves of the sea, and jealousy consumed him, for he wanted a family for himself. He devised a way to deceive Thought and Aisha to come to the Land where he could own them, for the Land had been given to him by his brother. He called to his brother, “Brother Thought! I, your brother, wish to speak with you, for I see you have a child and a wife, but nowhere to call home. I will give you a place on this Land of mine.”
Thought looked at his child and his wife on the Ocean, and he looked at the Land. The Land was broad, and his boat was narrow, so he set his sail towards his brother, Desire, and lighted upon the Land.
Thank you, my brother. It is well met,” said Thought. “My family has need of a place to grow and to live. Together we can make a home in the Land.”
And Desire agreed. Thought and Desire joined and made all things good on the Land – grasses, and plants, and trees that bear fruit. They made animals that walk upon the Land. They made great rivers and great plains and craggy mountains. And out of the mountains came more people, men, and women, and children, the youngest children of Earth. All the Land was good, and Thought dwelled with Aisha and their daughter on the shores of the Ocean in the West, and Desire lived with the men in the mountains of the East.
For many years Aisha and Thought lived together, and their family grew. Seven daughters, and seven sons they had in their home in the Land of Desire. And they were happy, but Desire was not, for he still coveted Aisha, though he had the love of a thousand women, for Desire can never be satisfied.
One day, Desire came upon Thought as he walked in the world and asked him, “Brother, will you come with me to see the new people who have come from the mountains we have made? They have secrets from the heart of our mother the Earth that they wish to teach us.” Thought loved knowledge as much as he loved Aisha, and he agreed to follow Desire into the mountains which lead to the heart of the Earth.
So Thought went to Desire's home in the West and bid farewell to his family and to Aisha. Aisha wept tears at the leaving of her husband.  He kissed her tears from her face, and kissed their children, and went to the East where his brother Desire lived. But Desire told their youngest brothers that Thought had stolen Desire’s wife, and they lay in wait for Thought, and beat him, and locked him away beneath the mountains of the East.
Aisha cried when he was gone, and her tears became the river that runs to the West. She gathered her children to her, seven daughters and seven sons, all with hair of gold. “Children,” she said, “Your father is gone, and I am sad, for another child is to come to this family, and I fear your father will not be here to welcome her.”
Her children did their best to amuse their mother. They brought her fruit and meat and played their songs, and danced. Time passed, and Thought did not return. But Aisha waited for Thought, for she loved him still.
One day Desire came to Aisha in her home at the edge of the sea.
“Where is your husband, Sister? He was to come to me days ago, but he has not come,” lied Desire.
“I do not know, my Brother,” said Aisha.
“I shall wait for him here, if it would please you, dear Sister,” said Desire. “And I will send my men to search the Land for him.”
“As you wish, my Brother,” said Aisha, and she brought him food to eat and wine to drink, and her children played their songs and danced for their uncle, while his men searched for the imprisoned Thought.
A week passed. Desire came to the banks of Aisha’s river where she knelt weeping. “Sister, those who I sent to find my brother have returned. He is dead. Let me console you.”
Aisha looked at his face and saw his lie written in his eyes. She saw his lust written there as well. She dried her tears and left him at the river to find her children. Desire followed.
“What will you do, Sister?” asked Desire, “You are alone. I have no wife. Give yourself to me and I will care for you, and I will call your children my own. You will all be mine.”
“Allow me to grieve the loss of my husband with my children, Brother,” said Aisha.
Desire was angered by her answer. Because she was on the Land, she and her children were his. All that was on the Land belonged to Desire. Thought had given him all of these things, yet he was not allowed to possess She Who Was Life and Hope? Desire set his heart against his brother’s wife, and against his brother’s children, and he hated them. In the night, in the cover of darkness, he laid in wait for the children of his brother, and sought to slay them, sons and daughters both. But Aisha knew his treachery and gave her children the feathers she plucked from her own wings, changing them to golden eagles who she set upon the winds. But she herself, the daughter of the Moon, could not fly for she was heavy with child and she had given her children every feather from her wings.
Desire took her then to his home in the mountains of the East where dwelled the children of the Earth, and put her in a golden cage in the midst of his camp for all to see her humiliation.
But Desire knew he still did not possess Aisha who is life and hope, for no one can truly possess another. When Life has ended, the soul is freed, and when Hope is extinguished, it can spring anew. 
Desire took his brother’s wife and stripped her of every covering. Her wings were already bare, but he had her clothing ripped from her, and her golden hair was shaved. Yet still she would not give herself to him. He did not allow her food or drink, thinking this would take Thought’s unborn child from her, but at night her children brought her meat and fruit they had gathered, and water in their beaks, and so she was sustained, and the child grew in her womb.
One day Desire brought Thought to the cage in the center of his camp to gaze upon his wife. “Your children are dead, Brother, and your wife is mine to do with as I will. You granted me all that is upon the land, and I have taken what I desired. Now go to your ocean, and lay upon your boat, and gaze upon the sky which brought to you all the things that are now mine.”
Thought’s cry of anguish shook the Earth below his feet, for Aisha lay still as death and mighty birds circled above her. Thought took hold of Desire and they fought, but Thought was weakened from lack of food and Desire prevailed. Thought was taken from the camp to the midst of the desert where nothing can grow and left to die. And Thought desired death, for all that he loved was in death’s grasp. He watched the circling carrion birds above him, and felt the sand under his hands, and waited for death.
One by one the circling birds landed near Thought, surrounding him, spreading their wings to shade him. Seven flew away and seven remained, and still he waited for death. Night came and so did the seven birds, carrying grapes, a rabbit, a skin of water, wood, and a flint. And when the Moon shone down upon their wings, they became Thought’s children, seven daughters and seven sons, their golden hair silver in their grandmother’s light.
Thought wept. He wept for his children, he wept for his wife, and he wept for his brother. This is why we hold the day of equal light and equal dark as a solemnity for all times, to remember those we love that we have lost, for our Father, Thought, did so in the desert a thousand thousand years ago. And those we have lost will come again, as Thought’s children came to him on the desert wind that autumn night.
Thought built a fire with the wood and flint his children brought him. He roasted the rabbit and ate the grapes. He drank the sweet water. He listened to his children as they told the story of the sacrifice their mother made for them, and her humiliation at the hands of Desire. And Thought was wounded in his heart. He cried in the desert to the Moon and to the Earth to help him deliver his Beloved from the hand of Desire.
Thought walked in the desert a day and a night and a day to the camp of Desire. His children flew in slow circles above him in the day and walked beside him in the night. He walked as one who has lost his soul, for his grief and his guilt were heavy burdens to bear. 
Aisha’s mother looked down from the Heavens and remembered her daughter, and caused a great sleep to fall upon the men of the camp when Thought came. He walked to the center of the camp where his Beloved lay sleeping. The children of Thought and his Beloved grasped the cage with their talons and pulled it asunder. Thought took his Beloved in his arms and left the camp of Desire.
The journey across the desert to the shores of Thought’s Ocean was long, but his mother the Earth smoothed the path before him. Desire pursued behind, but Earth sent sand and the Sky sent the wind to slow his pace. At night Moon did not give light to Desire, showing her face only to her daughter and her family. 
Thought trudged onward through the desert with his children and his wife, but Aisha’s time was upon them. And as the Moon grew full above them, the pangs of her labor began. Aisha delivered Thought a daughter with hair the color of gold, skin as pale as the Moon, and eyes as blue as the Sky. They named her Mila, for she was loved.
Thought looked at his wife and newborn daughter. He looked upon their children, all now golden eagles. And then he looked to the Ocean where he had spent his years before Desire had temped him with lies of hidden knowledge. He looked upon the Land that he had given Desire so that Desire could be happy.
In the West, the winds and sand formed a cloud low on the horizon. In the East was the shore along which Aisha had stood when she had come from the Heavens. The Ocean beyond could not sustain their children, and Thought lamented that he had given away his birthright, for now his family would be pursued all their days spent in the Land. 
He called out to his mother, the Earth, “Mother, I have sinned against thee! For I have given what you gave me to my brother, Desire, and now he demands what cannot be given – my Beloved and my children. But all that lives on the Land is his, for I have given him this.”
And his Mother the Earth heard his pleas, and in the mountains deep under the Ocean of Thought her heart broke for her son and her grandchildren. The Land shook in her anger, and her blood flowed again from her womb. On the same day Mila, the Loved, was born of Aisha, The Earth birthed the plateau we now call Adyll in a holy joining with the Ocean. This was new land, covered in sea plants and fish as it rose from the depths of the Ocean. There was no longer shore leading gently to the sea, but hard cliffs, one side desert, and the other side Ocean. The land was fertile, and trees, and plants and bird and animals came forth from it. From the rocks came a new kind of people, both men and women, born of the caves and the desert sands. These are the desert dwellers, the Narim, who guard our land from those who would take it from us.
Aisha and Thought’s children took flight up the cliff face to build their nests. This is why it is decreed that those who kill a raptor kill their own sibling, for we are all of the same bloodline.
Aisha was weak from captivity and birth, and was close to death. “You must take Mila to the people of the desert, and you must find a nursing mother for I will not survive the journey to the fortress land your Mother has made for us. Hide in the caves with Mila. We will be together again one day, my Love. But today is not that day. I must return to my own Mother where I shall be healed. But I shall return every year upon the longest day, to walk in the forests of Adyll with my children and to be with my Beloved Thought. This is not the end, my Beloved.”
Thought’s guilt and sorrow weighed upon him like stones heaped upon his head. Aisha had returned to her Mother in the Sky. His children had left to guard the cliffs, and he was alone except for Aisha’s newly born daughter, Mila. He tied her upon his back and left to do as Aisha had told him, to find a nursing mother to feed his daughter.
Desire still pursued from the West.
As the sun began its journey across the sky, the plateau of Adyll cast her shadow across the desert. Thought could see the cookfires of the desert dwellers against the dark purple of the plateau like stars against the night sky. He followed their light to the foot of the mountain, where he was met and welcomed by the Narim who fed him and Mila as if they were their own. 
But Desire still pursued, and Thought warned the tribe of his coming. He told them of the safety of the plateau. Some chose to go with him with their herds and children to the top of the plateau, but others decided to stay within the caves to warn of danger. 
Aisha’s children showed them the way to safety through the crevasses and cracks to the meadows and forests of Adyll. From these people grew the country of Adyll. Mila the Loved became their queen.
Adyll was safe from the wars of the world, for it was separate from the world of Desire. The crevasses and cracks were too well hidden to find the secret way of the eagles. The land blossomed and became fruitful and bountiful. Its children were safe and grew strong. The canyons echoed with music, and the warm waters from the heart of the Earth burst forward to warm them when the winters came.
Thought hid himself in his guilt and sorrow within the secret caves among the dead. And Aisha, the Goddess of Life and Hope, does come to see her children on the longest day as she promised. But even as she searches for her Beloved Thought, he is not to be found, for he lives among the dead and forgotten, drinking deeply from the water of Aisha’s river of tears, always watching for his Brother, Desire.

The Locust King Serial chapter 1 will be released January 2023!

Date of First Recording

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