From One to Many
It was long said of Terak, King of Heaven, husband to Morwyn the Wise, that reason was not his most pronounced quality. In the earliest days, Bold Terak believed that all could be accomplished by the perfection of self, and so he came to struggle with his brother Tinel, for his brother also held the same belief. But if two seek to be the best, only one can succeed, and the other will be bested. This is the tale of how Terak came to leave such beliefs to his brother, and became Marshal of the Gods.
On a late summer’s day, long ago, Terak was approached by one of his many children he fathered with mortal mothers. This child, who was full in his manhood, was named Aerix, and he was wondrous to behold. Perfect in form, face, and temperament, Aerix was the greatest warrior in the world. He had never met a man or beast he could not slay with his keen spear. He wore armor made from the scales of three of the eldest dragons, each of whom he had slain with a single blow. His long hair was braided with beads of bone—one bone from each of a thousand evil men he had slain in a single battle. The tales of Aerix’s heroism are long and many, but we are concerned herein with his death.
When Aerix found his father that day, he asked him for a boon. Valiant Terak, blinded by love for his greatest mortal son, offered him any godly boon he might ask for.
“Father, I have faced every foe the world holds,” his son began, “and it has become clear to me that no challenges remain. I can defeat any foe of this land—nay, any land—but for you and your kin. I ask you, father, if there is anything on this earth I cannot easily defeat, show it to me!”
Terak the Mighty, who fears nothing and no one, recoiled from this request.
“Do not ask me this, my son! For it is in my power to give, but I would not see you killed before my very eyes!”
But Aerix, swollen with the pride only possible in a man who has led a lifetime of victory, laughed. “Then I shall not let you see it, for I’ll fight my best and will fell any foe! No, father, I must insist. You said any boon, and I will have it!” So, shaking his head sadly, Terak waved his hand in a gesture of summoning. For quite some time, nothing happened. Summer became autumn, and still the glade where father and son stood was silent.
Eventually, Aerix nodded and said, “Ah! Father, you have confirmed what I thought! Nothing comes, for nothing can defeat me!”
But Terak only shook his said sadly and said, “No.”
When they had waited quite some time longer and autumn became winter, Aerix again laughed his mighty laugh, “Oho! Father, I see now! You remind me that I am not immortal, and there is an enemy that will destroy me in the end that even I cannot fight: Time! It shall level me, surely. I understand, and shall endeavor to be humble.” And thinking that he had understood his father’s riddle, Aerix moved to embrace his father. But Valiant Terak shook his head.
“No, my son. I wish this were so, but it is not. There is no trick. Your doom comes.”
Only now did Aerix begin to show fear. They stood there in silence some time longer, and winter became spring. Throughout spring, Aerix guessed at what came, growing increasingly more frightened.
“Is it fear, father? Fear will destroy me?”
“No, my son.”
A thousand guesses, and each met with a heavy sigh and a denial. It was not until late summer, a year later to the day, that Aerix’s fate became clear.
Early in the day, Aerix began to note that the glade’s grass was growing dark. After some time, he realized that the entire area was covered with tiny black ants, all marching across the glade toward him. Looking at them he wondered,
“This is my foe, father? But they are small, and I can destroy them—and even if there are more than I can destroy, how can they hurt me?”
And in his pride he stood and fought the ants, as his father knew he would, when he should have fled. He drank potions that made his breath into fire and burnt a thousand, thousand ants. He stepped upon them. He felled trees and lit them ablaze to destroy them. But still they came. Terak had called all the ants in the world. It had taken them a year to form their army and reach the glade, but there was no stopping them once they attacked. After days of fire and other attacks from Aerix, they reached his feet, this sea of ants. He stomped and shouted, but before long they were to his knees, an endless horde, unstoppable.
As Terak watched his son flail about, screaming for his father’s help, the ants continued their inexorable march, eventually covering Aerix. The greatest mortal warrior in history of the world soon fell to his knees, but the ants did not accept his surrender. Before long, there was no sign that a man was underneath the teeming mountain of ants. Within a week, the ants had left the glade with no sign that Aerix had ever been there but for bones—they had carried away everything else.
Terak took the bones to his son Korak, and had a cloak fashioned from them, which he wears to this day as a reminder.
For Bold Terak realized that his beloved son Aerix had only believed as Terak did: that if a man perfects himself he may do anything, and nothing may stand in his way. On that day, Terak came to realize that it is through the strength of many that all things are possible: One stick, no matter how thick, no matter how strong, may be broken by any force. Bundle together enough sticks, no matter how small, against that force, and they remain unbroken. And so Terak, King of Heaven, husband to Morwyn the Compassionate, took it upon himself to form and command the armies of the heavens.
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