The Murder of Life

Long ago, as the Earth formed, two beings came from its core. These beings would shape our existences for thousands of years. The first of these beings was Life. Life was formed from the light of a dying star, and she illuminated our planet for thousands of years. Her heat scorched the ground and her light seeped into the water, giving us the light we use to survive. After three thousand years, Life’s heat became livable. This was when the first of our kind came to be. Life’s lungs formed in the cooling stage. When she inhaled for the first time, the ash from all of her heat filled her lungs, and she began to cough. She coughed and coughed and coughed. The ash left her lungs in new shapes, only now they had been lit with Life’s breath. These were the first creatures. Life fell in love with her creatures. She adored each and every one. She shrank herself to their size and walked among them. For a thousand years, Life cared for her creatures and none of them ever perished. During this time, the second of Earth’s children stirred. This being, Death, formed deep underground, away from Life’s heat. Death had slept through all of the thousands of years that Life warmed the earth. Some say that Death would have continued to sleep if Life had not continued making creatures, but she did. Life made so many creatures that the earth began to sag beneath their weight. Death could feel the weight of all the creatures on top of him and so he awoke. As soon as he became fully conscious, Death became overwhelmed with the pain of all of the creatures, which unlike Life, he could feel. And so Death took pity on the creatures that Life created. Death rose from his sleep, and because he formed beneath the crust of the earth, he created a massive hole. To make sure the earth did not fill with the salty water of the sea, Death covered the hole with the first mountain, Pity’s Peak. Death saw that he was too massive for the earth, so he shrank to the size of Life and her creatures, and he walked among them. When he found Life, he followed her. Wherever she went, Death surely followed. Whenever Death felt a creature’s pain, he went to it and took its life force away. This continued for another thousand years before Death began to tire. His arms ached after carrying so much life force for so long. Death decided then, to build a place to keep the life force. For many years, Death stopped following Life and built. He built a structure big enough to contain all of the life force that could ever exist. Because Death stopped following Life for many years, he had to take all of the life force he had missed quickly. Death created a helper for himself. He gave this helper the name Plague. Plague went out and gathered the life force for Death and Death carefully put each bit of life force into the home he built. Plague loved gathering life force and he wanted more of it, for he was young and naïve. Death, however existed from the beginning of everything and knew that Plague could not gather more life force. When he told this to Plague, Plague became angry and ran from Death. For many years, Plague stole the life force from many more creatures than necessary. When Death caught Plague, he locked his helper in a special cage. Death would only release Plague when absolutely needed. While Death chased Plague, Plague met Deceit. Plague became love struck and so the pair wed. Deceit gave Plague a child that spring. Deceit gave the child the name Cunning. Now, when Death finally caught Plague and locked him away, Deceit was overcome with grief. Without Plague, Deceit’s sadness only grew, and soon Cunning’s mother could no longer stand living, and Cunning witnessed his mother’s body hang from the ceiling. And as he always did, Death came to collect Deceit’s life force. He found Cunning crying and cold on his mother’s floor. Death intended to steal away the child’s life force as well, but Cunning looked up at Death and Death took pity on him. Perhaps Death took Cunning is as a favor to his corrupted helper, or perhaps Death simply did not wish to take the child’s life force. No one will ever know for sure. Of course, Death’s decision would affect the world in ways no one, not even he, could have suspected. Many years later, Cunning still accompanied Death on his journeys after Life. During these travels, something happened. This something threw Cunning over the edge and he began to hate Life. This occurrence happened in Life’s favorite town, Parlish. Life visited Parlish often and therefore so did Death. This day was no different. Life walked through the gates of Parlish and in her wake, the vines on the gates bloomed. Beautiful purple flowers crowded the vine. Cunning watched as a little girl called Purity, no older than seven, ran forth and snatched up a blossom. She smiled widely and ran back through the crowd, holding her flower close. Cunning was surprised, then, when Death deviated from Life’s path. Cunning and Death followed her. They found her convulsing, shaking and sweating on the ground. Her eyes had rolled back into her head and blood pooled on her tongue and the ground around her. Cunning stared at the girl, wondering what could have done such a violent thing. Surely an evil human must have struck her down and killed her, he thought. Cunning watched as Death stroked Purity’s hair, almost affectionately and removed the life force from her being. Cunning had seen life force get removed before, of course, but this seemed far more terrible. Cunning had never seen a murder victim before. Death had never let him see. When Purity’s life force was safely cradled in Death’s arms, he reached out. Death gently picked up the beautiful flower that Life had grown for the child. “You see, Cunning,” Death had said, “even the smallest, most beautiful of Life’s creations can be dangerous.” Death, having seen this time and time again, held not vengefulness in his heart, merely sadness. Cunning, however, was livid. Life had grown gorgeous flowers, and each of them was laced with a deadly poison. When Death and Cunning left Purity’s body and returned to Life, they found that she had no clue of what she had done. Life left Palish, but Cunning and Death remained. Through the next few days, Death collected the life force of a great many of Palish’s children. During these days, with their toxic flowers and terrible deaths, Cunning began to resent Life. Life killed everything, and she didn’t even know. A week later, when Cunning and Death caught up with Life, Cunning confronted Life. He waited until Death and Life slept. When each entity was soundly asleep, Cunning woke Life. He took her to a nearby meadow, where Death would not find them. The fact that Cunning found it necessary to hide the meeting from Death implies that even as he did it, Cunning knew it was wrong. “Life!” Cunning shouted, “Do you not see what it is you have done?!” Life blinked confusedly, “I have done many things, Cunning.” “The flowers!” Cunning accused “Oh! Yes they were lovely, weren’t they? I am certain the children adored them!” Life replied dreamily. She was a bit confused as to why Cunning had brought her out here to complement her on her work. “No! They kill people, Life!” Cunning snarled. Life shook her head, “I do not kill my creations. That is up to Death.” Cunning could hear the quiet resentment in her voice. She blamed Death for her creatures leaving the earth. She did not realize that Death could leave her creatures as they were. He could leave them to suffer for all of eternity, but he did not. Death knew only mercy. Life left the clearing, leaving Cunning by himself. This conversation between the two only strengthened his resolve. He would kill Life, whatever it took. Now, Cunning was clever. He knew that Life’s life force was too great for even Death to take, not that Death would ever do such a thing. So that night, in the meadow where Life denied her causing of suffering, Cunning hatched a plan. Many months later, Life and Death stopped at the town of Ilgis, which was very near to where Death had built his home for the life force of all Life’s creatures. After three days in Ilgis, Death told Cunning that he was going to deliver the life force he had to the home. Cunning promised Death that he would keep Life in Ilgis for just a while longer. Death nodded for he did not want to release Plague if he got too far behind. After Death was gone, Cunning invited Life to the Ilgis Tavern. That evening, Life had much to drink, and in the early morning, she blacked out from the great amount of alcohol. Whilst Life slept, Cunning lifted her and took her to the home for the life force. By the time they had gotten there, Death had already headed back to Ilgis. Cunning threw Life in the vat of life force. Life’s body began to absorb the essence around her and her body began to expand. Cunning watched in horror as Life’s body began to stress at the seams, and then with a scream, Life’s body gave out and the heat of the dying star trapped inside of her exploded outward, and all of the world, all of Life’s creatures were completely and ultimately obliterated. And then there was Death. Only Death remained in the ruins of the earth. He walked softly across the scarred terrain, the ash and dust washing against his ankles. A great sadness had fallen over Death, for he was a being of the people and without them, he could feel nothing. Neither pain nor fear nor anger nor joy. Death could feel only the terrible pain and sadness that all people had felt in their dying, but nothing else, nothing more. His pain was made worse by the fact that none of them had truly died. Their life force was still there, but it was too scattered for Death to collect. It was in the harsh darkness of the world, that Death realized a terrible truth. He could never be rid of his pain for he could not collect his own life force. Death was alone in the world, so he thought, and would remain that way for the rest of eternity. But Cunning lay in the ruins of the home Death had so carefully constructed. Cunning’s face was indented with Life’s final breath, and it would remain that way until Death took pity on him, and Death would too, for Death was a spirit of mercy.
Then Cunning began to weep. His tears fell fast and free from his very life force. They washed away all remnants of Cunning, changing him completely. He cried until there were no tears left to shed and he got to his feet. The ash of the world filled his lungs and then he was Life.