Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 3.17

1,000 YEARS IN THE PAST
LIBRARY OF PROMETHEUS, PHAEDRA

The Tale of the Brother Kings

No one knew where the energy cloud came from, only that it had existed for aeons, drifting though the dark void of space. As it drifted it gathered sights and sounds, little pieces of the universe to hold within itself, until its energy hummed with sentience. It wanted to learn. It wanted to explore. But most of all, it wanted to be something.

It was nothing because no one knew its name. It did not have a name. It wanted a name. When it had a name, it would not be alone.

Over the centuries it encountered many physical forms of sentience. They were wondrous, each in their own way. It watched them and learned. It added their sights and sounds and smells and touches to its own sentience. It smiled an endless purple.

But though these physical entities regarded it with awe, they could not give it a name. They did not know what it was any more that it knew what it was. It yearned for a name, to be part of the universe it loved, and its desire glimmered emerald, like the lights it had seen pulsing into oblivion.

The universe was littered with giant spheres that hung in the dark, each a unique concoction of gases, solids and liquids. Within these spheres were hundreds, thousands, hundreds and thousands, of names. Each one had a story behind it. Each was known and loved, and belonged. Yet even with all those names, on all those spheres, hanging in all that dark, there was never a name left for it.

Perhaps, it thought, it was not meant to belong. Perhaps it would always be alone.

It drifted sadly, meaninglessly, unknown and unloved, with this knowledge aching its consciousness.

Then it found the twin planets.

Here was something unique, something it had not found before - a solar system untouched by sentient life. At its centre spun a beautiful star, hot and fierce. Not far from this star, this sun, was a sphere of sanded deserts that stewed with heat. On the other side of the solar system, where the sun's rays struggled to reach, was another sphere. This sphere was dark and cold, a bauble of mesmerising ice.

It could rest here. It could learn. In time, it could belong. Perhaps it could even give itself a name.

But these spheres, these planets, were equally beautiful. One was a blaze of glory, the other a twinkle of peace. It could not choose.

So it split its energy into two. Half of it went to the planet of heat, the other to the planet of ice. Over the years, each of the half-clouds, adapting to the environment around them, learned to take physical form. The half on the cold planet became the ice demon Aurorus, and that on the hot planet became the fire demon Dionysus.

Finally, they had names. What was nothing was now something. They belonged.

The planets, too, came to have names - the icy planet was given the name Phaedra, and the fiery one the name Ariadne.

The demons discovered a food source on both planets. Dotting each planet's core was a stone that held energy within it. The stone on Ariadne glowed emerald, while the stone on Phaedra was lit by an amber flame. By consuming these stones, the demons could add to their energy. They could split further, making more of themselves. These children of theirs populated each planet, becoming two powerful races. The ice demons were ruled over by King Aurorus, the fire demons by King Dionysus. These were the Brother Kings.

King Aurorus, whose heart was a gentle lilac, sought to expand his knowledge of the universe he loved. He directed the building of great centres of learning. His children, forever curious, delighted in the discovery of new things.

King Dionysus's heart glimmered emerald. He desired a legacy that no one could forget. A name that was eternal, and would forever belong. His children were equally ambitious. They hoped to one day sail the stars, leaving their name in every corner of the universe.

The two races lived in peace, each chasing their own dreams, and the galaxy was lit lilac and emerald with their happiness.

Then something odd happened.

King Aurorus began to hear voices.

He became troubled, retreating into conversations with himself, much to the concern of his advisors.

One day he approached his brother.

"Brother, we must stop consuming the stone," he pleaded. "It is not for us to take. It is a part of the planet on which we live. We are hurting it."

"What madness is this, brother?" King Dionysus replied. "Without the stones, how can our races grow? How can we expand beyond this solar system?"

Aurorus continued to plead. "You must give up that dream, brother. Is it not enough to learn and explore? Every night I hear the cries of our planet, our mother. She is in pain."

"I do not hear anything, brother," retorted Dionysus. "I fear you have gone mad. "

"I am not mad, brother!" Aurorus insisted. "Can you not see? We were one once. Our mother speaks only to some of us. The others cannot hear."

King Dionysus's heart filled with sorrow. "You are mad, brother. I will not listen to you."

Sorrow now pierced King Aurorus's heart. "Then I must take up arms against you, brother."

And the ice demons, under the orders of their king, rose up against the fire demons.

A great war ensued. Many were injured. Their energy scattered throughout the atmosphere, the damaged particles unable to remain together. Though the fire demons still consumed the stone, which they called emerquartz, their energy became less and less. When they split, their children could not hold the same forms as they. With each generation their forms became smaller, more fragile, less powerful.

The same happened with the ice demons, though faster, as they had been instructed by their king to not consume any more fire quartz, which was the stone found in the ground of their planet, Phaedra.

Those demons whose energy was set adrift took smaller forms once healed, in order to fit in with their brethren.

The war raged until Aurorus trapped his brother in an orb sealed with ice energy. By that time, the demons who had once called the twin planets home were no more.

*

Scion slammed the book shut.

His mind whirled. All this time. After all their talk of moral superiority. The Phaedreans had made it seem like the Ariadni's fault. The Ariadni were violent, and violence was bad. That's why the Phaedreans had to stop them. And yet, all this time they were living and breathing a lie.

When Scion next met Oedipus, he was breathless with excitement and righteous anger.

Oedipus's lips stretched into a smile. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Scion nodded. A trickle of cold sweat ran down his cheek. "The Phaedreans attacked us first," he said. "They started the war."