Clouded Purity - Book 2 of The Trial

Clouded Purity - Chapter 6

Nightmares plagued every moment of Ghayle's existence as she lay splayed across the stone. She'd lost track of time, but still experienced every second of her children's lives. Darkness encroached upon the world with each passing second, the slow degradation of society corrupting the lifeforce of every being.

Over the course of her reign as the avatar of the world, this corruption began time and time again, but each time her children had fought against it, coming together in times of crisis and working harmoniously to create times of peace.

But slowly the weight of conflict gathered momentum, increasing exponentially as society turned on itself, cannibalizing its virtue and spreading its filth like paint on a canvas. Only fools exploited their resources to extinction. Only fools bit the hand which fed them. Only fools seemed to exist.

She felt the aching of the world as surely as she felt the life upon it. Every bomb dropped on the tundra of the Dobrag by Ultaka scarred her, and the radiation burned her flesh. Every time Oligan tested their new device, a magnetic field which could destabilize the molecular connections in solid rock and rip mountains to shreds, she felt the world quake in pain.

Minor disputes erupted in other nations, and though these affected her less than the great weapons of the two most powerful nations, nearly every community sparked with conflict. Less powerful bombs scarred the warring states of Lodan in their civil war. Inhabitants of the Incarian sub-continent had destroyed most of their frozen forests to fuel their fires and build their mighty fortresses.

The corruption had even seeped into the Gor tribes, too busy warring with each other to care about the damage done to the forests and plains they inhabited. A new war tactic had led to devastating deforestation and near annihilation of the brushland as the Gor burned their enemies out of their homes.

Only the Elroks seemed to leave the world largely alone, though the government of Ultaka had lured some to work in the massive strip mines north of the Dorram. Others worked for Oligan in their deep and explosive mines, seeking the rare magnetic materials that fueled the Oligani weapons.

Over time, Ghayle had grown used to the pains of the world. Scars came with the territory of being a planet, even from the creatures living on it. Growing pains occurred regularly in the form of earthquakes, weather patterns, and solar winds. Life consumed life. She understood it as surely as the spider ate the fly, and the cat ate the mouse, and the deer ate the grass. This was the way of things, and all creatures had the right to fight for their survival.

But the builder races—those who constructed societies and technology—had grown complacent in their stewardship of the world. They no longer cared about the extent of the damage they caused. What happened to the spider when all the flies were gone? Would they perish along with their food source? Ghayle worried for them all, for they failed to see the downward spiral leading them all to destruction.

They thought only of the squabbles they fought amongst themselves, the corruption of dogmas and ideologies preventing them from recognizing their displacement of the web of life. And the problem grew worse by the day.

The stone beneath her kept her grounded, but the stake through her heart continued to throb in time with the heart of the world, feeling every single wound committed by one child against another. She'd long grown numb to the stings of hunters piercing the hearts of prey, but the extent of needless slaughter, masses dying in the face of political protest and on the front lines of war nagged at her, feeding her nightmares with every breath she drew.

She screamed when Janlynd killed herself, the first sound she'd uttered since Tagren staked her to the rock. Tagren took note of it, of course, moving to her side from his constant vigil on a nearby boulder. He spoke to her, even though she could not respond.