Bright Eyes

22.2. Liar, Liar

    Then he pointed over to another couple. Tan skin, sable hair, standing several inches taller than the Kadasan couple and heavier in built. The man was dressed in a loin cloth as well, although of a different design—several plaited threads hung from a thick waistband, patterns and symbols of blue, black, and white woven into the fabric. A woman in a loose sleeveless dress stood beside him, one of her shoulders bare, the fabric of her dress woven with similar patterns and symbols as the man's waistband. "The Moana Tribe."

    Then to another, a tall white man and a tall white woman, the man's hair and the woman's tresses sharing a gleaming blonde hue under the patch of sunlight that slipped through the cracks of the foliage. The man stood tall, dressed in a green tunic that reached down to his knees, over his tawny trousers. A cloak in a darker shade of green was draped over his shoulders, and unobscured by the cloak was the left side of his brown leather belt, half of its ornate buckle visible. The woman who stood beside him wore a long green dress and a cloak, and she wore her waist-length golden hair down her back. A band of twisted gold adorned each of their necks. Unlike the other two couples, who stood with their bare feet planted on the grass-strewn floor, they wore simple shoes of brown leather. "The People of Tiern," Mr. Brighteyes said.

    The couple beside the Tiernan man and woman were the tallest of all the people present. Brown hair, fair skin, dressed in clothes similar to those of the Tiernans, although they carried no cloaks on their shoulders. The man donned a tunic the color of cream, a pair of dark gold trousers, and a thin belt of twisted leather strings wrapped around his waist. The woman wore a short-sleeved dress of an ivory color, clinched at the waist with a thin leather belt, its long ends of twisted strings hanging down her skirt. A veil shrouded her long brown hair, yet strands of her chestnut tresses peeked out at the front of the thin fabric. "The People of Soleil."

    The last couple Mr. Brighteyes pointed over to were quite similar to the Tiernans and the Soleilians: taller than both the Kadasans and Moanians, bodies wrapped in olive skin. Both their noses were aquiline in shape, and both their hair color was of a darker shade of brown than the Soleilians'. The man's tunic was purple and short-sleeved, and, unlike the Tiernan and the Soleilian men, however, he wore no trousers, leaving the hem of his tunic to graze his bare knees. The woman's tunic, on the other hand, concealed much of her skin, loose long-sleeves, its purple fabric flowing all the way down to her midstep. They both wore leather sandals. "And the People of Tesoro."

    "For many years," Mr. Brighteyes said, "the people of Crystalline lived in harmony. Amongst them there was no strife, no sickness, no decay, no death. Even the oldest of men and women remained in their prime. Everything they needed Elohim provided. They could speak to him as a man speaks to fellow man, face to face, like how one speaks to a friend. They were content, satisfied. And they were happy, truly happy—a joy that burned bright from within. And they loved: they loved their family, their clan. They treated the other clans as though they were their own flesh and blood, brothers and sisters in Elohim." A pause, a soft sigh. "Until—"

    Silence. There was something in the foliage, Mr. Brighteyes noticed. Something he had seen floating through the verdant spaces and the ligneous arms that held them, even moments back, waiting, waiting, waiting. Mr. Brighteyes then lifted his free hand and pointed to a particular place in the verdure. "Until him," he said. "Until he caused them all to fall."

    Damien, Jack, Sander, Max, and Lyn shifted their sights over to the canopy above. Somewhere amongst the boughs and the leaves was a darkness deeper than the shade they were in, and it blossomed before their eyes, grew to a cloud of black smoke, which careened down the length of the tree and landed noiselessly among the huge roots that jutted out of the earth and wove themselves in and out of the ground.