King Leviathan chuckled to himself as he sat gazing into the fire pit. The first signs of movements Jared and Devane had seen from him for quite a while.
"What's so funny?" Devane challenged.
"Nothing." The king dismissed with a smile, removing his scratched-up glasses from the brim of his nose.
"Is that all we're going to get from you?" Devane pressed, his irritation overflowing into his voice. "Nothing, or are you finally going to start talking?"
Jared tried to tell Devane to calm down, but the completely unbothered king spoke for himself. "What is it you want to know?"
"You already know what," Devane boiled, but the king only stared at the advisor's glare with solemn eyes.
"How is it someone gets the power of the gods?" Jared requested, as calmly as he could though he was burning for answers.
"What makes a man a man and a god a god?" The king asked instead.
Jared sighed, while Devane looked like he was about to murder the most powerful man alive.
"Everything." Jared answered, but seeing the king did not look satisfied added, "Power, knowledge, control."
"And what gets in man's way in search of all that?" The king asked.
"Stop trying to lead us on with questions." Devane bluntly intervened. "We are not children, tell us what you know, or tell us to leave."
"I know many things." The king replied, looking down at his fire. "A lot of which I wish I could forget." The monarch lifted his hands and the flames of the fire started to take the shape of people and landscapes of a vast city, but one Jared nor Devane recognized. And in the midst of it all rose the silhouette of a man rendered by fire.
Jared realized he was depicting the time of vessels. When they weren't just potential or what some say were myth, but when gods walked the world.
"A vessel is a powerful thing," King Levithan narrated as his mind controlled the many shifting colors of flames and the imageries they projected. "Too powerful for this world." He clarified as the vessel formed by flames destroyed everything around him with one slash of his burning blue hands, setting off sparks into the crowd of children that had gathered to listen to the story. "And there rose to be far too many," The monarch narrated as from the ashes dozens of humans arose and grew to be as big as the first vessel, erupting a tornado of fire as they began to battle each other. One launched a burning ember across the pit to topple over the pyramid of firewood.
The king surveyed the flames with a dejected gaze, remembering how devastation reigned his time of childhood. "And their destruction spread across this entire world, leaving no one safe. Before I put a stop to it."
"By putting other forms capable of mass destruction into this world," Devane charged. "You were the one that created those artifacts." The advisor accused, with slanted eyes. "Didn't you?"
King Leviathan's gaze stayed fixed at the flames that had suddenly dwindled to near extinction. "I had to." He regretted.
"Why?" Devane urged. "And why not destroy them now?"
"Because I can't." King Leviathan plainly stated his flames searing up once again with the commands from his thoughts. "When I first started massacring the vessels, I could face off against only one at a time." The fire echoed his words, displaying the first vessel from flame getting the centers of him blown through and collapsing into ashes from the attack of another vessel that ascended down in his place with a crown of blazing white. The depiction of King Levithan then turned to attack the others, eliminating one more instantly. "And I was powerful enough to beat every one of this. Knowing this the remaining vessels, all teamed together to try and stop me." The other ten vessels of flames shifted their attention to the newest man turned god with burning blue flares spraying from their hands. King Levithan backed away as he created four different weapons to either side of him from the ashes, and from the ashes arose eight wielders made of coal to take hold of the artifacts. "When I created those weapons, it was so warriors could fight beside me, so together we could kill the remaining vessels. For that, to work I needed to make weapons that vessels couldn't simply destroy, and so neither could I." King Leviathan explained as the two sides charged one another and the collision spurted whirling embers into the air. When the side of the vessels heaved their magic at the artifact users, the weapons cut through them ensuring an epic battle. The flames fought to overtake one another, neither side prevailing as the victor until the figure flame of King Levithan raised his open palms towards the sky and a double-ended scythe came forward that was promptly captured by the figure of a man who severed through a vessel of flame in one robust swing. With the new weapon in play, the vessels were quickly slaughtered with their red blood of flames sparking out. The scene ended with all nine users kneeling before their king, that now stared gloomily at their memory.
"Why not gather them and keep them with you now?" Devane asked, after a moment of silence.
"I left them to be used as tools of peace." King Leviathan stated but holding silent about his other reason. "Ensuring so by putting one measure in place." The monarch added as he brought to life the nine ancient artifacts of known once again in the fire's flames.
"The powers of those weapons can't be fully unlocked unless the wielder has rejected it." The king revealed, turning his hand as the weapons began to spin. "Because no man that has access to that much power should ever want to use it." He finished, closing his fists as the weapons fell back to ash.
"But I've seen them used before," Jared said thinking back to his days in Attwood when the trinity of artifact users displayed their powers to motivate the students. They would even hint that if one of them became strong enough they could inherit the weapon. He still remembered how excited everyone became, and how hard they worked after the speech, all vying for the position as one of the artifact users that had already been fulfilled. "And the people using them didn't seem like the types to reject power."
"Anyone can access some of the powers of the artifacts." King Levitation stated. "Less than 10 percent of what is fully capable of them, but it tricks most into believing that is all the power the weapon possess. And when it falls into the hands of the right user it's not access to more power that makes the new wielder stronger but the wielder himself is just more talented with it. But for those weapons to be used with their full power, they need to be seen as the burdens they are, because for such power to rest in the hands of the right man, means they should never want it." The king sighed, staring into his burned-out fire. "If only those weapons were still in the wrong hands now." He remarked, with tired heavy eyes. "They would be far less dangerous."
Devane's eyebrows knitted tightly together as he thought about the one Loy carried with him. The prince used to complain about how heavy it was and now swung it around as light as a feather. Devane had thought he had just finally grown used to it, but something changed remarkably and abruptly in Loy's fighting. He was suddenly unbeatable and moved faster than he ever had before and could use its ability whenever he wanted. At what point had Loy matured far enough to reject power? Devane wondered.
"But riding the world of vessels, you left to hide out here all this time?" Jared asked, his mind processing too many things at once.
"Is it hiding?" King Levithan returned. "I liked to imagine I was doing some good."
"What minimal amount of good works you do here is nothing compared to what you could truly accomplish," Devane scathed, fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of the monarch. "If your powers are to be believed."
Jared distressed over Devane's aggression once again, but the king only looked at him with a profound far-off smirk, like he was seeing far into the advisor.
"Please don't mind my friend, he's just..." Jared trailed off without a good excuse for his rudeness.
"You are an advisor. It is your duty to speak the truth as you see it to kings." King Leviathan said. "But I have not taken a throne in almost a thousand years, and my ability to listen has lessened with age."
"As has your morals," Devane ridiculed, outraged that such a powerful man laid dormant. "You stay hidden away to escape responsibility, while the world suffers endless evils that you could put a stop to." Devane glared down his nose at the monarch who looked back at him with open eyes.
"You fault me more for choosing to live my life in peace, not knowing all I do to ensure that peace, as fragile as it is." King Levithan said looking to the newborn night sky. "For a thousand years I stayed as the invisible hand guiding the world along, hoping for it to progress, for humanity to end the pain it inflicts on itself by refusing to learn. And for a thousand years, I've watched father train son to murder his enemies before the child has any enemy to know. I've seen humanity commit enough atrocities that I've questioned if we are really humans, or if we are the demons. You've seen some horrible things in your 40 short years of life. More than enough to question your duty and faith in humanity, and I have a thousand years of those memories, but what truly haunts you comes with the knowledge you can only have when you have been in this world for as long as I. The most devastating thing to come to understand is not carnage or evil or massacre, but seeing it repeated again and again, and knowing that you will never be able to put an end to it, no matter how low you sink, how retched you become, there will always be something worse. An evil you'll never be able to end no matter how low you make yourself to match it, because the gods created us in their demented image and it's their image we haven't been able to escape."
Every child fell quiet, suddenly confused and worried by such a grievous declaration from the man, who had for as long as they needed him too be, were their forever persistent source of comfort and hope.
"You're wrong," Devane refused, splitting the silence as his emotional state nearly did. "You have to be wrong," He pleaded, his voice growing desperate as he imagined all the evils, he committed for the sake of advancing its end.
"I used to pray to the gods every day they would prove me wrong," The king said, looking far off in the sky, thinking of his disappointment in humanity, exemplified by how the artifacts he left in this world in the hopes one would use it to prove real good could come from men, were just weapons used for selfishness. "But the gods don't listen to humanity's pleas for peace, and I found my answer in their thousand years of silence. The gods don't want peace, they don't want an end to war and human suffering, they encourage it, because the last thing the gods want is for us to move past our need for them, and we need them most in times of strife. In our lowest points of humanity is when we call to them and so they encourage carnage, by giving away this power to humans knowing that it only causes death and destruction, and it is this vicious cycle they will never release humanity from." The king said as he looked to the sky with narrowed eyes like he was facing off in a fight.
"So, that power is still possible?" Jared asked, fixated on one part of the rant, "The power to become a vessel?"
King Leviathan eyed him over sadly.
"Please, I need to know," Jared begged, standing up to beseech the king. "Is it really still possible for one to get the power of the gods? And what is it really that one has to do to become a vessel?"
The king looked at Jared. His thousand-year-old eyes had stopped differentiating between all the different hues of colors of a person's eyes and only took notice of the emotion and intent behind them. Jared's were transparent, desperate, and going to be disappointed. "Everyone wants to know how to get such power when the real question they should ask is how does one go on living once you do."
Jared and Devane both fell silent, contemplating the notion.
"The gods have always demanded sacrifice, but why? They could take whatever they desired, so why would they want anything from us?" The king proposed.
"To show our devotion," Jared answered, feeling uncertain of his answer.
"Perhaps," The king said. "Or perhaps it's because to become as great as them we need to rid ourselves of what makes us human." The king said, looking at his fire. "Desire is what ties us to humanity, it's within us from birth and does not leave us even in death. And the only way to become more than human is to rid ourselves of desire."
Jared sat quietly trying to make sense of the king's compilation.
"You can only obtain such power by separating yourself from the thing that connects us all to our humanity. The sacrifice you have to make isn't just the thing you care about most, it's the core of you, your reason for living. And once you rid yourself of your greatest desire, you can start to be filled with the power of a god." King Levithan said as if it greatly saddened him. "But what becomes the meaning of such power, if there is nothing to do with it?" He looked at the fire, the flames in his eyes flickering in a way that did not mirror what was before him. "No one could sacrifice willingly what it is they care about most, and those that do, find no purpose to hold such power once they've lost all meaning to live." The king lamented, starting at his fire but not letting them see his memories this time in pictured flames. "But humanity only thrives on greed, and without desire, there is no striving for anything. So, what is the point of power if there is no care to use it?" The king looked at Jared as if he was searching for the answer from him. To which Jared had absolutely none.
"So, no one can become a vessel unless they get rid of desire completely?" Devane asked. "There must be quite a few people that fit that requirement."
The king laughed, but it held no humor. "No one could never willingly give up their truest desire, even for ungodly power because even if you do you then have absolutely no purpose once you get it. Because desire leads us, as destructive as it is, it is the pull on humanity. And to cut ties with the chains of humanity you must sever desire." King Levithan imaged his own experience becoming a vessel, something he still hadn't come to terms with. "And so, anyone that desires the power will never have it, and anyone that has the power will have no desire to use it."
The thousand-year-old monarch stared down at his fire. In it, he could see a thousand different eyes in the smoldering embers. He could even see Jared the day he entered his old castle and see the moment his sister cut off her hair and threw it at the base of his stone feet. He could see the way students looked up at him like he had every answer in the world. He could see the teachers who had greed in their hearts, and the pure love forming between a particular cold boy and a warm-hearted girl.
"But man's dark appetite," The wary king spoke. "Once awoken, never truly settles."
Jared paused for a moment as his stomach clenched in the tightest knot he had ever felt, and when his question came out, it felt like vomit burning his throat. "So, there is a way to still become a vessel?" He asked, his voice raw and unstable. "The rumors are possible? This entire time I've been looking for an answer that would save my sister, but I've just proven to myself there is none. She'll be killed, just like everyone else that's been killed in pursuit for this stupid power that will only lead to more destruction and carnage." Jared dug his nails into his scalp, his breathes shorting and the oxygen not reaching his brain. "There's nothing I can do to save her, there was no point in any of this!"
"There is no way to stop the power from being part of existence." The king replied. "But there is a way to prevent any further deaths in the pursuit of it. The knowledge you have you can never pass on to another. You must keep the doubt there is in the world that one can rise to become a vessel. It is the only way humanity will stop chasing it and as best as we can do."
"As best as we can do," Devane mocked, after silently listening to everything and his building rage finally spilled over. "You're full of shit. Prevent it, you should be the one on the front lines of this!" Devane spat. "Who lives for a thousand years and does next to nothing! The only other thing that does that is a tree. Useless tree king."
Tree king? The king thought to himself. That was a new one.
"Devane, calm down," Jared said, knowing the king could kill him with barely a lift of his hand.
"No." Devane rated. "My tolerance for apathetic rulers ran out once Loy turned seven. If you really mean to help humanity, then help him now." Devane asserted, standing up for Jared. "His sister is innocent and keeping her alive is in the best intentions for the world."
The king looked down at the fire, his emotions becoming distant and unreadable.
"I will always do what is best for humanity." The king declared. "That's why I can't show myself to it. Not while using this power."
Devane looked like he was about to strangle the most powerful man alive, and Jared had to put his hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
"So, you think you can trick the world into believing the vessels of the gods is no longer possible?" Devane accused. "Men will never stop chasing this power." He contested. "You've been lucky so far, but what makes you think someone won't rise to the gods' standards and fulfill a fate out of your control?"
"Because" The king said with a far-off knowing smirk as he put back on his murky glasses, "Fate is nothing but the influence of others in our lives." The king said in a trance like state as he looked out into the night sky to see far more than what was there.
Devane tissed at the king's pretentious shift of voice. "Stupid tree king," He snarled. The king laughed at the insult before pulling out one of his many pocket watches. The time showed a few hours later than what the time in this area was now, which meant he was just about ready to make his appearance.
"You should make your way to your sister soon." King Leviathan informed Jared as he tucked his watch away. "It's about time she's back in your care." In less than a second of flash, the king vanished, and Devane and Jared were left with only disappointment and anger.