Chapter 2
Nursing an Evil

The child played with stones at the edge of the cave, banging them together and making babyish gabble. I watch her, unsure really what to do with her. She couldn’t walk yet, nor could she eat anything hard. I felt that there might be some potential in her, being the daughter of an Elementalist. I did sense an energy within her. It was queer in a way, powerful, almost too powerful to be held in such a weak Body. She stopped for a moment and examined a stone an intelligent gesture I assumed. She looked over to me. “Ghaa!” she said and banged the stone to the cavern floor.
“Ghaa.” I said to her. “Ghaa-os. Ghaa-aye-ah-os. Gaiaos, Embodiment of Earth and Body. My brother.” She looked at the stone in her hand.
“Ghaa, os?” She then looked to me “Os?” I figured she wanted to know what I was. I didn’t have… a name I realized… let alone an Element to control. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Ah?” she looked confused and mimicked me by shrugging her own shoulders. I smiled at her and swept her off the ground.
“Ah? What’s that suppose to mean?” I asked her. She giggled and grabbed my hair, pulling it gently.  I hissed a bit when she began to pull harder. She giggled some more.
“Ah-hiss,” she said, “Ash…”
“What are you saying, huh? Trying to speak in my tongue?” She pondered for a bit, rolling the sounds of my words under her breath.
“Ash-huh, ash… huh, ongue, ngue, nuh…..Ash-nuh.”
“Naming me, are we?” I liked the sound of the word she made. She giggled some more.
“Ashna.” And it has been my name ever since. I named her Diaga, which also developed due to her little word game.


I took a she-wolf form when we traveled, it was easier for Diaga to hold on to me.  At times we would stop and I would explain to her what things were and the Elements. When we rested, she suckled as I cooed to her.  We were lying beside a stream when two wolf-like things came running through the forest. They laughed as they bounded over the stream and stopped before Diaga and I.
“Well, well, well.” One said in ancient tongue. “A she-wolf nursing a she-human.”
“How strange and unusual,” said his friend. I smiled and shifted to my human form.
“A shifter!?” they said in unison, jumping back in alarm.
“No,” I said to them in their tongue. “I am Ashna, kin to the Embodiments”
“So you are the Unnamed One?” said the wolf-thing who addressed me at first.
“Yes, and you must be of the Wolfkin Tribe, under the Element of Earth?”
“That is correct!” said the other, who was slightly smaller than his friend. Diaga examined the two strangers. They were tall and walked on two legs, but could easily run on four. They both wore loincloths over their private areas. Their chest was covered in a soft fur while the rest of their bodies were covered in a much coarser pelt. A highly crafted dagger was strapped to their sinuous legs. This made Diaga uneasy and she buried her face into my bosom.
“Is the little pup frightened?” asked the smaller Wolfkin. His ear perked as he tilted his head sideways. “No fear little one. We don’t bite.” She looked to him and blushed, burying her face deeper. In the distance there were shouts of anger. Then I came to realize that larger Wolfkin had something. They both looked in the direction of the shouts.
“Uh-oh, the humans are catching up. We got to go.” He said to me. He opened his paw to show me what he had. It was an odd little trinket, an idol of sorts. “They believe that this thing is going to drive us Saichens out of our homes.” He told me with a smile. “It so they can expand their land.”
His friend looked over to him anxiously. “Yeah, they need to expand alright. Greedy creatures they are. Try to rob one of our merchants who deals with them.” The shouts were getting louder.
“It’s best if you hide as well Unnamed One, Ashna. They are pretty angry.”  They took off running, turning into gales of dust between the trees. Unfortunately, I had no time to run. I turned to find myself face to face with a group of humans carrying pitchforks and clubs. Diaga whimpered against me.
“Did you see two filthy thieves with our precious goddess?”  Asked a man in fine robes. His banter crowded behind him, a few men gawked at my figure. I never really spoke to humans. I found their company distasteful. The robed man waited for me to speak. “Well?” he asked. I shook my head. “Are you sure?” Once again I shook my head.
“Like she’s going to tell, she’s an Elementalist and they work along side with those devilish creatures.” It was the man who assisted with the rape and murder of Diaga’s mother.
“What is an Elementalist doing on our land?” asked the robed man. “We agreed with their colony that they would not intrude.” The group nodded in agreement. I now knew why the Diaga’s mother was killed. Apparently these people did not find the Elements appealing. The man who did kill the mother knew what she was from the beginning; his friend thought she was just another woman who was highly unlucky.
“She killed Drem and sent those devil dogs after us.” Said the man. There were gasps and muttering from the group. The robed one looked to me in shock. I took a step back. The stream was separating us. Would they cross it? They believed me to be an Elementalist who had the ability to turn that rushing water into a deadly whip.
“Drem’s dead because of you?” exclaimed the robed man, “There will be redemption for such a heinous act! Damn your soul to the bowels of the great goddess!” and he began to cross. I stood frozen as Diaga wailed my name. My mind was racing.
That man killed Diaga’s mother because she was an Elementalist and redemption was paid. Why didn’t the other man tell his fellows of what his friend did? Was it just to kill over a way of life? I felt my body shaking as Diaga continued to wail. I felt the water moving and the men moving in it. I felt the air they breathed in and out of their lungs.
“Stop.” I moaned, “Just stop, you don’t know what happened…” I fell to my knees and Diaga slipped from my arms. Her wails grew louder, I was beginning to lose sight of everything. Their anger blinded me.  Everything was warped and bright. There was more screaming as the water rose like some snake. It consumed the men crossing. Through my warped eyes I saw them twisting about in its transparent body. Was it me doing this? Was I creating such a fiend? My vision faltered and I blacked out with Diaga’s screams echoing in the darkness.

                                    I am the One who holds the power
                                   I am the sun which rays do I shower
                                    I am the person who holds the Key
                                     I am the Curse who lets things be
                                         You cannot kill me for I am I
                                         You cannot be me for I am I
                                            I shall return for I am I
                                           You shall learn for I am I

An image of a figure dressed in white stood before me. She was beautiful and young, but somehow broken. In her eyes, I saw my reflection and nothing more. In her hand she held a sword, I feared the sword. It vibrated with a power that would tame us. Us, who was Us? Why did We need to be tamed. Behind her, Dark and Light swirled together, balanced. But the Dark was consuming the light. Why was that? What did that mean? Who was she?

I woke from my dream. Was it a dream? I never dreamed before. I sat up and looked around. Where was I? Who was I? It was dark, the Dark had consumed the Light. Dregkos would never do that, not to Solas. Mother? Father? What’s going on? I was to my feet, drunk in a sense by my vision. Something was amiss that was for sure. What was it? I felt something pulsating in the air, quivering on the Elemental Plane. I moved towards it blindly. I tripped and found myself on the ground again. There was a gasp of surprise. My eyes finally focused in the waning moonlight and there was Diaga, nursing on the bloodied neck of a dead priest.