Chapter Thirty - Interlude - To Be A God

 

Lechen often reflected on what it took to be a god.

Not because she wanted to be one, but because Tusu Nasala had so many.

She’d grown up on one of the smaller islands, always jumping from boat to boat, chasing after her sea captain father. Now that she had been a captain herself for so many years, she’d traveled to all of the inhabited islands and even some of the cities in the continents. All this traveling had led to much reflection.

On the biggest island, Relanutuo was born a god. After the massive calamity that had birthed the islands, he was created from the ashes, a monster of unrivaled proportions, lava and stone made flesh. In the end, he rested his head on the corpse of a Hitherblissery and slept, leaving a place for the humans to place their feet.

Among Lechen’s own island people, every tree that grew from the soil was a finger of ‘E, a symbolism made real of helping hands and service to others. ‘E fed them, clothed them, sheltered them.

A’wu guarded the gates of the south against the Chith Empire, god of waves and undercurrents. They say she was born in a small village with little rain. Because of the lack of food, her mouth grew huge enough to encompass the ocean, full of teeth, unendingly hungry, ready to swallow the world.

All gods, all glorious. But Lechen knew the truth.

There were 48,000 gods in their mythology, and not one of them could rival the sun god, Rokolo. A shining figure of unparalleled beauty and grace, Rokolo stood as a testament to the virtues of limitless everything.

Lechen had heard of him in her travels to Mayna, seen the Eagles wheeling in the skies during her travels, had spoken with his followers.

Her countrymen fought back against the advance of Rokolo. But they were only jealous of his power. All their gods were of the earth buried in the ground, in the water, or in their hearts. These gods would have to fight to be remembered. Rokolo would not. His Eye, a great Spyglass, looked down on them constantly.

Lechen, at one point, had taken the river up from Ajvay Lake until almost Ella’s Glacier. There, she had heard the most shocking thing...She was told that Rokolo had been a man once. The southerners even believed he had been Innis! But those were lies perpetuated by a race that sought to associate themselves with the great sun god.

They had only one god, after all, and she was dead.

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