
"Six centuries!" exclaimed Aira. "That's several lifetimes for an average person! Even if they live longer thanks to magic. And that's not a given."
"As I said," Ainorrh replied, "We live slower lives as enlightened. It doesn't feel that long. But I understand how it can be perceived, especially by the humans of this world."
"So, what happened?" Aira asked.
"One day, everything changed," Ainorrh said. "Some people woke up and they were the same. But others, like me, got connected to the Nexus. We never got any explanations of why that happened or how the selection was made."
"In my world," Aira said, "we don't even know if the System was always there or if it appeared in some forgotten time. For all of us, it just… is…"
"It seems that we can teach each other a lot of things about different aspects of magic," Ainorrh said, smiling. "And even about philosophy and cosmology. Anyway, the first decades after the change were very dark for my people. We lost the ability to communicate with humans and became outcasts. Initially, we were able to understand them, retaining most of the memories. But we weren't able to answer. And other methods of communication, like writing, weren't an option."
"Ah, I can relate to that last part," said Aira, unconsciously rubbing her wrists. "I remember these first weeks after the transition really well..."
Aira continued translating Ainorrh's story to Lila, and the woman commented: "By the roots, I can picture it clear as sunrise. Living through it with Aira, I've seen just how tangled things can get."
"You can?" asked Ainorrh, "How peculiar. So, did you try to kill her for being different?"
After a brief moment of hesitation, Aira translated the message in its complete acridity. Lila choked on these words but answered, nevertheless: "Not a chance in the shadowline," Lila said firmly. "I worked my tail off trying to bridge the gap, though I'll grant you, there were others who wanted her gone. Can't deny that ugly truth."
"Ah… Sweet child," said Ainorrh, a hint of nostalgia in her voice. "There were people like you in the old times. All of them who didn't join us were killed by your fellow humans in the end."
"But anyway, it was quite scary at the beginning," Ainorrh continued. "The smartest and the luckiest of us put at least some distance between themselves and the humans. I can't say I was smart enough to do that, but as you can see, I definitely was lucky."
"Well, you obviously survived," said Aira. "But how did your introduction to magic go? How did you even figure out what was happening?"
"If you think that it was just like a menu popping up in our minds, you are wrong," Ainorrh said. "At least that's not how it happened for me. The process was gradual. But then, pretty soon, most of us started exhibiting new strange powers and abilities. Magic that aligned with one of the four affinities or elements, whatever you want to call it: air, earth, water, and fire."
"Do you have any theories of how they were assigned?" asked Aira.
"Not a clue," answered Ainorrh." But nowadays, the naturally transitioning enlightened most likely gets the affinity of the closest enlightened center. So, most people in the vicinity of Wentouk will be aligned with the Air element."
"And what about humans?" asked Lila, still hoping for something. As usual, Aira translated her question to Ainorrh.
"And humans still ruled the world," answered Ainorrh. "They still held a lot of power and we didn't yet know the limits of our new abilities. You can probably guess how the situation evolved."
"No, I mean are there any humans with magic? Not a single spark in the lot of us?" added Lila.
"Ah, that," Ainorrh smiled, but her smile was predatory this time. "Luckily for us, no humans had magic. We wouldn't be here otherwise, I guess."
"If all of you were low-level and unorganized but with new strange abilities," Aira said. "Usually, somebody powerful comes and decides to add new exciting tools to their powerset."
"Yes, some of the most powerful humans decided it would be fun to experiment on us," Ainorrh said. "Concentration camps were built, and many of my fellow enlightened were tortured and killed. These experiments, though, only boosted the skills for other enlightened. Made them progress faster than ever. The ones who survived. That's when we started gaining access to the Nexus interface and exploring our new capabilities deeper. And soon we rebelled."
"Not a leaf of that's ever reached my ears," said Lila. "Still, after what I've seen with Garrick's mess and the Elders treating Aira like a cursed vine, I can't say it shocks me. What in the thorny thicket did they do to you, Ainorrh?"
"I was among the lucky ones, I guess," Ainorrh said. "My first skill was Enlightened Governance. Back then, more of us got skills that didn't have any obvious elemental flavor. It's different now. The skill didn't have any flashy effects, so, I was mostly left to rot in a prison. But then, it was this skill that allowed me to create my first squad. Day after day, year after year, I've built what you see here, around you."
"But there was a war in the end?" asked Lila. "Humans versus… enlightened? All my life, we've been told you lot attacked us first, drove us out of the old cities. That's why we're stuck carving new towns out of the wilderness. Roots and rivers, what really went down?"
"Well, one can definitely say that we started the war," Ainorrh said. "After we were enslaved and tortured for years. As you can imagine, there wasn't much love between our races. For several decades, we fought for independence. And yes, in the end, we pushed humans away from the cities. But these cities were ours as much as they were theirs, you know. And it wasn't us who started the violence. In the beginning… we were just disoriented and completely lost. We didn't deserve to be exploited."
Ainorrh paused her narration, absentmindedly looking into the distance.
"Our numbers were quite low right from the start," she continued in a few moments. "And even with the new magical powers, it was hard to overwhelm the humans. Still, we succeeded in creating a new status quo. Our skills reminded them of fairy tales, the most horrific stories children tell to each other. They brought a primordial threat from deep within their psyche. And we were able to exploit that fear. You know, we still remembered these fears well, coming from the same source. Ultimately, we were left alone and allowed to build our new communities."
"But how exactly did you get the ancient cities?" Aira asked. "If I understand Lila correctly, all humans of this world nowadays live in smaller towns they established after the Fall. And after walking through this ancient city that sprawls around your forest, it seems there were many more humans right before the calamity than the modern combined population of humans and enlightened."
"You are right once again, bravo!" said Ainorrh. "We braved through some dark times. By the end of the war between humans and the enlightened, not more than ten percent of the old population remained. We still were a minority, but the difference wasn't as stark as before. That, probably, was one of the reasons why humans finally left us alone."
Lila was intently following the story through bursts of transmissions sent to her by Aira. While it answered some of her burning questions, the woman wasn't yet ready to believe without any doubt that the undead, or the enlightened, as they called themselves, were blameless victims of that ancient conflict. They held so much power! They could have easily overwhelmed humans. But then, if they could, why they didn't? Why the humans were allowed to live?
"That's not the tale we've been fed, the story of the fall of the old civilization," she said, after some hesitation. "We learned it was some kind of shift—turned people into undead, zombies… or enlightened, if that's what you want to call it. But then you all went straight for our throats, slaughtering humans wholesale. At least, that's how it's always been told."
"Ah… zombies… another fun word," said Ainorrh. "You know that it comes from the old scary stories and myths of the ancient human civilization? And, yes, while there are some similarities with the undead from those old stories, like the fact that we don't need to eat or sleep, even the Nexus itself recognizes us as the enlightened. That should count for something, right?"
She looked at Lila, waiting while Aira transferred the message in full.
"In my world, history is often written by the victors," said Aira. "I'm not surprised by the conflicting messaging. But who is the victor here?"
"As I said, now there's a balance in the world," said Ainorrh. "And we are happy to keep that balance. I hope that this world is the victor. It itself became more balanced. And our task is to make it even better."
Suddenly, she took Aira's palm in her hands.
"I wouldn't lie or hide anything from you, Aira," Ainorrh said, looking directly into Aira's eyes. "You may be a crucial element in that."
"How so," asked Aira, rattled by this sudden show of affection. "I'm just an outworlder looking for a way home. I'm just passing through."
"But your appearance in this world, it was… unusual," Ainorrh said. "All of us high shamans felt it. You should feel it as well! We discussed it with each other and waited while you contacted us. We were sure you'd find your way to the enlightened, even if it took some time. And, as you can imagine, we know how to wait."
She paused again as if remembering the events of the past centuries.
"As I said, there is a balance now," said Ainorrh." And we feel like all of us, both enlightened and humans, are much closer to nature now. Of course, they can't sense it as deep as we do. But the old civilization was exploiting this world, it wasn't good. Humans… as you can see, it's their doctrine to spin that old conflict as an unprovoked attack. While I don't think I can say anything that would sound like proof to Lila, I can tell you that I'm among the few enlightened who still remember the old days. There are not many of us left. Most of our brothers and sisters transcended much later, after the war had ended."
***
Lila didn't even wait for Aira to transmit all of Ainorrh's words. Her head was spinning. She stood up and hesitantly made a few steps away from the treehouse, away from Aira and Ainorrh.
Her undead friend made a motion to stand up as well and looked at Lila questioningly. But Lila signed to her not to leave Ainorrh and to give her some space.
She made a few more steps and then threw up. Her head was light, and her thoughts were in complete disorder.
"How could all of that even be! Elder's madness…" she whispered. "Lies... Lies everywhere...!"
Somebody unclenched her fist and put a glass of water in it. Only then did Lila realize she was on her knees. She took the glass and glanced up. It was Aira trying to help her.
Everything she had just heard raised a lot of doubts in her. All the things she saw around her went against everything she knew about the undead for her whole life.
Who was lying? Or who was lying more? Which side?
These people weren't the mindless monsters she had been taught to fear. That alone made her question everything. But then, completely demolishing the foundation of her beliefs wasn't easy. She had to grasp onto something, to leave something to build on. The enlightened... they were intelligent beings with their own society, culture, and history. Moreover, they were the humans of the old times. At least this shaman supposedly was.
The revelation was overwhelming, leaving her conflicted and agitated. She couldn't stay still, her mind racing with a flood of emotions. She began to pace around the clearing, going even further away from Aira, her steps quick and restless.
She looked at the two undead who were watching her with their shining, unnatural eyes.
"That can't be!" Lila exclaimed, her voice rising in disbelief. "Impossible! Those bastards lied to us all these years!"
Her fists clenched at her sides, Lila's eyes flashed with a mixture of anger and confusion.
"Everything I've ever known... it's all been a lie?"
Lila saw Aira watching her with concern. That reminded Lila that her undead friend had to undergo an even stranger transformation. Still, it wasn't like her whole life was a lie. And again, why did she even have to believe everything Ainorrh said? She could have her own agenda.
"Lila, please calm down," Aira said gently, stepping closer and taking Lila's hand into hers. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you have to breathe and think clearly. Let's figure this out one step at a time. We learned something new today. Now we just need to adjust."
Lila stopped pacing and looked at Aira, her eyes filled with a desperate need for answers.
"Calm down? By the bark, Aira, how can I?" she asked. "If any of this is true, it uproots everything I've ever known! How am I supposed to go back to my town after this? Face my friends and tell them the whole forest of our beliefs is a lie? And even if I do, how do I get them to buy into this tangled tale? Will I even have a chance to see them again?"
Aira stepped closer, hugging Lila. "We'll figure it out," she said. "Just breathe."
"Probably," said Lila, tearing herself away from Aira's embrace. "But right now, I need space—time to untangle this mess in my head."
And with that, Lila stomped away into the magical forest.