The Dark Trinity: Talan's Story

Chapter 8

Lord Syrael, out of parental inclinations, put Laeyelle under house arrest for the next two days. This had the effect of giving both the Lady and her Ophanim a bit of cabin fever. The strained relationship put stress on them both as neither knew how to repair the damage from the day after the demon attack. Talan waited for an apology, and Laeyelle waited for the opportunity to apologize.

On the second day of house arrest, Laeyelle sent Talan outside of her chambers insisting that she didn't need Talan's protection in her own House, much less her own chambers. The result was an unexpected opportunity to visit the Matriarch, but Talan stalked the halls of the House first, gathering her scattered thoughts into a more cohesive form.

"Talan!" a voice hailed. Talan looked up and saw Vaun approaching from the other direction. "I haven't seen you around much since you became an Ophanim. How is that post treating you?"

Talan made a face behind her mask as she suppressed voicing an answer.

Vaun nodded in understanding. "Yes or no questions only, right? You Ophanim have weird rules, but I guess you didn't write them either. Come, walk with me. I could use the companionship, even if it's a one-way conversation."

So, Talan joined the footman and they walked the rounds. Talan nodded as she passed Lord Syrael's off-duty Ophanim and they nodded back. She wasn't sure if they were surprised to see her in the halls as their faces were also hidden behind masks. She realized she felt even lonelier now than when she had just been a kitchen servant. There, she had been treated well and had the companionship of the other servants, but her orphan status kept her from integrating fully with the rest. As Ophanim, she didn't even have the companionship of other Ophanim, just the rare interaction with the servants. But, she always, or at least until today, had been in close proximity with her Lady. That was what she had always wanted, wasn't it?

"..so I figured I'd get a drink with the others tonight," Vaun continued. "I don't suppose you could join, could you? Eh, Talan?"

At the question, Talan roused herself from her thoughts and shook her head. She wasn't sure what was being asked, but thought a negative response would suffice.

"Now, it's hard to tell with you Ophanim once you've got that mask on, but you seem more brooding than I've known you to be. You need some time alone?"

They paused at a doorway that Talan immediately recognized. If she turned here, she would be at the Matriarch's chambers.

"Ah, visiting the Matriarch," Vaun observed, following Talan's gaze. "Then best we part ways. Maybe she can help more than I can. Good luck to you."

Talan nodded a thanks at Vaun, who waved back and strode down in a different direction. Talan took a deep breath and walked down the hall. A footman stood guard outside of the Matriarch's chamber and nodded Talan in. Talan entered the room hesitantly.

Daylight streamed in through the window, but the shadows in the corners of the room refused to leave. The bed was in the middle of a shaft of sunlight, curtains drawn as usual, but Talan could make out the silhouette of a sitting form reading a book through the thin fabric. Talan slowly, hesitantly, approached the bed.

"Talan," the quavering voice said with happiness. There was a slight rustle as the Matriarch marked her place in the book and gently closed it before laying it to one side. "Come, let me see you."

Slowly, the frail figure turned so she could face Talan at the side of her bed, then parted the curtains. Talan knelt at the side of the bed, head bowed and hands at her sides. She felt the Matriarch's bony hands rest for a moment on her head, then move down the side of her face, right where the mask ended. The Matriarch clucked in disappointment and then started to fumble with the ties. Talan, in a near panic, reached up to halt the progress of the Matriarch.

"None of that now," the Matriarch said sharply and Talan, still sensitive from her experience with Laeyelle, cringed a little. The Matriarch must have caught this as she continued in a softer tone, "I want a proper conversation, not one where I am restricted to your head bobs and shakes. As I am still of House Syrael, I can invoke its power and command you to remove your mask, but I would much rather let you give me permission to remove it for you. Haven't I told you not to worry about rules and propriety? Now, tilt your head up to me. That's a good girl."

The Matriarch still possessed a dexterity in her hands that surprised Talan. She had heard with old age among the mortal races, mobility and control began to dwindle. Perhaps the curse didn't include the hands and fingers. Ties undone, the Matriarch lifted the mask from Talan's face. Suddenly feeling exposed, Talan tried to look down but the Matriarch caught her chin with a finger.

"Keep looking at me," the Matriarch said. "Something is bothering you, I can see. There's nothing to hide here, you know that. Or, have you been away for so long that you have forgotten?"

Talan smiled and shook her head.

"You can talk too. You may be my granddaughter's Ophanim, but what belongs to her--and my son as well--belongs to me. I can feel you hurting through the House bond, even if my descendents cannot."

Talan's first word came out as a croak. She cleared her throat and tried again. The words came slowly, then quickly as if they had been restrained for too long. "I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for the demon attacks. Despite all of my training, my Lady got hurt."

The Matriarch frowned as she processed the words, the faint hint of guilt in Talan's eyes but not on her face, and thinking about the deeper meaning that the Ophanim was trying to get across without making herself seem weak. Then, without warning, she wheezed a laugh. Talan was at first confused, then angry and feeling insulted. The Matriarch watched the progression of emotions across Talan's eyes while the rest of the Ophanim's face stayed neutral.

"Talan," the Matriarch said gently, "I'm not laughing at you because I think your concerns humor me. Perhaps it is more your innocence that humors me. Ah, listen to me first before you let your anger grow. We can teach theory and some bits of application, but true understanding is when you are put in a real situation with real emotions where it seems like nothing is under your control, not even your emotions. Let us do an exercise. Perhaps that will help you understand what I mean. What was one of the first things you learned when you started your combat training as Ophanim?"

Talan was quiet a moment as she thought back. "Footwork. How to move forward, backwards, to the side."

"If a strike came at you, what kind of footwork did that involve?"

"One of the first strikes, I was taught to angle myself and move diagonally forward."

"And what was your natural reaction before you mastered that?"

"Stepping back, trying to get out of the range of the attack."

The Matriarch waited and watched as Talan thought about the impromptu lesson and how it applied to her experience in the woods. If Talan had stepped back instead of forward with that first demon, she wouldn't have incapacitated it as quickly. Not only that, if she had stepped back, she might have gotten tangled up with Laeyelle. By stepping forward, she had bought time with her training. It didn't seem like much as Laeyelle still got caught, but given her alternatives, it was one of the better choices.

"In a sense, you were ready," the Matriarch continued when she saw Talan reach a conclusion. "The choices you made without hesitation were influenced by your training. This time, you and my granddaughter returned to me alive. Not unscathed but this way you have learned an important lesson. As you gain more experience, you'll make different choices or maybe you'll make the same choices. It depends on the situation. Don't be so hard on yourself."

The Matriarch patted the top of Talan's head. "Now, it seems like Laeyelle is under house arrest the rest of the day at least and seeing as you've come to me, she must have sent you to catch some air. Why don't you tell me about what's been going on in Aerie? These old bones don't venture past the House doors any more."

Talan spent the rest of the day in the Matriarch's room. As no servant came to fetch Talan, she lost track of time as she related the ongoings of Aerie prior to the demon attack. The Matriarch ordered food to be brought in for her and her guest when Talan's stomach grumbled loud enough for her to hear.

"As a race, we spend entirely too much time squabbling," the Matriarch mumbled as Talan told a third story that involved Laeyelle's committee work and the committee members and been unable to reach a conclusion. "But, I guess that is how we are as a race. Did you know among the humans there are enough of them that they almost seem to have their own subrace? Oh yes, the vampyres have descended from the human race in their own right, but consider two groups of humans that split from a single group. One group lives on one side of a lake which is rich in forests and hunting game. The second group lives on the other side of the lake that has no forest, but plenty of farmland. Now, suppose the two groups didn't interact for a long time."

"How would that be possible?" Talan asked. "They must run into each other at some point."

"And so they do, but after a long period of time when their populations have grown. How do you think the human group with the forest developed?"

"I suppose they would excel at hunting."

"Yes, they excelled at hunting. They began to prize strength over other attributes. They also adapted more animal-like characteristics by observing the rich life around them. They became cunning and protective of their young. However, their population grew slowly because not everyone can fight a bear and win. Now, what do you think happened to the group with the farmland?"

"They learned to grow food and didn't have to hunt. I guess they became more complacent?"

"Also correct. But, also consider that not everyone had to farm to keep the group fed. If only just half of the group had to farm, that left the other half to spend their time and energy doing other things. Sure, there were clothes to make and children to take care of, but it wasn't long before some got bored and started to stir up trouble. Order became important and a hierarchy formed to keep the group in line. Despite this, there were no bears to reduce their population and as a result, this group grew much faster than the other group of humans."

"If their population got larger, wouldn't they also need more farmland to support themselves?"

"You are very quick, Talan," the Matriarch said with approval. "Yes, they had to expand their farmland to support their growing population. Eventually, as they expanded along the lake, they met with the first group. Care to take a guess what happened?"

Talan was silent for a moment as she thought, then shook her head. "I don't know what would happen."

"Well, a few things. They realized they didn't speak the same language. Remember this happened after many, many years. Perhaps a century or more. While physically they were still about the same, the way they presented themselves, acted, and thought were quite different. The forest humans dressed in animal skins and fur. Nothing elaborate, just whatever was functional. The farmland humans dressed in more refined clothing. They had shoes but the forest humans went without. They thought about each other differently as well. The forest humans thought the farmland humans were weak. The farmland humans thought the forest humans were uncivilized."

"Did you study humans?" Talan asked. The Matriarch spoke with such authority on the topic.

The Matriarch laughed. "I did. I certainly did. I wondered how humans build up kingdoms and empires from their little tribes. I never imagined how many different human groups there are. Even within a kingdom, the nobles and farmers are very different."

"Nobles?"

"Hmm," the Matriarch said as she thought about how to explain it to Talan, whose knowledge of the world was limited to Aerie. "Nobles are like the major Houses in Aerie. They help support our society. Laeyelle is on the public works committee and my son has a say in important matters concerning our home as a race."

Talan frowned. "But Laeyelle's aunt and uncle are farmers and they are part of this House."

"Yes, that is where the difference is. While Laeyelle's aunt and uncle also have a say in Aerie's concerns, human farmers often have no say in their kingdom. They just produce the food and live their humble lives outside of the city."

Talan's head was spinning. "It sounds like humans are a very complicated race."

"They are mortal and that is what makes them interesting. But, one other thing I've noticed is demons are the same way."

"What?" Talan exclaimed, trying to apply the concepts the Matriarch had just presented to her to the demonic race.

"Describe to me the demon attack from the other day," the Matriarch requested and Talan complied, leaving out her encounter with the fox demon. Talan didn't get far when the Matriarch stopped her and said, "Now describe to me the demons you saw. Were they the same?"

"They looked the same," Talan said, momentarily confused at being stopped so soon after she had started telling the story. "They were a little shorter than Laeyelle, but they seemed squat, perhaps because of their muscle mass or skeletal build. I think one had a piercing in its ear. The first one that attacked me, I think."

"Hair color? Skin color?" the Matriarch prompted when Talan fell into silence.

"Their skin was a greenish gray, kind of like the colors of stone covered in moss or lichen. They wore armor, but their faces were exposed. I think they might have had slightly different shades of skin color. Their hair... they didn't have hair."

"Tell me what happened next."

Talan told the Matriarch of how she dispatched the demons and then how she had to help Laeyelle back to the pond. Talan frowned as she recalled the bodies by the pond and pulled on her Ophanim training to delve deeper into her memories, trying to see the bodies instead of the pond and other angels that she had been so focused on at the time.

"I think there were other demons, different from the ones I fought, at the pond," Talan said slowly. "I didn't realize they were different at the time, but they must have been. I don't remember any details, though."

The Matriarch nodded. "Demons are much more varied in their physical forms when compared to us. And perhaps humans as well. I think you may have fought troll-imps in the forest. They aren't very smart, but they are quite strong."

"What other kinds of demons are there?" Talan asked with interest. Maybe if she knew her enemy better, she would be better equipped for next time. Maybe even the Matriarch knew about fox demons and Talan wouldn't have to mention that part of her story at all.

"I'm afraid I don't know them all," the Matriarch admitted, mistaking Talan's crestfallen look and went on to explain, "I know just a handful and that information may be outdated by now. But, I see you are eager to learn. Very well, let me start with what I know of demons as a race.

"We have been at war with the demons for a very long time. I don't know why we fight this endless war, but it seems to be the reason why our races developed. We were like those two groups of humans, united once, but now divided. If I continue this metaphor, the demons are similar to the forest humans and us the farmland humans. Except, the demons vastly outnumber us. Luckily they are unable to pull together long enough to actually overrun us. I think that is why we have lasted for so long. While we are cohesive as a race, they are fractious.

"Every once in a while, though, a demon will rise and bring together enough of them to try and overwhelm us. The last time that happened was quite a while ago. I've heard some of the researchers trying to predict when the next cohesive demon army will attack us based on patterns from the past, but as far as I've heard, they're always incorrect."

The Matriarch paused to sip some water and gather her thoughts.

"Now, the types of demons that I know. I've already covered the troll-imps, which you have had first-hand experience with. They are hybrids of trolls and imps. A strange cross-breed of the two types of demons, but the troll-imps are sterile. Trolls are somewhat intelligent, but they rely more on their strength. Imps are the opposite. A bit weak, but more intelligent. I think they get smarter when there are more of them together, but there's also a higher chance of them squabbling and getting nothing done rather than doing anything intelligent.

"Then, there are succubi, females, and incubi, males. Physically, they are not strong compared to trolls but I think they are probably stronger than imps. They're very smart, though. Or, perhaps manipulative would be a better word. They thrive on emotions and spend a lot of their time working up emotions among others and sometimes each other."

The Matriarch paused again. Talan saw the distant look in the Matriarch's eyes and wondered what she was going to say next.

"The last type of demon that I know of are the Fallen," the Matriarch finally said, gazing down at her hands which held the glass of water. Her face was hidden in shadow so Talan couldn't discern what emotions the Matriarch felt.

"They're not stories to scare the hatchlings?" Talan asked, remembering the Fallen had been mentioned in one of the fairy tale books Laeyelle had let her read.

The Matriarch wheezed a laugh. "Perhaps they are just fairy tales now, but long ago, we were once a single race. For that matter, all races were once of a single race, but time flows like water, eroding away whole things into separate pieces but sometimes joining together disparate parts. So, we are left with many races today. The Fallen are the parents, if you will, of the demonic race. They are the strongest, most cunning, most ruthless of the demons. If they weren't so bent on determining their own pecking order, we would be in trouble."

"Why are they called 'Fallen?'"

"In any society, you will find there are a small handful of individuals who do not fit in. Sometimes, society can accomodate for these individuals, but most of the time, they cannot. We both seek knowledge, but our intent for seeking knowledge differed. While we seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the Fallen sought knowledge for themselves."

"I don't understand," Talan said with a frown.

"I think the best defining trait of demons is they seek dominance over one another. So it was when our races were the same. The Fallen sought to reach the 'top,' if there was such a thing."

"Did the castes exist back then?"

The question caught the Matriarch off-guard and she looked at Talan for a moment, pondering what she could respond with before shrugging. "That is an interesting question that I don't know the answer to, I'm afraid. Why do you ask?"

"You told me when I was questioning if I should be an Ophanim or not that the Ophanim caste is the only caste we, the angelic race, can rise to. When you mentioned the Fallen 'reaching the top,' that is what reminded me of it. But, I don't remember any of the fairy tale books illustrating the Fallen with more than one pair of wings."

The Matriarch nodded, pleased with Talan's observations. "But remember the books are more recent and they are illustrated to please children. The truth may be another matter entirely. Ah, if I weren't cursed, I would be investigating these points you have brought up!"

"Then I might not have gotten a chance to offer my views to you," Talan responded innocently.

"Hah!" the Matriarch wheezed a laugh. "Another good point you make. Well, off with you. I can feel my granddaughter becoming irritated that you are no where to be found and it is nearly time for the evening meal. Do not be a stranger, Talan. Visit me when you can."

"I will," Talan promised, then secured the mask back on her face and left the Matriarch's chambers.