Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (22 page)

“I see that you did not heed my warning,” he said to the demons, now digging their claws into the man’s flesh as if they were prepared to tear
it
from his body.

“Leave us alone
!
” they screamed.

“I promise to leave you alone when you leave this man alone.”

“No.  No,” they replied.  “He wants us
.”

“At one time he may have.  But how can you know this now?  You’ve subverted his will so that it is no longer distinguishable from you
r
own.”

“It makes no difference,” one countered.  “You don’t have the authority to make us leave,
C
hild of
L
ight.  You are dim
now.  A
nd you have no weapons.”

Sariel lifted his chin and straightened his stance.

He
opened his mouth and sang a single, c
lear note and
held
it for many seconds.  When he stopped and restarted the note, Sheyir accompanied him with a slightly lower sound.  The simple harmony caused the demons
’
eyes to flare
wide.

Sariel
s
hifted
his consciousness back to the
T
emporal and kept singing. Each time he stopped and restarted, another voice joined in until, after
several
minutes, all one hundred and thirty women were singing.  In the
T
emporal
R
ealm, the earth vibrated under their feet and the blades of grass seemed to bow down, resonating with the powerful sound.

In
side the
Eternal
existence, the sounds
passed
through
the air in brightly colored waves, filling the spaces between the tribe and the demons.   The visible currents radiated from each human mouth and
collided with the evil spirits
who clung t
o the frail
spirit
of the human. 
With
every impact, the
waves of
sound scattered; reflections and re
fraction
s that gave Sariel an
understanding of their true names.  He could see
what they were made of
.  He could see
their true nature.  He adjusted his pitch downward and was pleased when the Chatsiyram followed his lead
, the lower note
s
giving clarity to his knowledge of the enemy.  By the time he explored the range of sound
s
available to him, he was confident that he could name the demons.  He was confident that the sum of voices gathered this day would be
s
ufficient to sing
Navlagid
,
a Song of Naming
.

Focusing on the core of the demons’ existence, he began a melody which the tribe
could mimic.  Then, m
oving his own pitch to cover the lowest
,
unrepresented
tones, he began to sing a
counter
melody
which forced that portion of the demon’s existence to resonate with it.

The
demons understood immediately what was happening.  They began to scream out with shrill cries, attempting to disrupt the harmony among the Chatsiyram.  But Sariel’s rigorous training prevailed and the people
repeated the melody, hitting t
heir notes without wavering.

In his physical body, Sariel pointed to one of the groups of men.  After a few seconds, he lifted his hand and let it drop.  The loud boom of a drum coordinate
d
perfectly with the movement of his hand.  He repeated the motion a few more times, then let the m
e
n continue beating out the timing he’d established.  This signaled to the tribe that the Song of Naming had begun.

Each group of women now sang
a
variant of the melody that Sariel had established, repeating it in time with the beating of the drum.  Now
he
was free to adjust his voice across the spectrum of sounds and fill in the gaps, to sing the unrepresented notes.  He felt a power welling up inside him that had been absent for as long as he could remember.  It was the feeling that he got when he
had
first started
shaping
creation.

Within ten cycles of the
melody and numerous harmonies,
the demons were
becoming
compliant, powerless
against
the music that now
defined their beings.

With the tribe continuing to sing, Sariel pointed to another group of men
,
each bearing a different length of reed cut at an angle on one end.  The men lifted the crude
flutes
to their lips and waited for Sariel’
s
direction.

He
pointed at one man in particular, then at the woman whose note he was supposed to replace.  Sariel lifted his hand and let it drop, signaling the timing of that man’s note within the melody.  One by one, he transferred responsibility for representing the melody from the
singing
women to the men with their instruments.  The transition was smooth.

Having now freed up the singers while maintaining control over the demons, Sariel began
to sing
Tank
la
gid
, a
Song of
Idea
. 
Remembering the way the human’s body reacted to the initial
notes
,
Sariel breathed a soft melody, injecting it into the rhythm of the Song of Naming. 
It
floated toward the demons and was partially absorbed by the body of the human.  The part that was not absorbed reflected from the man and appeared to originate
from within
him.

Pointing at Sheyir, Sariel transferred this responsibility to her and moved his attention to another
target
.
  With a low
, throated
moan, he sent another melody into the earth below the man’s feet.  It too reflected the
S
ong and Sariel immediately enlisted another woman to support this part of the
Idea
.  When the man, ground, air, and grass in the immediate area were
all
singing
with reflected ideas
, Sariel carefully spoke a fragment of
a
harmonious language that he could reproduce with his human vocal chords.  With this
ancient
language, he inserted the
Idea
that this existence wasn’t worth the effort it
required
to hold on to it.

Within seconds, the demons began to see that the earth was dry and desolate, the air suffocating.  The
blades of
grass threatened to reach out and strangle them. 
And the human beneath their taloned grasp seemed pathetic and weak.

Is this existence really better than our last?

Wouldn’t it be better to go
back and
regain our former status?

This man is dying.  His fragile body cannot sustain us.  His weakness is limiting.

We are meant for greater things.

He cannot even move us from one end of this prison to the other without losing his breath.

Aren’t we better than this?

Shouldn’t we just let go?

Won’t we just slip into the
E
ternal?

It would better
—

Suddenly, one of the demons lost its grip and was immediately
sucked
through
the
V
oid
—the chasm that separated the Temporal Realm from the territory of the Evil One. 
It was a place of nothingness
,
where
no being or object
could exist.
 
And having done so, the
demon forfeited its hold on the inadequate physical
existence it had been clinging to for so long.
  In an instant, it was transported to the far end of the spectrum, where nothing that has been made can be unmade.

Sa
riel kept singing,
but i
nwardly he
smile
d
at the thought that one
more
demon had
just been
put into the Place of Holding.  And h
e trusted what he had been told—one day, that existence would become a punishment that could not be escaped.

After several more iterations of the Song of Idea, it was clear that the other two demons were either stronger, or had learned from the mistake of the first.
 
It was time to change tactics.

With
half
the men still playing their instruments, maintaining the Song of Naming, Sariel now enlisted the remainder of the men.  Pointing at them individually, he signaled which drums to beat
as well as their
timing
.  Some used large, hollowed tree stumps with cloth stretched over the opening, while others beat rocks against smaller reeds that hung from thread around their wrists.  Gra
dually
, they constructed
a percussive wall of sound that stretched from the lowest, earth-rumbling
boom
to the highest, ear-piercing
report
.

The demons,
already
doubled over in pain, now glanced nervously around, seeking the source of their fear.

Sariel pointed to the groups of women, then clenched his fist, signaling
Vinla
gid
,
a
Song of Force.  Suddenly, he shouted a string of monotone notes arranged in a specific rhythm.  The next time he shouted, all one hundred and thirty women matched the sound perfectly.  On the next cycle, he sang a long and complicated melody
over the shouting,
which spanned the limits of his ability.  And when he repeated the phrase, Sheyir wove a harmony through his melody that was so beautiful, Sariel almost lost his
concentration.  Immediately, tears welled up in his eyes as his earthly body struggled with the
overwhelming
emotions that the combined Songs caused inside him.

The
relentless waves of sound crashed against the
demons, shaking their footing and forcing them backward.  As their talons began to slide
backward over the surface of
the man
’s spirit
,
gouges opened up along the flesh of his physical body, spilling blood down his shoulders and arms.  O
ne
demon
extended its
fanged
snout and clamped down on the man’s head, desperate to somehow maintain its grip.

The man
suddenly
reached up and grabbed both sides of his head, screaming now with his own voice.

“Leave me,” he shouted, with a harsh rasp.

Instantly, the demons were flung into the void
, their
shrieks
leaving
a trail of echoes.

Sariel waved both his hands in the air, and at once, the tribe was silent.

In the following stillness, t
he man in the pit fell forward, collapsing in the mud at his knees.

Sariel
exhaled and wiped
the tears from his face.  “Remove this,” he said gently, kneeling down and placing his hand on the latticed lid.

Obediently, the men of the tribe dropped their instruments and began to untie the chords that fastened the lid.  It seemed to take an eternity
.  While he waited, Sariel
s
hifted
toward the
E
ternal and was relieved to find that a dim light remained at the core of the being in the pit.  It was faint, and flickered like a flame on the verge of ceasing.

“Hurry,” he told the men.

No sooner had he said the words than the men lift
ed
the lid off the pit.

Sariel put his hands on the earth and swung his legs over the edge, dropping down into the hole that smelled of urine and feces.  Trudging through the shallow
muck
, he knelt and picked up the frail man, lifting him as easily as a child.

He was pale and starved, but he was alive.  Looking up into the sky, Sariel noted that the sun was already nearing the western horizon.  Apparently, they’d been singing all day long, though it seemed only minutes. 
But
the fatigue in his own throat and muscles, and the weariness in his eyes confirmed
what he saw.
 
Now the tears began to fall from his eyes as his physical body release
d
the emotion it had been trying to hold in.
With
blurr
ed
vision
, he looked up and saw the man’s wife
standi
ng on the edge of the pit.