Legends of Autumnavia: The Day of Tears

[UnStellar]

"Aunty Beau! Aunty Beau, tell us a story!" The small gaggle of children demanded. They were getting older. It amazed her how fast they grew, yesterday she'd been bouncing them all on her knee. Now, soon they'd be off to Tarla Disspe, to learn the arts. Such a shame, who would listen to her stores then?  She suppose she'd have to find somebody's children. Maybe she'd make friends with the neighbors, they had small children.
"Auntyyyy!" The children.
"Oh, dear me. Sorry children, I got lost in my thoughts. What would you like to hear today? The First Swordsman?"
"No!" They enthusiastically called back.
"Oh, my. The Revokers and the Witches?"
"No!" They said, with enthusiasm.
"My, my. The Will O' Wisp Lord?"
"Auntyyy! We're too old for those stories!" A boy chimed in.
"Tell us a story about love!" A girl offered.
"Ewww, no, a story with blood and guts in it!" One of the younger boys demanded.
"Aunty, tell us one we've never heard before!" Asked one of the eldest.
  Beatrice Kogoma settled back in her chair, thinking for a moment before asking a question that put butterflies into the hearts of them all.
"How old are you all?" There were a variety of answers, all shouted at once. The youngest seemed to be 8, the eldest, 12. Aunty Beau nodded to herself.
"I believe you're old enough to hear this story." The children got even more excited upon hearing this.
"It has something for you all. Does anyone know the story of the Day of Tears?"
"The Day of Tears? When it always rains and we have to stay in the rain in front of those shrines and Mommy always cries?"
"Yes. That's the day. It began like this..."

A little more then 8 years ago, the days were very different. The Spirits were asleep. The Spirits of the Trees, the Spirits Among the Trees, the Spirits of the Waters, of the Air, The Witches, the Will O' Wisp Lord, even Yin and Yang themselves. In their slumber, we were ruled by a people called the Anrufe, cruel men with great power. They did very little to us except hold their authority over us. Though they did not harm us, we were very afraid of them. Most of the men were not normal, and they would have killed us if we made the slightest mistake. It was like this for many months, and we began to fear they would never leave. But, one day, the Will O' Wisp Lord returned.

"You've already told us the tale of the Will O' Wisp Lord!" One child rudely interrupted. He shut his mouth after a glare from Aunty Beau. Silenced, she continued the story.

The Will O' Wisp Lord defeated the Anrufe... But no sooner had he done that then the Dark Spring awoken. Autumnavia was rocked to the core by natural disaster, tornadoes and storms... But that was only the beginning. Then, evil versions of ourselves appeared. They were called the Negi, and they... They spread evil and chaos through the planet. They killed and hurt many, and we Karmagans could barely fight back. We were losing many... But suddenly, the Spirits awoke. All of them at once, beckoned by the Will O' Wisp Lord. And they fought! How they fought! Every Spirit gave his all, and Yin and Yang united to fight these terrors. Encouraged by the support, the Karmagans regrouped, rearmed, and redoubled their efforts. Everyone who could carry a weapon did, waging a terrible war against the evil Negi, defeating evil versions of themselves. With the noble efforts of the Spirits and the Karmagans,  the Negi were defeated! Every last evil creature was slain.
  But it came with great cost. Thousands of brave Karmagans had lost their lives... Many loved ones hurt. Even with the battle won, there was no celebration. Surviving Karmagans looked at our fallen comrades, our destroyed homes and broken hearts. We... Did not know what to do. And neither did the Spirits. Unsure of how to help us, they returned to their homes, to watch from the shadows as they always have. A terrible rain began to fall, a gift from Yin. It fixed our broken cities, but could not bring back the dead or heal our hearts. Everyone surviving person had lost someone they loved. So, we gathered together, and mourned, and wept. We had not the strength to do anything but weep. And weep. And weep. For hours the rain and our tears soaked us...
  After this went on for a while, we began to feel something inside of us. It was like... A stab to our already broken hearts, followed by a wave of depression. It grew worse, and happened with more frequency as the night went on.

Beatrice held back her tears well, took a deep breath and went on.

You see children, some people had lost everything and everyone they held dear. They began to realize that they'd never... Be able to forgive or apologize to someone they held dearly, never feel the touch of their skin, the sound of their voice. Ever again. Imagine that children. Just, take a second and feel that inside yourself.

There was a pause, some of the children began to cry silently. This hadn't been what they expected.

People felt like that... And in the wreckage, they couldn't take it. There was no future for them. So, like people without a future do... They began to take their own lives. That's... What we were feeling. Each stab to our already broken heart was one of our fellow people claiming their own lives. What we didn't realize then, children, is the Negi's powers were still lingering. They were amplifying these terrible negative feelings in us... Which lead so many to kill themselves. Had we known, we would have fought it... But we didn't. And so the mourning went on, the stabbing in our hearts slowly growing more frequent...

At this point, every child was weeping, and Aunty Beau had some glistening tears on her face, but she then broke into a smile.

But that's when it happened, dear children. A girl... Natalie, Kamagush, I think. She rose to her feet. You see, the Negi had hurt her bad. Not with weapons or fists, or word, but... No. You're too young for that. She was a beautiful girl,  with big violet eyes. And... She found this boy who was about to kill himself. I know, because I was there. I hadn't even noticed the boy, so busy was I with my mourning. She stopped him... And children, that's when something incredible happened.

At this point, the sobbing stopped as Aunty Beau paused to wipe her eyes.

She began to sing. She had a voice more beautiful then any I've ever heard, and it was amplified by the Spirits of the Wind. Immediately as she sang, the sun came out, and it stopped raining. A rainbow appeared... And just like that, we had Salvion once more.

"What's Salvion?" A boy asked curiously.
"It means... Hope, in the Old Language. One day you'll understand, it means more then that."

We had Salvion again. And everybody near her rose and sang and danced... And with our voices and the Spirits of the Wind, EVERYONE heard our voice, and saw the rainbow, and the Salvion spread like a virus, curing the negative hurtful feelings from the Negi! And at that moment, every Karmagan on Autumnavia was dancing and singing this beautiful song!

The children were very excited now, and happily clapped their hands.
"What was the song?" One of the girls asked. Aunty Beau wiped away a few happy tears and smiled.
"Nobody can remember. It was in a language none of us knew... But it was beautiful."
"Aunty Beau, is that the end of the story?" A child asked. Aunty Beau's smile broadened.
"No my dear. That's the best part. It lives on! In you! You are Salvion! You are our Song! Every day we can look upon and see it. You are another part of the story, and the best part is it won't end after you! It will live on, and on, with out whole race! So, my darlings, never look past the Day of Tears. Hold on to it! Never forget it! And pass it on to your own children!"
"We will Aunty Beau! We will!" The children excitedly replied. Aunty Beau nodded, another happy tear down her face.
"Yes children... I know you will."

[Capxeno]

A face that was known, and yet was rarely seen. The Wayword Marid had been trading basics with the locals, now that the Wayword had no need to trade, they traded merely to increase the quality of life of the locals. Additionally, the Wayword had opened an Academy so that the locals could learn science, advanced magics, military tactics, and many other things that would advance the local population. These Marid who no longer knew where their homeworld was, felt a certain generosity and debt to this planet and it mysteries.

Caliph was here, the Wayword's leader. A number of these children had been selected to be offered a place at the academy. Caliph was unsure if Aunty Beau liked him or not, but he tried to make a positive impression on the kids. His familiar face was an illusion of a humanish appearance. Strong sharp features.

"Hello Children... if you wish I can tell the next part of this story. Spoiler alert... it involves me." he said with a calm smile.

[UnStellar]

Aunty Beau glanced nervously at the stranger. They had met before. Nice enough fellow, but the hollowness of them unnerved her. Outsiders were looked at with suspicion, which was to be expected after their last experience. Still, these Outsiders had made every effort to be kind, and she saw no reason not to return the favor. But she hadn't been won over quite yet.
 Suppressing her thoughts with a smile, she turned the children's attention toward the man.
"Of course Outsider. Please, share with them."
"But I don't want to hear his story... He scares me." One of the younger girls whined.
"Samantha!" Beatrice scolded, setting her hand on her should and glancing seriously.
"Go ahead, Outsider."

[Capxeno]

Caliph understood their uneasiness. In the Marid culture outsiders were seen as something to eliminate should they attempt to live on their world. This had made the Wayword Marid extremely grateful to the locals. He did wonder why Samantha was one of the children uneasy about him, her parents had insisted on testing her... and she had been excepted. For her young age, Caliph thought her a genius.

As had become his custom, he would tell his story, using a little illusion of their world, he showed his ship that his people escaped Teifillin with and an orbital view of their world.

"The Marid come from a beautifully harsh world, where Ice boils. In these pockets of boiling ice, our children are raised with their curiosity enabled in every way possible. You see children, the Marid natural thirst for knowledge is insatiable. So, in flight from enemies who wished our fleet death my ship, one of many escaped to your system. In a final bid to survive, we teleported to your planet, without our ship's data, the way to our home was lost. As crows we flew, with no direction until we found  clearing... this clearing if you look outside that window is now a tower the goes up unto the heavens. A mini-tower grew onto the illusion." Caliph smiled sadly.

"However, not long after we had settled with your permission. A voice hit all of our heads, I am sure a couple of you are old enough to remember it. IT was desperate and likely dying, "Stay away from False Heaven" was what it had to say. For some reason, some started calling the MArid tower False Heaven. Regardless, that is how the Marid came to live on your beautiful world. " finished with his story he let his illusion fade into a floating mass of water and then float into one of the cups a child was holding.


"Aunty Beau, mind passing these out when you send them off today?" handing her a stack of seal letters. these were for the children accepted, "Be sure their parents get them. In the end its the families choice if they attend or not. Goodbye children, Grow Strong and Curious." Thus Caliph took his leave from the children.

[UnStellar]

Beatrice accepted it with a little bow, as is customary to their culture. She smiled another uneasy smile, and watched as he left. She was relieved to watch him go. She took a long glance at the stack of letters. She expected they'd be handwritten, in print-perfect penmanship, which would suit the rest of their mannerisms. The letters made her unease grow.
"Aunty Beau, are you going to give those to us?" Asked an boy, equally impatient and curious.
"No. I will give them to your parents." She said quickly, much to the disappointment of the lot.

She could feel the change coming on the wind, which made her conflicted feelings worse. Her smile faded as she stared at the tower, noting the odd appearance of Will O' Wisps around it.