Fractured Paradise (Volume I)
The Rise of the Henin
Fractured Paradise: A Novel In Progress
by Oliver Smith
OliverSmith@CyberPoet.com
< Addewid Index < Fractured Paradise Index < Volume I Outline
Synopsis : Story
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Fractured Paradise (Volume I)
The Rise of the Henin Fractured Paradise: A Novel In Progress by Oliver Smith OliverSmith@CyberPoet.com < Addewid Index < Fractured Paradise Index < Volume I Outline Synopsis : Story |
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[synopsis here] |
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, so they occurred at the same time. We have no way of truly knowing what came first and what followed. What we do know, from the Henin themselves, is that when Ruvel awakened them many things happened, all at once, without any order. That was when Resem The Philosopher said that there needed to be order and asked Nerthin the Strong One to do something, but Nerthen, with all his power, could not just cause one thing to happen before another, he could only enforce the rules that had been set up by the Henin and he needed Deveg the Lawgiver to make the rules, and Deveg needed Amser The Timekeeper to establish the order of events and Amser needed help if he was going to control the order of all that occurred within the Henin, so the chaos reigned in the wake of Ruvel's awakening." "That was when Amser asked Cren to create three daughters for him. When she moved upon him there came forth the forces of Past, Present and Future, and he gave them each powers to control when things happened, each taking what the other gave, ensuring the order of all time. Then Amser asked Cren to create a drum for him, a drum that he could hold upon his belly and beat with a rhythm his three daughters could dance to. As he played the drum they danced across all of eternity, taking the Henin along with them, Future lifting each moment up as long as she could and letting it fall to Present when it was time, who embraced it ever so briefly before passing it on to Past, all to the beat of Amser's drum, and Deveg The Lawgiver was happy, as was Resam The Philosopher and Nerth The Strong One, and they each called it good. From that point on, all that was said, or thought our done by the Henin was to occur in order, and only Amser was able to change the rhythm of time, and only his daughters could change the way in which moments in time could be passed from one to the other, but they followed Deveg's rules. Each moment held by Future remained hidden from the Henin until it was passed on to Present, then it was immediately forgotten." "Forgotten?" said Little Tree, "how can each moment be forgotten when even we can remember each moment held by Past?" "That is because of Gebod The All Knowing", said Great Tree, "She didn't like allowing all of the moments simply disappearing into the depths of Past, so she held on to each moment with her own thoughts and she became the collector of all things have happened, and she gave some of this ability to the other Henin, allowing them to remember some things that happened, but Gebod was the only one who remembered everything." "Everything?" asked Little Tree, surprised. "Everything," repeated Great Tree, "Gebod remembers everything. All of our memories and the memories held by the Henin, except for those of Gebod herself, are incomplete. That is because we can only remember those things which happen to us personally. Gebod remembers everything that has happened to all of the Henin and to all that lives within Cren's Addewid and that is why Gebod hides in the deepest forests of Cren's Island, her scorpion stinger ever present to stun all those who seek to learn the secrets of the Henin and all that is within Addewid." "What happens to those who are stung?" "That is not something you will never want to experience," said Great Tree, "Gebod's poison is the most potent in Addewid, and it will send any Addewid spirit into the deepest of sleep, a sleep that is beyond the skills of the best Charmsees in Addewid to remedy. It is said that only someone who has eaten of the Madru Trees in the Gortha Valley can hope to learn the remedy for that sting." "But why would Gebod become so angry just because others would want to know the history of Addewid?" "Oh, Little Tree, you ask so many questions, have you not heard of Temlad The Expressive?" "Yes." "Of all the Henin, she is the one who gave us all the most, in many ways, for it is through her that we feel anything at all, be it anger, love or comfort. Before her awakening, the Henin were devoid of all feeling, simply acting according to their natures, but soon after Ruvel's first disturbance, Hesbrid The Soul Spinner was awakened. Her spirit overflowed and filled all of the Henin with life, and as she breathed in her spirit, all of the Henin breathed with her. When she breathed out, they all breathed out as well. She followed the rhythm of Amser's drum, and her spirit danced with his three daughers, and the Henin became alive with the breathe of life. A new energy filled the Henin and swelled them up with a sense of anticipation, but they had no way of expressing the sensation until Temlad burst out with a whirlwind of emotion. Tongues of raw desire and longing and loneliness and joy and anger settled deep within the Henin, setting off tremors within them and they suddenly saw each other differently. They became possessive of their own abilities and wanted the abilities of the others, making demands of each other and hiding from each other. "Now Gebod's knowledge became an object of desire and the other Henin sought to gain this knowledge for themselves. Gebod stopped speaking with the others to find someplace to hide, but there was no place to go. They were the Henin, and they filled all that was, that is, until Cren created Addewid." "But who woke up Ruvel The Warrior, Great Tree?" asked Little One, "and how did he wake up the others?" "Ruvel didn't need to be awakened," answered Great Tree, "he was unable to remain still and calm. And when he spoke, there was no silence or stillness within the Henin again. "You must remember that before Cren formed Addewid from the depths of her imagination, and before Amser The Timekeeper established the forces of the past, present and future, there was no beginning or end. All things happened at once and never at the same time." "I don't understand. How can that be?" "You and I can't understand these things, Little One. We are only trees. We are only able to extend from the ground in which we grow to the sky we reach towards, but never touch. We are not Henin and have no knowledge of their time before the awakening." "But that is just it," said Little One, "how can there be a time before the awakening if there was no time?" "So," said Little One, "no one woke The Warrior up?" 'No, he just decided that he needed to do something and asked the others if they knew how long they had been there." "Did any one answer?" "No. None of the Henin knew. None of them had thought to ask the question" Before humans started to appear in the waters of the Resurrection River; before the Yew trees scooped up spirits from the currents in the Lake of Fate with their long limbs and slipped them to the Flesh Weavers; before Cren, Treven and Hesbrid went afoul of Addewid Law, there was a calmness that extended across eternity, where all the elements of the Henin existed. "How long have I been here?" asked Ruvel the Warrior. He had grown weary of the silence. The Henin shuddered. No one had spoken before, leaving them all confused. How should they respond to such as this? Ruvel's voice resonated and grew stronger. "Who am I?" said The Warrior. The questions cascaded over the others and faded away from them, except for Hesbrid the Spirit Giver. She started to breathe when Ruvel's words touched her. Life started to course through her and she marveled at the sensation. Exhilarated, she entered the others, bringing them, giving them breath to match her own. As Ruvel's voice droned on with questions, chaos erupted as the Henin struggled with their reactions to the questions. They had no way to respond to Ruvel's disturbance. Their thoughts were all occurring at once, with no way to sort them out. Then Amser the Timekeeper, extended his rhythm of time throughout the Henin and everything feel into sequences, threads of conversation and thoughts extended throughout the Henin, but there was still no way answer to Ruvel's questions. Where is this place? said Ruvel. Then Temlad the Expressive surged with feelings of anger and frustration. She hated the intrusion and wanted it to end. "Stop it!" she exclaimed. "We have no answers to these questions!" Her emotions, penetrated the others and they too started to sense Temlad's discomfort and voice their own protest. Ruvel became angry with their response, "Why have you reacted this way? Do you not have these same feelings? Don't you desire know how we came to be?" "It is not for us to question our origins," said Deveg the Lawgiver. "We are the Henin. We are the ones who have always been. There is no need for concern here". "But Deveg," said Ruvel, "to be as one when we are each separate makes no sense. We should have out own paths within eternity." was a thought, a single expression of curiosity. Not a voice. Not an observation. Not even a command. Just a question, a moment when an Element of the One, Ruvel the Warrior, asked a question: "How long have I been here?" There was no response to that question, but it broke the stillness, creating ripples within the One and breaking asunder the Elements, leaving them to ebb and flow within infinity: tugging, coalescing, merging, repelling, attracting, eventually forming into waves of consciousness. Another Element, Hesbrid the Spirit Giver, gasped with awareness. She took a breath and spoke, saying, "I am alive!" Her expression pierced the others and she flowed in, pulling them into a rhythm of new life with her. They all expanded, filling the void of eternity, becoming the Henin, the ones who have always been, the Elements from within the One. They all began to move within and around each other, forming an ocean of sound and movement within the ebb and flow of their breath, a tide of ascension and release, but the chaos swirled without limit until Deveg the Lawgiver stopped and took possession of his own place, declaring himself sovereign of his own spirit, and his own voice and his own portion within the One. His proclamation stilled the cacophony, allowing the Elements to take their own place and hold onto it, with their own voice and spirit, just as Deveg had done, and there was silence as the storms quelled. With the silence came awareness between the Elements. They began to tremble and murmur with deep groaning, anticipating what was to come, each wanting to express some feeling but not knowing how to do that until Temlad the Expressive cried out, weeping from deep within herself. She screamed and twisted with feelings she could not contain. Shards and blades of emotions pierced the others, stunning them with the intensity of her experience: her fears, her joys, her ecstasy, her loneliness. They each recoiled, pulling away from the others, seeking the depths of the One for themselves. They lashed out in their own ways and pressed against the frontiers of their existence. They resisted the intrusion but they suddenly hated their own limitations for they became filled with the joy, lust and desire for sensation, pulling on Temlad , seeking more. She retreated and left them with but a taste of her deepest fire. Resam the Logician reasoned that such strong feelings made no sense. He felt that it accomplished nothing. He sensed that there needed to be order, not emotion, so he tried to reject all of the other Elements, but his efforts failed and he became angry with the intrusions and intensity. He determined that each of them needed an equal portion of the One so he set aside an equal portion for himself and retreated into it, leaving the others to seek out their own. In their own ways, each settled into private and equal pools, just as Resam had done. New feelings crept into the Elements then, those of satisfaction, comfort and safety, for each had become equal to the others. Resam rested and called it good. But with separation came new feelings loneliness, isolation and a desire to share and interact. They wanted community, but with equality. They wanted power with safety. Gebod wanted to know everything about the Elements. She wanted to learn and remember. She wanted to build a history of all that was, but there was no separation between past, present and future. They all occurred at the same time. All thoughts and events occurred without sequence, without direction, without purpose. Then Amser came gently upon her and the present separated itself from the past and future, and knowledge began to find itself within her thoughts, and the thoughts grew into stories of their existence, and their existence became one, and separate and distinct. Each Element found its way into her understanding of the Un, from the initial question asked by Ruvel, to the apportionment of equality defined by Resam . Gebod rested together with Amser, and they breathed with the rhythm of all Henin, and they called it good. The breath of harmony. The breath of equal portions within eternity. The breath of time, each thought and each moment following, one after the other. Henin, and this led to Hesbrid's Spirit pouring forth from her depths into each of the twelve Henin, then Temlad's expressiveness insinuated itself into them and Treven's instincts for survival, self-preservation led them each down seperate experiencial paths, driving them to evolve in their own separate ways. This Awakening led to events that caused Cren, the Henin of Creation, to build Addewid upon the Eternal Plane, which is the great expanse of infinity in which the Henin exist. There is no beginning or end, or any boundaries or limitations within the Eternal Plane, and since the Henin themselves fully occupy the Eternal Plane, they also are without limit, but they are each unique from the others and possess dominating archetypal Attributes, such as Power, Creativity and Time Keeping, but at the Awakening, these powers had not coalesced into distinct entities, but were rather distributed evenly throughout the eternal plane. So when Ruvel moved within the chaotic currents of the Eternal Plane and spoke, the inherent Attributes within the Henin differentiated and took on personalities that reflected their Attributes. As they became self-aware, they started trying to understand and communicate with each other, but they were confused by the lack of order in their existence. Just as they were one and many, at the same time, all of their thoughts and efforts to communicate were, at once, simultaneous and indistinguisable, until Nerth, the Henin of Power and Authority asked Amser, the Henin of Time, to create a Rhythm, by which moments, actions and thoughts could be ordered and synchronized, one following the other. In order to do this, Amser asked Cren to create a drum and to give him three daughters, and she said that she would, but only if he took on a physical form so that he could strike the head of the drum. When he agreed to Cren's demand, she made the drum for him and moved upon him, to bring forth three daughters who started to dance when Amser struck the drum. When they danced they took on physical shapes and their fingers lifted moments of time, one instant after another, with Divola, the first daughter, lifting a moment at one beat of Amser's drum and placing it into the fingers of Aron's hands at the next beat of the drum, who then placed it into the hands of Cinta, who never let the moment go. All of the moments of time yet to come were being held by Cinta and all of the moments that have already passed are being held by Divola and Amser's Drum never stops, for if it did, the Henin would fall back into chaos. Amser's Drum and his three daughters were the first of Cren's creations and Amser was the first of the Henin to take any physical form, but the Henin would find that Cren's creation of the physical aspect upon the Eternal Place would eventually draw all of them into its hold, for without the physical there was no order, and without Order there was no future and Divola's future was soon soon to become the inspirational spark for all of the Henin. The Henin started to realize that Divola held in her hands the most valuable element within the Eternal Plane, for she is the one holding all that is in the future, releasing it one moment at a time into the hands of Aron, the instant when all that is anticipated comes in contact with the reality of experience. Then they began to appreciate the fact that Cinta would be in possession of all their memories, for in her hands, all that had occurred, every moment, every thought, every act, every form of experience would remain with her, never to be released again, except in their memories. But it was Aron that they would come to understand as the key to all of their pleasures, sensations and pain, for in her hands was the moment in which Amser would strike his drum, ushering in another unit of time to experience, if only fleetingly. That instant, along with the moments following in succession, for however long an event would last, was the fulfillment of anticipations pouring forth from the hands of Divola. Once a rhythm for Time had been established, the Henin were able to think their own thoughts, take action and communicate within a controlled sequence. It then became clear that they were individually displeased with their existence within the Eternal Plane and needed Cren, the Henin of Creation, to put in place some means of locality, some way for each of the Henin to be in one place, separate from the others. Thanks to Amser, they had separation in Time but not in Space. That would require the work of Cren, who would need to create something within the Eternal Plane, but even Cren was not sure how to meet this need.
Over Time, these stories became more detailed, and the characters she placed into the stories became more complex, and the relationships between the characters became more intense, elliciting a greater array of Emotions from the Henin. Treven, the Henin of Instinct and Hesbrid, the Henin of Spirit, were particularly entralled by Cren's stories and soon started to ask her to place them into her stories, which she did, much to the anger and concern of the other Henin. This was a disturbing change in the way individual Henin related to each other. It was far too intimate and gave rise to an even more discomforting type of sensation, feelings that they would eventually refer to as love. Eventually, the way Cren, Hesbrid and Treven felt about each other was a reflection of the characters Cren created for them in her stories and they sought for ways to escape the presence of the other Henin, not because of Shame, but for privacy. They wanted to be alone, and they yearned to experience each other in new and wondrous ways, so Cren, following the images she created within her stories, physically spread water upon the Eternal Plane, creating an ocean that spanned all of eternity, in all directions. From the water Cren gave rise to solid ground, creating an island that she called Inniscren, and upon this island she crafted mountains, lakes, marsh, rivers and deserts. The three of them were pleased with this creation, but there was something missing. The sea, the land, the mountains, lakes and streams needed life within it. They needed something that would connect Cren's creation with the Henin themselves. There needed to be a way for Hesbrid's spirit to be imbued within the very fabric of Cren's creation, so Cren created the Trees, whose roots would dig deep into the foundations of the soil on Inniscren and whose limbs would rise into the expanse of Hesbrid's spirit. In order for these trees to take on the intermediary role intended for them they had to take on aspects found within each of the Henin, and they needed to exist with sufficient strength to withstand any efforts on the part of any of the Henin to interfere with their responsibilities within Addewid. The Trees, alone, were able to hold the physical existence of Addewid in place, for they were the conduit for Hesbrid's Spirit, Nerth's power, Deveg's laws, and the Attributes presented by the other Henin. They allow the Henin to have access to Addewid and for Addewid to have access to the Henin. needed pass have their own nor had any of the Henin had the opportunity (yet) to influence the nature of the Eternal Plane. That was to change once the Henin became self-aware and started to assert themselves as their Attributes would dictate. Even though the Henin were separate, with respect to their personalities, after the Awakening, they were also, as they had always been, One, since they each fully occupied the limitless expanse of the Eternal Plane. They were, at the same time, separate, but One. This resulted in numerous conflicts between them as they attempted to find some means of communicating and cooperating with each other. Eventually, with each of the Henin using their respective Attributes, Addewid was created through the creative energies provided by Cren, who promptly built an island for herself on the Biola Sea, calling it Inniscren. |
