March Tale 2024: Mural
Prompt: Defend the Crystal Seas
Main Character:
Duhelm: Duhelma, Mantoka-Nataani-Jadonan
Siso stared in awe as she was led into a building that was filled with items representing each Lineage: Mantokan dancing slippers, ceremonial Kyrinae knives, Jadonan embroidered scarves, gold Nataani jewelry, and an Averum-style hair comb to name a few.
“Each item within these walls has been given by the elder villagers,” Idris, Siso’s guide said. “Representing their culture and lives before they came to the islands.”
As Siso looked around she felt the familiar pull of a vision guiding her toward the back of the room. There she found a door that was ajar. The pull became stronger, almost unbearable.
“What’s in this room?” Siso asked.
Idris went over and opened the door. “Come see for yourself.”
The moment Siso walked into the room she felt the presence of history filling every fiber of her being. Glancing around, she saw that nearly every inch of the wall was covered in painted stills that together seemed to depict the story of one man with orange, yellow, and green eyes.
“This mural tells the story of Duhelm, a man who fought beside the guardian of the sea, and protected the island and the waters we who live here call home.”
Idris led her toward where the painted story began. In the image there was a cliffside, rain was pouring down on Duhelm, and dozens of Adonites from all the remaining lineages standing behind him. Duhelm was chained, and the other Adonites, the bottom of their faces were covered by masks the color of their bloodline and embroidered with the black symbol Siso recognized as the Purgers’.
Reaching out, Siso touched the painting and the historical moment at the cliff depicted began to play out in front of her very eyes.
“Bind him!” A purger yelled. “Bind the offering!”
Duhelm was pushed to his knees while his hands and feet were bound with chains. The wind and rain barreled down upon him, soaking his body and chilling his bones. Lightening struck in the distance as he was dragged to the edge of the seaside cliff.
“As the storm around us proclaims,” the head purger said. “Our lady Calyss is in battle between the wretched beast of the sea. With the help of this tainted soul, today may be the day she will finally gain victory.”
A man the size of a mountain held Duhelm up by the ends of his chains, and the crowd of purgers cheered, their roar as loud as thunder itself.
The head purger looked at Duhelm in disgusted satisfaction.
“Your existence pollutes this world,” he said. “But there is still use for you, yet.”
The head purger turned back to the crowd and shouted something in a language Duhelm could not understand. Then, with a great heave, Duhelm was thrown into the sea.
Siso jolted back as the vision faded. “Was this-?”
“A ritual. Duhelm was meant to be a sacrifice for a demon of old. A demon who wanted control over the domain it once guarded before it turned its back on the Creator of All.”
“Purgers…I knew they hated us…but to do something so vile...”
“They don’t see us as Adonites, they see us as abominations, stains on Adon and all who are truly ‘meant’ to dwell on this world.”
“But…but God made us. Just like He made them.”
“Perhaps that’s why they side with the enemy.”
Idris took a deep breath and continuing on. “As you can see, the ritual failed, and Duhelm washed up on the shore of this very Island, where he was found by those who came before them and nurtured back to health.”
Siso’s eyes scanned the ongoing painting and saw an image of Duhelm sitting on a cot, facing a woman holding a bowl out to him. She touched the long-dried ink, and what she saw next seemed to be straight from Duhelm’s perspective.
Duhelm awoke to the scent of boiling herbs. His body ached, his head throbbed, and every fiber of his being felt almost devoid of life itself.
He took in his surroundings. The room was small, with walls made of clay, but the artwork on the walls gave it character. In the center of the room was a small fire with a cooking pot hanging on a spit directly above the flames. Stirring the contents of the pot was a woman with long, dark hair braided down to the small of her back. Woven within her locks were two ribbons, one orange and one blue. He couldn’t see her face but he could hear her voice as she lightly hummed a soft tune. Duhelm shifted, the cot beneath him creaked, and the woman turned to look at him.
“You’re awake.” She said with a smile.
Everything about her was distinct. From her voice, to her smile, to the shape of her eyes. They were those of a Kyrinae, but the rest of her features were that of a Mantoka. She was of mixed heritage, just like him.
“What…what happened?” he said. Sitting up. “Where am I?”
“You’re on the Northern Severed Isle,” a voice said. “And your life force was almost consumed by the sea demon Calyss.”
“Calyss…” As Duhelm recalled the name, the memories of what the cliff began to return. The purgers who took him had mentioned that name before they threw him into the sea. A shutter went up his spine and a sinking feeling befell his heart as he looked down at the ground.
“I should be dead…” He said softly to himself.
“As should I,” The woman said, stirring the pot. “And everyone else that resides on this Island. We all were targeted by the Purgers. All were thrown to the wind and waves in the midst of a storm. And all of us washed up on this island’s shores.”
“How many of us are there?”
“You are the twenty-first.”
Twenty-one people taken. Twenty-one people thrown away like scraps to a hound. Twenty-one that lived to tell the tale.
“I had heard rumors, that those of mixed heritage were going missing,” Duhelm said. “Taken in the middle of the night by those who wish to purge this world of our impurity. And yet somehow I never thought much about it being me.”
The woman’s beautiful eyes were full of understanding. Duhelm found it hard to look away and only did because the constant ringing in his ears almost caused him to black out again.
Seeing his state, the woman grabbed a nearby bowl and poured the contents from the pot into it, then went over and held it out to him. “Drink. It will help you regain your strength.”
Looking down at the broth, he placed the bowl to his lips and took a sip. It was bitter as it went down his throat.
Duhelm choked, trying not to cough it up. The woman laughed.
“I said it would help regain your strength,” she said. “Not that it would taste good.”
The sound of her laugh was sweet like honey, like music to his ringing ears.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Nin,” she said. “And yours?”
“Duhelm.”
“Well, Duhelm, God gave us another chance at life, let’s not waste it.”
As the scene faded from Siso’s eyes she looked forward and saw the next two historical depictions were of Duhelm and Nin as well: the first being them standing beside one another during a union ceremony, and the second was of him with his arms around her as she held a child in her arms. Siso smiled, not needing a vision to know that they didn’t waste their second chance.
“How did they all survive?” Siso asked. “If the original inhabitants were all meant to be sacrifices, how come Calyss didn’t consume them?”
“It tried, but the people were ripped from Calyss’ clutches before their life force was fully consumed.”
“By who?”
“Levi’athon,” Idris said. “The angel that stayed true to his purpose that the Creator gave him: to guard the seas, not rule it as Calyss tried to do.”
Idris moved farther down the mural and pointed to a picture of a large serpent-like creature with beautiful scales that looked as if they were meant to shimmer.
Siso leaned forward to take a closer look, when she felt the prophetic tug toward a depiction of Duhelm on a beach. He seemed to be staring off at nothing but it seemed as if something was supposed to be there.
“That’s where Levi’athon should be,” Idris said, taking note of her gaze. “But no one has ever seen what he looks like outside of his guardian form. Duhelm was the only one to ever see him up close.”
Siso turned back to the painting and touched the empty sand where Duhelm looked, and she there she saw him: Levi’athon.
As Nin and the others carried the twenty-second survivor to the village, Duhelm stayed behind staring at the entity that stood before him. The entity that placed the survivor on the beach for them to find. An entity no one else seemed to see. His skin was iridescent, with prismatic scales all along his arms and neck that shimmered in the sun’s rays. He turned toward Duhelm, and the entity’s slitted eyes were like that of a serpent, their color as clear as the water that lapped at his feet.
“Do not be afraid.” He said.
The entity’s words did little to quell the fear that filled Duhelm’s soul.
“What are you?” Duhelm asked.
“I am Levi’athon, Guardian of the Crystal Sea,”
Duhelm’s eyes widened. “You are the one who saves us from Calyss.”
He nodded “I am.”
“Why can I see you and the others can’t?”
“I do not know. I suppose time will tell.”
Time sped up before Siso’s eyes and she saw Duhelm and Levi’athon meet by the shoreline over and over again. Then time slowed to a where Duhelm sat on the beach and Levi’athon stood watching the waves.
“Calyss…” Duhelm began. “The demon you saved us from. Was it once your Nin?”
“We guardians are not made to form unions as Adonites do. We are made to guard what The Lord has placed under our care to do so. And he made both of us to care for the seas.”
Levi’athon looked away, his emerald slits downcast.
“Still, Calyss’ betrayal hurt you deeply.” Duhelm surmised
After a moment of pause, Levi’athon nodded. “When Calyss was of the Lord, its name was Kal’ypso. And I suppose…Kal’ypso was the equivalent of a sister to me. We were created together, guarded the sea together, and then one day, Kal’ypso made her choice and I made mine. In a single moment, my dearest companion became my sworn enemy. And that is how it must be, for the rest of eternity.”
“Can you stop Calyss for good?”
“There is one way: Binding it in the midst of it feeding off a sacrifice’s life force, when she is vulnerable, but doing so would mean forgoing saving the Adonite whose life force is being stolen. I choose to save them and by the Creator’s will, I keep her at bay each time she tries.”
“Why would Kal’ypso betray the Creator?”
“The enemy promised her power, and she was blinded by the idea of ruling. But we were not meant nor equipped to rule, but to guard, and I will do my duty in order to keep the creature Calyss from getting exactly what it wants.”
Siso’s heart began to ache. The story of Ka’lypso reminded her of her best friend Nahar, when he had been coerced by the wrong crowd and had gone astray. For those years, she had lost her best friend, her big brother figure. She thanked God every day that he finally snapped out of it and came back home, and now she found herself thanking God even more that he had the option to. He had the chance to come back, but Kal’ypso, and all the other angels that turned their back on God made an irreversible choice, one they wouldn’t have repented of even if they could.
Siso was jolted from her thoughts as Idris’ finger lightly brushed against her cheek.
“Why do you cry?” he asked.
She wiped the rest of her tears away. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
So Siso did. She told him about how artifacts hold fragments of history within them, and how God gave her the ability to witness those memories first-hand through touch. However, she could only witness the memories of the artifacts she felt God calling her to see at that specific time. A calling she described as a pulling sensation, one that got stronger the closer she came to the artifact. She then explained how because of that, she had witnessed fragments of Duhelm’s story play out before her eyes, and the scene she had seen between Duhelm and Levi’athon hit close to home.
Idris listened carefully, with eyes of intrigue instead of the usual eyes of bewilderment and disbelief.
“What was he like?” he asked. “Duhelm, and Levi’athon too?”
“Duhelm seemed thoughtful and curious. A man of choice words and thought through all that he did. Levi’athon…poised, stoic, and dutiful. Fully devoted to the Creator of All.”
“What did he look like?”
“Kind of like a Kyrinae covered in iridescent scales, with crystal clear, serpent-like eyes.”
“Fascinating…”
Siso huffed and tilted her head as she scratched her ear. “Most people think I’m crazy.”
“What those in the Inland Empires call crazy, we on the Severed Isles call a gift.”
Idris led her to the last two images of the mural: The first a depiction of the silhouette of Duhelm walking out of an open door and into the stormy night, and the second the shore with nothing but a necklace buried in its sand.
“This is where the tale as we know it ends,” Idris said.
Siso ran a hand over the two images and could almost feel the pouring rain on her skin.
“Duhelm!” Nin shouted over the thunderous rain. “Please don’t do this!”
“I have to,” Duhelm said. “It’s the only way to keep you three safe.”
He approached her and the children she carried: one in her arms, and the other in her womb. He wrapped them in an embrace, one of longing, one of sadness, one that signaled a goodbye.
The sounds of roaring thunder filled the air as the winds and waves crashed over their home.
“Sa aking namamatay na hininga,” Duhelm whispered to them all. “Mahal kita.”
Before he could be convinced otherwise, he opened the front door and out into the stormy night.
The scene changed to the morning, the sky was clear and the waters calm. Nin and the others went to the shore but Duhelm was gone, only his necklace buried in the wet sand remained.
Siso slowly stepped back as the vision faded then looked to Idris.
“What was happening that night?” Siso said. “I’ve never seen so much rain in my life.”
“A hurricane. It is said that when the entities of the seas go to war against one another, that is when the wind and the waves become deadly and form such a natural disaster. The angel and demon would battle constantly and the hurricanes would get worse with every one. Many feared it may have been a sign the demon Calyss could have begun gaining the upper hand. Duhelm claimed to know of a way to help Levi’athon defeat Calyss…”
“…At the cost of his life,” Siso surmised.
Idris nodded.
Siso thought of the conversation between Levi’athon and Duhelma, about binding Calyss, during the feeding on a life force.
“Duhelm must have given up his life, so Levi’athon could bind Calyss.”
“And in doing so saving his family and everyone on the island.”
Idris gazed at the final image of the sandy shoreline “It was his sacrifice that saved what the first survivors had built here, and because of that, we of mixed heritage to this day are called Duhelmas - after the man who was brave enough to stand and die beside the guardian of the seas, just to make sure we could have a future for generations to come.”
Siso looked back at all the images all around her, and a stirring in her spirit told her Duhelm’s story was merely a stepping stone into a much grander narrative. That his sacrifice pointed to something that was still yet to come.
LOVE THIS STORY AND SISO