The Void

The Void

"Mother, why don't we draw water from the black pond?"

"Who have you been talking to, my boy? You know you're not allowed near that vile place. If you and your friends are urging each other to seek it out I suggest you find another game to play"

"Why?"

"Because its waters refuse to quench our thirst."

"That's an answer to my first question, not the second."

"Because its waters are unnatural."

"What is wrong with it then?"

"It is empty, dear boy. It is loathing, it is suffering and it is pain. Not mere water."

"What has happened there?"

"A question rightly asked, and I will tell you, boy. But only if you promise never to seek out its waters again."

"I promise."

"Well then, get some pie and sit down. I'll tell you all about the Black Pond."

"In the time before the people of this valley kept written records there was a warlord who lived on the hill where the Baron now lives in his castle. This man whose name has been forgotten by history styled himself King and ruled over all the people in the valley. He had two sons; the eldest was named Kaurin and the youngest Aldrik. Aldrik was a fair lad. He was well loved and even tempered but lacked spirit. Something his brother had in excess. Kaurin matched his father's fervour and went far, far beyond. Where his father had been content to rule the vale and nothing more Kaurin looked to the mountains and beyond. As a boy he would dwell there and climb its ridges to see what was on the other side. There he saw more land than his people would know what to do with, and Kaurin knew then that he wanted it, wanted it all. But land wasn't all Kaurin discovered out in the mountains. When he returned from his ranging he was no longer the lad he had once been. He spoke less and grew more observant. His gaze became... unsettling to those around him. He spoke only of the land beyond the mountains and what could be obtained there. From time to time Kaurin would disappear in the deep of night and would stay away for days, returning unannounced and refusing to speak of his ventures. What Kaurin refused to share with his kin was that in the mountains he had found a voice. A voice that came from the rocks itself. It spoke to Kaurin about the nature of things, and taught him how he could change that nature and in the years that followed Kaurin grew powerful"

"When he was old enough to lead men Kaurin's father gave him a hundred of his finest sworn spears and told him to bring onto him the riches Kaurin claimed lay in wait beyond the mountains. Three months passed and when Kaurin returned he brought with him golden trinkets, armour and weaponry and two barbarian princesses. They were gifts given to Kaurin by the chieftain of the people who dwelled beyond the mountains. Precisely how Kaurin had subjugated them he would not say, and the sworn spears were silent, only giving each other fearful glances at the mention of Kaurin's success. The eldest of the Barbarian princesses however was not afraid. Her spirit was almost a match for Kaurin's and he took an interest in her. Both princesses were given free roam of the hill fort where Kaurin's father held court, and while Yana, the youngest stayed within the mead hall Verna, the eldest was fascinated by the world she suddenly found herself in and wished to see it all. Kaurin had taken it upon himself to guide her and show her the beauty of his father's realm. Slowly some of the old Kaurin returned and he grew softer. Eventually Kaurin grew to love Verna, and Verna loved Kaurin back, and so he asked his father for permission to marry Verna. The voice in the mountains grew smaller in Kaurin's mind, until days before he and Verna were to be wed the voice started calling from the very walls of his father's keep. Knowing that he could not, and did not want to keep his secret from Verna, who unlike her own father still knew naught of Kaurin's powers, Kaurin decided to show Verna his unusual abilities."

"One morning Kaurin announced that he and Verna would go hunting on the slopes of the Blue Mountain. Kaurin never spoke of what had passed on the mountain slopes, but when he returned he was forever changed, and alone. Verna had remained on the mountain, and would remain there for all eternity. She was dead. Kaurin would only mutter that the voice had tricked him. Yana would plead with Kaurin to tell her where her sister lay so that she could be buried. Kaurin would not say, grief tainted him even more so than it did Yana. He grew resentful of joy and of life itself it seemed. Every day he would do naught but stare at the mountains. It is said that the statue of the crying woman that sits atop the shoulders of the blue mountain is Verna, and that somehow the voice that lived inside the mountain had tricked Kaurin into turning Verna into stone. Life in the valley went on. Aldrik grew into manhood and in his turn was wooed by Yana. The two became betrothed less than a year after Verna had died on the shoulders of the blue mountain. Kaurin saw his brother's love for Yana, and Yana's love for Aldrik and he hated it. Sullen Kaurin grew spirited once more, but now in his hate for his brother's union with Yana. Why should his brother be given the love that had been robbed from him? What made matters worse was that Aldrik looked so much like Kaurin, and that Yana looked so much like her sister. When Kaurin looked upon them and bore witness to their love on their wedding day the voice once more reared its ugly head. Madness descended upon him and in a fit of anger he slew his brother and demanded he be wedded to Yana, whom he called Verna. Kaurin's father was appalled, and with heavy heart had his Eldest, and now only remaining son exiled from his Kingdom. Not knowing where else to turn Kaurin headed back to the Blue Mountain where the voice waited for him. There the voice twisted all that remained of Kaurin. It spoke only to the emptiness that the death of Verna had left behind until it was all that was left. This new Kaurin, nothing more than a gaping void knew nothing other than nothingness. It sat in his chest where once his heart had been. Now he was nothing but the place where the voice dwelled. And the name Kaurin was heard of no more in the valley."

"A year after Kaurin had vanished a scourge came down from the mountains. Men from beyond, vile barbarians, twisted and hateful, they sought only to revel in slaughter. With them came beings not seen before or since. They came from the depths of the Blue Mountain and they were lesser than a man and at the same time.... so much more. Leading them was a figure clad in the blackest of leather, on his head a jagged metal helmet of even blacker substance. He carried a black banner of such darkness that is seemed to devour all the light that touched it, and it radiated its loathing for all that lived back upon the earth. The Warlord, the father of Kaurin and Aldrik rallied all the men sworn to him by his side and marched upon this foe. In the fields of the valley they met in open combat. The Men of the valley, strong and skilled in arms, more valiant than the barbarians were evil resisted the invaders, but they began to falter when the creatures of the deep made their appearance, but still they held. The Warlord led his men from the front. His heroics inspired his men to fight on, but when the dark figure came, all despaired. This man who was nothing more than a husk held together by hate and loathing drove at his enemy and they recoiled. The Warlord hurried to meet him to keep his men from fleeing, but against such a vile urge to devour nothing could emerge victorious. The warlord fell, and his men fell with him. Before he died the Warlord asked the black figure who he was. It only replied "I am The Void!"
The Warlord's host, what remained of it fled back to the hill fort. Kaurin or 'The void' as he now called himself took his forces there and poured his malice out over it. The inhabitants of the hill fort pleaded for mercy but to no avail. The void desired to devour, and for nothing to be left untouched. When the hill fort was burned to the ground, and all the people in it, including Yana had ceased their screaming, the void stood and wondered if the voice would leave him now. It didn't. There was still rage, there was still loathing. Still his blood boiled simply because all around him there was life. It had to end. The Void sent its legion of terrors through the entire valley, and everywhere they went the cries of the good folk were heard. They torched villages, fields and even the forests. The Void sent his horde against anything that lived until the entire valley from one end to the other was ablaze. Few survived the onslaught. The descendants of those people would one day return to once more settle the vale, these people were our ancestors. The tale of the Void and the destruction he brought with him is a tale that was once known to every man, woman, and child that lived here, back when the scars of his evil work were still plain on the earth. Now all we have left to remind us of those evil days is the black pond."

"How is that?"

"Now the legend descends into the realm of myth, but the tale my mother told me, and her mother told her before I was born goes as follows; When the entire valley had burned to the ground the Void wondered once more if the voice would be silent now. Still it called to him. The void looked at the wretched beings that had wrought his malice and he loathed them. The realisation that all around him were beings that drew breath was a notion so revolting to the Void that he could not stand to let them live. One last time the Void set his witchcraft to work, this time on his own army, pitting the barbarians against the creatures from within the mountain. The two sides utterly destroyed each other and nothing was left inside the vale but ash and corpses. Then, finally the voice grew silent, and the void wondered what it meant. He wandered through the nothingness and noticed there was no more hate, no more loathing. He was calm. Now there was truly nothing and the emptiness that haunted the valley matched the emptiness that haunted the wicked remains of Kaurin. He found a hollow and sat himself down at its deepest point. From there he could not even see the Blue Mountain. Nothing could remind him of what he had lost. Above him storm clouds gathered, and it started to pour. The rain washed away the soot that lay on the land, and carried it to the lowest point in the valley, the hollow where Kaurin sat. The black water started to pool on the bottom of the hollow. Slowly it rose to fill the it, but Kaurin did not move. He had named himself the void, but he had not been void, he carried his loss with him, but now that all that reminded him of that loss was gone he did become void. He did not even feel the urge to stand up as the black water reached his lips."

"Kaurin drowned in the black pond?"

"He did. And the emptiness that drove him to madness still haunts its waters."

"Why did Kaurin become the void?"

"Have you not been listening child? Because the pain that Kaurin felt was more than he could bear to live with. He exiled all that reminded him of Verna from his heart. He banished the pain from his being, but one cannot do so without banishing joy with it as well. A man who does not feel his heart is left only with a hole in his being, and desperately he will try to fill it. Kaurin's pain was so great however that the hole grew and grew until it was all that was left to him. Try as he did one cannot banish ones heart completely, and even though he no longer felt his love of Verna he still carried something of her with him. Kaurin chose to believe otherwise, he chose to believe that all had turned to nothingness, that all was and meant nothing. But everything around him challenged this belief. People laughed and lived, birds flew and critters crawled. I do not believe Kaurin knew why he did what he did, but I think he did so because in order to keep his heart hidden he had to root out anything that challenged his notion that he was the Void, that all was nothingness."

"That was why he razed the vale?"

"Yes my boy that was why he razed vale, so he could convince himself that he was the Void. So that he would no longer hurt. And when he truly became the Void he could not even find the strength to save himself from drowning."

"And what about the voice, does it still dwell inside the pond?

"No one knows, and I urge you to keep your promise and not to try and find out."

"I shall keep my promise, mother. Never again shall I go near the Black Pond."

"Good, and remember this tale, and heed its warning."

"I shall."