18. The King of the Forest

ENTIN

CHAPTER 18

Entin was.

And that alone was a surprise.

His last memory was a haze of pain and finality. Entin had been certain in that last moment with the stag that he was done for. But then there had been a splash of warmth alongside the pain, and it was enough to leave him stained with hope.

"You live."

The voice reverberated in his mind, speaking in a language that wasn't his own. And yet he comprehended it. In each direction he turned his thoughts, he found he knew far more than he ought to. He could see into the past just as easily as he could peer into the future. The expanse of his disembodied consciousness was boundless…

He felt himself get swept away by visions of a time long ago. History was nothing like he'd imagined. For periods, vast cities sprawled out across the world, only to crumble into ruin. Entin watched in awe as the wilds were tamed over and over. There were remarkable eras of peace and innovation followed by periods of mounting conflict and devastation. It went on and on. Then, abruptly, the world became a frozen wasteland, and all the innumerable cities and empires disappeared in a few short years.

Empty, they were weathered into dust or crushed by miles-high glaciers that scraped the continents clean. People scattered and fought over what little remained. What was left of humanity was a brittle shard of what it had been. Entin watched in abject fascination as the ragged tatters of his ancestors slowly spread out to repopulate their ruined world. The ice eventually receded, but they were a shadow of themselves. And he was part of that shadow. He saw now how limited his understanding of existence had been before this moment.

"You. LIVE," the voice boomed.

Entin came into being. He was standing in a vast, ethereal forest. The trees were ashen, and the light about him was a glimmering haze, like a fog made of crystalline rainbows seen from underwater. Before him, a transparent orb pulsated in a clearing amongst the trees.

"Where am I?" Entin asked.

"You know where you are," the orb replied.

Glimpses of color flickered out of it when it spoke. Its words weren't sound but rather broken fragments of thoughts that erupted into his mind like sunlight, only to fade away right as he grasped at them. They were always spoken in that same voice, which wasn't a voice at all.

"What are you?" Entin pressed.

"I am the King of the Forest. I am the tiller of the fields and the engine of the oceans. I am the sun. I am the moon. I am the molder of beasts and the maker of men. I am chaos and I am order. I am everything and I am nothing."

Its voice was genderless and myriad, like a thousand tinkling bells formed into words. Entin approached it with equal parts fascination and wonder.

"Then what of me? If you're so powerful, why make me suffer? Why make a world as cruel as this one?" Entin challenged.

"You judge me, but I am you. We are the same. And so you must already know the answer you seek," the orb said.

But Entin had no idea what it was talking about. He stared into its luminescent surface, and to his horror, he saw himself gazing out from within.

"But that can't be. I wouldn't do this to myself. I wouldn't make a world as unjust as this," Entin protested.

"You misunderstand. I'm not only you. I am everything. To exist is to learn. Simply to be is to experience godhood. All of existence is but a fragment of the whole. And even a god must learn by making mistakes. How better to gain perspective than to be… well… everything?"

"Well, I've had enough of your mistakes. I don't want to go back. I don't want to hunt, kill, or inflict the cruelties you've compelled me toward. I'm more than that. I believe in kindness and justice," Entin protested.

"I will grant you your wish for peace if you so desire."

The orb opened to him, splitting apart in every direction and revealing an endless tunnel within itself. In the center, a dark, whirling nothing tempted Entin. He took a step toward it instinctively. He knew that nothingness was a form of peace, and a part of him had always wanted that more than anything.

"But what of Cascade? What of Aiel? What if I told you the role you might play in their future if you remained?" the orb asked.

Entin froze.

"They can handle themselves. I'm only a burden to them," he said darkly.

"The world is more than rocks and fire, flesh and blood. There are things you cannot see. Things you cannot measure. But they matter more than the rest of it. Love matters," the orb said.

Its luminescent surface was whirling frenetically now, and explosions of bejeweled color flickered out over the trees surrounding Entin. Everywhere the light shone came to life in an instant. The trees bloomed all at once, and then erupted in rapidly maturing foliage. Grass and flowers, moss and wildlife, whirred in and out of view as the clearing accelerated through an ever more frantic procession of seasons. It was dizzying, and horrifying, and entirely hypnotizing.

"Stop it!" Entin yelled.

But the orb didn't stop. The forest died and was reborn over and over. It was consumed by flame, washed away by oceans, and blown apart by colossal winds. And each time, it came back. But then, after millions and millions of years, it was finally demolished by the ingenuity of humanity. Enormous monuments built of stone and crystal, studded with lights that shined like the sun, replaced it.

Over many more years, the towers grew taller and more magnificent, even as the people who inhabited them grew increasingly sickly and despondent. Then, one morning, it all ended in a flash of searing heat and blinding light. Afterward, there was nothing but Entin and the orb for a long, lonely while, left standing silently amongst the ruins of a forest that would never regrow.

"If you let love die, this is what the future will hold for your kind," the orb cautioned.

"Then do something about it!" Entin urged.

"The future of your kind is your fate to command, not mine."

The portal to oblivion that had opened for him closed, and the god became a perfect, translucent sphere once more. Beneath it, a tiny patch of life finally returned to the bleak hellscape they stood in. A delicate and precious flower had somehow sprung to life amongst the scorched ruins of the earth.

"It is time to unshackle yourself, Entin. There are parts of the whole I would have you purge. Harlak must be destroyed. He is the first of many you must vanquish. But first, you must complete your Journey. Now go. This will not be the last time we speak. You have something I need to preserve, but the path you Journey must be your own if it is to mean anything. Goodbye, Entin."

With that, the orb blinked out of existence.

And at long last, Entin woke up.