We Are Not Monsters

Amid the jumbled forest of towering stone, Tito was carefully packing the bone tablets he had finished copying into his woven basket. All at once he stopped, and turned his head toward Old Stone Helm.

He had heard what the Demon Abyss Kingdom's prawn knight said. Only two had trespassed here, and they were himself and Old Stone Helm.

"Was it you they were talking about?"

Tito did not wait for Old Stone Helm to answer. He spoke with utter certainty.

"You were the king of the Demon Abyss Kingdom. The one before this one?"

Tito had been guessing at Old Stone Helm's true identity for some time, and now everything the old man had said before came back to him.

There had been that line about being back again at last. It only confirmed who he truly was.

"You told me before as well. You are the great-grandfather of the lord of the Sal Domain."

"If that is so, then you are not merely their king. You are the one who founded this kingdom. The first king it ever had."

Old Stone Helm neither admitted it nor denied it.

Tito rose to his feet. Only now did he truly understand who the aged Person of the Abyss before him really was.

The shock of it went through him. He had never imagined this man was a king, let alone the very first king, the one who had founded a dynasty.

And yet, in the end, he had not merely been exiled by his own people. His own child, and the subjects who had once served him, had driven him from the throne.

Nor had he been exiled over any shortage of food, any failure to feed a population grown too large.

It was only because he had grown old, and yet still sat upon the throne.

Old Stone Helm's expression was calm, almost detached. "Even King Redlichia, who once created all of this, came in the end to nothing but a bleak and desolate old age."

"And King Yesael, who thought himself without equal in all the world, could do nothing in the end but die a wretched death above the Abyss."

"All that splendor fell away, and nothing was left but ashes."

"What does this scrap of glory and pain of mine amount to, set beside theirs?"

Tito could not see Old Stone Helm's expression, but the weight of all those years was there in his voice.

He too had once lived a legend of his own, had once sat solemnly upon a throne.

Only, there was one thing Tito did not know.

Once, this same man had stood atop the high platform of Yesael City and declared to every Person of the Abyss that they were monsters no longer, that they would build a kingdom of their own. Had he imagined, in that moment, that a day like this might come for him as well? Had he foreseen that in his old age he would fall to so bitter an end?

More and more soldiers of the Demon Abyss Kingdom were gathering, hunting for their trail amid the seafloor's tangled growth and broken stone. Old Stone Helm dragged Tito along with him, seizing his moment with unerring precision, shaking off their pursuers and sweeping around them from another direction entirely.

Tito asked Old Stone Helm, "You know perfectly well how dangerous this place is. Why come here at all?"

Old Stone Helm looked at Tito. "You know perfectly well that searching for the God-Given Land means death. Why go on searching at all?"

The old man turned his head back around without breaking stride.

"You're searching for the God-Given Land. I'm searching for an answer."

"And we're both just as willing to pay the price."

Tito was taken aback. Then a faint smile crept across his face.

At last he felt it. Old Stone Helm truly was a companion walking the same road.

The two of them slipped free of the search parties closing in around them. Tito could sense how well Old Stone Helm knew this stretch of territory. He knew exactly which way each patrol would go, and exactly how to avoid them.

The confusion even worked in their favor. Patrol after patrol was drawn away toward the jumbled stone fields, and the waters around Yesael City only grew easier for the two of them to cross.

Tito began to wonder whether this, too, was part of Old Stone Helm's calculations.

After all, this was a man who had once been a king.

Hugging the base of Yesael City and the seafloor, they slipped beneath the soldiers above them, keeping to the one blind spot no one thought to search, the shadow directly under the light.

But just as they were about to pass beyond the Demon Abyss Kingdom's controlled waters, hundreds upon hundreds of People of the Abyss came down from the waters above and closed a ring around the blind poet and Old Stone Helm.

It was as though they had known all along which way the two of them would come, and had been lying in wait here on purpose.

"Father, you have come back."

A tall Person of the Abyss in a black crown stepped forward, powerfully built and imposing, his presence bearing down like a physical force.

Old Stone Helm looked at him and let out a sigh.

"Let us through. I'm not back to reclaim the throne."

"And I don't want a war with you either."

But the king of the Demon Abyss Kingdom only shook his head. "Father, you know the rule. You set it yourself."

"You are the one who told me that this world is cruel."

"That a king, for the sake of the kingdom, for the survival of everyone, may sacrifice anyone at all."

"You are the one who told me that the People of the Abyss need a king who is strong and driven, and that only such a king can lead everyone into the future."

"You also said that only one may ever sit upon the throne, and that within the royal city there can only ever be one king."

"And now, you have stepped into the king's domain."

Old Stone Helm fell silent. After a long moment, he spoke.

"Rules are made by people."

"And people..."

"...change."

Old Stone Helm laughed. "Or maybe the rule I laid down back then was the wrong one?"

But the young king was not persuaded. He believed only in the truth he had heard as a child.

He believed only the words of a strong king, never those of a broken old man.

"Then let what is wrong be made right. A king..."

"...is never wrong."

Every soldier of the Demon Abyss Kingdom drew back, closing a tight ring around the two of them. Not one stepped forward.

The soldiers were there only to keep the old king from entering the city. But he had already crossed into the royal city's boundary, and now the rules of the Demon Abyss Kingdom would have to be followed.

The new king and the old king. A war between kings had to begin.

The victor would be king. The defeated would be driven out.

The old man and the young one threw themselves at each other, just as they had once fought over the throne.

Neither of them had a wisdom ability transformed by the pollen of the Sun Cup, so such powers counted for little in a real fight. What they relied on in the end was still the powerful bodies of the People of the Abyss, and the wisdom born of battle.

Everyone expected the same outcome as before. The young king had beaten the old king once, and this time would surely be no different.

But no one had imagined this. From the very start, the young king was at a disadvantage.

The young king was stronger, more powerful.

But Old Stone Helm's fighting skill was the finer by far. He knew the young king's every move as well as he knew his own, and slipped them and countered with ease.

A few exchanges were all it took. Old Stone Helm struck the young king to the ground, so hard that even his crown was knocked loose and tumbled away.

He drove an arm sharp as a spear into the gap in the young king's carapace. Then, abruptly, he stopped.

A single push, the slightest effort, and he could have killed this treacherous son and reclaimed his own throne.

But he pulled his arm back instead.

Only then did the young king understand. The last time he had challenged his father, it was his father who had let him win the throne.

"Why?"

The young king could not understand why his father would do this.

Why not kill a son who had defied him, a traitor who had dared to challenge the king's own authority?

Old Stone Helm looked at his son. "We're not monsters, child."

"We were people once, too. We once had the love of God and King Redlichia, and we once lived beneath the halls of the divine."

"And if we are people, then we can't go on living like monsters. Of course we can't."

His son's face went blank with confusion. "I do not understand what you are saying."

Old Stone Helm told him, "One day, you'll understand."

With that, Old Stone Helm turned and walked away.

He gave up the chance to reclaim the throne. It meant nothing to him anymore.

Old Stone Helm and the blind poet left Yesael City behind them, and set out toward that bottomless abyss.