Food and a New Species

Ancestral Fish flopped and wriggled, lively, in the hands of several of Redlichia's sons, while Redlichia himself stood before the palace, holding on to his dignity.

But his sons could not wait. They stood on high ground and bellowed with all their strength, announcing it to the people of the God-Given City.

"Look, this is the food God has granted us!"

"The Ancestral Fish!"

Redlichia's eldest son held the Ancestral Fish aloft, bent low, and swept his rousing gaze across the crowd, and the words that came from his mouth were meant to shake them to their core. "God has even taught the Great King of Wisdom how to make food! From now on we shall have food without end!"

"From this day on, no one in the God-Given City will ever starve to death again! No one need ever risk their life plunging into the deep sea again!"

When he finished speaking, he raised the Ancestral Fish high and knelt down facing the pyramid.

He lifted both hands high, then bent to kiss the ground.

His whole manner bordered on frenzy.

Redlichia's second son rushed down from the platform. "God created the King of Wisdom, created us, and created for us food that only the King of Wisdom's own bloodline may enjoy!"

"God is the supreme ruler who created all things in this world, and the King of Wisdom is the supreme king of every intelligent being!"

"We are the race destined to command both land and sea, the firstborn of God!"

"Only God and the King of Wisdom can guide us. Only they can bring us into the light!"

They raised their arms and roared, their voices deafening.

Not long before, some had actually begun to question the King of Wisdom's authority and the power of God. A small few had wanted to break away from the God-Given City to seek their own path, and this had put his sons' own standing at risk.

Though the King of Wisdom, Redlichia, held the power to control every trilobite man with a single thought, he plainly had no wish to enslave them all so directly, just as God had never compelled his own will by force.

Redlichia's sons were eager to proclaim this astonishing news, to let everyone know the majesty of the power God held to create all things, and the standing of the King of Wisdom as God's own representative.

And it served, just as much, to display their own power and standing.

They were the sons of the King of Wisdom, born, they believed, to rule over all living things in the place of God and the King of Wisdom.

Trilobite men crowded around the rough, simple buildings raised from great blocks of stone, and before the King of Wisdom's palace they pressed thick together, their armor light or dark, their bodies tall or short, the men and women gathered apart in their own groups on either side.

Every one of them lifted their eyes to the King of Wisdom, and to that gift God had given them.

Under the sunlight, the Ancestral Fish shimmered, throwing back a scattering of light.

It was only now that Redlichia finally spoke, and he seemed far more composed, far steadier, than his sons.

In certain ways he had always modeled himself on his own creator, as though this was simply how one spoke from such heights, and his words carried all the more conviction for it.

"We are the race beloved of God!"

"In this world, on land or in the sea alike, there is no hardship that can defeat us."

"We are destined to become the most glorious civilization of all, shining forever beneath the stars."

An explosion of cheering rose from the crowd, a clamor loud enough to shake the whole of the God-Given City, carrying all the way up to the temple atop the pyramid.

"God Yinsai!"

"The King of Wisdom!"

"Nothing can defeat us!"

"We will drive out all darkness, and conquer the sea..."

This time, every trilobite man felt, at last, the greatness of God.

Hope stirred on every face.

Great stretches of the island were given over to marshland, where plants grew thick and moss covered the water's edges.

Some of these marshes connected directly to the sea, while others stood apart on their own, rising and falling with the tides.

The trilobite men of the God-Given City gathered beside these marshes, carrying stone basin after stone basin, each one filled with Ancestral Fish large and small, tumbling and splashing, throwing up spray.

Splash!

The trilobite men poured the Ancestral Fish out into one of the marshes and soaked more than a few of those standing nearby, and still everyone only laughed, nothing at all like the dead silence of before.

"Quick, quick!"

"Over there too!"

Then they used stones to block up the place where the tide flowed in, walling the marsh in on itself.

"So we just pour them in and they multiply?"

"The King of Wisdom says so."

"It's a gift from God, and so is the method."

When the King of Wisdom, Redlichia, came walking over, everyone knelt to receive him, forming a single line before the marsh and the shore.

Redlichia's gaze settled on his sons, and their eyes shone with hope, each of them wishing to be the one chosen.

This was a post that carried more power than any other. Whoever controlled the Ancestral Fish that God had granted controlled the food of the entire God-Given City.

But in the end, the King of Wisdom's gaze fell instead on his eldest daughter, who wore the same white exoskeleton as her mother the queen, and had the same slender, willowy frame.

"From this day on, you will watch over, tend, and guard the Ancestral Fish. They are our food, and they are the future of this God-Given Land."

She looked up at the King of Wisdom in delighted surprise, then dropped to her knees.

"Great King of Wisdom, I will guard these Ancestral Fish well, and carry out the duty you have given me."

From that point on, the women of the trilobite men began to hold power of their own too.

Trilobite women in their multitudes followed the King of Wisdom's eldest daughter, tending and raising Ancestral Fish together in the marshes. More often than not they would dive beneath the water, watching over the shoals from below.

Just like herders driving a flock of sheep.

The trilobite women first raised the Ancestral Fish in the marshes of the island, feeding them by the method Yin Shen had taught, tending to them according to their own nature.

They watched with their own eyes as the Ancestral Fish began to breed, growing more numerous by the day, as though they could copy themselves, multiplying without end.

To the trilobite men, this method of raising Ancestral Fish held countless secrets within it, a supreme power that belonged to God alone.

They now held the knowledge God had taught them, the power to breed and to command life itself.

God had changed the way they had always fished to live, and from then on they truly held the means of their own survival in this world.

Redlichia's eldest daughter stood beside the stone-walled marsh, watching one Ancestral Fish after another come up out of the water, each one bursting with the vitality of life.

Every trilobite man cheered and leapt at the harvest, and the shore beside the marsh dissolved into a joyful uproar.

The trilobite woman in white sighed, "Life truly is full of miracles!"

"And God can make such a miracle and grant it so easily. What an unimaginable power."

Through this, they had finally freed themselves from the burden of hunger.

They lived in the God-Given City, sustaining themselves by farming and fishing, and worshipped Redlichia as their king.

Just as the King of Wisdom had said, this place was truly the God-Given Land, a place under God's own protection.

In the marsh, a handful of Ancestral Fish swam about freely, foraging tiny creatures out of the silt and mud for food.

Then, quite suddenly, they struck out for deeper water, and there, to their astonishment, they found an opening that led out to the sea.

Glub!

Bubbles rose to the surface, and the fish in the lead darted straight into the opening.

The Ancestral Fish left the marsh behind, and swam away deep into the vast ocean.

From that moment on, the ocean held one more species that had not been there before.