Chapter 8 - The Fallen Ones

Translator’s Note – This section of the narrative marks a significant style change in the writing. The majority of BeeSheep scholars are in agreement that while this is a later manuscript, it is a retelling of an older story. At times it seems that the author(s) switched between retelling, and copying from an original document, creating an inconsistent patchwork style of writing.

BeeSheep reached the edge of the shore, his little legs embedded in the sand. Shava stood beside him, her white jester’s face ringed with gold crystalline honey. She wiggled her toes as the tide reached up the beach.

“Do you really think she’s down there?” Shava asked, her gaze kept on the horizon.

BeeSheep buzzed.

“No, I suppose you’re right.” She sighed, and knelt down, placing two fingers gently on his back. He buzzed in comfort. Then stepping forward BeeSheep began to wade into the waters.

The waves pushed and pulled, swinging him this way and that, but he kept swimming. As he got further out into the sea, the waves became even stronger, splashing and sending him below the salty surface.

“I see them!” Shava called from the shore, “Just keep swimming!” And so he did, but it wasn’t long until his thick sheep’s fur became soaked through and heavy. Each kick moved him slower and slower until at last, he could swim no more.

BeeSheep sank below the surface and there he found peace. It was quiet, and calm, just the endless void below him. Then from the darkness he saw a shape begin to appear. It was a mermaid, rising to greet him.

She was long, and slender, with the upper torso of a woman, and from the waist down, she was like that of a seal. Smooth skin gave way to fur. Her eyes large, and black, her hair as dark as her fur as it floated in the water.

Cupping BeeSheep in her hands, she pouted her lips as if to blow him a kiss, but instead she blew a small bubble just big enough for his head to fit in. Once his head was in the bubble he took several deep breaths, causing the bubble to shrink. The mermaid then kissed the bubble and blew more air into it.

“Welcome, BeeSheep, my name is Xaru,” said the mermaid, her voice wavy in the sea. “I will bring you to the court of Allatu, for she wishes to meet you.”

And holding him tight, she began to swim deeper into the sea.

Now BeeSheep wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it seemed as though they had traveled a good distance. He began to notice that they were passing large swaths of coral reef, bright and beautiful, and filled with a great number of fish. Glowing plants marked pathways, and soon they were swimming past homes built into caves and alcoves in the rock.

Looking ahead, BeeSheep saw a palace. A massive castle made of white stone, wide at the base, and curving upward into a fine point. The castle looked like a crown of white spikes.

Xaru swam past the gates, the guards merely nodding in their acknowledgment. Going farther still, they entered into the central spike, where was being held the royal court. And there sitting atop a throne made from iron anchors was Allatu, The Digyr of the Salty Sea.

“Welcome, BeeSheep of Livadi. Digyr of Far Meadows,” Allatu spoke. She was of great stature, her form like that of the marble statues oft seen in the temples. A golden ringlet adorned her stone hair, which flowed in the water, despite its weight. Her robe also was carved, and it also flowed. “Why have you, a creature of far meadows come into my domain?”

BeeSheep explained with a buzz.

“I see,” Allatu spoke thoughtfully. “Indeed, it is true that of all the Digyr who opened their eyes against me, it was only Livadi of Far Meadows who did not. Moreover, she too created an amalgamation as I have.”

“She set her heart upon peace, between the Digyr of the land and of the sea, and yet they opened their eyes against her, and took her own eyes away so that she might not open her eyes against them. And they spread her eyes throughout all creation, that she may never again find all of them.”

BeeSheep implored of Allatu.

“You wish to go into the depths of the earth, unto the pillars? For you believe the words of the Psychophant, that there she may be. Truly I say unto you, no thing may be brought forth from among the pillars, for all who are there have been chained in gloomy darkness.”

But BeeSheep stood firm. And Allatu saw the resolve of his heart, and it warmed her soul.

“I see that your countenance is determined. So it shall be. I shall send you with an envoy of creatures who swarm in the sea, and they will bring you unto the place where you may enter among the great pillars of the earth and find your goddess.”

And so Allatu, Digyr of the Salty Sea sent BeeSheep from her presence. And she sent him on his way, with three sharks, two great fish of the sea, and thirteen jellyfish. And so, Xaru, with BeeSheep in her palms, began to swim down towards the entrance of the place of pillars.

It was a long swim. Deep and cold.

“Here is the entrance to the pillars of the earth,” spoke Xaru when they had finally arrived. “I cannot go farther for it would not be right for me to do so. Shine for yourself the star shard which you possess, so that you may have light, and go forth, so that you may find your goddess, and take for guidance the thirteen jelly fish, and should you find her, I will send one of the great fish to collect Livadi of Far Meadows.”

The place of the pillars, at the very depths of the earth, is a place that is great and expansive. It goes from one end of the land to the other. The pillars themselves are so large that it would take days to move around them, for they are the deepest most parts of the mountains that hold up the land so that it does not sink.

However, the pillars were not the only thing down there. For chained to them with chains made of bronze were the fallen ones. 

The ones who left their proper domain, and bound themselves with mutual imprecations.

As BeeSheep swam, he came upon one of them, and their chains clinked as they struggled away from the light of his star shard, for they had been in darkness far too long.

Its height was thirteen cubits tall, and it had the figure of a man. Because it had been in the dark depths for so long, its skin had become translucent, and the bones and the sinew and the organs could be seen through the skin. Worms and barnacles and plants had begun to grow into them.

“The walker who was no more,” it spoke, its whispers warped by water. “The walker who was no more. Seventh son who walked. He walked. No more. No more. No more.”

BeeSheep buzzed from his bubble, for he hoped that perhaps the fallen one might know where Livadi would be. But hearing his buzz, the fallen one clawed at the pillar, and cried out in a loud and terrible voice.

“He has come, the one who was promised! The final judgement is upon us.” It shrieked, tearing at the tips of its fingers as it clawed the stone.

But BeeSheep wasn’t the one of whom they spoke, so he shrugged and swam along.

At another pillar, there was another fallen one. This one was slouched and unmoving as though he was dead. He flinched at the star’s light, and his eyes, red with blood turned to BeeSheep, who buzzed a greeting.

“Have you truly come to cast us away for good?” He asked, “or have you come to prophecy of the one who will?”

BeeSheep explained that he was there for neither. Just to find his goddess. The fallen one coughed, a deep and retching sound made all the worse by the waters. With each cough, plumes of blood burst forth from his mouth, and clouded around his head, the water becoming murky about him.

“Look for her among the bones,” it said, pointing a crooked finger into the darkness. “I know she is there, for at one time, many eons ago, I saw a great light cast down, and I looked upon it, and it burned my eyes for it was so bright.”

And BeeSheep felt a great movement in his spirit. For he knew was at last drawing near. And so he swam as quickly as he could, trailed by the jellyfish. And swimming a great distance he began to notice bones across the ground.

Bones of the ever ancient ones. 

The ones who existed before even the digyr. Bones so large that they make the cedars of Lebanon look small by comparison.

He swam as fast as his little legs could carry him, across the great bones, and through the skulls of ancient creatures. He could see it then, a glowing light, and what looked like a great tower. Only it wasn’t a tower, it was a crystal.

And the crystal was chained with great chains to the pillars around it so that it could not touch the ground, nor move in any direction. 

It hung suspended. And as BeeSheep neared, he could see within the crystal, the figure of a woman.

He buzzed in excitement, and called out to her, but she did not move. He got close enough to one of the chains so that he could pull himself along, and he couldn’t help but buzz and buzz, and buzz again.

At last, he reached the crystal, and there within was the face of Livadi of Far Meadows. Her eyes were closed, but she was right there, right in front of him. BeeSheep took his star shard and stabbed at the crystal, hoping that it could break, but it didn’t.

He punched at the crystal, jabbed at it with his stinger, but alas, nothing he did made even a scratch upon the crystal.

Finally, BeeSheep reached out and touched the crystal. Tenderly. He buzzed softly to the one who had created him, and he embraced the crystal in a hug. For he had finally found her, and he would never leave.

Never ever.

Then Livadi opened her eyes.