Incidentally, any perceived resemblance to the Lightbringers' Quest is purely coincidental. Honest.
So, child, you seek to learn the true story of the birth of the Goddess? You believe that the lessons you learned during your initiation were but a mask for the Truth? Perhaps you begin to learn wisdom. Or perhaps you will merely learn that behind each mask is only another mask? Still, every journey to the Truth must begin somewhere.
The journey of our blessed Living Goddess in this age began, as you were taught, with the Four Mothers. They sought to revive Sedenya, and each of them brought their own knowledge and Power to the quest. Queen Deezola, the Earth Priestess, was an intimate of the Gods and familiar with their homes and ways. Jakaleel knew the paths of the spirits, and had often travelled the Underworld and returned safely. Duke Yanafal was initiated into the magical secrets of his Carmanian forebears, and Irippi Ontor had studied many esoteric religious practices of distant lands. Together and separately they quested through many realms for the pieces of Sedenya's soul; for She had been dismembered and torn apart at the darkest moment of the Greatest Darkness, and the six parts of Her soul were scattered and hidden throughout the Worlds. One part lay chained and suffering in the Underworld; but Jakaleel discovered it. Another was driven mindlessly hither and yon about the Sky Realm; but Deezola found its path. A third wandered howling through the spirit world, but Jakaleel could follow it. A fourth was imprisoned in a strange Western Hell of shifting essences, but Yanafal remembered the entryway. A fifth was held in the Place That Is No Place, but Irippi solved the riddle. As for the sixth, that was both the easiest to reach and the hardest to find, for it was here with us in the Middle World, incarnated in the body of a mortal woman, just like you and me. She was 27 years old, and she lived in the city of Torang, and her name was Teelo Estara.
You seem surprised, child? You are thinking of the doctrines taught by the Empire, that the Goddess was born in 1220, and Teelo Norri, the Young Life, housed Her soul? Yet a moment's reflection will show you that this cannot be the full story, for are we not taught also that She lived among us as a mortal woman through all the Ages of the World, ever since the divinity was ripped away from Her Gerra-Mask during the Kazkurtum? Still, it is not surprising that Moonson does not encourage the full story to be told in the marketplaces, for it is... unseemly... to admit that your holy nation was founded on the bloody and brutal murder of your divine Mother. This Truth wears a mask, as always in the Empire.
So it was, in the first week of 1220, that the Four Mothers learned at last the location of Sedenya's current mortal incarnation, and set off for Torang. Rinliddi was a wild and lawless land in those days, and the Heroes were ambushed on their journey by the bandit chieftain Danfive Xaron. He was strong, but no match for four Heroquesters at the peak of their power. Soon he was grovelling at their feet for mercy and forgiveness - which was offered, but only if he paid a price. So it was Five Mothers who now arrived in Torang, and rented a secluded room behind a caravanserai to conduct their ritual.
First, they offered up a prayer to Luck and Fate, and cast the dice, letting blind chance lead them to the sixth participant they needed for their ritual. When they learned that her given name was Teelo, the same as that of Sedenya's mortal shell, they took it as an excellent omen for success. And perhaps that is all it was. With all prepared, Yanafal Tarnils then kidnapped the woman Teelo Estara and brought her to the room where the rest of the Six Mothers waited. And there Estara was killed.
That death was not easy, nor was it fast, for the ritual demanded that it follow in exact form the death of Gerra during the Great Darkness. Teelo Norri was made to hold a single darklight candle in a trembling hand, while Danfive Xaron wielded the bloody knife according to the directions of Irippi Ontor. Queen Deezola and Jakaleel the Witch tended the body and soul of Estara, to ensure that they would not part company too soon. As for Yanafal Tarnils, his face and sword were turned outwards in defence. For the power of the ritual brought back Kazkurtum within the world of Time, and outside the walls of that small backroom were not the bustling streets of Torang, but the howling Chaos demons of the Age of Terror.
At last the final cut was made, and Teelo Estara's soul was finally released, to flee naked and quivering from her tormentors. But the Six Mothers were quickly in pursuit. Jakaleel opened the gate, drawing on Danfive's strength to keep it open until all had passed through, even the reluctant, bewildered and scared Teelo Norri. Following Estara's soul was easy, for a trail of scarlet blood marked her route; and yet the questers faced many barriers. One in particular seemed impassible, until they finally encountered She Who Waits beside the endless Ocean, and learned from Her the method of crossing. And so at last they reached their full number, and there were Seven Mothers who approached the Gates of Dusk and passed within.
Their path through the Underworld was clearly marked, for Estara's blood glowed crimson to show their route; yet still the Seven Mothers would suffer, wander and become lost before they found their path again. Estara fled before them, but ever they drove her onwards. And at last she came to the deepest pit of Hell, from which nobody living had ever returned. There in the cold and darkness Estara's soul found the soul of Gerra, chained and despairing, for they were drawn together by the bond between them. And the two women looked into each other's eyes, and Estara saw there the strength to withstand pain, and Gerra saw the hope that life goes on. And so they kissed, and their souls merged, and a Being that was twice what She was before cast off Her chains and rose on newly-whole legs, and turned to face the Seven Mothers who at that moment arrived and fell to their knees in awe. But the divine Teelo Estara offered them no welcome.
Danfive, ever bold, spoke on behalf of the others and offered greetings to Her, making a bid for friendship. Estara demanded atonement. The Seven Mothers, in turn, demanded recognition of their role in Her rebirth. Estara demanded proof. The testing that each of the Mothers then underwent was harsh, and each was changed by the experience; but each one survived. Teelo Estara then gave Her recognition of Her Seven Mothers,and they made obeisance to Her and offered their atonement, which the merciful Goddess was pleased to accept. Then they embraced as friends, and Teelo Estara made her Promise of the Future.
The ritual was not yet complete, for four more parts of Her soul were still to be gathered. You already know the tale of how blessed Sedenya travelled to the Sky Realm, child, and how She met the Sky Bear there. As for the other three soul-parts, their gathering is a Mystery which I cannot yet reveal to you. Even so, it is acknowledged that the parts of the Goddess were changed by Her long imprisonment in these strange realms, and this explains the mastery of mysterious powers which She now grants to those who follow Her teachings. At last, though, the Net which the Seven Mothers had cast out into the Cosmos was full, and each taking a strand they pulled it in and gathered the pieces of the Goddess back together. In triumph, then, they made their way back to the Middle World, and all the guardians of Hell fled in terror before the radiance of blessed Sedenya. At the Gates of Dawn they paused, for the Goddess was not yet ready to assume Her full divinity, and She would need a mortal body to dwell in for a time; but the shell of Teelo Estara was broken and lost. It was then that Teelo Norri, driven by pure selflessness and love, offered her own body to the living Goddess. Sedenya accepted gladly, and if She noticed the cold smiles which the other Mothers exchanged at that moment, She made no sign. And yet She cradled Teelo Norri's essence within Her heart all the years of Her mortal life, and the innocent girl's spirit absorbed Her wisdom and compassion. They were together when Sedenya journeyed once more into Hell, this time willingly, and when She learned how to open Her Seventh Soul and returned in fear and glory riding the Crimson Bat. And finally, when blessed Sedenya attained apotheosis in 1247, Norri's soul was released, and flowered, and the ordinary human girl became a Goddess herself.
As for the other Mothers, Sedenya kept Her promise, and they too are now Gods. And yet none of them lived the long, wealthy and powerful mortal lives they had dreamed of when they began their quest. And once they attained godhood, they were not privileged to sit in splendour and comfort at Rufelza's feet. Instead they were sent out to the farthest corners of the world, where Her light is dim, there to labour in barbarian squalour to bring the ignorant and benighted into Her embrace - without ever knowing it again themselves. Such was their fate.
For Sedenya is a Great Goddess, kind and merciful to those She loves; but She was also once a human, with all that this implies. And you would do well never to forget that, child...
Stephen
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