Life is not always sweet.
On the plains of Mitra on the planet of Waas, people had been at war for longer than they could remember. I was born one of them, a Lui'embai, as we called ourselves.
Our bodies were anything but human, but all peoples are the same, no matter who they are in the universe.
As a Lui'embai my name was Mah'lo-gua. I was female in the most simplistic of analogies to earth. This was an early life, so I never knew my true name, although afterward, I remembered hearing it whispered in the night air when the battles took their rests; I remembered the trees singing 'Ithaca' and sometimes even the clashing of bodies against each other as we all fell dead.
Here, we struggled to stay alive because why else should we be born?
Mah'lo-gua treasured life. Her sister Si'ynan-undua begged to differ.
I caught her by the fire once, contemplating a knife against her wrist.
"You wish to kill yourself?" I asked her from behind, the fire flickering back and forth between us.
"What's the point in waiting?"she answered.
"You cannot be free if you are dead. We wait for the world to take. Although it is chaos, it is still life."
"The chaos is for nothing. For what is it that we fight? We have all forgotten! We're not born knowing. We don't don't die knowing."
"Spend your life trying to find out. Suicide isn't the answer."
"How do you know? The Clans come and go. Sometimes we're one of them. This world is not for us. Can't you see, Mah'lo-gua? The Lui'embai commit suicide en masse. What's one taken alone? It will die by the Clans anyway," she said.
"You sound like the Clan of the Malo-selo-hul, the Mountains of the North."
She turned to me then, her face cast in shadow, the fire illuminating a wring behind her, creating an illusion that held her slightly above the ground.
"I have joined them, sister. I have taken the Oath of Me'usha."
I stood in place and gaped at her.
"How could you?" I gasped. "How could you, Si'ynan-undua?"
"It is the way to peace," she answered. "I will be of the other Clans, too. But I have taken my Oath. We must stop this ravaging of Waas. We have been nothing but a blight upon ourselves and the planet! We must finish it off!"
"We already kill those who come from the chaos. But there is something worth preserving among all of us! Please! For the children, you must see this," I argued.
"I swear to never harm a soul by creating for it a body. The Oath of Me'usha," she said.
"What has become of you, Si'ynan?" I whispered.
"I swear to purge from upon this earth all creatures known as life. I swear to end the chaos, annihilate each Clan in turn. I swear that when my time comes, or when all Clans have been erased, whichever time brings first, I will purge from upon this earth this creature of myself."
"You have gone mad!" I exclaimed.
An hysterical laughter escaped her and she turned back toward the fire.
In the morning she was gone. Over the years, the Clan of Me'usha grew until it took up all of the Northern Plains. It spread to South and the East and West, killing everything in its path that moved.
The Clan of Me'usha only grew by convincing, for they were to have no children without being put to death: both the creature who carried the child and child, so as not to put it through misery. The mothers gave themselves willingly.
One day at the end, the Clan of Me'usha ambushed my own and my sister came upon me. She invited me to take the Oath of Me'usha.
"To take my place," she told me.
"What will become of you that I have to take your place?"
"I have created a body. We must end ourselves."
Of the several thousand members of the Clan of Me'usha, there were twelve to be put to death along with their unborn. I watched from the shadows as they all drove the Knives of Battle into themselves, each bearing an expression of utmost ecstasy.
I took the Oath of Me'usha, forcing my children to take it along with me.
In time, the Clan of Me'usha grew stronger and bigger than the rest. After only three centuries, they had succeeded in purging the world of all other Clans.
Then it was only a matter of time. There were no more children. No more battles. I thought of it as a synthetic peace.
As the last of them died out, I watched. I never agreed with the Oath I'd taken, but took it as a way to preserve life in the only I knew possible.
However, from that time forward, I did abide by its promise.
I swear to never harm a soul by creating for it a body.
Now, the planet of Waas no longer exists, for everything dies. But its plains were quiet, and its mountains and its seas. The world was quiet but for the soul who rested in its core. Now even that soul is silent.
Life is not always sweet. But it is a taste, nonetheless.
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