Sun's Heart

Chapter 10.1 - Relics of the Past

"What is El?" Gale inquired. "I hear a lot of people saying it. It sounds important."

She sat atop the rock formation backing the tents with legs crossed and the sun at her back. Haburnah had wanted to show her something, and now stood in front of a long, flat protrusion where dark drawings were painted with simplistic beauty.

The priestess was surprisingly warm and friendly, and open to learning about anything she could wrap her mind around. Unlike most people Gale encountered, she found that her nervousness vanished around the woman, something she thought only happened with June and Reynard. Her stammering and fidgeting received no more than a patient smile and an invitation to take her time.

The priestess straightened from the face of the formation. "El is not what, El is who."

"Oh, s-s-sorry—"

"Do not apologize for not being taught. Your ignorance is not evil." Gale returned a tentative smile. Haburnah turned back around, fingers raised, and pressed them to the stone. Magic swelled, and her fingertips dragged across the ragged surface. "El is the sun. She is our daughter, who we love, and we try to please her and keep her safe."

"Is she...a god?"

"Almost, yes. But also, no. She exists because we believe, and because she was given to us."

"I don't understand."

"What is a god, Gale?" Her attention was fixed on the black markings she gave to the stone, but her question was a soft jab.

"I-I don't know." She chewed on her lower lip. "Gods are all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-encompassing. Right?"

Haburnah chuckled. "That is sometimes the way. A god is a thing, a person, an idea, that we have put belief and hope into. A god would not be a god without followers. Without followers, a god is only a strange thing we do not know the words to describe. To you, the sun is a thing in the sky."

"So, you mean gods don't exist?" She tried to wrap her head around the idea. "That they're man-made?"

"No. Things exist anyway, but we can make them into gods. We say that something becomes a god when it is believed to be one. If I wished to worship you, then I could call you a god. Because to me, you would be."

"Then El is a god?"

"Yes. But she is also not. She is not a god to you, so she is not."

Haburnah sounded confident in her reasoning, but Gale suspected she'd need more time to truly understand the complexities of the tribes. This was likely the tip of the proverbial iceberg, and something even the children understood to boot.

"Come." Gale rose to join her in front of the black markings. "We tell the stories of our tribe here." She swept an arm toward the drawings and symbols stretching far above their heads, and out to either side. "This is where we teach our people after we have died."

Gale rested her hands on the stone's face, as she imagined countless others before her had done. She tried to picture the dozens, possibly hundreds of tribesmen using magic to imprint ideas and thoughts and stories into one stone. Ancestors who left their mark upon a tiny piece of the world, kith and kin with learning eyes, and the future generations to add their experiences where empty space awaited time. Years in the future, who would be the next to look upon the humble histories? What would be the lesson learned that their past could teach them?

"A wise man learns from the mistakes of others," Sorceress Katelynn said once. "The unfortunate learn on their own. But a fool shall never learn."