Chapter 1
A long, long time ago the balance of light and darkness shifted towards the side of darkness. Seizing the opportunity, darkness swallowed up the light and slowly began to take over the earth. In short, the world was thrown into chaos. Disease, famine, drought, war, and violence were but some of the disasters mankind faced.
In a small village by the foot of a mountain, a woman cared for her dying husband. Their village had been struck by a plague and many regardless of age perished. The woman desperate to find a cure for her husband made the long journey up the mountain. At the top of the mountain lived God. It took her days to reach the peak by foot.
When she got to the top of the mountain, she sank to her knees and begged God to save her husband. He listened to her earnest pleas before answering them with a question of his own.
“If I save your husband, what can you give me in return?”
The woman thought and thought before answering God’s question.
“I have no wealth or power and I have no extraordinary talent to offer you, I have only myself to offer.”
God smiled benevolently at the woman and lifted her gently up from her knees. He took her by the hand and walked her to the edge of the mountain.
“Tell me what you see.”
The woman closed her eyes for a moment so that she could better focus her sight. She reopened her eyes and what she saw stunned her. Large clouds of black and gray surrounded the earth. It was as if darkness had created a physical manifestation of itself.
“Chaos. I see chaos.”
“Yes, chaos. That is precisely what you are looking at,” God spoke quietly beside the woman. “For a long time now, I have been fighting against it. But I am but one being. And even I can tire. I have done my best but chaos still has engulfed your world.”
“Then-” The woman hesitated. “Are you asking me to fight it in your stead?”
“Can you win?” God chuckled.
“No.” If God couldn’t defeat it, what could one human woman possibly do?
“Chaos can not be defeated. You see, for there to be good in the world there must be evil as well. There must be a balance of sorts. But right now, the balance seems to have shifted towards the side of darkness.”
“So can nothing be done then?”
“We cannot just make evil and darkness disappear. But, perhaps, we can contain it.”
“Contain it?”
God looked at the woman and smiled. “You told me you would offer yourself in exchange for saving your husband.”“Y-yes. I did.” The woman could not understand what God was trying to ask of her.
“Will you be willing to become the vessel to contain the chaos that has taken over your world, so that the balance may once again be restored?”
“Vessel? You wish to place chaos inside of me?” The woman was shocked at God’s request.
“If you were to sacrifice your body for the sake of the world, the plague would end not just in your village but in all the villages across the earth. Your husband and the sick would be able to recover.” God leaned down and put his face directly in front of the woman. “So are you willing to save your husband?”
Without hesitating, the woman clenched a fist. “Yes. I will do whatever it takes to save him even if it means sacrificing myself.”
God smiled and pulled himself back once more. “Do not worry, young woman. You will not die in the process. You will continue to live even after becoming the vessel.”
“Then of course I will do it!” The woman was surprised to hear that she would not die. It strengthened her resolve even further.
“Come with me then.”
God took her by the hand once more and led her to a large tree in the middle of the mountain’s peak. In a loud, booming voice he called for chaos to appear. Large, ominous black clouds began to swirl around the mountain. Lightning cracked in the sky and the noise of thunder was so deafening, the woman could hardly hear a sound.
“Will you become the vessel to contain chaos?”
“I will. I shall. I swear it.” The lightning continued to flash, the only thing the woman could see was the large tree in front of her. She placed a hand on the wide trunk of the tree to steady herself. “For all of eternity, my body will become the vessel to contain chaos. This is my promise.”
The woman knew she would one day die. Unlike God, she was not an immortal being. She was only a human woman. She hoped that in her death, she would be able to take chaos with her so that her children and their children would be able to live in peace.
The clouds swirled so quickly around the mountain that they formed a tornado. Without warning, the tornado pierced the woman right in the heart. She screamed as she felt an eternity of pain and suffering. But if by this doing she could cure her husband and provide a better future for her children, she was willing to make that sacrifice. So she withstood the neverending pain in silence. Suddenly, it was over and the sun beamed down on her once more.
“It is done.” God declared as he helped the woman to her feet. “You now will bear the brunt of chaos so long as you should live. Now go home to your family. Your husband is waiting for you.”
So the woman descended the mountain once more. When she returned to the village, she heard the sounds of laughter and cries of happiness. She looked around her and saw that the ill villagers had been cured of the plague. Surely her husband would be as well.
When she returned to her house, she found her husband sitting up in his bed and laughing with their children. She smiled through her tears and thanked God in her heart for all he had done. She believed from the bottom of her heart that the sacrifice she had chosen to make was worth it. The happiness of her family was worth the price.
The woman’s life in the village resumed normally once more. The plague had completely disappeared from the world, wars ended, and the earth began to provide food and water for mankind again. It seemed like all was peaceful in the world again. The woman watched her children grow older until they began to have children of their own.
At last, the woman’s life came to an end. With her last breath, chaos left her in the form of black smoke that evaporated from her entire body. Although she had told her family of what had happened on the mountain, the sight of chaos leaving her corpse frightened them.
With her death, her family believed that her promise had finally been fulfilled. A few days later, a new baby was born in their family. The child was born with the marks of chaos.
The woman thought she had offered only herself as the vessel of chaos, but God knew that she would eventually die as all humans did. Once she died, there would no longer be a vessel to contain the chaos. So God kept her promise alive through the woman’s bloodline.
The woman’s bloodline would serve as the vessels of chaos for all of eternity. This was the unknowing promise that the woman had made with God.
That woman was my ancestor.
