Thunder #3: The Aguila Nest

Hidden within the dense jungle foliage of the Rhashada, sprawls a wooden fortress so high up into the tree tops that she is said near enough to touch the Triunes.  Of course, it’s easy to understand how such clear exaggerations about the Aguila Nest could be made.  The Aguila Nest is the very picture of harmony, and to use harmony, in any sense of the word, when it comes to man and his normally one-sided relationship with his surroundings — well — one could imagine that such an arrangement could only exist among the Gods.  The Aguila Nest is Eden reborn, yes, an architectural marvel built from all the resources the Rhashada freely gives.  But let there be no doubt; this is not Eden as we know it.  The Rhashada is wild and she is dangerous.  This is the berry stuck in the middle of the briar patch, the rose bush pressed in by thorns.  Men in the Rhashada live because the Rhashada abides it, and because of a bargain made a very long time ago.

There is a proverb taken from the last line of the Lyra.  It says, “Without blood there is bane.”  It is upon these words that the Third Thunder stands.  Her Cadets swear their oaths upon them and by them are they pledged into service.  They are Menders, Surgeons, Elixerists, keepers of the magic of the Woodwives Balm, a chest of earthen treasures.  They are the Curejacks!  And a Curejack learns what the Lyra says was given, and given by one of the Gods.

And there are three in the heavenlies that rule, high in the sky from the mountain that floats.  One named Olesuuway.  One named Elyon.  And one named after the father of us all.

Hal-el-uel himself is said to have grown the mighty groves of the Rhashada from nothing more than a tiny prick of his holy heel.  Holy blood flowed, like soul to soil, budding what was once a barren Umbrian earth with trees and moss, vines and ferns, into a jungle of green, into a hotbed of cure.  And on this day — this day of days! — was the Rhashada born and thus wellness sown into the Thunderlands.

It is said, into the hands of the Woodwives was the great jungle assigned, to watch and to hold, as these tree wardens were told.  Until the day that men could possess her.  But not just any men.  What lay hidden in the Rhashada was meant for the Third,  for to the men of the Third was this gift given, to those who would one day understand the jungle, and her gift of healing, her gift of loam.

For Hal-el-uel foresaw the wars that would come.  Was he to simply stand aside and watch while His world withered with disease?  Is not a creator obligated to his creation, to equip it to heal?  A day will come when the strength of Thunders will prove weak, when the First Light can no longer be found, and his brother the Second has joined with those that would see this world burn.  That day, when warlocks rage and spectrals roam free with a fresh taste for men, when fangist stalk the night and pregnancies are ended for lack of food.  That day when safe harbors lie in ruin — That day! — when the medicine of man fails and the health of the Rhashada is all that stands to curtail the pain.  It is the Day of Sorrows.  And so it is written and so it is said.

The Lyra:

The Chiefest of Three came down from His throne,
To offer us cure,
From the well of His bone,
King of the Pillars
He cried and He bled,
Poured into earth,
Of His wellness He shed,

Your soul to soil,
Your health to mend,
Dispelled You the foulness,
Curtailed You its end,

Rhashada, Rhashada,
Your gift You so named,
Green, wild, and timbered,
Her health You proclaimed,

For the Sorrows You made her,
For a future foretold,
When disease spreads like fire,
And children are sold,

Forever the riddle,
For the riddle You came,
For the riddle that says,
Without blood there is bane.

Inkling #29:
What is the Seven Thunders?  It is the Aguila Nest, home to the Third and the Third of Seven, and to their Wielder the Woodwives Balm.  Both are found in Umbria, on the west coast of Grem, in the land of the never-ending jungle called Rhashada.  Cure comes from the Gods, as surely the sun, moon and stars.  And cure will be needed, as cure always is.  The test will be how much.  The question will be: Will it suffice?  For a day will come that not even the Curejacks can prepare for.  A day of sorrows.