The Demon of the Three Rivers – Chapter 01

This is the 1st Chapter of “The Demon of the Three Rivers”. To find the whole chapter list click here.

Also, do remember, this is a prequel to “The House in the Lake”, so, if you haven’t read “The House in the Lake”, there will be some spoilers.

You probably want to know what happened five thousand years ago, when Lugh came to become the God of the Lake. And I am going to tell you, just not so fast. Let me, instead, take you back a good ten thousand years ago; long before Lugh was born.

There is a myth, most think it’s just that, passed down to each generation – not only in the land of the God of the Lake, but all around the world – about a dark year. And, “dark”, is an actual fact.

For a whole year the sun didn’t rise, and no light was anywhere to be seen. Even the moon had no light. It’s the sun, after all, that makes it bright. And, according to the myth, it was the Sun God’s punishment to the humans for their great crimes.

But that’s not true. The explanation. Because the dark year did occur.

The Sun God, one of the greatest amongst the Gods, but not great enough to be amongst the Supreme Ones, was married to a mortal woman. It may not be a common thing, but it never has been a forbidden union. The name of the bride of the God of the Sun changes from area to area, so nobody really knows it. Not even me.

What, though, is known to me is this: when she married the Great God, she refused the gift of immortality. And so, eventually, she died. And the God of the Sun held his light, for a whole year, in her memory. This was the dark year. For the benevolent God has never hated the humans enough to punish them. He has, though, a soft heart. And this soft heart was crying.

But before her death, she had given to the Sun God three sons. We know them by their divine names. The Demigod of Twilight, the Demigod of Daybreak and the Demigod of Light. Bright and powerful as they might be, they wouldn’t disobey their father, so they kept their own light hidden, as well.

In that era, the demons, the beasts, the fairies and the elves walked in the world of the living. The heroes – the offspring of the demigods with the mortals – were also there and helped with keeping the demons and the beasts in check. But it was the purifying light of the Sun God that did most of the job. And, yes, of course, from time to time, when the situations called for it, a demigod, or even a lesser god would interfere.

So, as you can imagine, when the God of the Sun withheld his blessings for a whole year, the demons and their allies went on a rampage and wrecked the lands.

When the mourning year – the dark year – would, eventually, come to an end, the Sun God would send his strongest son, the Demigod of Light, to restore the order of the world. But this had not yet come to pass.

So, the heroes were alone in their fights. Almost alone.

It was just a few days after the death of the solar bride when a being of unknown – then – origins, carrying a banner proclaiming: “For the glory of the Sun God”, joined the fight. His name was Velek, and when he wasn’t fighting against beasts and demons, he would send offerings to the Sun God.

In fact, it was he who was the one telling everybody that the Sun God neither was punishing, nor had abandoned, the humans. “He is, right now, in trouble and, therefore, we should keep our hopes high and our prayers loud, and he will come back and save us, for sure.”

But the patience of the mortals is not their strong point. So they clung onto the hope Velek’s words spread for a little while and then, once again, fell into despair. The heroes, though, with their weak-but-active divine blood, believed in him and in his words.

A second wave of hope came after about three months in the darkness, when a large horde of beasts attacked Velek’s party.

Velek managed to protect the three heroes and almost all of the mere humans fighting alongside with him. Indeed, of the fifteen members of the party, only one perished. Of the two hundred beast army, none survived. But Velek was mortally wounded, too.

The next day, though, this odd being was as good as new. Not even a hero’s body would have withstood these wounds. Completely recovering from them during the night? That was impossible… Unless!

“He is a God!”