Ia and the Liars

Ia and his disciples traveled throughout the northern kingdoms to spread his teachings, and in time they entered the largest and grandest city in the world. Churches and shrines and temples to an inbred and degenerate family of false gods could be found everywhere, and the servants of the cruelest of those gods were found on every corner and along every street. They carried cloaks of their office and leveled their sharp blades at any whom they felt were in violation of their god's senseless edicts.

Ia's disciples quailed at the sight of these harsh men and women, but Ia was unafraid and took up a place in the city's eastern side, below a great stone statue of a two-legged dragon, and he sermonized at passers-by as he always had. A crowd formed in short order as men, women, and their children alike were drawn in by the truth of Ia's words. The enforcers of that strict god arrived soon after, having heard of the burgeoning crowd, but they did not interfere until the moment Ia's words reverberated with the crowd's passions to such a degree that they burst into cheer and began to chant responses to Ia's sermon. In that moment, they drew their long swords and seized members of the crowd into their custody.

'Stop what you are doing!' Ia commanded them, and they stopped to listen to Ia's words. 'These people have done nothing wrong. Their thoughts are to be their own. Even your own god's crooked laws grant them this freedom.'

'This demagogue speaks the truth,' said one of the cloaked men. 'Release this rabble and send them on their way. Our attention falls rather upon the one who would use trickery and black magic to make our citizens turn their backs on the divine law which is above all others.' The cloaked man's companions did as bade, and the crowd scattered in fear of the abuse they might face if they remained.

Ia's disciples drew protectively around the Holy One, but Ia stepped down from the statue's pedestal and strode beyond the living shield of his disciples without fear to meet the men who interrupted his work. The men took hold of Ia's arms and forced him to his knees on the yellow bricks of the square. Their leader held his blade aloft and told Ia that he was judged guilty of the direst crime under their corrupt laws, and that he was to be put to death.

Ia's disciples cursed the men, but the leader paid no heed to their words, and he swung his sword at Ia's neck. The blade cut into his flesh, but not as deeply as it should have, but Ia did not react in either pain nor ire. 'You may try again, if you wish,' Ia told the man as the wound began to close over. 'But know this: the blows you strike from the ignorance of your visored lives may be forgiven but one time.'

The leader cursed Ia then as a blasphemer and as a witch, and swung once more with all his might. The blow fell, and Ia's neck was cut, but Ia remained, for Preservation held him fast. Ia then smote the men as his disciples watched, and every last one of them fell to the earth in proof of Ia's strength.

One of the men, a wise coward, turned and fled, but Ia beckoned to him two times, and the man halted his flight. Ia challenged the man to sing the praises of his patron god, but the man did the opposite. He tore his cloak from his shoulders, sliced his sword through the white cloth, and cursed his own god as a liar and a deceiver. Once he had done this, Ia broke the man's weapon and told him, 'Go, you who has seen the truth of things. Tell all who would listen of what you have witnessed, but know that I do not spare you. You will suffer terrible death, but you will serve the Three by creating through your own destruction until that time.' The man did as Ia commanded.

Then Ia took his disciples and left the city behind them. 'We shall not return to this place,' Ia said to them. 'These souls are not yet meant to be redeemed. Only after their city crumbles to dust and has become a haven for cruel monsters, and they have no home to call their own any longer, will they recognize the error of their ways. Then we shall welcome the contrite and condemn the rest to the fate they chose with glee.'

This is the strength of Ia's promise. Even the most ardent of heathens are bound to the Wheel.