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The Gift of Light: A Saint Markian Folktale


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The Gift of Light: A Tale of How The Sun Came to the South

    In the days before the Empire, even before The Prophet, The Sun lived in the Mountains. His Presence made the Mountains light and warm. Snow sparkled on the tall trees and streams glittered as they danced past their banks. Life was born of The Sun and thrived under His watchful and generous care.

    Anor, one born of The Sun, had grown tall and strong, wise and caring. He used the gifts The Sun had given him to bring The Light to others. He turned want into comfort, fear into faith, and despair into hope. Many loved Anor … but not all. A few whose hearts were dark felt threatened by The Light. They were ashamed at what The Light might reveal. Although they lived under the same Sun, to them it scolded and burned.

    One of these was Dur, a sorcerer of The Dark. With the help of the counsel of the night haunts, he devised a plot to rid the Mountains of both Anor and The Sun.

    Disguised as a poor beggar and lying along the road, he waited for Anor to come upon him. Anor greeted him warmly and carried him to his house where he bathed and clothed him, gave him good food, a warm bed, and an ear to hear his troubles … as Dur knew he would. It was then that Dur told Anor of how on his many wanderings he had met the people of the South and how these people lived in cold and dark. If only they had someone like Anor to help them. Surely one as favored as Anor could bring them not only The Light, but The Sun itself.

    Anor’s heart yearned to help the people of the South. The next day, he left the beggar in the care of a neighbor, and embracing him, thanked him for pointing his way to these people in need.

    Dur smiled to himself, for he knew what the haunts had shared with him, something that Anor did not know. At the base of the mountains, before the South, lived a great Beast that would devour both Anor and The Sun.

    To reach the South as quickly as possible, Anor rode the Great River. It carried him from slumbering lakes to crashing cataracts, from racing rivers to smoldering swamps. It was in one of these swamps, a place of heat without light, that the great Beast rose up before Anor.

    Anor Carried The Sun within him and it shone forth from him, piercing the darkness. The Beast was afraid of this man of Light, but even more afraid of The Sun within him. He must not let this man release The Sun into his swamp. He must devour the man and keep The Sun imprisoned in darkness.

    The Beast struck. With thrashing tail and grasping claws and mighty maw he struck. Anor was shoved into the Beast’s gullet, past the razor fangs. But Anor was without fear or despair. Alone, he would be finished, but he was not alone. The Sun was with him and in him and The Sun could not be contained by the darkness of the Beast. The Sun rushed into every corner of that great Beast, revealing death to this servant of dark.

    With the Beast vanquished, Anor brought The Light and The Sun to the people of the South. But although The Sun was with them, it was not gone from the Mountains. Dur had misjudged the vastness of The Sun, the illuminating Presence of The Light. Having sought to banish both he had only aided in increasing their reach.

    Anor stayed with the people of the South for a time, sharing comfort, faith, and hope. Many more were inspired to do likewise, and before long, Anor was able to return to his beloved Mountains. Light had been brought from the Mountains, down the great River to the people of the South.

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