Tawo & the Zephyr
Our lives changed the day the air elementals arrived. Before, we’d been a peaceful nation, a crafting nation. We lived our lives out on these sky islands, watching the mantas soar and the tide of the winds flow. A few of us began to train the mantas, and eventually used them to carry freight along with us. We began to learn more of the islands around us, discovering ways to build machines that would allow us to travel between towns and trade.
One day, we flew too far. I remember it. I had been out with my brother Absyn, and he’d wanted to watch the waterfall that poured out into the open air. I’d lit a candle for Inyx, our household goddess, and followed Absyn out to through the forests.
At first, they looked like specks on the horizon. Like the birds I would sometimes watch coast on the air currents that had flown so far I lost the form of their wings, and they would disappear into the open air. But they grew as they approached. Their forms started to look more like us, but they were impossible, were they not? We couldn’t fly; people like us couldn’t navigate the airways without the assistance of a machine, or the willingness of one of the stronger mantas.
“You have not been granted permission to use these airways,” the voice echoed through our home. Absyn and I huddled behind one of the bushes, trying to stay out of view. We’d played hide and seek when we were younger but had never felt the need to hide from true danger before.
We quietly walked closer to the point where these people seemed to hover. As we approached, I saw that their forms seemed to shift in the wind, as if they weren’t fully there. Almost like they were made from the air itself. But we would have seen them before, wouldn’t we?
A few adults looked at them and went back to their tasks.
“The Empire demands payment for the use of the skies,” the voice boomed, almost like the sound of thunder after lightning. I covered my ears.
“We owe you nothing. We don’t even know who you are,” Faryn called back, still tending to the cook pot. His food was always some of the best during festivals.
They all turned to look at him; there were five or so floating together. The air around the town seemed to swirl around them, pulling everyone just slightly closer.
“We are the Air Elementals. You have used our skyways, transporting your goods, and filling the currents. You did not ask; you were not granted permission. The Air Empire seeks payment for the use of our skies,” Their voices spoke in unison. “You disrespect us, Faryn. We have heard your name whispered in the winds. We have heard the laugh that your people have shared around the table that you set. A pity.”
The air around us all tightened. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, I looked over at Faryn. He was gasping. It looked like he couldn’t breathe. I started to stand, to run to him, but Absyn held me down. We watched as Faryn fell to his knees. Moments passed. Everyone was still. Faryn passed on, gasping for a breath that would never come again.
“We demand payment for the use of the skies,” this time, a whisper. “We will come to collect it in two weeks. Prepare the best of the goods that you have created.”
---
That was years ago. Our people are no longer as open as when I was a child. The mantas still soar, but the goods they carry all go to the Empire. We keep to our own islands; many of us are unable to pay the toll that the Air Folk demand when one of us leaves the ground.
Absyn and I worked at the forges, preparing metal for weaving into thin necklaces and bracelets. We still tried to make beautiful things, even knowing that our people wouldn’t be able to keep them.
Every day, I prayed at Inyx’s altar. I’d been having such vivid dreams lately, and always appreciated the calm of starting my day seeking her guidance. I dreamed of the weather shifting around us, masking our movements as we never saw the Air Folk keeping watch during storms.
This morning, a faint voice whispered behind me, “Thank you, Faithful One.”
I looked around me, but no one was there.
My body tightened, my hearing roared as anxiety took hold. I tried to remember if I’d made my latest payment to the Air Folk. I hadn’t shorted them. I looked out the window and saw the rain pouring down, a stormy day. My chest loosened a little with relief.
“Look outside, Tawo, my faithful one,” the voice felt like a summer rain. The kind that broke the humidity of the day and made the world feel renewed.
I listened. Walking over to my open door, I stared into the storm.
There was an outline of a person looking back at me. Instead of fear, I wanted to run towards it. I’d always loved the storms when they rumbled across our island.
The figure walked towards me, gliding over the path. The rain, instead of falling on them, seemed to form them. They stopped in front of me.
“Hello, Tawo. You have been lighting the candle for me all these years. It is nice to meet you face to face,” her voice sounded like rainfall in the distance. The low rumble of the coming rain.
I fell to my knees in front of her, “Inyx, you grace me with your presence.”
“Your people have suffered these years, Tawo. I am sorry to have not come sooner; time works differently for me. I have not cared for you as I should. But I come to offer my aid to you against the Zephyr, or the Air Folk, as your people have named them. Use this power well, Tawo. You will need it to return hope to your people,” she held her hand out to me.
I hesitated for a moment. Absyn would be upset with me if I caused a stir. We still remembered Faryn as he died. I knew it still gave him nightmares. He kept his head down and paid the taxes the Air Folk, these Zephyr, asked of us. But I couldn’t continue to live like this. We were meant for more than just creating goods for other people. I stepped outside and took her hand.
A bolt of lightning struck when our hands meant. I grasped her hand tighter as power flowed through me, yelling out as thunder shook the island. She held onto me as the thunder rolled into the distance; the rain falling on both of us, yet my clothes never seemed to get wet in the downpour.
“Use this power well, my faithful one. You will have it until your people are free,” her voice settling over me like fog.
I woke up in my bed the next day.
“Tawo!” Absyn yelled from his room. “Tawo, where did you go off to yesterday? We have jobs to finish!”
I looked around me, and everything was still in its place, just as I’d left it. Looking at my hands, I noticed the faint outline of what looked like lightning on my dark skin. It followed the veins of my hand, but it was white and carried up my forearms to my elbows. I flexed, and it seemed to ripple across my skin. I smiled; so that hadn’t been a dream.
“I’m coming, Absyn. Give me a moment,” I yelled back. I got dressed in my work clothes and prepared to work with Absyn. Visit from a goddess or not, these jobs still needed to be completed.
---
A few months passed by, and I learned to ride the lightning storms that had become very frequent on our island. The tattoos that Inyx had graced me with would glow bright, and I would know that it was a night where I would be traveling. But I still remembered the first time I storm walked.
---
At first, it was disorienting. The storms were warmer than I expected, the same kind of warmth as when you share a pot of tea with a good friend and sit looking out over the horizon, happy in the silence. I’d expected storms to be cold. I didn’t understand what they were calling me to do. The first day I storm walked, it was after a Collection. The Zephyr visited our island, and their tax had risen. I watched as they chided members of my community who weren’t prepared for the increase. They bullied my people, and I felt the force of storms rattle inside me. The winds picked up around me and clouds started to form on the horizon. The Zephyr looked around them, and I was glad for the long sleeves that hid my new markings from them. They sneered at the people and announced that they would be back within the week for their payment. That night, the lightning on my arms seared and woke me from my sleep. I rushed outside, into the storm, blindly running in the direction that the wind pushed me. One moment, I was running on the land; the next, open air.
A flash of lightning ripped the sky open beneath me, and time seemed to freeze as my body crashed against it. Thunder shook the world around me as my eyes closed. When I opened them, I was on another island, laying on my back, looking up at the sky as rain cascaded down.
“Oi, are you alright?” someone’s voice called out.
I shifted, sitting up, “I think so?”
“Well, come in out of the rain!”
I looked towards where the voice was coming from and saw a low building with light pouring out the front door; a stout figure was waving me that way. Not understanding what was happening, I walked over to them and was ushered inside.
Warm music played over the speaker system as I walked in. There was an empty bar, a roaring fire, and a couple of empty tables inside. It seemed a little scattered, as if the owner wanted it to seem like the chairs had been recently vacated, but the room was too still.
“Not many come through these parts this time of year; who might you be?” asked the person who’d waved me in. Their dark brown skin glowed in the warm light of the fires around the room.
“I’m Tawo, and I found myself wandering out in the storms and ended up here. Where am I? Who are you?” I took a seat at the bar, across from the barkeep.
“Name’s Maya, and I run this tavern. You’re on the island of Soleth; haven’t seen you here before, Tawo.” She held her hand out to mine. I reached out to shake it and when we made contact, the lightning veins on my arm seared. Her eyes got wide, and the flames roared in the tavern.
We couldn’t let go of each other for a moment. In one of the flame flares, I saw a flash of Inyx, and she seemed to be smiling.
“What have you done to me?” Maya gasped, finally letting go of my hand.
I dropped my head into my hands, and there was pressure building up between my ears. *Well done, Tawo. Your people will free themselves yet,* Inyx’s voice whispered through my mind.
Maya was looking down at her hands; there seemed to be faint lines like the outline of a fire etched on her arms.
“Do you know of the goddess Inyx?” I asked, in a voice soft so that I wouldn’t startle her.
“No one here follows the path of Inyx, Tawo of the Unknown. She has not answered the prayers of her people, and the Air Folk ask too much of us to waste time praying to a goddess who cares little for us,” Maya spat. She clenched her hands, and a blue fire sprouted out from her palm when she opened her hands, the outlines shining gold beneath the flame.
“She visited me nearly a month ago, offering her aid. I took her hand and got these,” I rolled up my sleeves to show the lightning tattoos. They were glowing a faint silver tonight. “I didn’t know what it meant till tonight. I storm walked. I didn’t know that I would awaken powers in others.”
“The goddess Inyx offered us aid?” Maya whispered.
“She said that she hadn’t done enough for our people. That I would be able to use this power to bring back hope to our people. Maybe we can fight back now, or at least do something against the Zephyr.”
“The what? Tawo, what does this all mean? What are we to do with this? They have ages of experience against us; what can the two of us do?”
“Maya, I don’t think it’s just the two of us. The storm called me here tonight; I think to meet you. The Zephyr are the Air Folk; that’s what Inyx told me. Yes, they have ages of experience, but we have our communities behind us,” a soft chill rolled through my body; the storm was calling again. “I can’t explain more right now, but for now, just practice. Wear gloves to hide your hands when they come to collect. I have to leave; the storms are calling me. I will visit again; be safe.”
Maya looked at me and nodded, “I will care for the people here as I have been, Tawo. I will practice and when you need me, call. I tire of the Air Folk and their claim to our people’s goods.”
She called the fire again; this time white hot in her hands and smiled.
I stepped outside, walked towards the end of the island, and stepped into the embrace of the storm once again.
---
Storm walking got easier, and I learned to call lightning to me in times of need. Years passed, and I traveled when the storm called me. I lost count of how many people I awakened, but a few still stood out. Maya and I had met again and again to talk of a plan. She wanted to battle the Zephyr, to turn our people into an army and free ourselves by force. I wasn’t as convinced that was what we should do. When I was a child, we were a people of peace. There had to be a way to free ourselves from them without sinking to killing. A few days after that conversation, I met Kadrak.
He was a few years younger than me on an island close to where I was from. When I saw him, I wondered if we would have been friends. He was a weaver; a skill that I sometimes used during the delicate work at the forge. I entered his shop and looked around. We shook hands, and the lightning within me surged again.
His eyes flared, and the threads around him waved.
“What has Inyx brought to me?” He whispered.
“You follow Inyx?” Kadrak was the first who had reacted like this. Most were like Maya, feeling forgotten by our goddess.
“I have had dreams of her face in a storm. I did not expect it to come to pass,” he said, voice trailing off. Waving his hand, the threads settled. He grabbed a spindle from nearby, and some small fibers jumped to it. It began to twirl, and Kadrak was locked in concentration. I watched, fascinated.
I had mostly seen people react to the elements; one person with plants, but never anyone who had power over threads.
“You mean to fight the Zephyr?” He said at last, the spindle slowing as thread formed.
“I do not wish to fight; though it may come to that,” I commented.
“We may be able to offer them something else. Perhaps there is a path that does not lead to more bloodshed. Thank you for trusting me with this, Tawo. Inyx chose well. I must tend to my shop, but please come visit me again,” Kadrak whispered.
I would go to visit him often throughout the months. We dreamt of ways that we could work with the Zephyr instead of them taking everything from us.
---
The day came. The skies started off clear, and the Zephyr were due to visit my home island to collect their tax.
I had smuggled everyone that I had awakened into the village under storm cover. It was the day where we would gain our freedom, one way or another.
The wind stirred around me as I waited in the town center. I wore a short sleeve shirt today, no longer hiding my tattoos. The five appeared on a gust of wind powerful enough to slam a door or put out a forge.
“We have come to collect,” they said in unison, looking around the town. “You, where are the rest of your people?”
At this, the world shook. We had placed potted plants around the center for one of our people to grow. They formed a ring around us. I looked to the sky and raised my arms. My tattoos glowed, and storm clouds rolled in with a peel of thunder as lightning lit up the now dark sky. The Zephyr tried to disappear on the wind, but the rain from the storm and the lightning in the sky kept breaking their concentration. I felt Kadrak’s power rush past me, and the Zephyr’s clothes started to tighten.
They landed and rushed toward the forest. Our people poured out of buildings, and we followed. Those with power over plants created a narrow pathway for the Zephyr to follow. It did not take us long to find them in the one clearing we left for them.
I smiled in the faces of the five Zephyr. The same five that had killed Faryn all those years ago. I looked over my shoulder at my people for a moment, Maya smiled and waved back to me. She was drenched from the storm I had called, but the flames in her hands grew brighter than ever.
“The goddess Inyx has blessed her people. We will not suffer under your rule anymore, Zephyr.”
They were backed up against the waterfall that Absyn and I had played under the day that the Zephyr arrived.
The wind stirred around me almost as if they threatened to consume me. I felt my connection to the sky stir, and a lightning bolt crashed between the Zephyr and me, breaking their concentration.
“You’ll find that you don’t have the sway you used to have. I’m sure that we can come to an agreement. But we will have free travel between our lands again. Surely the Zephyr have something that they can trade instead of just taking? We have no intention of this coming to bloodshed. We are, despite your tyranny, still a peaceful people who want to create,” I said.
The Zephyr turned to themselves, the air thickening between them and us so that no sound escaped their conversation.
We waited. I hoped that they would see reason. I didn’t think that Inyx had called us to kill the Zephyr, only to free our people. Their conversation started to get a little heated, and they were waving their arms at each other. I watched as they seemed to resign, one by one.
“We would trade crafts with you,” the smallest Zephyr stated. “I am Coro, the eldest.”
“And you will stop collecting taxes from our people?” I asked, wanting to make sure they understood.
“Your people will no longer owe the Zephyr,” Coro stated, voice flat.
I looked towards Maya and Kadrak and waved them forward.
“This is Maya and Kadrak. They will work with you to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.”
I also waved over to Absyn, and he walked forward, “Keep an eye on them, brother.”
He nodded at me, and I stepped away. People clapped my hands and arms as I walked by, celebrating the end of the Zephyr’s empire.
I walked towards my house but kept going to the center of the town. Each step grew heavier, and the storms within me shook my bones. As I passed my house, I looked longingly towards the blacksmith tools that I had not touched for years. I missed creating, pulling wire out of the furnace, and maintaining the fire in the forge. There was still a fountain in the middle of the square, and I sat on the edge, hand trailing into the water.
“You have done much over the years, Tawo. I am honored by you and proud of you,” Inyx voice carried over the slight shushing of the fountain. I looked up and saw her in the water that cascaded out of the top of the fountain.
“My people are freed, Inyx. Thank you for what you have given us,” I whispered back. I just wanted to lie down and rest.
“My most Faithful. You deserve the rest you seek. Reach your hand out to me again, and you will not be burdened anymore, my Beloved,” a tendril of water reached out to me. I hesitated for a moment; was I ready to let go of this power? “You may choose one thing to keep, Tawo.”
I studied my hands for a moment. These lightning veins had become a part of me; they warned me of danger, and they taught me what it felt like to be embraced by a storm. I was already dreaming of designs for new projects based on what I’d learned of storms over the last few years. I thought of the little bolts of lightning that I could call with my hands; they would be helpful for the forge. Inyx had also given me the power to awaken others, but did I want to do that anymore? Would my people not be able to do that on their own, passing the traits to those who came after them?
“Just the sparks, my goddess. I want nothing more than these tattoos and the sparks,” I reached out to her, smiling. My body went rigid as she took her power back. Like a flash of lightning, her visage disappeared back into the fountain, and I was left alone
Standing, I walked back to my house and shook out the sheets on my bed. The people would find me if they needed me, but all they really needed was each other. Now, it was time for me to rest.