The natives of the thick jungles called their world 'Tha-Thoma' meaning 'the place of trials'. They saw their world as a test, where their courage would be tested by the gods so that their place in the afterlife could be chosen. Most of the natives lived in the deep jungles, while twenty five percent of the population lived in the vast cities, such as the capital Tehitochilim. A traveller from Earth would recognize these people instantly as Aztecs, and might be led to wonder if they had evolved parallel with those on Earth, or had some God perhaps taken some Aztecs from Earth to seed his own world with this culture? We may never know.

The people of Tha-Thoma soon had company. From the west, across the seas, came travellers who settled the coasts, and built towns and villages of wood and plaster, and introduced weapons made of metal. There was tension at first, but soon the two peoples were living along side each other in relative harmony. The people of the coast had learned to respect the tribes of the inner jungles, and not found settlements too far from the coast. Rombes soon became the grandest of the coastal cities.

So for many centuries these two groups lived in peace, until it must have seemed to the peoples of Tha-Thoma that it had always been this way, the inner tribes of the jungles and the coastal folk of Rombes.

Within the backdrop of these two civilizations living in harmony, things were never quite as peaceful. There were sorcerers and priests, pirates and mercenaries, adventurers and explorers - and many bloody episodes played themselves out. Truth be told, it was these episodes that united the two peoples more than anything, for a solution was never arrived at without people from both, working together.

Then something happened which made all the other disasters throughout history pale in comparison. The black creatures appeared, unstoppable, un-killable, and it seemed as if the only solution would be to flee the continent and never look back.

Photograph © Graeme S. Houston

Like black ghosts they can flit through walls, trees, cliffs, and even fade into the background. Their eyes shine yellow, or white, sometimes red. They have claws - terrible claws that can be as sharp as the sharpest blade, that can cut through steel as if it is nothing; cut down a man with a single swipe; claws so terribly solid and real when needed.

The tribes of the jungle called them 'noki' and so that name stuck, and all the peoples of the lands came to know them as such, and came to hear of the terrible creatures that couldn't be killed, that killed men, women and children in the thousands.

It was by luck, that the tribesmen of the deepest jungle had been using weapons made from jade for centuries, and had not yet begun to use the metal knives they could get from the coastal people. They discovered that jade weapons could cut the noki just as easily as the noki's own claws could cut everything else, and jade also possessed some power to ward them off. The word spread, and jade weapons were taken up and jade posts were placed around every settlement to keep them at bay.

It became a stand off, and though the people learned to stay within their jade fortifications, the noki remained the most terrifying threat. They hounded the people constantly, were always nearby to take advantage of the slightest slip. The world was never quite the same.

Illustration of a single noki (something rarely seen, they come in groups) © Graeme S. Houston; against the backdrop image "The Shaded Stream" (1865) by Gustave Courbet.

It was fortunate that jade had always been in abundance. Overnight, jade went from something of little value to something of great value. People fought for whatever jade was available at the time, and over the centuries the civilisations amassed jade in huge quantities. Posts were built around all the settlements, and the larger and more wealthy cities even went so far as to build walls of solid jade. One of the ancient kings of Rombes, set out to build walls around the city so that all within would be safe from the noki, and it is said that it took many generations before enough jade had been gathered and the walls were at last complete.

Though the tribes had been using jade weapons for as long as they had been hunters, it was the coastal dwellers that truly perfected the art of jade weapon making. Through sorcery, the weapon smiths learned to create jade swords that were sturdy and reliable, and could last a lifetime, so long as they were only used against noki; since cutting them never dulled the blade.

Jade became part of the cultures. Statues of gods carved from jade were placed in temples, as a reminder that the gods had provided a tool to keep the noki at bay.

The priesthood from both civilisations would soon use jade in many of their rites and rituals. Bowls of jade filled with water would be used at a priest or priestesses coming of age ceremony, where they would gaze into the water of the bowl, and be given a glimpse of the future. Priests and priestesses would wear flasks of jade, filled with holy water. Within the temple at Rombes, a series of spiralling shafts wind from the very tip of the building, where each day, at midday, a sphere of jade is dropped into the shaft, to roll in a spiral its way down. On its way it passes through three intersections, where it might slip either way, and by the time it reaches the bottom, it has taken one of 14 paths. In this manner the rites used within the temple that day are decided.

Illustration based on image by Scott Liddell, (agency www.morguefile.com)

The sorcery the people of Tha-Thoma are able to draw upon is a complicated system, one that should not be used lightly.

To explain how magic works, will require a brief look at the nature of the universe within which Tha-Thoma exists.

The universe is split into three planes. The plane above, some would call heaven; the universe itself; and below, in what some would call hell, lies the Torka.

Consciousness comes from the Torka; from that hellish flux of the stuff of consciousness. The seeds of consciousness are drawn towards animal minds just after their conception, to join and become a thinking creature, and then at its death to be swept away again within the Torka. The mind would then join with another more sophisticated creature, to become reincarnated, as the cycle of birth and rebirth continues, until at last it has developed fully and is drawn to become the mind of a person. At that stage the person's choices in life and their actions determine the fate of the mind, to be drawn back down into the Torka, or to transcend to the plane above.

There are minds which fear the step of transcending above, and lurk forever in the Torka. These demons can be ancient and very powerful, so much so that they can effect the reality above them, which is simply a reflection of the heavens interacting with the Torka to cast the shadow that the people would see as their universe.

When an individual casts magic for the first time, they say the words that draw and instruct a demon from the Torka. The kind of demon they draw depends very much on the type of person they are. It becomes a symbiotic relationship, the demon being able to experience the world above without the fear of transcendence, and the sorcerer being able to draw on the power of the demon to change what they would like. But it is dangerous, and the demon might consume the sorcerer. This is why sorcery is considered a black art in the lands of Tha-Thoma.

The priests also have their own magic, though very different from that of sorcery. The priests rely on intervention from above.

There is only one other type of magic user in the lands of Tha-Thoma. The Chikura; warrior philosophers from the island of Chiku, legendary keepers of the peace all across the world. They draw no demons, nor appeal to higher powers, but instead interact with reality as it is and bend it to their will.

This is a novella of our deepest fears. No one knows where the noki came from, or how they got here, but they are terrible fiends. Black as night, drifting, floating wraiths which can drift through any substance as if they were ghosts, but their claws can be as sharp and as solid as the sharpest blade, when they want them to be. The tentative civilisations have survived only because the noki have a deadly aversion to jade; jade posts keep them at bay, jade weapons will kill them, jade walls are impenetrable to the noki, but the noki are growing in number, and now they even have men helping them. Posts moved to let them in, prisoners taken, these are new and troubling times, and nowhere is safe - not any more.

He has spent his life hunting them. His name is Rigel, he who abandoned the priesthood, and lived to tell the tale. He flits through the jungles like his quarry, hounding them as they have hounded the rest of humanity for centuries. He dabbles in the black arts of sorcery, and pacifies angry Gods with succinct rhymes. Everything is simple, until he finds the smouldering remains of a village, which tells him of these troubling new times.

Talyin who is destined to be a priestess, her cousin Asli, a warrior monk from the island of Chiku who calls herself Emma but is not quite what she seems, a man called Thuan from the furthest east, and Rigel are thrown together and parted again amidst the staggering backdrop of three civilisations, each of which is affected by the noki, each of which will fall unless someone can solve the mystery and rid the world of the noki. Is ever anything so simple?

Her eyes caught the burning flames, reflected them, and shone with warmth and strength. She moved not like the clumsy child she had been, but elegant, as a priestess should be. She walked into the ring and began to walk around it, circling the stone. The drums began to beat, music played, and Gedrin began to chant. Gedrin waved his hand and his apprentice came forward with the tools; a bronze chisel and a hammer. The apprentice knelt ceremoniously beside the stone, and began to chisel the name of Talyin onto the rock, in a line running down it. She continued to walk around, while the music increased in its intensity, the beat became a pulse and a signal, a code and a spell. Gedrin's words drifted up as if on wings. Then as the last character was struck upon the stone, the chanting and the drums ceased, sparks flew from the rock and the chisel, and a great bowl of jade, filled with water was placed atop the sacred stone.

The water rippled and sung in a tone which matched Gedrin's chanting, a long rich note, deep and melodic.

"Look into the water dear Talyin," said Gedrin, "and tell us what you see."

And so Talyin who had been walking around, orbiting the stone, slowly walked inwards and spiralled towards the stone, and the bowl, while Gedrin left - leaving her alone within the circle. She reached the bowl and glanced inside, her eyes cool, emotion gone and hidden by the trance she was in.

"I see this village, burnt. I see that we will all die this night."

Thanks for taking the time to read this lens, and I hope you enjoyed it. Unfortunately my website is down at the moment. I am in the process of recreating it right now. Once it is done I will place a link to it here so that you can keep track of my ongoing work such as 'The Gateless Gate'. Feel free to leave me with your thoughts in the guest book below; all comments are very welcome.