Chapter 6: The Scream of the Miniature
After a lovely day, I tucked myself into bed with peace in my heart and drifted off to sleep with a tiny smile on my face. Waking up to screams was definitely not what I expected.
The cries and the smell of blood rising from the world's miniature had taken all of Elysian under its influence. Clouds of unrest were wandering in the darkening sky. The sky was so dark that they had to light the inside of the palace with candles.
When I saw Çağın running towards me from the other end of the corridor, I asked, “How bad is it?” The way he pressed his lips together and shook his head made me swallow hard.
“We can handle it…” he said, catching up to me and standing right beside me. “Let's stay calm and think logically.” I nodded as quickly as my steps.
When the guards in front of the throne room saw us coming, they opened the door. Holding the skirts of my long, white, satin nightgown, I walked towards my throne. The guards were waiting in a line in front of the two walls of the room, and in front of me stood Alven and Arel, scholars of the palace. Çağın also took his place next to them as I sat on my throne.
“I've never seen anything this intense before…” Arel was coughing as he spoke. “This smell of blood and smoke is burning my lungs.” He played with the silver clasp caught in his long white beard. Sweat was dripping from the wrinkles on his forehead. But in his narrow, grey eyes, astonishment was flaring.
Çağın wasn't any different. His hair, which he always carefully slicked back, was messy this time. His clothes seemed like they were randomly chosen and put on in a hurry. “Çağın, can you find out what's happening on Earth?” I asked, and he nodded. He disappeared in a few seconds.
My gaze found Alven. “How are the people?” I asked, and he lifted his chin. “They're very scared, we're trying to calm them down.” The light from the candles hit his silver armor and danced there.
“I want you to personally deal with this, Alven, prevent the people from turning on each other because of fear.” He indicated his acceptance by bowing his head. Then he took a few steps back, turned on his heels, and walked towards the great hall's door.
When Alven left the room, my gaze found Arel. “What triggered Earth, Arel, do you have any guesses?” Even though most of the farm workers were unhappy, there wasn't a chaotic environment that would bring Earth to this state. What had happened overnight that the miniature was begging me for help?
“My throne heir, the throne is vacant. This means disaster, disaster! Our people are sowing anger, hatred, and resentment without knowing what to do. Elysian is on the brink of bringing the end to Earth!”
I bit my lower lip. If the throne being vacant for a few days could bring Earth to this state... Swallowing hard, I stood up. The cries of crows were mixing with the miniature's scream and silencing the sound of my thoughts. I don't know what to do, and this worries me even more.
Stay calm... Stay calm and think.
If Earth is being sent more hate than love, I need to intervene. I can't force the people to sow love, nor can I stop their feelings. I can only offer them an environment where they feel good. For that, I need to be officially accepted and acknowledged as the ruler as soon as possible.
I need to find a plan that will work in the short term!
The people are unhappy because there are extremes; the very rich and the very poor. The people are unhappy because they are oppressed. The people are unhappy because they fight with their friends over the fear of not being able to feed themselves. How can this people sow love!?
I frowned and squinted my eyes. Since I can't make them sow love, I'll prevent them from sowing hate.
"Arel, announce immediately that I'm stopping the sowing of feelings."
"But my heir!" he shouted immediately. "The sowing of feelings has never stopped since the formation of Earth! This would be trying to stop a disaster with another disaster."
"To save Earth, this is necessary." I said with great determination.
He shook his head quickly from side to side. "No my heir, this... This is a punishment!" he said. "You're punishing people with apathy, our people with their feelings."
"I'm just giving them a chance to think. Meanwhile, I'll get the approval of both Eva and Bilun."
He knelt in front of me, grabbing the hem of my nightgown. "Don't do this, my heir." he said. "If you do, you'll lose the people. They can't breathe if they can't sow feelings!"
"It won't be for long." I said immediately. "I will get both of their approvals as quickly as possible. Then I'll take the throne to fix everything."
"I do not approve of this, my heir, not even for a short time!" He stood up. He began to pace back and forth quickly. Then suddenly stopped and turned to me. He fixed his eyes on mine. His grey eyes first took the shape of Earth. Then the waters of Earth were covered with blood, the lands with corpses. "This will be our end..." he whispered, his voice hoarse.
"What's your suggestion then, Arel!"
"I suggest we distract the people for a while." he said as if he had been waiting for this moment. "Let's distribute food, send a team to listen to their problems. Let's make them feel our concern."
I bowed my head, I didn't want to do all this just to distract my people. That would be deceiving them! I lifted my head and closed my eyes while taking a deep breath. Come on... What choice do I have? When I opened my eyes and turned my gaze to Arel, I said, "Alright..." "Start immediately. I'm going to visit my sisters." I had already started walking towards the door.
The guards opened the door when they realized I was leaving. I was walking in the palace's dark corridors with the sound of crows pecking at the diamond windows and the crying of the miniature. Darkness was seeping into the noise as time passed.
Tick tock, tick tock...
Every tick tock is a body full of blood.
I entered my room. After putting on a velvet dress I randomly picked from the wardrobe, I quickly put my hair in a bun. I slipped on my black boots and I was ready. Ready, but for what? Who should I go to? Eva or Bilun?
Eva's interests point to me, so I will definitely get approval from her. But I can't be sure her interests won't change. What about Bilun? Would it be a right strategy to leave him for last?
I pressed my hands to my temples and started to walk in small steps. My mind had turned into a maze! How could it guide me while it was lost... I took a deep breath and sat down at the base of the wall. I drew my legs to my stomach and rested my forehead on my bare
knees. The increasingly strong smell of blood was making me nauseous. The screams echoed off the walls, dizzying. I felt myself in a brightly dark place. As if what I needed to do was showing itself to me, but my eyes were choosing blindness.
I shouldn't have fallen so weak in the first crisis!
The first crisis shouldn't have been this heavy...
I'm experiencing what no ruler has ever experienced before even becoming a ruler!
My eyes filled with tears and my breath became short. I should be staying calm, look at me now! My chest was rapidly rising and falling, and now my vision was blurring. Fear was flowing through my veins in waves. I felt like choosing the wrong strategy could end a planet. Small details were about to suffocate big lives.
If only Çağın was by my side, if only anyone who could support me was by my side!
As if waiting for me to think this, Hesna suddenly appeared in my room. Her dark purple silk dress seemed to be crumpled from herself. The puffy skirt ended just below her knee. The same fabric started from above her breasts and went down, wrapping around her waist like a belt. There were ruffles on the thick straps of her dress. Compared to the others, this outfit, which was more modest(!), was probably her disaster costume.
I straightened my back and leaned my head against the wall, "What are you doing here?" My voice was broken, despite my upright posture.
Hesna smiled understandingly and tilted her head to her right shoulder. Without answering, she came up to me and knelt in front of me. Whether it was the diamonds melded into her cheekbones or the smile on her lips, I don't know, but she was radiating light. The rhythmic breaths she took were like the notes of a peaceful music, even her heartbeat whispered a melody as if mixed into those notes.
What could keep and make something as alive and real as love, even if it's about love... What made us see not the representative of love but love itself when we looked at her and filled us with peace? I never experienced this with Eva or Bilun. They were just representatives. Hesna... She was something else.
She blinked and whispered with her magical voice: "You wanted someone to support you."
Her whisper made my heartbeat race as if possible. But this time, the reason for my heart's frantic pounding wasn't fear. Her words, her voice, her expressions... Everything excited me.
"How did you know I wanted this, how did you find out?"
"Ah, my loveless heir... The day I declared my loyalty to you, we were connected. I can hear every call for help from you."
I shook my head, not quite pleased. "That doesn't sound too good." I murmured discontentedly. She would know every moment I was weak.
"Don't worry, this is a situation unique to the representative of loyalty. Eva won't know when you need help." I smiled before I even thought about the situation that was bothering me.
"Why were you so scared, my loveless heir?" When she asked, I widened my eyes and looked at her. She couldn't be unaware of the smell of blood surrounding us, right? It was impossible for her not to hear this cursed noise! The cries, shouts, gunshots of people of all ages... And that these sounds had not stopped for hours!
"There are so many responsibilities I need to shoulder, and they're all in a cage! I haven't even reached the keys to the cage yet. How can I overcome them when I'm so far from the limits of my responsibilities..." The answer to this wasn't, "By sitting down and crying in a corner," of course. But sometimes it was like that. The only thing you could do was cling to the one thing you shouldn't do.
I sighed in frustration and wiped away a few tears that flowed. "My loveless heir..." she said, placing her hands on my tear-soaked hands. "There's something I want you to remember." she murmured and then placed her left hand on mine over my heart. "The boundaries you want to destroy outside are hidden in the desire in your heart."
I blinked and swallowed. I weighed her words in my mind, which had lost its way. Did I really desire to be a ruler? Desperately... Then why were the obstacles on this path discouraging me?
"What should I do?" I suddenly asked. For a few seconds, I wanted Hesna to act like a big sister to me. I pretended like we forgot everything we fought for.
"You can't destroy the bad, but you can beautify it." I furrowed my brows. How could I beautify something by covering it up? As if understanding what I was thinking, she smiled. "Does it smell like blood? Plant more flowers to suppress the smell." she continued. "Do you hear screams? Increase the volume of hymns, of songs."
I nodded and smiled in agreement. She was right, cowering at the base of the wall meant giving up. Were they sowing hate? I would teach them to even love hate.
"Hesna..." I said before clearing my throat. "I want you to distribute food with Arel and bless them with love."
She nodded affirmatively and stood up. I also stood up and straightened my dress. "Are you going to Bilun?" she asked, to which I shook my head no and started walking towards the door.
Following me, Hesna said, "Before going to her, I should meet with the noble families, I will meet with the nobles after the Dawn ceremony with Alven tomorrow. Please, until then, dampen this disaster a bit, Hesna. Charm my people with your love so that the Earth calms down." I explained my plan to her openly only because I fully trusted her loyalty.
"Don't worry." she said, stopping me by placing her hand on my shoulder. "In a few hours, both the smell and the noise will decrease." I expressed my gratitude to her with a smile.
When the door opened, Arel greeted us along with the guards. Hastily, I said, "Hesna will accompany you too, Arel, go without wasting time." and then I teleported myself.
I was in the middle of a desert. Of course, Eva did not live here. She must have somehow blocked teleportation to her actual location. I looked around. The cry of the miniature was making itself heard here too, but the smell of blood was not as heavy. The wind was whipping up the yellow, sticky sand, trying to form a mound. I walked towards the mound. Just as I stood in front of it, the wind suddenly stopped, and the sand lifted by the wind fell to the ground in milliseconds. It was as if Eva, knowing about my future, had opened a door for me.
As I climbed the mound, the sand began to pull me in. The grains filling my boots made me roll my eyes, the sticky sand was irritating my leg. While being pulled in, I waited calmly. I thought I was going to a place full of snakes under the ground, but when my body was buried up to my neck, my feet began to dangle in the air. I felt a warm breeze on my bare legs. When my head also went under the ground, I closed my eyes.
Feeling the sand in my eyelashes, ears, and nose was truly terrible. Finally, when my head came out of the ground, I spat out the sand in my mouth. My ordeal was not over yet. My bun had come undone while underground, and now my hair was hanging in the dirt! My body was swinging in the sky.
Ah, no one but Eva would be arrogant enough to open their own sky!
When my hair was slowly pulled out of the sand, I looked down. I couldn't see the bottom because of the clouds. I wonder how much worse today could get. Thinking about this while unaware of where I would fall probably shows how dire my situation is.
When my hair finally escaped the ground, I was falling faster than I expected. The wind had penetrated my dress and was licking my skin. I tried to look down, but apart from a few blurry images, there was nothing. Hoping to land on something soft, I found myself on a giant bird with shiny black feathers. I must have been on a massive crow. The giant crow glided down smoothly and left me in a garden where black petunias were planted as far as the eye could see. The petunias, like the crow, were overly large, their flowers were at the level of my shoulder.
I dusted off my dress and tried to straighten my hair as much as possible. After emptying the sand from my boots and putting them back on, I continued. The sky was tinged with gray, and apart from these black petunias, I couldn't see anything else. At the end of the garden, there were gray cliffs reaching up to the clouds. Thinking I could reach Eva from there, I walked through the petunias. As I expected, there was a stone door covered with black vines on the cliffs. I stood on tiptoe to reach the vines. After pulling all the vines I could reach, I moved to the right side of the rock and pushed with all my might. My foot was slipping on the ground as I pushed. I grimaced and involuntarily made noises similar to groans. When I stepped back to catch my breath, I saw that the door hadn't moved at all. I flipped my hand and wiped the sweat from my forehead with my wrist. Watching me struggle like this must have been amusing for her.
I took a deep breath. I couldn't teleport from the outside to Eva's separate sky, but maybe I could teleport from one place to another inside here. With this thought, magical words flowed from my lips: "Paraiso kolasi." Just as I expected, I was on the other side of the rock. I exhaled with annoyance, I had to accept that I could do magic and forget my worldly habits as soon as possible!
When I repeated the magical words in my mind, I found myself next to Eva. We must have been in a temple underground. This temple, with its hieroglyphs on the walls and drawings on the ceiling, resembled a curtain quite a bit. However, there was neither a crucifix nor a coffin here. There was a splendid golden throne. A grapevine, whose roots were unknown, was entwined around the throne. Also, hundreds of snakes were sleeping on the ground. Eva, sitting on her throne, was wearing the same black dress and golden accessories. She placed her half-filled wine glass next to her throne on the ground.
With a mocking voice, she said, "Welcome, little sister."
The screams and the smell of blood did not come here, but they were still ringing in my ears and stinging my nose. That's why I didn't get into a verbal spat with her. "You know why I'm here, Eva, I don't have time." When she smiled with satisfaction, it showed she knew about the apocalypse brought by the miniature from Earth.
"I won't let you go without talking." she said with a carefree voice. "At least listen to the story I'm going to tell..." she whispered and continued talking without waiting for my response: "Do you know the legend from the world of humans, Gilgamesh?"
She stood up to explain. The moment her bare foot touched the ground, the snakes woke up and wriggled to their master's side. The living figure of the snake on her golden crown twined around Eva's right leg and reached up to her neck. Eva, feeling pleasure from the snake moving on her body, closed her golden eyes and lifted her head to the sky while laughing. Her laughter echoed off the walls of the temple we were in. With this echo, a few snakes came to life at the tips of her hair that ended below her chin and hissed.
I swallowed. What they did to me in the curtain flashed before my eyes. It felt as if the snake born from her belly button had tightly grasped my waist again. My human screams echoed in my ears. I took a deep breath and opened and closed my eyes for a few seconds.
When the golden snake had completely wrapped around Eva, she started walking towards me. The snakes following her scared me, I couldn't deny it. You're the heir and Eva is on your side, I reminded myself. I knew she was on my side, but I wasn't sure she wouldn't do anything to me. After all, she was the snake, both the symbol of death and life. The beginning and the end.
"The immortal Gılgamış..." she began to tell the story when she was right in front of me. Despite knowing I was afraid of snakes, she made them swirl at my feet. With this move, she tried to convey that my heirship meant nothing to her and that she was the ultimate power. The disdain in my posture when the snakes near me shivered for a few seconds made her laugh harshly. It took me a few seconds to gather myself.
Forget the snakes, forget the snakes.
I lifted my chin and said, "Stuck, did you forget the epic or what?" knowing well that my rebellious outburst was not to submit to her ego. Probably because I did it with a trembling voice, she smiled wickedly and made the snakes rear up, continuing the epic in a whisper: "Gilgamesh found the immortality herb I hid at the bottom of a lake."
When she made the reared-up snakes wave their thin tongues, I bit the inside of my cheek. I knew this fear of snakes was her gift to me. This was why she unleashed her snakes on me in the curtain, so she had a card to play over me.
"Gilgamesh decided to rest a bit by the lake's edge before eating the herb. He didn't notice my snake sneaking up on him, my snake ate the herb, and I, the symbol of death, made it immortal." When she finished talking, she ran her tongue over her golden lip while caressing the snake around her neck.
The snake left its crown, its golden skin, its hair, and emerged with a red skin. It was moving on Eva's forehead, but it felt like it was crawling on my body, every part of me felt a sticky itch. "Cut it out..." I growled, unable to hide my fear, making her hiss and laugh cruelly. Her cruel attitude was solely because I became the heir instead of her.
"Eva, pull your animals off me." This time, I growled with anger. My anger was starting to overcome my fear,
which she didn't like at all. The yellow in her eyes turned into a snake and circled around the black spot before returning to its original state.
"To you..." she began, hissing: "I told you how I made death immortal, did you like it?"
"If you don't approve of my heirship now, your immortality will be meaningless, the throne will be vacant for a bit longer and Earth will perish!"
"You know I'm going to approve of you. The people know, everyone knows." She shrugged her shoulders and laughed haughtily. "You will ascend to the throne, our father's last command will be fulfilled. What happens after that, little sister, everyone knows. I will dethrone you and become the sole immortal owner of the throne." She said the last sentence with great appetite. She was someone who had coveted the throne for centuries, and she was intoxicated with the taste of victory.
I squinted my eyes and laughed mockingly, then whispered, "We'll talk about that then."
Leaning her face close to mine, she whispered back: "When that moment comes, you won't be able to talk as you struggle to breathe, little sister."
I laughed harder and shook my head. Seconds later, I became serious and looked at her with a blank expression. "Just do it already." When I hissed, she didn't wait any longer. She grabbed the back of my neck with her right hand and spoke in a hiss. A pain spread from the back of my neck to my temples, heading towards my head. When it reached the center of my forehead, the pain branched out like lightning and spread throughout my body. I felt her disloyal approval with my soul.
Seconds before she covered my eyes with her hand, our eyes met. Both of us knew the same thing: Our battle was just beginning.
Seconds after her hand covered my eyes, I found myself in my room. I had fallen in a sitting position in front of my full-length mirror. I looked at my swollen and scattered hair, my dust-covered dress, my dirty face. "This approval getting business is starting to be annoying." I grumbled as I stood up and went to the bathroom. After taking off my dress and boots, I got into the bathtub. I wasn't planning on getting out of the water until my exhaustion passed. The decreasing sound of the miniature gave me permission for this. However, I had to get out of the tub after about ten minutes because someone knocked on my door.
I wrapped my body in a towel and entered my room. After putting on a long dress that I could feel comfortable in, I straightened my wet hair with my hand and moved forward. When I left my room, Alven was in front of me. He bowed to greet me and then straightened up, "We are waiting for you in the throne room, my heir." I nodded and started walking.
“How did the people react?” I asked Alven, who was following me two steps behind.
Even though he had donned his duty face, he couldn't hide the sadness in his voice: “The reaction of the miniature scared them a lot, my heir. No one wants to relive the war period. Just the thought of it makes everyone tense.”
“That period will not be repeated.” I said with determination. “I will fulfill my responsibility in the best way possible.” A small ambition arose in me, an ambition that I was sure would be a strong emotion that would drive me to success. The thought alone accelerated my steps.
Sincerely, “I never doubted that, my heir.” When he said, I smiled even though he couldn't see it.
Not wanting to change the subject, I cleared my throat slightly and asked, “So, what's the latest situation?”
"There were fights that could lead to death due to tension, but we intervened in time and resolved the problem through reconciliation. We have placed a team all over Elysian to ensure order. They will intervene in any possible chaos."
When the guards in front of the throne room opened the door, I stopped and turned to Alven instead of entering. "Good..." I murmured. "You can go now, Alven. Rest for tomorrow." After thanking me by bowing his head, he took a few steps back, then turned and walked away.
When I entered the hall, my first task was to order the guards lined up along the wall to leave. As they left the room with the metallic sounds coming from their armor, I sat on my throne and silently watched them. Finally, only Hesna, Arel, and Çağın were left in the room.
I cleared my throat slightly and looked at Arel before speaking: "What's the situation with the people?"
"The food you sent made them very happy, my heir, and Hesna's distribution of love increased the confidence in your alliance." My gaze shifted to Hesna. When she giggled and winked, I smiled gratefully at her.
"Good..." I murmured and smiled, continuing: "You can go now, Alven. Rest for tomorrow." He bowed in thanks and then took a few steps back.
When he left, my gaze found Çağın. "How is Earth?"
"Two states clashed over a maritime boundary, and other countries took sides. If we had delayed any longer, bloc formations could have started. Apart from this incident, a settlement was bombed and a forest fire broke out." I held my breath and pressed my lips together. Such bloc formations had started wars in the past.
"At least we've temporarily stopped the start of a war." Hesna murmured.
Arel spoke with a hoarse voice. "I'm not so sure about that. As you know, wars are not just fought with weapons these days." The wisdom in his voice's tone and the experience living in his eyes made one want to listen to every word he said. I felt the same in Bilun. Their fluent speeches and flawless intonations influenced their interlocutors.
"What's your prediction for Earth?" I asked Arel directly.
"Right now, there's a war going on inside the technological devices they carry in their pockets. What I'm really expecting is a large-scale biological war."
Çağın joined the conversation, asking, "What kind of biological war?"
Arel said, "It's hard to articulate precisely..." while stroking his beard. When his hand reached the silver clasp, he paused and squinted. "But I'm expecting a global epidemic. Because right now, there's a throne struggle in Elysian, and the reflection will be the same on Earth. The powerful will fight each other to dominate all the weak."
"What changes should we make on Earth to prevent this?" I asked. In response, he shook his head quickly. He blinked and swallowed. "I do not recommend intervening in Earth, my heir, it is a futile effort."
"Why?"
He clasped his hands behind his back and started pacing in front of the throne. "Remember, every human is essentially a complex version of an animal. The emotions we send from Elysian shape them to a certain extent. Then, nature comes into play."
"Can you be more specific, Arel?" asked Hesna, her voice soft and tired. Yet, curiosity sparkled in her slightly closed eyes.
"For example..." Arel began. "Humans invent a medicine along with the disease. First,
make ill, then heal. There isn't a bad enough emotion to trigger this, and if there is, its source is not Elysian. Because even the most harmful emotion has a part that touches the conscience. So, every human is a potential evil. If we want to prevent chaos, we should suppress the animal side of humans with the positive emotions we send from here. For that, our ruler needs to take the throne as soon as possible."
I smiled and stood up. I, the throne was already mine since everyone agreed on all decisions through my lips even before I received everyone's approval when my father died. However, this was not enough. To reach absolute power, I needed to communicate with the Holy Spirits, which would be possible once I received the approval of the people and my siblings. "I received Eva's approval." I announced proudly.
"A few noble families came to the palace when they heard, but we turned them away saying you were in a meeting." The news Çağın gave made me grin. I would meet with the nobles who showed Eva as their interest tomorrow. I knew as long as Eva was with me, they would be too.
"Well done." I responded to Çağın. "Thank you all for today, you've done well. Now, you can all go rest."
After Arel saluted me and left the hall, Hesna smiled and teleported herself away. I turned to Çağın, "What are you waiting for?"
"To escort you to your room?" he said, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He looked just like a human in his blue t-shirt and sneakers. As I remembered the twenty years we spent on Earth together, I smiled. When I thought I was human, "If we were in a fairy tale, what would you wish for?" he used to ask such questions because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"That babysitting job ended when we came to Elysian." I teased with a smirk.
He pouted. "On the first day, a mutated panda said it wanted to be just like on Earth." When he said that, I laughed. I shook my head involuntarily as I walked, and he was right behind me.
After a long day, and with the miniature's cries still echoing in my ears, I asked, "Did you find dealing with people just as exhausting when you were among them?"
He didn't reply right away, took a moment to think. "Remember that play we read on Earth?"
"Yeah," I said quickly. That play had quite an impact on us, with our human minds.
"Do you remember how it described humans and life?" he asked.
Nodding, I recited the line that came to mind, "Here’s a riddle for you: What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"
"Exactly that," he started reciting the answer from the character in the play. "And at night, it lies on its back."
*Anton Chekhov- The Seagull, Page 78: The answer is human life. Morning represents childhood, noon adulthood, evening old age, and night is death.
"That's how simple humans and life are, actually," he said, making me smile.
We didn’t say much after that. After wishing each other good night at the door, I went into my room. It took only a few seconds for me to lay down and fall asleep.
