MaeveMcCarthy
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Chapter 103 – World-History
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 19:30:01 +0000 UTCProfessor Tukupa shoved them inside the house, which brimmed to the ceiling with books and scrolls. There was barely any space to sit, and he casually threw some books from two chairs onto a couch and had them both sit.
"I'm Professor Tukupa," he said, "and I know you both. I also know that no one else, as customary, will come to this lesson, so we might as well start. I hate when people lose themselves in chitchat. And if you're asking how I could see that you're both of Kaimoro blood..." He tapped his eyes. "A little technique I discovered on my travels," he giggled.
He took a pot of tea and poured some into two chipped cups that he offered the two students.
"This class is called World History, but it would have been more apt to call it Ancient World History. The world history we know is made of these Abyssal Creatures and the Kraken, but neither existed a thousand years ago."
Both Talia and Keanu held onto the cold cups of tea and frowned.
"I know. Surprising, right?" he continued. "Well, let's start the lesson here then. The only murals that show the presence of the Kraken and Abyssal Creatures are relatively recent. None of them are more than a thousand years old, and more importantly, there's no written record of them before that time. To be even more precise, dungeons existed before, but Abyssal Creatures never lived outside of them."
Professor Tukupa took a breath before continuing. "Spillage is a phenomenon that is older than a thousand years, but not Abyssal Creatures living in the Deep. This leads us to believe that both Abyssal Creatures and the Kraken were man-made, albeit we'll come to how 'man-made' is perhaps not the exact term, and were created artificially, so to speak."
Moments after entering the house, this man was really making outlandish claims. Now, Talia was led to believe whatever this person was saying because he was affiliated with Professor Iakopo, who was quite eccentric himself. But if Professor Iakopo was eccentric, she didn't have the words to describe whatever this old man was.
"I have some records from before the time of the Kraken. Three kinds of people were mentioned in them," Professor Tukupa explained. "The Kaimoro, such as the young man here and your father, Talia. The Honua, or traditionally known as normal humans, whose nobility, if I'm correct, is in a direct line of succession with the Great Families. And then the Ao, the flying civilization."
He paused, adjusting his spectacles. "Not many cities of theirs remain, and no descendants really. They were all poisoned by the raw Mana in their cities and became monsters, Abyssal Creatures, or a mix of the two. I am fickle with terminology at times. Pardon me."
Keanu stiffened when the man mentioned the Ao and the flying cities.
"Yes, young man," Professor Tukupa winked at Keanu. "I know of Aneanui, and I'm surprised your people could clean up the raw Mana residue and somehow make it inhabitable again. If you ever manage to convince them to meet me, I would love to peruse your own records."
Keanu opened his mouth and closed it a few times, not knowing how to respond.
"It's not important now," Professor Tukupa waved dismissively. "Why don't we focus instead on the Great Families for a moment? I bet both of you are quite interested, the young man in particular. The Great Families are not generating heroes because they were so courageous and greater than everyone else. They were, simply put, richer."
"When the world was inhabited by these three races, the Honua were much more technologically advanced than the Ao and the Kaimoro, who by the way had several underwater cities that are now forever lost, I fear. The Honua, being the most technologically advanced, developed devices able to absorb Mana. These devices, as any noble knows, still condense Mana in their cities in such quantities that their children are more talented than average, and they can grow herbs and even artifacts right below their roofs without the need to adventure in the most dangerous parts of the Deep."
Talia was having a hard time following what the man was saying and where he was going, so she had to stop him. "Sorry, Professor Tukupa. I am confused. You're saying that there are three races of people in the world? Where?"
The professor corrected her. "Were. But yes, so far only two survived what I would only define as the greatest catastrophe in the Great Archipelago's entire history."
"And what would that be?" Talia asked.
"Well, dear, the creation of the Kraken, of course."
Talia felt her body starting to sweat. She had asked Professor Iakopo once if the Kraken had been created by someone, but it had just been like this crazy hypothesis. Some even said that the Cultists had initially created the Kraken.
"Well," the man smiled widely. "I just want to tell you, dear, these are not the lessons I usually give the students who take this course. I would keep some hints of ancient history for them, not give them the information straight. Where would be the fun in that, right? But I fear that Professor Iakopo's threats and your own precarious position require me to be very blunt, taking away the magic from it, but perhaps offering a little more substance than I usually would."
"So," Talia said, ignoring the man's rambling, "who created the Kraken?"
"Oh my. Isn't that the most important bit of this whole thing for you?" Professor Tukupa winked at her.
"I spent the better years of my life trying to figure this very question out," he smiled. "I know of only one person who might have reached the bottom of this interesting, fascinating, and absolutely marvelous enigma."
Talia felt like she already knew the answer.
"Yes, dear," Professor Tukupa read her like an open book. "Your dear mother, dear Yelena, asked me for sources, before the unfortunate events of Placid City, of course. When she was still a student, she was in her third year, I think, not that it matters now. The only one who came to my then-history class and stayed until the end. She picked up on all the hints and sort of pried knowledge from my hands. I've never met a person so dedicated to the study of history since your mother."
"I know that her actions might be very controversial to some, but as a fellow scholar, I can't but appreciate the dedication she reserved for finding out the truth about the world. I just wish she had left records of it. But at the very least, I can tell you what I told her. My research on this specific subject hasn't advanced much in the last twenty years."
Talia was more than fine with having, at the very least, the same starting point her mother had had when she had started researching the Kraken. In fact, this was almost more than she could have hoped for.
"Professor Iakopo knows some of this, but not all of it. Demands too little patience for ancient history. He's too focused on the present, not understanding how much the past weighs on it." Professor Tukupa seemed quite critical of Professor Iakopo.
"A long time ago, the three races faced some kind of problem. The records are very skittish about mentioning which exactly the problem was. Therefore, I cannot tell for sure. I believe it was some sort of natural disaster connected to Mana and the poisoning of it. It is very well possible that the emergence of Abyssal Creatures started around that time."
He took another sip of tea before continuing. "And in what is my leading theory, and the only theory that really is substantiated by evidence, they might have created the Kraken to keep at bay the rise of Abyssal Creatures. That would explain why the Kraken had such interesting powers," Professor Tukupa gestured toward Talia. "Being able to absorb the strength of monsters and grow stronger and stronger, paired with the sort of immortality the Kraken benefits from, would make a lot of sense if you were trying to vacuum away all these nasty creatures from the Deep."
"What's also evident is that their plan didn't really come to fruition." Professor Tukupa made a small pause and then took a cup of cold tea for himself, sipping it and making a face. "My, I didn't give you any sugar. Wait a moment."
The man disappeared into the adjacent room, leaving Talia and Keanu alone. Several crashing sounds came from the room, and the two students looked at each other.
"This is a lot," Talia said in a harsh whisper.
Keanu nodded. "He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, though."
Despite the eccentric manners of Professor Tukupa, he clearly had insights that none of them would have ever imagined gaining, not even in years of research.
Soon, Professor Tukupa came back and dropped two cubes of sugar into each of their cups. When the two students just stared at the professor, swirling his finger in the cold tea to let the sugar melt, they didn't question it and started doing the same. It seemed that cutlery wasn't going to be available for the moment.
"I have a few names about what happened back then," Professor Tukupa said. "There was something disconnected from the actual events and only mentioned at later dates, much later, centuries later. But I believe that the three races came to an agreement. My records show that before that time, the Kaimoro and the Honua were at odds. The Kaimoro were very, very respectful of what they called the Mana tides, and were worried that the greed of the Honua, their hoarding of Mana, and the same, by the way, goes for the Ao who were more reclusive in their flying cities, would upset the natural balance of things. They also thought the actions of the Honua might have been precipitating this natural catastrophe they speak little of."
He paused thoughtfully. "When things started getting dire, however, which is very interesting, all three races came together. I would have suspected that otherwise, the natural catastrophe might have been the work of the Honua and the Ao, but it doesn't really make sense if they started then collaborating to resolve it."
"The Kaimoro were most definitely the strongest in terms of magical control and technique. Living below the surface of water, they had access to more intimate connections," Professor Tukupa said, weighing his words carefully, "to the natural flows of Mana. Perhaps this allowed them to develop better techniques, or perhaps the fact that all our magic is based on water shouldn't surprise us when those living in the water have more success with said magic. It makes sense after all."
The professor took another sip of his tea, nodding appreciatively. Talia and Keanu too took a little sip, but both almost spat the disgusting tea on the spot. Only the presence of so many books and scattered pages stopped them from throwing the cups as far from them as they could.
"There was a pact, and this pact was called the Sundered Seas Covenant," the professor explained. "The Sundered Seas Covenant, theoretically, was meant to create a weapon to balance the catastrophe's outcomes and perhaps restore the normal course of life. We know that that never happened because now we live in a monster-infested world, unlike our ancestors. But the most interesting thing of all is that there are mentions of a ritual," he smiled mischievously, "to undo the Kraken."
Talia's eyes went wide.
"And that, dear, is exactly the same reaction your mother had when I mentioned it to her."
