Introduction
Long ago lived the sorcerer, Kastigar. He was a slender man with soft facial features. His skin seemed preserved against the ruinous effects of time, like a marble doll. His skin had a brown colour with warm gold undertones such that when the soft light of a sunset shined upon it, it seemed to glow.
Kastigar lived in a time when the fluttering sounds that interspersed a silent and uninhabited space could be explained by the passing of Esma on their way back to the Hive or when that shadows that were cast by the sun’s light passing through a canopy danced and waved at you as you walked underneath the trees. He lived in a time when you could ask an old aloe tree how come you felt sad when your favourite book ended without a resolution.
Kastigar was an expert at making bits and bobs and whatits from metal. He had a large furnace in his house and worked with his brother Nakhad, a giant man with muscles like a mountain and a beard like a storm cloud. His laughter was like the bubbling of a geyser, exploding with joy that seemed to whisk you up and take you away with him.
Kastigar was the more quiet of the pair. Whereas Nakhad struck the hammer and refined the metal to pure quantities, Kastigar focused on shaping delicate and beautiful pieces that were than functional. Each was a smith in his own way, Nakhad strived for purity of substance, while Kastigar strived for beauty.
Many moons ago, a star had fallen from Janah, and Kastigar had asked Nakhad to collect the metal from it. Nakhad forded the Kushaymeer River and climbed up the Jonakh mountains, until he took a mighty hammer and axe, cleaving the metal from the stone. With his great power, he pulled a cart of rocks with his legs and shoulders, bringing the remnants of the star to Kastigar. Nakhad then melted and separated the metals until a silvery substance with a copper ombre effect was left. Nakhad did not like these many colours in the metal and be wanted to melt the metal again, but Kastigar asked him not to do that. Kastigar then fashioned a lantern from it.
Kastigar lit the first flame. Its light filled the darkness yet unlike the sun which was harsh and cruel, Kastigar’s lantern was soft to behold. The eyes could be lost in its beauty, envoking a feeling of great peace and contentment in whoever gazed upon it. So, Kastigar, gifted the lamp to the city of Yarahan where he lived. The lantern was set in the middle of the central square and was lit every night so that the people could dance and enjoy themselves in its soft glow. Its light filled the whole town, allowing people to work at night and run errands in the cool weather, for Kastigar’s country was hot and unbearable during the day. But the light was soft enough that those who wished to sleep and rest could fall fast asleep with dreams full of serenity and wonder.
After a thousand years, Kastigar and Nakhad left the city of Yarahan to the mountains and were never seen again, leaving behind Kastigar’s Lantern. As thousands of years passed, the life of the people outside of Yarahan seemed to fade. The world grew duller and old, weary with the long expanse of its existence. Cities collapsed and those that arose after them were even more short lived. The world became increasingly violent and dangerous as death seemed to come too soon for many and ailment made the shorter living unliveable.
But Yarahan seemed to persist. The city was luminous, the bounty of its fields filling homes with abundance. Its homes were homely, inviting strangers to dine and rest on their way. Its people retained the great joy that Kastigar’s lantern cast. Others beheld this and envied the joy and long life of the people of Yarahan… None more than Ulahid the Bandit.