The Fall Of Tymetras

Love slays even gods, as the story of Tymetras tells. On one of his journeys through the world his eyes fell upon a mortal, who was known as Kalachta. So graceful were her moves and voice that Tymetras was entirely captivated and praised her as the essence of creation.

And so he took the appearance of a young man and met her as she was bathing in the stream. Kalachta had been brought up well and acted coyly as the youngling showered her with flattery. Not too easily she would be convinced to be swayed, but his presence and vibrancy, which even his chosen form could not conceal, soon charmed her and thus she agreed to meet him at the pond the next day, to share bread and wine with him.

And so they met and near the pond, Tymetras found her curiosity and savvy to be most appealing. Rarely had he seen a mortal so keen and smart, and the longer they talked, the more he lost himself, eyes and heart.

The divine wife of Tymetras, Allarxia, learnt of the dalliance while the two lovers were still sharing wine. She had seen her husband engage in these flirtations with mortals before and considered them to be idle foolery, as she had had some of them herself, enjoying the company of young lovers who had agitated her senses. She wondered why her husband spent so much time with this conquest, but put it down to him being in the mood for variety.

Inside her husband, however, the battle had long since begun, as love had taken him. Love towards a mortal that did not just grip his senses, but also his very being. He wanted to, he had to, have her. But Kalachta remained coy and chaste and so the sun set without her giving herself to Tymetras. This only kindled the fire within him.

Fire had been ignited inside of Kalachta as well, and her senses were dazed. As they met again, she could not resist him any longer, and in the shadow of a mighty oak they united their bodies, and much more. As he entered her, something opened up inside both of them and washed them away on the waves of love glittering between their eyes as they looked deeply into each other. On this day, their bodies and their fates merged into one. Long they made love under the oak, carried by ecstasy and moved by desire. As Tymetras finally burst out inside of Kalachta it caused the world to shiver slightly, and both mortals and gods wondered.

Allarxia did notice how her husband had lost himself to a mortal, but it was already too late and he was beyond her reach as she tried to divert his course. She had no other choice but to turn away from him. The loss of his wife pained Tymetras, but Kalachta could sooth his pain and comforted him, even though she did not know the cause of his sudden sorrow as he still appeared to her as a young mortal.

And so the years went by and Tymetras came to live the life of a mortal, and yet he enjoyed it as he still lost himself in Kalachtas eyes and womb. They loved each other so much that they lived in a world of their own, where Tymetras forgot about his divinity and Kalachta about her mortality and only their common being illuminated the night.

But nightfall came and the world of the mortals brought forth suffering and sorrow, wounding Kalachta severely and wresting her away from Tymetras despite all his powers. For he could only reveal his divinity and lose her, as he would be showing that he was not whom she had fallen in love with. Or he could keep his powers hidden and watch on destitute, as he was no mortal and did not know the first thing about the healing arts of the mortals. Long he agonised on which course of action to take, and fell into deep despair as he found no solution. While he did so, the love inside of Kalachta turned into anger and hatred, as the thought her lover was unwilling to help, even with the knowledge every young man should have acquired.

And so Kalachta, too, turned away from Tymetras and went to search for help elsewhere. The love still left in her bosom she ripped out so as to not suffer from it any longer. Broken, she fled and hid from Tymetras.

As he returned from the forest, where he had once more pondered for hours on how he cold save both his loved one and their love, he found their cottage empty. For a long time, he stood motionless on the threshold, until the events had finally sunken in. The knowledge about what exactly had happened, which his divinity made him know with absolute certainty, tore up everything inside of him and left no part of his being untouched.

It was days before Tymetras finally closed the door behind him and fell on the bed in which he had shared so many nights with his beloved. Everything had become alien to him, even he himself. Sensations that the gods are shielded from flooded him, who could not name nor counter them. And so Tymetras sank into the darkness of his torn up being and became lost in it.

Only after he had taken his own life to no avail did a small part of his self remember the divinity inside of him. The same divinity that had also born the darkness inside of him, a darkness that would not be easily defeated, but ascended to usurp the god himself. Lost in despair and bereavement, Tymetras did not resist, but welcomed what promised him new purpose.

Tymetras passed away.

Tymetras rose again.

As he left the cottage, it burst into flames behind him. Flames that would leave nothing but ashes blown away by the wind. He had opened his heart to love and with that to all the sensations of the mortals. He had been closer to them than other gods. As a mortal he had lived, and loathed himself for it, just as everything about the mortals and their world disgusted him. For a long time he walked the land and brought death, destruction, suffering and sorrow wherever he went. Driven by the hatred of a mortal in the being of a god there was nothing and nobody who could even slow him. Word soon raced ahead of him and the mortals fled here or sent his armies against him there. Armies he left behind him crushed in body and spirit as broken cripples. Peasants and kings perished wherever he met them, and only the lucky met their death.

The more Tymetras remembered his origin again, the more he hated and detested the world of the mortals who had broken him, a god. But finally his fury had cooled and he turned towards the world of the gods again, to unload his power and anger into their eternal war. But he did not join any of the sides, as the gods had left him, and he them.