Sethlzaar's brothers rarely discussed the training in his presence. A sense of empathy, he noted. In time even the priests favored him with looks of pity. Priestess Emeril not so subtly reduced the force with which she pushed him during their personal practice of the bow. The greatest blow came when Father Ordan proved sparing with the cane, flogging him for only the dumbest of mistakes.
"So tell us, brother. What's her name?" Omage spoke between bites as they ate in the dining hall one evening.
The night was cold and Sethlzaar ran through it on an open clearing, stopping at one of the buildings around. There, he bided his time.Why does it have to be tonight? he thought. Especially now that he's angry. His mind flashed to Cynth, and he shook his head. This was no time to be distracted by the old man, he needed to focus.
"He's awake."Yes., I am.Sethlzaar was pulled back to consciousness by something. Perhaps the voice. Maybe it was something else. But he was awake now. He would begrudge whoever it was later, if the grudge was still there to hold on to.
The test was different from the ones they knew, different from the ones they had. The older boys were not present for it, having left the seminary on a task of sorts. Their spiritual work, the priests called it. A stipulated period of time when they would be at different churches, offering their services to the sisters of the church, whatever it may be, as long as it fell within the confines of the credence.Father Ordan trooped them out of the seminary in the morning before the commencement of the morning mass. They gained the employ of a Tarc, as had been done f
Valerik sat in front of the flame warming his hands, though he needed none of the warmth. He'd never needed help staying warm in the cold, not in a very long time.Helva sat on the other side of the flame, a woman of considerable age. Her head bore a full set of hair, and her skin sagged. She held her hands outstretched before the flame while the stick she seemed unable to walk without laid on the floor beside her. She, unlike him, needed the fire.
Sethlzaar sat uncomfortably in the seat. The cushion was plush, a very delicate touch to his butt, unlike what the seminary was prone to offering. Its size was massive enough to accommodate a second person. It was decorated with embroidery of such beauty only the best in the art could have done it, and the wood was carved beautifully with intricate designs of its own. It was a throne in itself.However, what he sat on was not the source of his discomfort. It waswherehe sat: The sanctuary of the Arslagh head church of Truth, the
Sethlzaar walked the compound grounds of the parish house. The ground was muddied, the signs of the rainfall from the last night could be noticed from the puddles of water around the compound. The noon air was cold. And though the sun was out, its heat was absent.It was Sethlzaar's last week in the parish, and he had finally succumbed to Sister Elorha's pleas to indulge her in a stroll around the compound.
Darkness threatened to engulf Sethlzaar as his fears welled up from within him. He knew it very well. It was a companion he took solace in, and a companion he had grown to fear. Soon the eyes watched, and the hilts beckoned, and he dreamed in the day. However, his watchers made no entrance, only the blades. Taunting. Teasing. Beckoning. He knew where he was. Out with Father Kazaril, he told himself, capturing a touched.This dream was different from the ones he knew. Not only did his watchers prove absent, the h
The next morning, they came for Jazabil, blades drawn as they stood guard. Today Commander Olann was not among them. The soldiers of the King's blade pulled her by the chain that held her to the wall, dragging her out of the church, Father Kezaril following behind them, scorn marring his face while she spat curses at him in a language Sethlzaar didn't understand. He didn't need to understand her words to know, though.He watched it all from the window of his room. It was surreal knowing she was to be burned at high noon. The woman he had spoken with last night would cease to exist before the
Darkness has never truly been a thing of worry here. Basically, it’s most often dark here. Most of us don’t like it, but time is enough to make anyone adapt to it. Still, it’s not like we have much of an option. Wether it’s dark or bright or generally colorless, it wouldn’t matter, this is the life we live. We would claim we didn’t choose it, that it chose us. But I’ll be honest, we chose it as much as it chose us. Every action we ever took has led us here; at least all the actions I ever took led me here.
Maekil snapped his finger in recognition. “Yes,” he almost exclaimed. “The Shadow Child of the Conisoir. Even the Lords employ it to scare their children from bad deeds.” He placed a finger to his bottom lip in puzzlement. “Although, yours is different. Why is that?”“Because it is the true tale.”“And you believe this
Red wine twirled within a transparent cup made of glass and fashioned for the simple and unnecessary sake of aesthetics. By Truth, Maekil never could understand the desire to be pleasing to the eye. Perhaps it was because all his life he had been nothing but pleasing to the eye, perhaps it was not. He dropped the cup without taking a sip.He would only taste of the wine when the night was over and the morning greeted him with the light of the sun. Normally this wasn’t the case: not in his manor.
Valerik came awake screaming and gasping. His cassock was soaked in sweat and a terror grasped at his heart as he cried into arms that held him with so much untainted love. But somethings were greater than others and he knew that no love or hate or indifference could triumph over the terror that held him.“What’s wrong, father?” a voice asked.He knew who
Valerik opened his eyes from his slumber, instinct propelled to reach across him to ensure he bow still lay where he’d left it last night when he’d bedded down for the night. The bow was the livelihood of his people. A man with no knowledge of where his bow lay at all times was a failure of a man. Assured it was where he’d left it, he rose from the ground to a sitting position and watched the man who sat on the log on the other side of a fire that was nothing but ash. No doubt it had fizzled out sometime during the night, considering no one had paid it any attention.
Sethlzaar blinked the darkness away, but he might as well have waved away the air. Unable to see, he sat up with ease. The floor was covered in grass and served as a soft bed to his rump, so much so that he hesitated to rise to his feet. But he did.Around him was overshadowed in a familiar darkness, and when he took a step forward he frowned at the sight before him.A rub
They couldn’t afford to let the fight drag on. But if there were no wisps, how could he change its course? If Berlak evaded him at every turn, how could they turn the tide? The answer came to him as quickly as the question. There’s more you can do in the dark.Stepping forward, he moved his hand in as he spun from the cover of Cenam’s back to oppose Berlak. The god turned away from his attack easily, striking a closed fist against the flat of Cenam’s veil.
Sethlzaar saw the moment the fight was decided. The climax to the torrential build up. Cenam swung the veil in his left hand. A downward stroke designed to take his enemy’s head. Berlak reacted as fast as the stroke itself, his longsword striking the veil from Cenam’s grip, taking away the priest’s advantage. But Sethlzaar had seen such decisions before. Cenam had intended it. The strike, although intended to take the man’s head, had never truly been expected to. Not a feint. A sacrifice.Cenam’s second ve
The war raged on within the city walls, though the carnage was not as depressing within as it was without. Sethlzaar carried himself in a full sprint, his previously perceived fatigue ebbing away at the touch of darkness as he followed where Cenam led. Bratvi kept pace beside him and paid no obvious attention to his broken wrist. One thing was certain; even if the Most Reverend could fight, it would be impossible to use both veils.There was no doubt that those who had given the once mythical city of Arlyn its reigning title had never stepped foot within its walls. Still, there wa