Chapter Fourteen
Away with Chains
The only warmth the people of Kal-Dovean were able to light their hearths with came from the great fire in the city square. There, a pile of writings, teachings, and words of the Goddesses were set ablaze and kept going with constant feeding of kindling, logs, and more holy words. The people no longer prayed to the Goddesses for warmth, as they could now find their solace by burning their prayers.
Dark Stalkers, clad in their black leather armor with swords of sharp steel hanging at their waists would patrol the town. Looking for any flames and pressuring the people to make sure that any flame that flicked in this city came from the burning of the goddess's word. They made the Prince of Night’s will known and told the people that their deliverer was who would see them through this terrible cold into a new world where a man would only need to rely on himself. As slow as news travels throughout the land, word of the massacre at Mythis had been carried by enough timid traders to spread throughout the populace. The Sun blood was dead. This winter they found themselves in had not come for just a season, it had come for their lives.
Public opinion of the Dark Stalkers was mixed, to say the least. Some couldn’t believe that the order of old wives' tales had actually returned. Some cared not if it was a stalker or a hunter that protected the small slice of earth they occupied. And some were ready, in this awful winter, in this time without heroes, they were ready to turn to those who stalk the dark.
All stayed in line though, be these true Dark Stalkers or just Prince Gailech’s personal army having a flair for the dramatic trying to use a symbol of history to intimidate and invoke fear, the people knew what could happen if they stepped out of line. When the alleged Dark Stalkers spread the word through every pub and square in Kal-Dovean that the Prince of Night was to call his people for a gathering, all citizens knew they must attend. So on a cold night, bundled in wolf and elk skin jackets they gathered around the great fire that was kindled by the words of their former deities. The people gathered, those that held torches made sure the source of the fire that lit them came from the Prince’s great bonfire. Not a light that was lit in Kal-Dovean that wasn’t from the source of blasphemy he had erected at the center of Winter’s capital.
Thirty Dark Stalkers stood around the great bonfire, steel swords drawn and held up and at attention. It was as if they were protecting this sacrilegious sacrament. It was made known to the entire population of the city that attendance at this event was not a casual request. Usually, when a city gathers in such great numbers it's for the cause of a festival. This was far from a festival. Festivals are had when people have reason to celebrate. There was not a man, woman, or child alive in Kal-Dovean that saw a reason to celebrate. Winter was here, the people had seen many winters, but this one was different. This was a winter unlike any other. The older men and women were used to cold nights in winter, but the nights had grown so cold, some people thought that it may be true that this winter would never end.
Prince Gailech marched before the great fire, overseeing his people, the descendants of his family. If the old tomes were to be thought true, each and every man and woman in this audience shared at least a drop of blood with him. Sure times were good in the spring, warmth was felt in all the land. Kal-Dovean though tasted winter first and felt the kiss of spring last.
Edmund raised his hands and commanded the attention of his people, “Kal-Dovean, Winter has come,” he said to silence. “The time has come for the Goddesses to abandon us, the time has come for my family to take rule over this land,” Edmund looked down at his hand, thought of the blood he had spilled, “Many of you have awaited speeches of strength and solidarity by my father the King of Night. It is my deepest regret, that I must tell you that this horrible winter has taken him. The King of Night is dead, dead by way of this winter,” Edmund took a deep breath as the commoners began to murmur among themselves.
“This is the winter my family has known about for years, I must tell you, that this is unlike any winter we’ve ever seen, a winter unlike the generations past, I’m to believe, that this is a winter without end,” he said, holding his shoulders high and his back straight.
“Do not fear,” he said, “I know that the old wives' tales of a winter without end frighten you, and I’ve heard murmurs of people afraid of the Dark Stalker order being seen for the first time in generations, again I say, Do not fear,” he said. “I have commanded you to burn the words of the Goddesses, some of you think it heresy, some of your still in your ignorance wish to turn to your hope for the spring. Spring is not coming,” he said as if it was already a plain and simple fact. “Your Goddesses have abandoned you, as they have abandoned you every time this horrible season comes. They play with us, they flirt with us by giving us a few scant months of warmth every year, and they only give us warmth so we will praise them. The Goddesses are fickle, they don’t care for us, they care only for the worship we give them, they care only for themselves, I say to blackness with the Goddesses, abandon all hope they will ever give you anything,” Edmund declared, “Who would you rather live for, yourselves, or some deity that thinks your worship so useless they punish you by leaving you bereft for a third of the year. No more are we under their yolk, no more do we worship them, no more do we have to rely on them. It is reliance on something that gives it power. If we were to forsake the Goddesses, they would lose all power in this world. Think of every hard winter you’ve had to scramble and scrape to survive, think of all the punishment that they have put on us for crimes committed by ancestors dozens of generations old. The Goddesses are petty, perverse, petulant, I bring you this great fire behind me so I can bring you hope. A world without worship, no deity above or below will control this world any longer,” he said.
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“Citizens of Kal-Dovean, being that winter is upon us, you are in the capital of the land. You can be the beacon that people look to in this time of darkness, show them, show all of man that a world without worship is possible. Let me dispel all rumor you’ve heard of the Dark Stalker order returning, I will tell you now that it is true,” Edmund waved his hands over the soldiers standing at attention around the fire, “I have known the Goddesses would abandon us eventually, so I have built a great order to stalk the darkness they would leave us in. The time for heroes is over, we live in the darkness now, we must turn to those who stalk the dark,” every Dark Stalker brought their steel swords up and held them high, creating a barrier around the Prince of Night.
“You can either pray for a spring that will never come, or you can learn to live in a world where man, where you, finally have control over your own destiny,” Edmund reached to his belt and drew his own sword, “Live your own lives, we live in winter now, we live in a season without blessing, the Goddesses think it our punishment, our only retaliation is to show that it is our freedom, show them we don’t need to worship anymore,” he said.
“What of monsters!” a woman, holding her two children close to her said, the boy and girl were huddling to their mother for warmth.
“The monsters will come, the monsters are another creation of the Goddesses, every Dark Stalker under my command is trained to stop them. We will kill any monster that comes within a pace of Kal-Dovean, we will slaughter them, and the people will have great feasts of their flesh. By eating the strong we will become strong,” Edmund said, pacing around the fire, “Be done with your fear, be done with fearing this world the Goddesses have left for us. This night is a new beginning for the world, what better way to show the Goddesses we don’t fear their creation than to feast on it,” Edmund looked down at his mean, “Dark Stalkers!” he commanded them.
Every Dark Stalker raised their steel sword high in the air as they chanted in unison the call of their order.
“Go into the woods, go into the thicket, go into the night, and bring bounty for our people. In this terrible winter, the people of Kal-Dovean, the descendants of the first brave man who stood tall against the might of holiness will be the best fed and most provided for people of all the land. We have but a tiny fraction of the world here in this endless frozen sea, if this land is all the Goddesses gave us, so be it. But it is ours now, not theirs, this land belongs to us, and from its bounty we will reap,” Edmund sheathed his sword, and raised his arms up, trying to bring the crowd to the true way of thinking, “Again I ask you, if the Goddesses love us, why do they punish us with the cold. Who among you do you know to be so petty for so many generations, if a deity truly loved you, as these burning texts behind me say, why would they allow you to suffer less if they held a grievance with you. I say be done with the grievance, be done with their game and their rule. If our punishment is a winter never ending I say let the cold come, and let man prove that we didn’t even need you to begin with. Those who have read the words of the Goddesses know that they didn’t create us, man was formed out of void, man was his own creation. Man saw the land and saw to create himself, we didn’t need the holy hand of a goddess to find life, we found it on our own, and find it on our own we must again. Find a life without worship, this winter will never end, man will toil and work for his pleasure, and man will struggle and kill for his peace, this is the way we were meant to live, I forsee a paradise built by our own hands in this horrible winter, I foresee a world of our own, a world where we will never have to give thanks, or praise, or any sacrifice, this world belongs to us,” Edmund raised his hands, “And to us, to man, go the spoils, follow me and Kal-Dovean will be the symbol of this great new world. Light your torches and hearths with this great fire behind me that will burn everlasting, let this fire be a beacon to the Goddesses and show them that they no longer have dominion of the land that man claims for himself,” he shouted, rousing the crowd. “Kal-Dovean, celebrate tonight, for tonight you are no longer in chains!”
