(no subject)
The Council had finally been roused out of their despair and into action, such as it was. They had met to discuss the situation, and had agreed to meet every two days to discuss further developments, and... that was all. Meeting, discussing whether there was any news, and then adjourning again.
Fellowships among the people had, without permission of the Council, formed search parties to go into the forest and look for what had not been found--the children, the weapon, Regle, Axon Befal. The search parties returned with tales of an abandoned Nekom camp, but no trace of what was sought. And so time passed.
The terrible deadline Axon Befal had given them came and went. The people were fearful; Kindar and Erdling alike gathered to wait for news, but there was none. There was only silence, and in the silence, they began to comfort each other.
And they began to put aside their differences. The Council had far larger matters now than some Kindar's complaint of an Erdling cooking-fire, or an Erdling wanting a larger home for his family. The members of the Council did not have the energy they had once had, to expend on matters like that--and what's more, the people didn't either. They were all in danger together, they all feared for the children's safety together, so they were finally able to look past petty disagreements. They were even making progress, real progress, on the amphitheater where the celebration was to be held.
Of course, no one felt like celebrating, but working toward it--on the banners and commemorative tokens and food supplies and the myriad other things that would be needed for the celebration--kept people busy, kept their minds off the fact that the world might not last until the celebration.
Neric, for his part, wished he had some sort of a trade to keep him busy, or that he could just be a healer again. He was tired of the Council, tired of their outlook of 'If we just wait another day or two, maybe something will happen to save us, or maybe we'll know all the answers.' Sometimes, he thought, a person needs to act, but there was no action being taken at all.
And still the Council met. Ten days had passed since the day Axon Befal had named, and only eight remained before the celebration, when something finally happened in a Council meeting.
A woman came in, sick and weak. She had been the servant of D'ol Falla, the old woman who had been for so long the guardian of the weapon. And she had, indeed, been asked by Regle to steal the weapon and bring it to him in his settlement out in the forest; and she had taken it, with every intention of carrying out her instructions.
But then she had heard of the kidnapping of the children, and she had second thoughts about what she had been told, about the evil intentions of the Council and how they were allegedly planning to make all Kindar eat the flesh of animals. And so the woman had hesitated, had not delivered the weapon to Regle; and Regle became possessed by the belief that Axon Befal had the weapon, and he sank into addiction to the deadly pavo-berry, and was now a dying madman, deserted by his followers.
And so the woman had thought--couldn't the Council use the weapon, or at least the fact of its existence, to help free the children? So she had brought it back to them, but what to do with it?
Raamo, golden Raamo, had spoken. He proposed that the weapon be taken underground and thrown into a lake so deep it was reported to be bottomless; no one could ever possess it again, and its threat would finally be gone from the world.
There were others--Neric himself spoke in favor of this--who thought that maybe the woman's instincts had been right, maybe they shouldn't get rid of their only leverage while Axon Befal still had the children. They wouldn't use the weapon, of course, but just... postpone its destruction until the children were returned.
But Raamo had spoken, and so there was no use arguing. Though he was only a boy of fifteen, everyone--from the elderly priestess D'ol Falla to the wise Chief Mediator to the members of the many peaceful fellowships to the ordinary people of Green-sky, both Kindar and Erdling, deferred to him. He was disappointed in Neric yet again; yet again, Neric had put the idea of keeping his friends safe ahead of perfect peace. They drew even further apart, a rift that would never heal.
Then it was discovered that the woman had terrible burns on her skin, as though from fire, on her back where she had been carrying the weapon. The Chief Mediator theorized that the jostling of being carried, first in theft and then in return, had shaken something loose, damaged it somehow, and that its evil would continue to leak out into the world if it was not disposed of. So a procession would be made the next morning, and the weapon would be taken underground and cast into the bottomless lake, and that was that.
Neric retired to his room in the youth hall, but he did not sleep. His powers had utterly deserted him.
Fellowships among the people had, without permission of the Council, formed search parties to go into the forest and look for what had not been found--the children, the weapon, Regle, Axon Befal. The search parties returned with tales of an abandoned Nekom camp, but no trace of what was sought. And so time passed.
The terrible deadline Axon Befal had given them came and went. The people were fearful; Kindar and Erdling alike gathered to wait for news, but there was none. There was only silence, and in the silence, they began to comfort each other.
And they began to put aside their differences. The Council had far larger matters now than some Kindar's complaint of an Erdling cooking-fire, or an Erdling wanting a larger home for his family. The members of the Council did not have the energy they had once had, to expend on matters like that--and what's more, the people didn't either. They were all in danger together, they all feared for the children's safety together, so they were finally able to look past petty disagreements. They were even making progress, real progress, on the amphitheater where the celebration was to be held.
Of course, no one felt like celebrating, but working toward it--on the banners and commemorative tokens and food supplies and the myriad other things that would be needed for the celebration--kept people busy, kept their minds off the fact that the world might not last until the celebration.
Neric, for his part, wished he had some sort of a trade to keep him busy, or that he could just be a healer again. He was tired of the Council, tired of their outlook of 'If we just wait another day or two, maybe something will happen to save us, or maybe we'll know all the answers.' Sometimes, he thought, a person needs to act, but there was no action being taken at all.
And still the Council met. Ten days had passed since the day Axon Befal had named, and only eight remained before the celebration, when something finally happened in a Council meeting.
A woman came in, sick and weak. She had been the servant of D'ol Falla, the old woman who had been for so long the guardian of the weapon. And she had, indeed, been asked by Regle to steal the weapon and bring it to him in his settlement out in the forest; and she had taken it, with every intention of carrying out her instructions.
But then she had heard of the kidnapping of the children, and she had second thoughts about what she had been told, about the evil intentions of the Council and how they were allegedly planning to make all Kindar eat the flesh of animals. And so the woman had hesitated, had not delivered the weapon to Regle; and Regle became possessed by the belief that Axon Befal had the weapon, and he sank into addiction to the deadly pavo-berry, and was now a dying madman, deserted by his followers.
And so the woman had thought--couldn't the Council use the weapon, or at least the fact of its existence, to help free the children? So she had brought it back to them, but what to do with it?
Raamo, golden Raamo, had spoken. He proposed that the weapon be taken underground and thrown into a lake so deep it was reported to be bottomless; no one could ever possess it again, and its threat would finally be gone from the world.
There were others--Neric himself spoke in favor of this--who thought that maybe the woman's instincts had been right, maybe they shouldn't get rid of their only leverage while Axon Befal still had the children. They wouldn't use the weapon, of course, but just... postpone its destruction until the children were returned.
But Raamo had spoken, and so there was no use arguing. Though he was only a boy of fifteen, everyone--from the elderly priestess D'ol Falla to the wise Chief Mediator to the members of the many peaceful fellowships to the ordinary people of Green-sky, both Kindar and Erdling, deferred to him. He was disappointed in Neric yet again; yet again, Neric had put the idea of keeping his friends safe ahead of perfect peace. They drew even further apart, a rift that would never heal.
Then it was discovered that the woman had terrible burns on her skin, as though from fire, on her back where she had been carrying the weapon. The Chief Mediator theorized that the jostling of being carried, first in theft and then in return, had shaken something loose, damaged it somehow, and that its evil would continue to leak out into the world if it was not disposed of. So a procession would be made the next morning, and the weapon would be taken underground and cast into the bottomless lake, and that was that.
Neric retired to his room in the youth hall, but he did not sleep. His powers had utterly deserted him.