Alonza shook his head. “I understand that you’re angry. I was too. But after I sat with it for a while, I realized…just think if any one of us could destroy everything just by wanting too much?”
Dagan shook his head, but his face softened slightly.
“I’m sorry I hesitated for so long.” Alonza took a deep breath and stood straighter. “Maybe I should’ve said something right away. I’ve been wrestling with it. But you had to know if you’re going in there.”
Hendrik surprised himself by understanding. Dagan watched Alonza for a long moment, then pulled him in for a huge bear hug, patting his back and saying, “I love you. Thank you.”
The look of relief on Alonza’s face was instant and touching as he wrapped his arms around Dagan. “We should tell the others.”
“Yeah. And then we
should go fuck this perverted lifecaster up.”
Interlude: A Sister’s Notes
Notes on the God of
the Stone City’s See and the Withering of the Blue Bird River,
compiled by Kajja of the Stone City, daughter of Alara and
Konstantin, Granite Era 113
Fact #1: The Blue Bird River, formerly the border between Stone City territory and the Heart Wood (known in the City as “the dark forest”), is drying up. It’s become a stinking bog, and lifecasters from the Heart Wood confirm that all life in and around in an increasing radius is decaying. Rather than continuing in its usual cycle after decay, which generally gives birth to new life, the process is halting, leaving the region barren. Animals are migrating away from the Blue Bird, encroaching into new territories in the Heart Wood, upsetting the delicate balance of its micro-ecosystems. This will eventually lead to a crisis, even if the rot from the river halts its progress. (There’s no reason to believe it will.)
Supporting
evidence:
Various Scout Reports from the Year of the Butterfly, courtesy of Head Scout Bartolo
Personal interviews with Gareth of the Oak Grove and Dagan of the Black Walnut Grove, Scouts of the Heart Wood, conducted by me
Reports from Jessica, Head Verder of the Heart Wood and Alonza, First Apprentice to the Head Verder
Information given to Piret
and Hendrik, formerly of the Guardhall, by their superiors in the
City
Fact #2: For some 913 years, the See, the religious and political authority of The Stone City, has claimed to gain protection from “the dark forest” to its east and the wastes to its west from its gods. These gods are born human, in one or more particular and carefully cultivated bloodline(s), and said to “inherit” godhood by bodily ascending to heaven around the age of 20-21. This is a lie. These so-called “Children of the Blood” are taken into the See, their throats ripped out by something or someone within. (Possibly the blood is drained ritually. May be used ceremonially or even drunk. See supporting evidence below from In Praise of the Blood. Witnesses state there should be more blood on the bodies afterwards, considering their wounds.) This could be the priests, but research indicates it may have to do with fact #3. Children of the Blood may be descended from one particular family, but study of the early roles from Shale and Sandstone eras prove that there was an effort to diversify the bloodline at one time.
Supporting
evidence:
Eyewitness accounts of Piret and Hendrik, formerly of the Guardhall, and Sister Eva, priest of the Great See
In Praise of the Blood by High Priest Laine: “Their blood is good and true, as sustaining as the land once was to the great masters(?) and lords who ruled it before the wastes.” “Their godhood is proclaimed from the moment of their birth, each mother and father blessed with a Child of the Blood longing for their honor and protection.” etc.
Various Rolls from the City Archives, including Sandstone and Shale, now kept in the Heart Wood by Marsalis of the Oak Grove
Book of the Founders Vol. 1, Compiled by priests of the See: “Think of it not as sacrifice but as a gift, a gift both to and of our own children, dearest of our hearts.” “Only the Blood can sustain the City, not by spilling in battle as in the ancient days but by ascending bodily, cleanly, purely to godhood and power unimaginable.” (LIES.)
Book of the Founders Vol.
2, Compiled by High Priest Aivar: “The Darkness can only be
held at bay by the light of The blooded, the gift of The Children
of the Blood. Without this light, all will fall to chaos, disorder,
and ruin. All will be as the darkness of the wood or the barrenness
of the wastes. Let the light of the Blood reign eternal in the
City.”
Fact #3: The Masters. Unlike the masters of the City now, who serve as teachers and guides, the Masters of the old histories are leadership figures ultimately responsible for the wastes themselves. While it’s widely accepted that the wastes were once inhabitable, they haven’t been for nearly a millennium. The wastes have existed since before Stone City or Heart Wood records, though both societies have stories about them. These records indicate that the Masters somehow drained the land of its fertility and life, in much the same way the Blue Bird is being drained now. Heart Wood oral traditions, some of which were collected in Misha’s seminal work referenced below, refers to stories of lords and nobles who “drained the land” of its vitality to sustain themselves with unnaturally long life and magical powers. This seems to track with similar references from ancient Stone City books.
Supporting
Evidence:
Book of the Founders Vol. 1, Compiled by Priests of the See: “In the grand tradition of the old Masters who sustained the great cities of the past by sitting in pools of blood, our own Master has elevated the practice to purity and light.”
Circumstantial and
potentially apocryphal evidence:
Various oral traditions of the Heart Wood: “The Noble and the Wayward Earthsinger”, “The Ducklings from the Wastes”, “Marius’s Marble”, etc. all mention earth-and-life-draining beings of great power from the wastes.
Misha’s Histories and
Tall Tales of the Heart Wood, written 300 years ago, collects
many such stories and acknowledges that they must contain a seed of
truth, positing that powerful humans caused the wastes through
greed and selfishness. Sometimes this is figurative, sometimes it’s
literal.
References:
Book of the Founders Vol. 1, compiled by Priests of the See, Shale Era 102-136 (BF1)
Book of the Founders Vol. 2, compiled by High Priest Aivar, Shale Era 162-164 (BF2)
The Wasting, Anonymous, ca. Sandstone Era 10-50 (TW)
Annals of Shale and Sand, ca. Shale Era 100-Sandstone Era 100 (ASS)
In Praise of the Blood, High Priest Laine, Sandstone Era 154 (IPB)
Sandstone Rolls, various, Sandstone Era 1-200 (SR)
Slate Rolls, various, Slate Era 1-200 (SR2)
Histories and Tall Tales of the Heart Wood by Head Scout Misha, composed in the Year of the Snowflakes (HHW)
Part VI: Dagan
Chapter 1: Stone City Walls, Grain Moon Waning
The expedition had already been somber as they prepared to follow Maya into the darkness of the Stone City’s mines. Alonza’s revelation, however, brought the proverbial dark thundercloud that accompanied them through the treacherous, stony paths and past the City’s walls. No one spoke during that walk, partly due to a need for stealth but also because of the weight of what they’d just learned.
Dagan, for one, was reeling. It would never have occurred to him, when he was practicing his lifecasting or checking in with the forest, to try to take something from it. He wasn’t sure if he was stupid (despite Alonza’s protestations) or just content and incurious. Of course, he never would, because unless he could put something back it’d upend the ecosystem’s balance entirely, which was anathema to him on every level. But someone had thought of it. Someone had done it, and was still doing it, if the Blue Bird was anything to go by.
