Ashes And Embers: Part II
Tobias was propped up and the cowl was ripped from his head. He winced at the sight of a gigantic pyre, flames reaching upwards and caressing the night sky. He tried to stand, but the pain tethered him to the ground. With the taste of his own blood swirling around his mouth, Tobias watched as Josiah approached the pyre. The high druid priest opened his arms wide as he stood impossibly close to the roaring fire.
"Kolthag! Great provider! Diligent protector! We owe all to you! Our harvest has ended and we have given to you all that you have required of us, save one final sacrifice." Josiah shouted with a strong rhythmic tone. As he spoke, the flames dances and flickered as if in response to the words.
One druid approached Josiah with the blanket bundle. He knelt before Josiah, and Josiah cast an evil smile in Tobias’s direction as he took the bundle and turned back to the flame. Tobias, despite the throbbing pain, smiled weakly.
"Kolthag, we offer to you from the harvest a daughter for the fire! We bequeath this to you!" Josiah finished his sacrament and pulled the body from the blankets. Josiah looked at the wriggling thing in his hands with complete shock, which was slowly burning away to unrelenting contempt.
He held the bony leg of a baby goat. It thrashed in his hand and shrieked as the flames singed its fur. Josiah had been fooled. But how? A cold wave of realization washed over Josiah, despite the inferno beside him.
Rumors had been circulating for months that Constance may have been a witch in hiding, but Josiah had disregarded those claims. He thought he was perceptive enough to see a witch within his domain, and yet here he stood. Josiah threw the baby goat into the darkness, and stormed in the direction of Tobias.
"You insolent wretch! Do you know what calamity you have brought upon us?! Without a proper sacrifice, Kolthag will retaliate!" Josiah backhanded Tobias across the face and it created a red mist in the flickering light of the fire.
"Kolthag is not my master. Let him take us all then, but you, nor that vile fire beast, will have my child tonight." Tobias said without fear. Josiah stood back for a moment and then looked upon the flame, which had begun to rage uncontrollably. Josiah closed his eyes and exhaled deeply as he pulled a dagger from his belt. The motion was swift and precise, as Tobias's neck opened up and his life flooded out into the harvest night.
Josiah stood over the corpse of Tobias and then turned his attention to the anger that began to vocalize within the flame.
At the cabin, just a miles or so away, Enoch and James watched the orange glow rise from above the trees in the valley, and knew something had gone awry. Enoch was the elder of the two, and he immediately took his bow and notched an arrow and went to enter the cabin. As he did he yelled back at James, still entranced by the distant blaze.
"Go around back. This smells of something foul." Enoch snarled as he crossed the threshold. The house was dark save from a fire flickering about in the fireplace. Close quarters would do him no good with a bow and arrow, so he sheathed them on his back and pulled out his knife. Room by room he went, until he ended up in the bedroom, also empty. Enoch paused and closed his eyes, a quick flash of the repercussions that awaited for such a lapse in duty.
"Stop!" James shouted from outside. Enoch reacted quickly and nearly broke the back door off as he burst out. The sounds of fleeing hooves echoed in the darkness. The night sky shone a blackish blue, with a shadow of the ridge leading to Blackthorn woods coating the edge of the horizon. James was shooting arrows into the dark, and Enoch spent a brief pause listening to the sound of the horse's gallop, and then began firing as well.
They fired off several arrows until the hoof beats faded into the black landscape. Enoch put down his bow, and stood in silence. James stepped forward, and then began to pace.
"Perhaps...perhaps we should leave. Master Josiah will not be pleased, and we will be punished. Severely. I...I do not think I can survive such a thing brother. We can still get away if we..." James's panicked speech was cut short as Enoch's blade danced across James's throat. With a look of betrayal etched on his face, James reached up into the warm death that rushed from his wound. James fell to his knees, and blood sprayed from his mouth as he attempted to speak. His body crashed into the dirt, and it became stained with his blood.
Enoch looked over James's corpse and cleaned his blade. He shook his head in disappointment and walked inside the cabin. Enoch moved slowly, taking his time. James had been right, the punishment would be quite severe. And with the possible chaos of the orange glow they had seen earlier, Enoch knew his time had come. He pulled up a chair from within the cabin and placed it in front of the fireplace. There was just a small glow of orange heat coming from the wood that had bean doused earlier. The flame always prevailed. Words Enoch had lived by.
Grabbing a nearby lantern, Enoch took the oil from it and tossed it into the fireplace, and the flames once again jumped and crackled. Enoch got close enough to feel the warmth and smiled weakly as he then ran his knife across his wrists. He winced and then dropped the blade to the floor. Leaning back in the chair, he welcomed the warmth of the fire and the death that followed.
At the altar Josiah watched the flames burst from the pyre and claw at the ground around him. Kolthag was awake, and angry. Josiah stood and moved away from the center of the fire elemental's rage. Underneath his red hood, Josiah felt an increasing heat, as if the hood was burning from the inside out. Josiah then realized it was, as he watched one of his acolytes fall to the Earth, the man's head billowing smoke and fire as he died in absolute agony.
Punishment was at hand, and Kolthag would spare no one. Josiah knew this all too well. He had worked too hard to become what he was, and to see it all become part of a heretic's inferno was devastating. Josiah ran to his home, just near the temple. Havoc washed through the town, as acolytes began to combust left and right.
Josiah could feel his skin begin to singe. He entered his home and ran through the house. His thoughts were hard to keep together through the pain, but he found what he had sought and his mind became clear. Tears began to form in his eyes, but they evaporated instantly.
Esther Greene was stumbling around the pyre screaming for Josiah. The fire of Kolthag seemed to encircle the entire town now, and the smoldering bodies of her fellow townsfolk littered the paths.
"Josiah! Help us! Kolthag! Forgive us! We..." Esther could not finish. His pleading prayer was silenced by the sight of Josiah walking from their home, carrying a blanket bundle that had begun to drip crimson from its underside.
Josiah walked to the burning pyre, and tossed the bundle into the flames and fell to his knees. The fire whipped around the bundle, consuming it almost instantly. As the bundle turned to ash, the fire whipped in a whirlwind, a cyclone of heat finding its way back to the pyre within seconds, until the pyre burned as normal. The air in the town was filled with the odor of burning flesh, ash and embers rained down onto the ground. Esther walked up to Josiah, and knelt beside him. His body was trembling. He was crying but only streaks of red fell upon his burned face. Esther embraced him and wept.
"I have lost a child today. I swear, upon Kolthag and inferno eternal, I will find the child that escaped here today. And she will be sacrificed to Kolthag for our son. Our Ishmael." Josiah said with a quivering voice.
On the other side of the Blackthorn Woods sat the town of Iron River, a small fur trading community that was a hub for many travelers who headed north. Two guards stood at the gate that faced the woods, and held their torches at ready as the sound of a trotting horse was heard. The men waited, hands on their swords, ready for a confrontation.
A single horse slowly moved out of the darkness and into the light of the fire. On its back was a woman, holding a child in her arms.
"My God!" One of the men exclaimed, and rushed to the side of the woman. He reeled in the horse and reached up to her. His hand wrapped around the child and gently pulled it from her arms to safety.
"Madam? Are you wounded? Are you pursued?" He asked of her. She did not reply. Her body swayed on top of the horse and then fell off to the side with a horrendous impact, Her body lay still in the flickering light, as five arrows protruded from her back. Constance had died long before arriving at Iron River.
The man holding the baby heard it whimper and cry, and rocked it gently in his arms as he glanced back at the other guard, stunned at what had unfolded. He held the baby close to keep her warm and headed inside to find shelter for the child. As he looked down on her, within the blankets, a name had been written with ash on her blanket.
Lydia.
He took her to a local family house and had the kind folks there tend to Lydia as the moon fell out of view within the sky.
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