Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tormenet" data-source="post: 1652689" data-attributes="member: 15690">A Days Rest?Just for you, Fimmtiu.* * * * *As they passed through the Hazar Gate into Shar Jehna a warrior told Ajax and Corum the announcement from the town’s Grey Council.  The dead were to be honored at sunrise.  The rest of the day would be a celebration of the victory.Ajax staggered his way back to the small hovel he shared with Volgar and a few others.  Volgar was already there, snoring.  Ajax fell on the goat-hair blanket that served as his bed and dreamt disturbing dreams.At sunrise Cato participated in obligatory prayers and then helped take the town’s dead to the Pillar of Silence.  The stone needle reached into the sky.  It was hollow inside save for a staircase and multiple window-like openings.  Sanctist Naraka made his way up the stairs, hanging a rope bound corpse out each window where its flesh would be stripped by birds.  Later, Cato would help break the stripped bones into powder.  It was a ritual whose meaning was lost in time.Watching from outside, Ajax reflected that the barbaric mountain dwellers ritual would be a good way to ensure that dead men did not try to grab him.Following the solemn ceremony celebrations erupted.  Stern faced warriors broke out kites and gambled on competitions where two adversaries sought to cut each other’s kite stings.  Ajax watched this for a while then began betting on the games.  He ended the session in possession of two goats, a chicken, and a small pile of spears.  He took these Duranni treasures to an Ionian descended merchant named Duros and exchanged them for Bastiyaani silver drachmas.Near the town’s main gate, a young poet named Medhi Hazar recited a tale about how Draco employed the unusual method of flying a kite to a city wall to measure the distance needed for a tunnel.  Once the tunnel was complete, elite Ionian troopers entered the city and seized its gates.Goat meat was cooked over goat dung fires and served with flat bread.  It was a mildly irresponsible use of precious food just prior to winter, but joy in surviving the night’s fighting overrode practicality.Nefrat warriors scowled at first, but eventually they joined in the celebration.  Horses were brought and a goat was killed.  The goat’s body was placed in the center of a large field and two teams gleefully punched each other as they sought to retrieve the corpse to their end of the field.  During this goat-game Volgar exchanged less than friendly blows with Zalmai Nefrat, son of the Nefrat headman.Sitting in his home, Corum tried to focus on his mathematics.  He failed. His half-brother Torum went missing during the fight with the Tadu. His mother moved around their one-room mud brick home in a stupor.  She appeared intoxicated. Small strips of oiled-cloth found in her sleeping blanket containing some form of ground root with a bitter odor seemed to confirm this impression. In her torment, Corum repeatedly heard her muttering a single word: “shayteen.” He knew neither the language nor the reference.In the Sanctum, Naraka sat with Cato.  “I’ve had a request from a herder, Afsheen Hazar,” the Sanctist said. “His herd is being raided and he wishes the Sanctum’s intervention.  I want you to visit him and provide assistance.”Cato moved to face his teacher.  He was interrupted before his protests left his lips.“None of that, boy,” Naraka said. “This man is asking for our aid and it will be given.  That is our task. Leave the vendetta to the Gray Council.  I’ve already talked to Ishfahan Hazar and he has released the boy Corum Hazar to me.  I want you to take Volgar Dost and that Bastiyaani robber, Ajax, you’ve been advising.”Cato made the arrangements, then went to spend the evening with his sister Alexandra.  His family’s large compound sat just south of the main town.  Cato’s older brother, Deinon, was glowing with excitement.  He would say nothing of his news, but since he was a close friend to Epiphilates it was easy to guess that the Ionians had decided who would replace the murdered Ixion.In the emerging light of dawn, the four companions gathered at the town’s Sanctum.  They exited the town and turned west, making the short trip to the goat trail they had defended.  Pushing their way up the trail, past the gorge where they fought, and into the heights of the Sind Killer Mountains, their legs quickly began to burn with exertion.A hard journey lay ahead.</blockquote>

Verification