Colin Tabor - The Fall of Ossard

He shifted in his chair. “It took until Market Square for me to be certain of you.“

“Why, the power I drew?”

“Yes, though I’d held suspicions since the kidnapping of your family. Then, at the end of that episode, you fell to your knees on the balcony and bleated out that heretical song. That’s when I first sensed your power.”

I nodded.

“Still, you’re not quite awakened, but it’d not be long now,” he grimaced, “and that would be the end of the world we know.”

“Help me, let’s work together. We can save Ossard!”

“Perhaps, but only for it to fall again because of you.”

“I’m not working to do anything but save my family.”

“Juvela, you’ve already started this thing, this assault on the divine order. It can’t be stopped short of killing you.”

“But what of Ossard?”

“It’s just one city.”

I was appalled.

He went on, “I’m sorry, but I have no choice: I must serve, and you must be stopped.”

And a breeze came to stir the curtains behind him, as the lamp-lit room began to feel chill and lonely.

I wondered; what kind of gods would let a whole city fall just to maintain their power?

Gods addicted to death.

He asked, “Do you lead many among the Flets?”

“Their numbers grow. When I left them this morning, there were about four hundred. They’re not all Flets, there are also Heletians.”

“Heletians?”

“Yes, they’re good people looking for hope.”

“Heretics!” And then he shrugged. “Oh, what does it matter! May they find what happiness they can before the end.”

I sat in silence, still confused by my apparent role in things.

He saw it on my face. “You don’t know your truth, do you?”

With reluctance I shook my head. “Not all of it.”

“Have it then, for in the end it’s all we have. You know you’re powerful, and that your power is divine?”

“Yes.”

“You know you’re an awakening entity; an avatar?”

“Yes.”

He studied my face, and I could feel him watching both my soul and filtering through the surface thoughts of my mind. I could shield myself from him, but not completely, a haze of feelings still escaped me.

“But you’re not to operate alone, and you didn’t know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re an awakening god, an avatar, one of a whole raft of new gods that Schoperde birthed across the world to replace the old order.”

“Why?”

“Because she thought the previous generation had grown greedy like spoilt children.”

His words reminded me of what I’d read in my grandmother’s tome. “And I’m here to end them, the old gods?”

“Yes, to end their divine rule. You along with the others.”

“Others?”

“The other avatars. Juvela, this was not something you were going to have to fight alone with a sword, nor a thing of wars in the heavens. It was merely a case of Schoperde birthing a new generation; of trying one last time.”

“One last time?”

“Yes, she hadn’t the strength to repeat her actions.”

“And it will all fail if you kill me?”

“Like it did before.”

My brow furrowed.

He said, “Two thousand years ago she tried the same thing and nearly succeeded. The established order did finally suppress it, but at great cost; the Lae Velsanans’ Second Dominion collapsed and many died in the calamities that followed, yet our victory wasn’t complete. One of the new gods survived.”

“And still does?”

He smiled. “She can’t help you.”

“She?“

“Dorloth of the gargoyles. She’s too strong for any of us to do anything about, but she’s also isolated in her troith amidst the ruins of fallen Kalraith.”

Could she help me?

Anton went on, “As long as my counterparts in the other established faiths do their parts in removing emerging avatars from amongst their own kind, the divine order will be maintained.” A grim smile settled on his face. “It’s one of the few things we agree upon.”

“So you won’t work with me because it’d threaten the dark regime you’re trying to keep, even though that puts you in league with cultists?”

“Yes, I suppose so. Funny, isn’t it?”

“Even though Ossard will fall and become the province of the Horned God?”

“Yes.”

“That’s insane!”

“The Horned God is part of the old regime – not the new.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’ve enslaved the world!”

“Yes, and work to keep it that way.”

“It’s a crime!”

“Maybe, but not one punished by my god.” He shuffled, growing restless with the conversation.

I was running out of time.

“Is it true that we could have weakened them by getting out of Ossard?”

“Yes, but a hollow victory, the city would still have fallen.”

“The Lae Velsanans are carrying word to King Giovanni; Greater Baimiopia will know, and so will the Heletian League, Church, and Inquisition. They wanted us to leave if we couldn’t control the city, so as to weaken it for those who come to retake it.”

Anton nodded. “It makes some sense, but alas you’ll not have the life to see it, and I’ve sworn to my god that I’ll not flee.” He shook his head. “I can feel him turning from me already, he knows of my failure. Hopefully, when I hand him your soul in apology, he may yet offer me some kind of salvation.”

“You should leave the city and take your Loyalists with you. You could work to win it back when help arrives. We could work together.”

He shook his head. “They’ll sanctify the city, and they’ll do it soon. The kidnappings have climaxed. I’ve had word that the ritual is planned for as soon as tomorrow night.”

My family!

“Tomorrow night? Please, you must leave!”

“No, I’ve vows to guide me. I’ve planned to die tomorrow, but not until I’ve taken as many of them with me as I can. It’ll be a bloodbath, and if Krienta sends me his blessings to do it, there may very well be nothing left…”

And then another voice cut in, cold and female, purring from the shadows behind his chair, “This life I take for Mortigi!” Metal flashed from a silver blade suddenly at Anton’s neck.

He jumped out of his chair and spun about, but was trapped between it and his desk. His hands flew to his throat.

Too late!

Lady Death stepped out from the shadowed curtains and came into the light. She held her knife out with the blade’s edge bloodied.

Anton stood with his back to me, his hands still at his throat. Blood dribbled down one of them to run into the sleeve of his robe.

Lady Death chuckled, the sound deep and rich. “You’ve got your facts wrong, dear Inquisitor, but it won’t matter, not for you, you won’t be around to see it.”

Angered by such a brazen attack, but perhaps more infuriated that Krienta hadn’t intervened, he growled, “Get out of my rooms, bitch!”

She lunged forward to slap him on the cheek with the flat of her blade.

He tried to dodge her teasing strike, but couldn’t.

She mocked, “Soon enough they won’t be your rooms, the leadership of the Reformers are already coming for them!”

Anton put his bloodied hands behind him on the desk and launched himself backwards, kicking off of his chair. He pushed its heavy oak frame back into her, giving him the moment he needed to get away.

She pushed the chair aside as he jumped to the floor beside me.

I could see an ugly wound across his throat, the cut well placed, but not deep enough to kill.

Perhaps Krienta had intervened…

He yelled, “Men, to arms!”

The door burst open behind us, but neither of us turned. From it we could hear the Inquisitor’s call repeated.