{"sf1_id":1718267,"sf2_id":"3eg9KWnY","title":"Ragnarok - XIV","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":1896,"posted_at":"2021-05-14T18:26:00.000Z","tags":["Epic","Iambic pentameter","Poetry","blank verse"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1718267-ragnarok-xiv","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/3eg9KWnY","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/a7/b7/a7b78ce8-7827-47c5-b72e-c755f15e56ee","description":"#15 of Ragnarok\n\nShane, Varr, and Klau meet with the leadership of the Witchfolk.\nOne of the things I wanted to do with the Witchfolk was put in a lot of Elf and Fey signifiers, but without making them read like you'd expect elves and fey in most fantasy.","content":"Varr broke the silence first. \"You saw him, then.\n\nOur lord is yet alive. I had not dared\n\nTo think the question, lest I should answer.\n\nBut the Old Man lives yet. So lives our strength.\"\n\nShane muttered quietly \"Not he alone.\"\n\nAnd when they looked at him, the boxer said\n\n\"I have seen, since I woke midst yonder trees,\n\nAn Old Man as you both described, and more.\n\nI have seen something that he will not name.\n\nHe called it Sulfur Carrier. Have you\n\nHeard tidings of it too, Brother Blacksword?\"\n\nKlau rose to the challenge, \"The Old Woman\n\nWho prophesies is yet among the throng.\n\nShe told me you were coming. She told me\n\nYou would be vital, and must captains be.\n\nOf Sulfur Carrier she would say nothing but\n\nThat it was coming too, so, Champion,\n\nIf you are Battle-Seer, as it seems,\n\nAnd have dreamed of it, pray tell all you dreamed.\"\n\nShane blinked, befuddled, and said \"I saw no\n\nBattle. I saw a form, manlike, maybe\n\nBut of shadow and flame, and wreathed in smoke.\n\nI tasted its sour diesel fuming stench.\n\nAnd though it was but shadow in my mind\n\nIt very nearly killed me. How much more\n\nDeadly will it be in the flesh? Is this\n\nThe blow you plan to strike? Is this the foe\n\nYou say your sword will flatten? I know not\n\nWhat manner of demonic thing it was,\n\nBut even I could see it could take more\n\nThan one sword, even one so great as yours.\"\n\nKlau stood, and drew himself to his full height,\n\nThough this brought him up only to Shane's chest,\n\nStill seemed he to tower. \"You think as those\n\nWho live and live and will not die, who cling\n\nTo mortal life as if there were not life\n\nIn death and deeper death than this. My sword\n\nWill slay the Sulfur Carrier. I know\n\nNot how. I need not know. Why should I grasp\n\nAt hows and whys and what will matter not?\n\nMy edge will not grow sharper for them, nor\n\nWill this Dark Manlike shadow lie more slain\n\nWhen I its breast have pierced, its heart cut out,\n\nBecause I know a how.\" \"Now hold!\" Varr cried,\n\nSmiting the table with his clanking fist,\n\n\"This is no summer afternoon, for games\n\nOf manhood bragging! This is no beer hall\n\nFor drunken oafs to strip, and flex, and crow\n\nAt their own wine-inflated strengths!\n\nThis is war council! I grant, Champion\n\nAnd blood-brother, this scheme does sound insane,\n\nBut what else have we? I grant, Berserker,\n\nThat what the Old Man promises will come\n\nWill come, but we must strive with cunning to\n\nAccomplish the foretelling into fact.\n\nNow butt your heads no more! Let us call in\n\nThe council you spoke of, to lay our plans\n\nAnd move on swiftly to deeds to be done.\"\n\nKlau took his seat again, glared once at Shane,\n\nAnd gestured toward the door, \"E'en now, they come.\"\n\nJust at the door, so silent suddenly\n\nThat 'Where did they come from?' was changed into\n\n'How long have they stood there?' within Shane's mind,\n\nTwo men in witchfolk patchwork stepped out of\n\nThe outdoor darkness. One was tall and broad\n\nAnd blank of expression, as if asleep\n\nLike porcelain guard dogs. The other short\n\nAnd stocky, full of sour looks, and in\n\nHis beard he scowled suspiciously around.\n\nYet so like were these two unlike in\n\nMovement and wariness, that they seemed more\n\nIdentical than twins. Between them came\n\nThe Lady of the Witchfolk they had led,\n\nHer Granddaughter upon her arm, and like\n\nTheir shadow, the Old Woman Shane had seen\n\nIn his dream, switching places in his mind\n\nWith the Old Man, like some humorless dance\n\nBehind the walls of being, in and out.\n\n\"Hail, honored dead,\" the Lady said, serene\n\nAs opium eaters, \"If you have plans,\n\nThen let us see how well they fit with what\n\nWe shall know and shall do.\" The youngest said,\n\n\"Don't worry, Champion. I trust in you.\"\n\nThe Old Woman said nothing, until she\n\nSwept past the wary guard and took the place\n\nFurthest and opposite from Klau. She held\n\nShane in a sullen silent stare, as does\n\nThe sluggish alligator, caged, regard\n\nThe shouting children that peer in at it.\n\n\"We meet now for the second time, as I,\"\n\nShe growled, \"Foretold. We will meet but once more.\"\n\nAs Shane and Varr retook their seat, Klau said,\n\n\"Where is your king? I would not strategize\n\nWithout conferring with the general of\n\nAll but a score and seven. Where's King Roam?\"\n\nThe lady helped the child onto a seat\n\nFrom which her feet dangled, \"King Roam knows not\n\nThat we are here yet. We have words to say\n\nTo you three that are not for him to hear.\n\nHe will come presently, then you may talk\n\nOf plans and plots and possibility\n\nBut first hear of what was, is, and must be.\"\n\n\"If they will hearken. Few do,\" snapped the crone.\n\nShane leaned upon the table. \"End your hints.\n\nIf you would say, then say, and on our heads,\"\n\nThe boxer growled, \"be worry whether we\n\nWill hearken or ignore.\" The Lady's sphinx\n\nSmile did not twitch as she pointed at Klau\n\nAnd said, \"You. Destiny will not help you.\n\nIt takes away your score and seven and\n\nLeaves you alone with the fate you covet\n\nBut do not yet expect.\" She turned to Varr\n\nStill smiling, \"You. You will be left behind.\n\nYou will be Last to Flee, and when you flee,\n\nYou will have nowhere left to flee to.\" Then\n\nShe turned her masky smile to Shane, but when\n\nA voice rang \"You,\" it was not hers. The Old\n\nWoman had risen to her feet. \"Falconi. You\n\nHave here a place you have not earned. Think you\n\nThat I know not the roles you seek to fill?\n\nYou cannot fill them. You were not foretold.\n\nYou cannot face the Sulfur Carrier.\n\nYou cannot pass back through death, you have not\n\nPassed through it even once. Why do you dream\n\nOf a world that is dead to you, and why\n\nDo you still think on someone who you can\n\nNot even name? Falconi, get you home.\n\nThis is no place for those not Champions.\"\n\nAll three warriors started to their feet, hands\n\nUpon their weapons. The three women seemed\n\nNot to notice, but calmly sat as if\n\nAt a picnic supper in their backyard.\n\nVarr shouted \"Thou shalt not speak so to him!\"\n\nShane seconded \"Not to any of us!\"\n\nKlau growled \"Try not my temper, witches.\" but\n\nFor further fury there was no time. From\n\nThe door came a deep voice, but dry, that laughed\n\nBehind each word, and froze behind each laugh\n\nSaying, \"I see that you are men, or ghosts\n\nOf men after my own heart. Long have I\n\nLonged to silence these meddlesome biddies.\"\n\nAs is a tree that stricken seems, and for\n\nA mummifying cerement is wrapped\n\nWith miles of ivy, with envenomed vines,\n\nWith mosses scented like funeral oils,\n\nBut within yet is lithe, and quick, and green\n\nFor all that it does bend, so seemed the man\n\nLeaning against the door. His trailing locks,\n\nHis beard and mustache long and whiskerlike,\n\nThe charm-bedecked, verdigris moulded chains\n\nAs patchwork and mismatched as were his clothes\n\nSeemed all to stoop and strangle him, yet with\n\nOne reflex like unbending of his neck\n\nThe two mute bodyguards bowed and vanished\n\nInto the night. Klau moved his fist away\n\nOff his enraging pommel, and said, \"Now,\n\nIs come at last one who speaks riddles not.\n\nWe can say what must needs be said. Behold\n\nKing Roam of the Witchfolk!\" The silence swelled\n\nAs without word or nod the Witch King turned\n\nThe nearest chair right-angled to itself\n\nAnd at the table's foot reclined on two\n\nWood legs. Into a long clay pipe,\n\nCarved with grotesqueries, bright with bluebells\n\nWhose paint with years of use was cracked and chipped,\n\nHe stuffed oak leaves, and finally he said,\n\n\"Pray don't mind me. Go on. I'm sure you have\n\nSome deadly, deathly matter to discuss.\n\nYou always do.\" Then from some sleight of hand\n\nHe pulled a match already lighted, and\n\nPuffed out the sourly sweet of oak leaf smoke\n\nContentedly as if at a picnic.\n\nKlau eyed him warily, then spoke again,\n\n\"Let each of us fit words to coming deeds.\n\nWe twenty-seven here will make our stand-\"\n\n\"We wish you luck with that,\" the Witch King said\n\nAnd said no more. Klau scowled, and Varr spoke up,\n\n\"What would you have us do? For this we died,\n\nFor this we live again, for this did we\n\nCome to this world. If you some other plans\n\nMore subtle than a simple warrior shade\n\nCould grapple with have doctored or distilled,\n\nSay on, and see that we hesitate not.\"\n\nRoam rolled his pipestem, chuckling, \"I would not\n\nHave any one of you do one whit less\n\nThan as you would. The Sulfur Carrier\n\nCarries its grudge against you, after all.\n\nFor me and mine it has only the hate\n\nIt has for everything. If we cannot\n\nSurvive its ire, we can outrun. If you\n\nAre stubborn and unhesitating, we\n\nWill have the time we need, and more besides.\"\n\nShane felt his hackles rising. \"You do not\n\nIntend to stand with us,\" his voice hollow\n\nAnd waiting to be filled with rage. \"You are\n\nPerceptive,\" King Roam snorted, \"I had feared\n\nThat I would have to say it three or four\n\nTimes over.\" Shane and Varr were on their feet,\n\nThe long bench clattering as it toppled,\n\nToo angry now for weapons or for words,\n\nSo Klau spoke first, \"This, after we have held\n\nThis place for your protection, after all\n\nThe brothers we have lost in guiding this\n\nOr that fugitive rag-tag through the Soot,\n\nAfter we have poured out our blood for you\n\nAnd spent the strength that might have been stored up\n\nFor our glorious stand, in getting you\n\nTo where you can smirk in your treachery?\"\n\n\"I should have known,\" Varr growled, \"you would repay\n\nSalvation with abandonment. But think!\n\nIf you would but stand with us, what great deeds\n\nCould then accomplished be! I have enough\n\nCunning to know that with your power upon\n\nOur courage, we would have an even chance,\n\nThen would there be no need for you to flee.\"\n\nThe Old Woman spoke up. \"We make no stands,\"\n\nShe said sharply, \"Forever is our way\n\nTo make a final haven in the grey\n\nOf twilight of the ending of a world,\n\nTo gather there, to fly upon the paths\n\nWhere others, friend or foe, can follow not,\n\nTo leave lorn earth behind us forsaken,\n\nTo fade like mist, to scatter like brown leaves\n\nWhen the last autumn nights are blown away,\u0026nbsp;\n\nTo vanish like a dream at rooster crow,\n\nAnd never to look back.\" The Lady smiled,\n\n\"I told you we were not to be trusted.\"\n\nShane did not wait for more. The boxer turned\n\nAnd stormed out from the torchlit hall, his fists\n\nSo tight his knuckles whitened. At his back\n\nKing Roam had lit his pipe again, while Klau\n\nWas slumped back in the throne, as is a child\n\nFor the first time bereft past comforting.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Ragnarok","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1717935-ragnarok-xiii.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1718548-ragnarok-xv.json"}}