Wisdom Lost by Michael Sliter

Author:Michael Sliter [Sliter, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780999802137
Publisher: Dragyn Press
Published: 2019-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

Interlogue: Envy

“Your nerring is beginning to decay more rapidly. I mustn’t even quest—it is evident from your eyes. They still shine with intelligence and your innate goodness, but also with pure animal aggression. If this were not such a common sight for me, sweetling, then I might be afraid. As it is, this has become all too common during my long life.

“I have been sapping maenen from others longer than you can imagine. If only I could stop…

“But, there is so much that can be done with the maenen of another. It is far more than just raw power. Far, far more. It can be molded, shaped, sculpted… with the greatest practitioners being more artist than pasnes alna. With maenen, I can create light on a spectrum that you could barely perceive. I can fertilize crops with power such that a harvest could be yielded in a day. I can reinforce great monuments, allowing them to be greater still. And, I can destroy.

“I was the Blood Maiden, so long ago. In Oagon, I cut through hundreds of soldiers. Mostly enemies, but some allies. Even with my killing Amorum’s people—my own people—they worshipped me. I was a god to them, a creature to be worshipped and feared. Even after I stripped myself of the blood-stained armor and began tending to the wounded, wrapping bandages around great cuts and tying tourniquets around severed limbs, men and women shrank back from my touch, refusing to meet my eyes. They gathered in small groups and whispered about my power.

“We had captured Oagon, though half of its population was killed in the attack and subsequent sacking. We had a town, again, to call our own. But it was not home. Home was gone.

“As people avoided me—the Blood Maiden—Amorum continued to operate as the brain and soul of the people, guiding them with his powerful voice and persuasive manner. He would have made a great king, and the people began hailing him as such.

“It is with great shame, sweetling, that I tell you how I was overcome with envy.

“At the time, it seemed utterly wrong. These people had flocked to our side because of me. I was the banner, the figurehead. I had largely developed the plan of attack on Oagon, and I was the one who’d brought us victory, brutal though it may have been. Amorum may have motivated the people with fancy words, but I… I forced things to happen! I created victory with my own two hands!

“How foolish it seems now, sweetling, to feel this way. If only I could have known the future at the time. If only I could have known of the love Amorum had for me, that might have been the difference. The world, today, may well be different if that had been the case.

“But, my envy twisted me; it wrung my mind into a gnarled mass of jealousy. It seemed so wrong, unnatural even, that I was feared and he was loved.

“I began to cultivate my own group of followers, devotees who answered only to me.

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