Dawn of Dusk

The calendar of Karron has twelve months of thirty days each. At the end of each year there are five days of the festival of Karron. Every fourth year there is a sixth day of festival called the Day of Nog. It is considered bad luck for any child to be born on the Day of Nog because they would get continually older looking but with only a birthday every four years, it would take in effect, forty-eight years for a person to turn twelve, the age when a person begins to receive responsibility under the law. Married couples normally refrained from relations during the last three weeks in the third month and the first two weeks in the fourth month every year of Nog.

Nog is the sixth God of Karron, the others being Kar, Gom, Ham, Isa, and Lis. According to the Priests of Karron, Kar, Gom and Ham are male deities while Isa and Lis are female. Nog was once a female God as well which kept the powers of the gods in check. The male Gods are aggressive, easily angered and vengeful, they are often quickly angered. The female Gods are nurturing, forgiving and understanding they are also much harder to anger and often intercede for men with the male Gods when they are angry.

The priests of Karron say that when it storms, the male Gods are angry so they send lightning and thunder to intimidate and destroy humankind, but the female Gods send life-giving rain down on to the earth while telling the male Gods that they are punishing humankind as well. The male Gods don’t really believe the Female Gods are punishing anyone, but their pride is saved so they stop the storms and all is well again. If the male Gods and female Gods are out of proportion, it could rain for weeks at a time, causing flooding and destruction, or lightning might start a fire that burns everything in its path. Any number of calamities could come to pass because the female Deities are outnumbered two to one by more vengeful male Gods.

It is said that the six Gods of Karron had another sibling, Gru. Gru loved darkness and chaos. The other gods threw Gru who was Nog’s twin from the heavens down to earth where it is believed he became mortal. He turned mankind against itself creating war, pestilence, and famine.

While the Gods were still young, Nog came down to the Earth to live with the Men. Nog went down to live among men because she was looking for Gru. The other Men around her feared her because she still had her godly powers and used them on occasion. It is also said that Gru turned men against Nog and had her killed.

Because they killed one of the Gods, the other Gods sent down great balls of fire that caused almost total destruction upon the Earth. That destruction and the resulting collapse of civilization caused men to seek shelter in different parts of the Earth. This is what caused the other races to develop. It is said that the Gods gave Men one last chance while introducing other human races to the Earth, like Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Gnomes, Giants, and Trolls who will inherit if men fail the Gods again.

The Gods then raised Nog from the dead but every four years Nog still has to return to the world of the dead for a day. When Nog returns, she now sometimes returns in the form of a male deity when she does the female Gods are out of balance by two to one. The male Gods with their numerical advantage are better able to create destruction, wars among the races, and within the races are common. Nog in the form of a man takes retribution upon the children of the men that killed him. In the form of a female deity who she was before, she is forgiving and tolerant; as a male deity she is vengeful and spiteful.

The priests of Karron preach that when the Gods sent the destruction down upon mankind for killing Nog that Gru was destroyed also and that the gods would not resurrect Gru because he was evil in their sight.

All the races of humans worship the Gods of Karron to some degree but the race of men work at it the hardest. According to the priests, they are on their last opportunity. If they anger the Gods again, the race of Men will be destroyed from off of the face of the Earth.

*****

Borrial sat in a conference room with Lamercal and Thorak. He had noticed as time passed on, his father was getting more and more restless. This was a common thing more often than not, after a few hours; Lamercal would get very restless and then find some excuse to disappear with Thorak for a few minutes.

“Well Borrial, your still young and you have total control over your body, but Thorak and I have gotten older and our bodies tell us what needs to be done and why, if you will excuse us, we will be back shortly.”

He arose and quickly strode from the room. Thorak looked at his watch with alarm apparent on his face and then followed after the king. Borrial, now thoroughly curious, followed behind cautious that he not be seen. He followed them to a small waiting room that was almost always empty.

He walked quietly up to the door and listened, he could tell that Thorak was talking, but he couldn’t hear the words. He opened the door carefully to not make any noise and looked in. Thorak was using magic on his father to take away pain. He recognized the spell as it had been used on him a year or so ago when he had fallen off his horse and broken his collar bone.

He opened the door fully and stepped into the room and waited. Both men were facing away from him. His father was sitting in a chair and Thorak had stood behind, and was now casting the spell.

As he finished the spell, Thorak without turning said, “couldn’t you have just abided by your father’s request and left us alone, Borrial? Did you have to come in here?”

“Yes, I could have left you alone, but I chose not to; and, yes, I did have to come in here. What is causing you such pain father?”

Lamercal took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well son, the short of it is I am dying. You will soon reign as king in Karrondor. Even Thorak’s mighty magic and Mon Treel’s healing cannot do anything for me. I plan to abdicate shortly after you are married. When will all of that take place Borrial?”

“Mirtar and her parents have received the invitation to have dinner here with us in two days. I have also sent notice to Vistyral in Arborlea asking him to be here in two days. The notice went out, but I do not know if he will get it in time.”

“How are you going to ransom the dowry?” Thorak asked.

“I am going to pay the ransom in gold. That way they will have to carry it with them all the way to Fulsimter to the funeral of Krakal and worry all that way and then home as well. Besides, you never know bandits might rob them of it and then they wouldn’t have the benefit of all that money.”

Thorak looked at him suspiciously. “You aren’t going to try anything cute that might hurt relations with Artermador are you?”

“Hardly, I consider myself out of a nightmare. I would have paid double to be out of the clutches of that woman.”

“You can’t possibly be serious,” Lamercal said, “She is beautiful, and sweet and all that; but she also has a head on her shoulders. She would have made you a perfect queen.”

“The head on her shoulders is exactly what I was paying to get rid of father. I will rule in Karrondor, not anyone else.”

His father looked as though he had just eaten something that tasted bad, but he said nothing. He arose and went out the door to the bathroom. With a disapproving frown Thorak followed.

When they were reunited again in the conference room, Lamercal asked Borrial to give him a rundown on the marriage schedule.

“Well, as we just discussed, I will ransom Mirtar’s dowry in two days, then we will all go to the funeral in Fulsimter. The coronation will take place the following day after which the customary sixty day mourning period. When the period of mourning is over, we will announce our engagement and be married in thirty days, the minimum time for a formal engagement.”

“The following day I will abdicate; so you can start planning a coronation ceremony as well.”

“Are you sure that would be the right time?” Thorak asked. Let him get his honeymoon out of the way and settle into the marriage, and then, you can abdicate. Give him thirty days to enjoy his new bride before they have to settle into their roles as king and queen.”

“Very well, I suppose you are right. I should have been more thoughtful. Thirty days it is. Let’s see. This is the third day of the seventh month, the dinner here will be on the fifth, Krakal’s funeral will be on the sixth, and Lemmal’s coronation will be on the seventh. The sixty days of mourning will end on the seventh day of the ninth month. Your engagement will be announced on the eighth day of the ninth month so you will be married on the eighth day of the Tenth month...”

“Actually Father it will be on the fourteenth. She wanted to be married on a day of Krakal. That would have been on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, or twenty-eighth.”

“Well that is true, a worship day is right for a wedding. I will announce my abdication on the eleventh of the eleventh month, it will take a week to prepare so your coronation will be on the...?”

“It will be on the twentieth. That is an official ceremony; it should be done on a regular work day. When better that the first day of the week?”

“Good choice son, everyone will praise you for giving them a longer rest.”

Thorak looked up from a tablet he had been writing on and asked, “Have you heard what progress Vistyral has been making with the Elves?”

“No, and that concerns me, it is not like Vistyral to not keep us regularly informed of what is happening there. Maybe things are going really bad and he is not able to communicate with us.”

“I have someone in Arborlea I can talk to; if you like I could try to find out what progress is being made and to let Vistyral know of the dinner here in two days. He would have to leave immediately and go by land to Elven Woods then down river to Flageran and hire a boat to bring him up the Krackowal River.”

“Yes, why don’t you,” Lamercal said, “I would like him here, if Borrial doesn’t prefer Mirtar, perhaps Vistyral would, that would also give him access to a throne, there are worse things in life than having two sons sitting on a throne after you are Gone.”

“Well, Father if Vistyral wants her, I want to know now. Maybe we can make a deal where I don’t have to ransom the whole dowry, maybe only part of it.”

“You’ll pay the last Merkal. You don’t want to be perceived as a tightwad. Honor her, do nothing to give insult, if I can marry her to Vistyral you will save a thousand times over your ransom in lower tariffs and taxes by dealing with a brother nation; especially one in the south.”

“Yes, Father.”

Thorak rose and excused himself. “I will let you know if I was able to contact him with the information we have obtained. I’ll try and reach my contact right away with your permission.”

“Of course Thorak, just try and get back to me in the next three hours for more therapy.”

“Certainly you’re Majesty.”

As Thorak entered into his room, he went over to his spell pot, a pot of potions that are ready to be activated and customized to the specific needs of the caster. He cast a communication spell to Vistyral. He was excited; Lamercal showing interest in Mirtar for Vistyral’s sake was more than he could have hoped for. He just hoped that Vistyral would cooperate. He was so hard headed that if it appeared to be someone else’s idea, he might not go along with it for that very reason.

“Thorak, are you there? Thorak, I can’t get any louder.”

“I’m here Vistyral, are you able to talk?”

“For a few minutes anyway, why were you summoning me? That was very uncomfortable.”

“There were a couple of things. First I am supposedly communicating with an Elf that I have established a link with. A secret link because links with Elves aren’t supposed to happen.”

“Well tell me about it, what else is there?”

“Well, you are needed here at the palace for a state dinner with the King, Queen, and Princess of Atermador.”

“Mirtar will be there? What will it be for, to announce their betrothal?”

“You only wish. I know for years that girl has been making eyes at you. Much to your dismay of course your brother is going to ransom her dowry. That will leave her available to marry someone else. If I am not mistaken, the Duke of Maltar has already made contact with the king in behalf of Prince Maltapel of Westonisia.”

“Prince Maltapel is interested in her? You have got to be kidding! He is almost three times her age and he is huge.”

“Yes but he is a Crown Prince, and now Regent as well. King Montrosal would look at this as a way to double the size of his kingdom. A united Atermador and Westonisia would rival Karrondor in political and economic power. Too bad for her that you have no feelings for her this will leave her only a pawn for her father’s political gains.

“Since you are being way too obvious at an attempt at manipulation, I will assume that you want me to make some kind of show of interest and because she has always had a crush on me that she will convince him to allow her to marry a duke when there are two other crown princes unmarried other than Maltapel.”

“I want you to marry to this girl for more than one reason. First of all your political reasoning when it comes to this family is all wrong. Montrosal and Vertimar were absolutely and totally in love with each other when they got married. They have spent their whole lives together and ruling their country together. Not one ruling with the other giving advice, but truly ruling together as one. Mirtar has grown up watching that kind of a relationship. That is what she wants for herself. I happen to know that this lovely young woman has told her parents that she wants to marry none other than, and I quote “the Duke of Cryarlac, Guardian of the East, Vistyral.’”

“How do you know that?”

“I will tell you, but only if you promise not to betray my source.”

“All right, I promise.”

“I contacted Veritak at your father’s request after Lymar and Borrial agreed to marry. Your father was interested in knowing if Mirtar would be interested in you. You see your father loves her almost as much as I think you do. It just so happened that you had been the discussion of Mirtar’s admiration two days prior.

Now what I told you about Duke Maltar is the truth and you must understand that once she is ransomed by your brother, every lord and duke in the world will be after her. She wants to marry you, and her parents will let her. Don’t take too long though, because ultimately, she will do what her father and mother tell her to do if she can’t have her own way. She is a crown princess, and while that gives her some latitude that other princesses don’t have, she is, very importantly, a ticket to the throne. And there are many who will take any route to the throne that will get them there. If you feel for her the way that I think that you do, act on it now. Don’t even wait for her to get back from the funeral.”

“What funeral?”

“That’s right; you have been out of touch. Krackal is dead his funeral and the burning will be in three days in Fulsimter. You will be required to be there. Word has gone out to you and King Landif but you must leave right away to make it here in two days.”

With as much nobility as there will be at Krakal’s funeral, Montrosal is likely to receive seven or eight proposals at the funeral and the few days after that everyone stays for the new coronation and so forth. If you want her, go with her on your arm and an engagement bracelet on her arm.”

“I have no such bracelet to give.”

“Well, as a matter of fact you do; one made of alexandrite. With her blue eyes and brown hair, alexandrite should look very nice. It is Dwarven made too.”

“Where may I ask did I get a Dwarven made engagement bracelet?”

“When your father and I went with you to see Cadot Stonpiker, I told him that you might need one in the near future and a wedding necklace as well and he had them made. You need only pay him the next time you see him.”

“Thank-you, how much did all of this cost me?”

“I really don’t know but you can take this up with the Cadot the next time you see him.”

“I’ll probably be bankrupt. - I don’t know Thorak, I have spent a lot of time with Mirtar and she appears to be everything that I want in a wife. I would love her if she was a milk maid in Westonisia.”

“Do you love her enough to marry a milk maid from Westonisia?”

“Yes, but I don’t know if it is enough to marry the princess of Artermador. I belong to Karrondor, to Cryarlac. How can I do what I am supposed to do for them if I am in Artermador?”

You appoint a regent, someone that you know and trust to do in Cryarlac what you tell them to. It also leaves you a Duchy to bestow on one of your sons if that happens. A king can so seldom do for his sons what yours did for you. If Mastral had not been without an heir you would not be Duke of Cryarlac today. You were born to rule boy, not to be under your brother’s thumb. You belong out on your own, to influence the world, to change the course of human history, to counter your brother’s influence, and bring balance to the world. You can do more as a king of Atermador than you will ever be able to do as the duke of Cryarlac and you know it.

“I’ll say no more. You have admitted that you love her. If you don’t make the move now, then you will deserve to go to bed at night knowing that she is in some other man’s arms.”

Vistyral winced visibly. “The Elves have agreed to all our terms of trade. I have become a very close friend to King Landif, also Prince Rockledge from the other Elven kingdom, oh; you might want to let Lemmal know that Prince Rockledge and his entourage of five will be coming to the funeral and the coronation as well.”

“What other Elven Kingdom, who is Rockledge, explain it to me.”

Vistyral looked away smiling, “Oh, someone’s coming, I’ve got to go I’ll see you.”

“Wait, I...”

Vistyral was Gone. Like so often when Thorak was right and Vistyral had to admit it he did something to infuriate Thorak back. It was the price of wisdom and Thorak paid dearly in frustration. At least Vistyral did it good naturedly and not out of spite. He would just have to wait for two days to get the answer.

He turned and went to report some of what he knew to the king and his heir.