Beauty in the Bones: Season 1

Episode 39 (Part 7) Tidings of Discomfort and a Ploy

My voice merged with the drum's rhythm of bone and hide. Flowing like spirit water, a warm light glowed and ebbed around the skull of Fenvolvna. A wolf's howl echoed across my sacred lands within the Otherworld. Nothing mattered but the song, and I was caught in its rapture along with Selketh.

The potion took hold again, and Selketh clasped the fifth talon between her folded palms, her eyes open but focused on a new vision beyond. "Five years later. The fifth talon brings me to eighteen years old. A young woman, yet I'm still a child outside of my cloistered world. I live only within the confines of The Shadow and its regimen. I nevertheless keep many secrets. The extent of my power is mine alone. I hear more than I admit to them, and learn much as a result. By staying silent and obedient, I make them believe I'm but a seer of passable talent. Eleiana is still my caretaker, but I've earned recognition from the elders, and will soon be a citizen on my own.

"It's a rainy afternoon. Hir Thulsbek and his Quorum summon us to a meeting. Eleiana and I go to the top floor of the Polneitenzal administrative center in our compound. My tailored black uniform is pressed to perfection, tall boots polished, the emblems of Myrktilhet pinned proudly to my collar and left breast. Eleiana matches me in her citizen's jacket and skirt, her cap tipped smart over her blue eyes. Hir Thulsbek tells us we've been selected as part of a special mission, on direct orders from Hir Kaezer himself.

"There's a traitor of the worst kind who defected to the colonies years ago, Hir Thulsbek says--a former elder of the inner Circles, who has defiled the Old Ways by revealing them to the unworthy rabble of the orbital society. This upstart has founded his own order and teaches the sacred truth in defiance of all we hold dear. His name is Hir Kraelis Jaster, a sorcerer and seer of one of the most ancient shamanic families in Pruessia. Hir Jaster must be stopped at all cost, and his vile organization destroyed along with him. Myrktilhet has sworn to take down this renegade shaman at the behest of the highest officers in the regime. And Eleiana and are perfect candidates for the task--Hepslovian, thus we can pretend to be against the Kaezer's agenda. Eleiana is of a respected shamanic family, so she should be able to approach Hir Jaster's organization and get us in. I am to pose as her disciple. Between our efforts and others who will also be deposed as agents of The Shadow, Eleiana and I stand to aid the Pruessian Empire in their most important endeavor of the War. It will be a strike at the very heart of our enemies, Hir Thulsbek tells us. If we succeed, the great leader himself will glorify our names across the Empire, and we'll be rewarded with positions of prestige and influence in the new society.

"But first, we must prove ourselves and seal our loyalty to Myrktilhet and the Kaezer's will. The elders lead us to a private terrace on the roof of Polneitenzal. To my surprise, there's a Circle here. Four stone monoliths surround a raised altar at the center of the pavilion. A flame blazes upon an iron-encased pyre, with  a line of robed and masked acolytes standing beside it. They bear long, curved staves tipped with animal skulls. Eleiana and I are led to a point in the middle of the Circle. Hir Thulsbek grins, his teeth pointed and worn as old fangs. He waves a hand, and a hooded seeker enters with a lamb cradled in her arms. The lamb looks about with dull, innocent eyes and bleats. The seeker ties it to the altar with a cord of black silk.

"Five uniformed officers enter the Circle with sharp-eared Pruessian Shepherd dogs on leads. A thin, shabby man in citizen's coveralls stumbles into our midst. His hands shake between the thick steel bars of a wrist restraint. A pair of driver robots escort him to the altar and shove him to the ground. On his knees, the prisoner stutters and raves about his innocence and how much he loves the great leader.  Hir Thulsbek strikes the man across the back with a thin black cane. Forced to all fours, the prisoner begs for mercy. My throat feels like a vise, as if I'm choked for breath. I force myself to stand tall and without emotion, as Eleiana seems to have no difficulty doing. In truth, I want to run and hide.