Title: A Quiet Manor: Part One
Rating: Over all: R—PG-PG-13 for this part
Word Count: 2,800
Warning: Violence, slavery (indentured servitude), bastardization of Scandinavian mythology, dark fantasy
Summary: Set loosely in the time just after the conversion of a pagan society to Christianity, a young man in the middle of priest training finds himself gambled away and indentured to a battle weary general.
The daylight has nearly passed. Two parts of the southwest sky have been taken up by the sun in its descent and the parishioners are still moving the bones in the grave yard. It is dirty work here and I know I shouldn't have come. Still, I find myself drawn to the ground that has not yet frozen, and to the patches of soil I dream will cover no bones.
I do not remember this church yard, though I visited it often. This church is no longer my own and these people do not see me as they sing. There is a different priest that anoints these remains as the cadavers travel by string and strong hands to new resting places.
I did not know why I was sold to a man in Kestania that winter. Why should I, though but a servant, be taken to such a place as to be called the Madhouse of Fugel? What do the mad have use for servants? I had no right to question, but looking back now as I had then--he was but a man who persevered but through the grace of god.
I questioned.
I do not question it now. The memory of rough hands against my own soft calluses is too near.
confused