Excerpt: Kappal

As quickly as he laid down, Ciarn was startled awake by a dream. His eyelids flitted open, yet where he expected light to seep in, he could still only see the dream in front of him. He grasped his bedsheets tightly in his hands as he slowly gained a sleepy consciousness and realized he was not dreaming, he was having a vision. He gulped some air and began to breath deeply to steady his racing heart.
At the sound of a loud knock, Ciarn began to focus in on his vision: the chamber door of his liege, the Calcrian Ambassador Amato.
The loud knocking ceased and Aedo Groma opened the door. Aedo was dressed in old and tattered clothes, unlike his ordinarily uniformed persona. Around his waist was a sheath that carried a large knife, finely crafted, yet not decoratively ornamented. A somber expression played on his rugged and scarred face. “Excuse me, Ambassador.”
“Ah, Aedo!” The Ambassador said as a kind and inviting smile spread through his wrinkled face. “What brings you? Message from the Queen?”
Aedo grinned as if amused by the old man sitting at his desk, already in his bedrobes even though it was not yet nightfall. Aedo leaned against the door frame, looking down at him silently, the same grin playing on his lips.
The Ambassador gulped and his smile disappeared. He looked down to his desk and spoke in a soft voice. “I see… No message then. Would you mind if I changed into my formal robes?”
Aedo shrugged softly, his eyes flickering from the Ambassador to the wardrobe as the old man stood with his hands shaking softly. Ciarn could not tell whether it was from nerves or old age.
“Are you Ordian, Aedo?” The Ambassador asked quietly as he slipped a few garments from the wardrobe and moved around the dressing screen. Ciarn laughed at the question. Aedo had publicly converted to the Order of the Twelve years ago when Queen Robina married the King.
“Suppose I am, Ambassador. Wolf-born.” Aedo idly tapped on the new tattoo on his forearm which signified his birth even though the Ambassador couldn’t see it.
The Ambassador nodded from behind the dressing screen. “Ahh, Wolf-born. Follower of Matron Damus, the Goddess of Beasts. I should have guessed.” The Ambassador came around the screen, fully adorned in lush purple and silver velvet robes, his hands folded neatly over his lap as though he was about to give a lecture. He half-smiled to Aedo as he sat back at his desk and pulled out a small wooden box from a drawer. Amato opened the box, took out his pipe and began to load it with a fragrant herb.
He continued: “As Calcrians, when a person is born, the temple offers a gift to the parents - a gift that they may or may not accept. You see, the Calcrian text holds many secret formulas that we are only able to share with our followers in certain situations. At birth, at marriage and at death. At birth, Calcrian priests can use a formula to basically map out the newborn’s life. Down to the exact time, we can tell parents when their child will walk, talk, find their true love, find a successful career, marry, have their own children and, of course, when they will die.”
Aedo raised an eyebrow as the Ambassador began to puff gently on the end of his pipe, his demeanor slowly becoming relaxed. “You’ve known the time of your death your entire life?”
Amato nodded and leaned back against his seat before continuing with a smile. “I die today, in about 3 minutes from this moment. It was calculated at my birth.”
Ciarn’s eyes, although not seeing, opened wide as Amato spoke. He knew his lifelong teacher was telling the truth and suddenly understood why Aedo’s unexpected visit was stressful for his old friend.
“Of course, I chalk it up to human idealism that I actually expected to die in an early sleep. No, I suppose I am too important for that comfort.” Amato stood, set his pipe on his desk and turned to face Aedo, who was still leaning casually against the door frame. Aedo entered the room fully and closed the large chamber door behind him.
“Do Calcrian’s have a death prayer?” Aedo asked softly.
“No.” Ciarn whispered to himself.
“No.” Amato said, echoing Ciarn’s silent voice.
Aedo took a step toward Amato’s seemingly fearless figure and unsheathed his long knife. “I have to make this look right for the investigators. I’ll be as quick as possible, but some cruelty is unavoidable.”
“I understand, Aedo, I do not blame you.” The Ambassador gulped and nodded. He slowly raised his chin a hair higher out of pride and balled his old hands into fists. Aedo took another step towards the old man and nodded sternly before raising his hand and landing a blow across Amato’s face which threw him into the desk he stood by. Amato tumbled to the floor and hit his head on the edge of the desk on his way down.
Ciarn cried out, closing and opening his eyes and pulling his hair in despair. “Not this!” He screamed, unable to shield himself from his friend’s violent end.
Aedo picked the Ambassador up by his robes and flung him into the wardrobe. The wardrobe, splintered and old, collapsed onto the old man as he laid crumpled on the floor. Quiet sobs echoed through the room, but Amato did not scream out, since he knew there would be no point to it. His robes tore against the wood shards of the broken wardrobe as Aedo picked him up as easily as a parent would pick up a child. A large red welt had formed on the Ambassador’s forehead and his nose was bloodied. Ciarn could feel the warmth of tears on his cheeks as Aedo pierced through the Ambassador’s skin and violently plunged his knife deep within his ribcage. Still being held up by Aedo, Ciarn could see the life leave Amato’s face as his eyes rolled back into his head, blood flowing freely from his nose. Aedo gently dropped the dead Ambassador to the floor and wiped his bloody knife on his pant leg.
“Sorry, old friend,” Aedo said as he turned to leave the chambers. The vision slowly left Ciarn with each of Aedo’s final steps, but his sight did not fully return as he was unable to see through his own tears.