Greetings Readers
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend and getting ready to rock your week. Today's post is a continuation of the Maledictus Terra series, and if you feel a little lost, be sure to read the update by @zakludick here.
“How would a peasant own something like this?” asked Mary as she stepped forward to view the weapon closer.
Deathgrip, true to his name, latched onto the queen’s arm. Despite her wearing plate armour over her forearms, she could feel the power of the hold this man had her in. At first, she wanted to snap at him, for how dare he touch her, but then she paused. Had the cleaver moved within the confines of the dead farmer’s chest?
She stepped back and Deathgrip immediately removed his hand from his queen, looking a little embarrassed that he had reacted the way that he had.
“Forgive me impudence, Your Majesty.” He stammered.
Mary waved his statement off and took a few steps to get a different angle to look at the weapon. It was moving!
“Is…is he still alive?” she whispered while thinking of a quick prayer of protection.
Deathgrip shook his head, “Not with that volume of blood.”
“The weapon is moving.”
And that wasn’t all. The closer Mary got, the more her head was filled with images of what happened. These weren’t the normal images of her imagining how this all played out, these were like flashes of the actual killings. This was wrong, something was seriously wrong here.
“Do you hear it?” asked Deathgrip.
Mary didn’t even need to understand what he was asking because, at the back of her mind, she could hear the screaming. It was faint, and there were no words associated with it, but there was faint screaming.
Feeling very uncomfortable with being anywhere close to this weapon, Mary backed off and whispered, “We need priests.”
“You have none that can handle this. I have sent word to my order brothers. This weapon must not be touched. The bodies must not be touched.” Deathgrip turned to the queen. “WE should not be here. The longer we are here, the more it plays with our minds.”
“But how did it get here and what is it?”
“Screaming weapons are cursed items, this cursed item was brought here.”
“So, neither of these men found it?”
“Many strange things have been found since the war with the gods weeks ago, Your Majesty, but I don’t think this was just found. This was given to them.”
Mary took a step back and distanced herself from the thin voice screaming in her head. She knew her people were suffering since they were forced to face the monstrous creatures not too long ago. However, she had opened her coffers, imported food, and ensured that anyone with ruined crops was taken care of. Why had these peasants taken what clearly looked like an ornate cleaver when they shouldn’t have been for want?
Unless…
Mary turned to view the widow who had taken to throwing sand into her hair as she lamented the death of her family. While she sympathised with the woman’s loss; she needed answers. Stepping away from the bodies, she strode to the woman and kneeled next to her.
“Did you see what happened?” she asked quietly.
The woman continued to weep and scream to the heavens over her lost family. Mary understood her pain and wanted to give her the time she needed, but she needed answers. She was on the verge of striking the woman when Deathgrip stepped forward, raised the woman to her feet by the front of her dress, and slapped her. The sound rang throughout the area and silence fell amongst the people gathered. Mary was shocked and took a deep breath, readying herself to yell at the Blazeknight.
The woman snapped out of her hysterics immediately, and only her tears and small hiccups remained of her lamenting. Deathgrip immediately released the woman and went to his knees to place his forehead on the ground. He was muttering in a strange language before he looked up and apologised to the woman sincerely for what he had done.
Shocked, but more aware of what was happening around her. The woman seemed to accept the apology and bade Deathgrip get to his feet. As if realising she was surrounded by people, the woman quickly shook the sand from her hair and dried her tears. She bowed to Mary and muttered an apology for her behaviour before helping the queen to her feet.
Mary stopped her apologies and simply asked, “What happened here?”
Tears gathered in the woman’s eyes, but she stubbornly refused to cry as she wiped at them. Perhaps she was scared of being struck again, or she felt that this was the incorrect moment to show raw emotion.
“Your Majesty, they fought like rabid beasts, and there was so much blood. I didn’t know what to do. All I could think of was to get the castle guard, but by the time I came back…” tears now streamed down her face.
“Your husband and son were dead?” asked Mary.
The woman nodded her head and wiped at her eyes and nose, “They should have listened to me.”
“Oh?” Deathgrip gently took up one of the woman’s hands and gave it a quick squeeze.
“Our land is blighted, Your Majesty. Ever since the war, nothing has grown and that which was growing is rotting in the field, spreading a sickly black ooze into the tainted soil. We are farmers, without our land, we are nothing.”
“I understand that dear woman, but I had contingency plans in place…” started Mary.
“And I will forever be grateful to you for that, you are wiser ruler than your tyrant of a husband ever was.”
The woman immediately realised what she was saying and bit her lower lip. Mary sighed, her husband had never been kind to farmers. He had been hard on them and would have taxed them into the ground if Mary hadn’t put a halt to it. Coming from an area where fertile land was difficult to come by Mary understood the vital need for farmers. Her husband had only realised the error of his way much later into his rule, too late to change people’s opinions of him. He never had an opportunity to fix the mistakes in his earlier rule and clearly, it still stuck with his people. Mary could help but think the mistakes of her husband may have been the cause of this.
“We all make mistakes.” Said Mary, stating the truth and also giving a thinly veiled threat.
The woman nodded her head and continued.
“We received the food and aid and were offered other jobs, but my husband and son were stubborn. They were born and bred farmers, and they didn’t want to work in the city. A wandering soothsayer told them that the reason our fields were blighted was because part of the war was still here.”
Mary looked up at Deathgrip, and he seemed to understand what the woman was saying. The weapon was a remnant of what was left behind.
Well now, this is starting to get a little interesting. Up to Zak to see how it plays out.
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and here is the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
The Reader List
If you would like to be tagged in every episode of Mortis Custos, leave us a comment and get added in, miss nothing!
The Watchlist:
@weone, @merenludick, @clairemobey, @therneau, @blitzzzz, @pravesho, @joetunex, @captainquack22, @irisworld, @braaiboy, @sketchygamerguy, @fuego-oscuro, @felt.buzz, @dibblers.dabs, @beeber, @brittandjosie, @tamacvet, @alonicus, @joetunex, @stdd, @uop, @luizeba, @cryptoniusrex, @agreste, @itzchemaya, @darthsauron, @seki1, @pannavi