"The Cold Wind Curse" - ep. 2 - Main Characters & Location Essays

ANNA

Even from an early age she was different. Her strange taste for horse riding with the legs on each side of the animal, the skill she had with the rapier made her more of a tomboy rather than the sensitive lady she was expected to be.

Each time she did one of these things and she was either mocked by her peers or scolded by her grandmother, her piercing blue eyes stared at the person who was talking and a smirk raised up from the right corner of her mouth, thus making her eyes twinkle with witt and playfulness. What other’s thought or said didn’t affect her at all. An independent spirit at its best.

She liked the sense of freedom riding through the woods gave her. Every morning, she went round the trees, each time a little farther away than the day before. During low tide she went as far as the base of Triad Peak, upon which the secluded castle of the white cloaked priests was built.

She oftentimes liked to just watch it’s walls, as they shone bright during the morning Sun. Right at the bottom, a steap flight of stairs went up the peak, losing itself behind an enormous vaulted entrance. Once high tide came, she went back to the forest and watched at how the sea isolated the eirie construction. Fear never passed her mind as she did this. The Anterium had always given her peace of mind, although people said to have a bad omen.

As the sun was getting ready to set, a cold dash of wind blew from the sea, making her silver dress flutter. It was getting cold, but she did not mind, the view was too beautiful still.

A few moments after the high tide she went back home through the forest, just in time to cleverly skip her sewing hour and instead go to the armory to practice swinging her small sword with her cousin.

THE ANTERIUM AND THE ORDER

A few small lights went slowly up the right tower, just to disappear a few minutes later. After a while, they lit again and descended, only to disappear once more. This happened every day, once at dawn and another time at dawn, with minute precision.

The Anterium was a place that most people seemed to fear. For centuries, it rose out of the sea waters and at the same time appeared to be on land. Every high tide, the sea claimed it for itself, thus the building was secluded from the mainland. The main towers were very high up, almost near the clouds. During cloudy days, only the shadow of the great edifice was seen from the edge of the forest.

No one dared to walk through the trees at dawn or dusk, as white hooded cloaks were said to be seen roaming around. Each time they were seen, the weather changed. Dawn and dusk were also the times when these mysterious beings were seen through the citadel. They were very quiet and nothing about them was visible, except their pale hands.

They seemed to float and be ghostly sightings near the markets  or in the darker corners of the oldest part of town. They hardly ever talked to anyone. Their voices were said to be almost like whispers. Given all these things, they fascinated people.

EDGAR

For a young lord of his stature, he fulfilled almost all that was expected of him. A champion of sword fighting, one of the best riders in the realm, he also had a sharp witt for strategy and words. Looking at his broad shoulders and slightly curled dark hair, you could not have guessed that he had a passion for the arts, especially for architecture and masonry.

Every other day he discovered something new and interesting. Every time that happened, his dark brown eyes seem to sparkle with excitement. After his morning battle training, horse riding and some strategy pages, he went back to the library and read for hours. All the work of the greatest artists of the realm were fascinating to him.

Most of the keep’s new installments were designed by him. He dreamed of revolutionizing the style he often analyzed on the walls of the Anterium. Each day during low tide, he went horse riding to the back of the woods and stayed there until high tide claimed the land between the building and the forest.

He once thought to glimpse a white horse, somewhere in the distance, to the right of the castle. But the rider quickly went away, and Edgar only saw a fluttering silver dress getting back on the road to the citadel.

(to be continued...)

(For the first "The Cold Winter Curse" post, click here)

The Cold Wind Curse (fantasy short-story)

(Please allow me some metaphors for this article as I became inspired by the numbness I had last evening. The experience I had is going to be transformed into a fantasy short story, involving fictional characters and such, as I find it easier to reflect and to summarize the experience and sensations I had. This is my choice and you are free to like it or not. Let’s begin…)

PROLOGUE

25 / 02 / 2016

by Alexandra Celic

Long forgotten were the long summer evenings, when the wind blew softly through and around the edge of the forest, slightly cooling the atmosphere after a long and hot day. The sunsets were splashes of red undertones disappearing below the horizon, as the sun made way to the moon. Nature felt alive even in the dark, as many of the forest animals came to the creek to cool off.

At one point, its waters became blurry and little by little, they began to have greyish tones that made it harder and harder to see the bottom. Little by little, the leaves lost color and the light became duller. At night, there were less and less movements in the forest and a cold breeze came howling between the branches of the trees. The change happened slow but steady.

This was the time when the people sensed the cold for the first time in their life. In the beginning, they often went back inside their keeps and houses as they felt the wind blowing. Time went by, and the cold was no longer just outside. It began rising inside the body, as their left arms begin to feel numb. As much as they tried to get themselves warm, the numbness didn’t wear off. It was constant companion day by day.

Since the winds came to this land, there were others around the age of 20 who went through the same thing. Subtle sensations got altered, as the numbness affected everyone differently. Some of them were in pain, as their body was suffering from frostbite sensations, tens of sharp needles stabbing them at the same time, without giving any brakes.

This was the curse the cold winds brought wherever they came. They aimed to paralyze everything in their path. To transform all around them to the point of immobility. It was told that the first time people faced them, the cold had almost no power. It tried to submit the land, but it was always fought back. There was always a defense mechanism which came from the Faith.

The winds became stronger, as did the people who came with them. The eleazars were told to be the ones who were able to control the cold, who could offer help in fighting it back.

They befriended the king, and decade after decade brought great knowledge to the realm’s libraries, and were made part of the communities. As they became more and more installed in the structure of the society, the winds blew harder, the days and nights became colder, and more and more people felt the numbing curse.

Many more were lost forever, as their bodies slowly and then more quickly gave in to this powerful plague for which there was no cure. The eleazars again offered their help to the king, promising they will do whatever it takes to find a way to control the situation.

They close themselves into their libraries and brewed a serum. This was thought to keep the plague under control, at least until they found a way to eradicate it. Little by little, people were given this treatment, and their numbness wasn’t so bad, their health was steady, and the plague worked slower.

Time went by and the eleazars made promise after promise to the people, giving them all kinds of food, knowledge and care to help with their suffering. The kings changed rapidly, as the plague grew strong in each and everyone’s bodies. Until one day, when there were no direct descendants.

The boy-king was totally numb, and his sister wasn’t allowed to step on the throne, due to her gender. Once again offering to help the realm, the eleazar took over and claimed the right to rule, as they were the most cherished servants of the late king.

At first, people accepted them. After all, they were the ones who made the much-needed serum which their lives depended upon. Little did they know that the help will soon be over.

The eleazar quickly showed their true purpose, that of enslaving the people in order to grow their rule over that part of the world. Year after year, the cold winds got stronger and stronger.

Since the Eleazar Conquest, as people got to their 20’s, they began needing more and more serum. But it was no longer offered freely. For the monthly dose, the eleazars were putting them to work for their castles and keeps, planting, harvesting and making the very treatment they needed.

There were many ways to serve the eleazars, but the people were not free to live their life as they wanted. The people who do rebelled had an awful ending, as they were refused the treatment, left to become numb, day after day, until they were paralyzed forever.

There were stories about the few who managed to escape, no longer to be seen again by anyone. They were told to have died in the woods, their bodies probably failing after a short while. Others thought they have gone to die at the Anterium, the ancient monastery high in the clouds, that was thought to be deserted after many decades after the eleazar came to power.

The great monastic fortress up in the mountains housed an ancient and wise order who honored the one true God through knowledge, self-discovery and prayer. Nobody knows where the Triad came from.

Elders say they were one of the nations who inhabited the realm many millennia ago. The eleazar accused them of being warrior priests, who worshipped the occult, thus bringing the plague into the realm through their Awakening rituals. The once respected carriers of the old Faith were now banished from society.

Old tales mentioned a wise people who had almost perished in the Eleazar Conquest. They were thought to be smashed and to have disappeared, but now the Anterium seemed to grow strong again. Commoners thought they are evil and stood out of their way whenever the white cloaks flew through the city at dawn or at dusk. They soon became memories, then legend.

Little by little, people got scared. As time went by, they forgot all the knowledge of the old realm and all about the Awakening. They lived doing their ordinary daily chores and activities and the Anterium secluded itself, day by day becoming a refuge for the few who still had the Gift. For the few who still believed.

And so our story begins.

(To be continued…)