The Dirge of Minos Shae
Minos crashed into the room scrambling for anything he could use as a weapon. The door slammed against the wall and back closed from the force. The sting in his side reminded him of the wound and he winced, groaning as he palmed the wound and wiped their blood from his bearded face. He was bleeding, and fast.
He limped to his bedside, feeling the blood travel down his muscular frame. He flinched as he sat down, reached over, and pulled his hammer from the corner. He heard the door slam open and his assailants were upon him. He rushed forward with all his strength and struck one of the thieves on the side of his skull. A lethal blow.
he tried to wind up for another blow but felt weak. The woman grabbed his arm.
"That was a mistake, blacksmith, "
He fell to the floor, the blood loss leaving him dizzy. He heard their screams, his family as they pulled their bodies into the house. His wife was still breathing, staring at him with the look of defeat. Tears fell from his eyes inconsistently, as if controlled or resisted.
His hammer was resting in his hand but his arm was limp, unable to move. His sight blurred slightly and the color of the bloodstained night began to fade to grey scale hues.
"Shell, what is this?"
"It's not me"
Minos drifted to his final slumber as he heard those words and suddenly found himself in a strange garden beneath thick grey clouds. The wounds were gone and a woman stood before him.
Elegant and calm, with a perfume made from herbs and flowers that were extinct before humans even walked the earth. she reached out her hand, gesturing for him to take it. Her wild black hair and piercing green eyes enticed him to take it but he refused. Looking away from her pale face and down at her ornate black gown.
She shook her head, frustrated.
"it isn't pretty Minos, death never is."
"No, put me back, I won't let them leave my home alive."
"lots of talk for a dead man."
He paused and nearly fainted, never considering he was in fact dead.
"I won't quit, I'll go back, with or without you."
"You make demands of a titan? I am death personified, you don't deny me."
"...And yet here I stand."
"How many do you think have done this before? This exact routine? I've played this role for eons and I'm here to tell you that if you go back, you're stuck. You will not know peace, you will wander as a ghost waiting for justice that will never come."
"How could you possibly know?"
"it's not an original story. I am the ending to everyone's tale. I've seen this one many times."
She shrugged. "Sorry, I should be more understanding. I've never known love. Even the divine make mistakes." He stood up and faced her and she offered her hand again as she spoke, "don't be afraid, it will be better soon."
"No,"
"Minos-"
" No." He screamed, and pushed her away.
"Listen." she whispered.
"No, You will listen to me." He was shocked at himself, screaming at her was likely not the healthiest choice, if health even mattered anymore. "I care about as little of the uncaring world as it does of me. You can try to take me to whatever " peace" you promise and you will succeed, but I assure you I will fight with every fiber of my being. I will fight you as you drag me kicking and screaming. I will fight tooth and nail, swearing to any god who listen, I will not cease until they receive the justice that is deserved, not the justice that is allowed."
She softened and tried to console him reaching out as if to embrace him.
"Don't you dare touch me!" He cried backing away and falling to the ground in tears.
"Did you see it...The way she looked at me? looking to me in her final moments and..." He choked through the sobs trying to gain control over the spasms, his diaphragm seizing his lungs and keeling him over.
"... she knew we couldn't win... her face was so sad." He sobbed "With moments left to live and... I failed to show her that there was still hope. I failed to console her." For a moment he said nothing. He nodded, sobbing as if accepting the defeat. Then keeled over once more in a another fit of sorrow.
He didn't realize for some time that the woman was holding him. Stroking his hair through the tears. "Shh." She ushered him to his feet,
"I hear you." She whispered, " The universe is not as uncaring as you think." She grabbed the back of his head and a menace shrouded the kind demeanor her face once held. "You swore before all the divine, but I'm right here in front of you." She spat the words through livid tones.
"now you address me, blacksmith." She pulled his hair violently arching his head back and the clouds above began to part. "Swear it to me!"
"I swear, please." He pleaded, the clouds parted and he felt the scorching heat of light on his back. He screamed and tried to wiggle free but she spun him around by the back of his head and her grip tightened.
What he saw before him he could never unsee. It burned into his mind and on the back of his retinas. He saw a black sun, circled by a harsh white light. The spots of white dance along its surface and he couldn't turn away, despite compulsively wanting too. He felt his skin char to black and peel only to grow again continuing a painful cycle. The sight made it feel like his mind was splitting at the seems.
"Do not turn away. You address me now, blacksmith, swear to me."
He tried to speak but found it hard as the sun’s light caused such pain.
"Swear it before your only salvation refuses to hear " She whispered."
"I...Swear." He forced the words out and the sun disappeared in what seemed an instant. He fell to his knees into her arms as she fell with him. His skin healed but smoke rose from the pores. He tried not to blink. The black sun seemed burned to the back of his eyelids.
"She. It's almost over."
a feeling overcame him. He was in two places at once. He felt her caressing his hair, he also felt the wooden floor of his home, not a moment has passed since the dark overtook him. He closed and opened his eyes. He saw both her and the assailants. They looked frightened.
"get up," the titan whispered in his ear and he felt himself crawling along the floor of the house, drawn to the source of their fear. He propped himself up and between him and his doomed attackers was the black sun, smaller, and within reach.
the orb of light was the size of a woodburning stove and hovered in the air patiently. he heard the words. He felt he heard them before.
"Shell, what is this?"
"it's not me."
"Reach into the sun, minors." She whispered.
"Will it hurt?" He couldn't tell if he spoke or thought the question, but he received an answer. "Extremely." He winced and then forced himself to reach in. He felt his skin bubble and melt and screamed in both rage and agony. His skeletal hands gripped something, his skeletal fingers wrapped around it. It was a handle of some kind.
His position was more stable now, he could no longer see her. He could only hear her calming voice.
"Strike it."
He felt his attention pulled to his free hand. He was still holding the hammer. The pain was more bearable no, no nerves to burn anymore. His cry was of determination and fury as he raised the hammer and struck the heart of the black sun with more force then he ever dared at the forge. The sound of the strike was beautiful but rang with ill fortune. His attackers collapsed to the ground clasping their ears in hopes of deafening that which tolled for them. It was a thunderous drone that reminded him of the cathedral bells of Rouxsgate, only louder and distant, as if phasing between this world and the domain of death itself. He struck again on impulse and while light radiated from the star.
the bells told once more and the screams of the thieves, a chorus of agony only made it seem sweeter. He struck a final time and this toll was the loudest, the dirt and dust kicked up in a ring around him and the sound seemed to push the harsh white light out of the room in a flash and the neon black remained
He now felt that the object had weight and balance.
He slowly pulled his hand from the dying star and watched as the muscle tissue and skin reformed. The handle was black as pitch and the head of Warhammer emerged as the sun dispersed into nothing. The head of the hammer was beautiful, as if made of the star itself. Sunspot danced across its black and white surface.
His attackers stood up in pain and confusion, assisting one another in their attempt to flee. minos looked to the the face of his wife, fearful of what he may see. The look on her face was serene, even comfortable with the beginning of a amourous smile proudly frozen in her passing.
The ground was wet from the evening rain. He felt water rush into his shoes when he stepped out. The hammer hissed and hummed with rancorous sounds of stars as it moved in his hand. He looked around as he walked. Trying to see some sign of them when he sensed something. The urge came and hit hard. A compulsion to walk to his right. He indulged the urge and there they were. Gazing in wild fear. They tried to fight, but failed in the end. The girl called Shell mustered what little magic she could, exhausted from the running, the pain, and the dreadful tolling that still could be heard in her mind.
The ball of ice formed and she hurled it at him. The hammer hummed and jerked as if alive and transformed in a brilliant display of black fire and strata into a shield that caught the blow. A burst of cold surrounded him as a wall of ice erupted from the ground to almost ten feet above him. He ran around it and the hammer reformed as he impulsively took a swing and brought it down on her. The blow was vicious, internal bleeding and ruptured organs were certain, and when the shock almost took her, Minos heard a soft bell ringing in his ear and she screamed in pain. The younger thief darted forward and jabbed the blade into his side as he done before, but this time, tiny black tendrils flapped from the would, grasping the blade and are creeping the hit as it pushed the blade from his body. The thief yelped and darted back to receive light blow to the head. It was more than enough to kill, but he didn't die. Minos turned and saw the last of his marks running away. Minos felt the hammer move again and it transformed into a now with an arrow. He notched it and the bow guided his aim. When he fired, a burst of white and black light appeared before the arrow, and when it passed through, a thin black tendril attached itself to the arrow and flew with it hitting its target. Their screams echoed and fell on deaf ears. The tendril pulled its catch to the portal of light as Minos dragged the others to meet him. More tendrils weaved out and wrapped around them.
It was now time for tears. Many say that the cries of Minos Shea could be heard across Yithwitch. Many claims report hearing the cries of a man bereft with deep, scarring pain. Bards about the Old Shae Forge. Their attunement causes such distress that even hundreds of years after, they can still hear it, and it brings even the most controlled among them to tears to feel such sorrow. Minis wailed in between his ravings to the thieves.
"Three hundred and twenty-four!" They couldn't respond, the pain of death interrupted preventing it.
"The number of people you killed, including my family...including me." He circled them and the tendril placed their finger like tips on each of their foreheads.
"You will feel each death, each passing. You will know our pain...our fear..." He sobbed tears drenched his face. "Only then will I allow you to die."
The second reason bards never venture to the Old Shae Forge...they can feel all of that too...
It was almost dawn when he was done with them, the hammer faded into dust, and he turned to try to salvage what he could of the life he knew. When he turned to the house he saw the woman. Death herself perched on his doorstep. He sat beside her, a longing and something else in his eyes. He looked at a man does when he is utterly lost. He looked like a man with nowhere to go, and nothing to do, a man who lost a home. She turned to him.
i've never asked anything of my domain before, I've never done anything like this before, to be honest. Talking to oneself can be awkward...tedious. I mean if you as a mortal can even imagine it..." She paused and recomposed herself. "Regardless, I made another request and we are in agreement." He looked at her, tears still falling. She stood and ushered him to do the same.
"I have to go. I'll be back to give you your next mark."
He scoffed and she smiled at him.
"I've spent countless millennia feeling like life was a gift wasted on the living." She paused and looked to the sun creeping over the horizon and seemed to relax her elegant demeanor. She seemed to be focused on enjoying the moment.
"you have exactly seven days to prove me wrong...please." She turned to face him. "Don't waste it." She disappeared in a haze of black and white smoke and left him to his thoughts. What did she mean? What would he do? He looked down at the sign and considered putting it back up, opening shop again but that sign still rests on the ground to this day, for as he bent to pick it up, he heard a voice from behind...
"daddy?"
He limped to his bedside, feeling the blood travel down his muscular frame. He flinched as he sat down, reached over, and pulled his hammer from the corner. He heard the door slam open and his assailants were upon him. He rushed forward with all his strength and struck one of the thieves on the side of his skull. A lethal blow.
he tried to wind up for another blow but felt weak. The woman grabbed his arm.
"That was a mistake, blacksmith, "
He fell to the floor, the blood loss leaving him dizzy. He heard their screams, his family as they pulled their bodies into the house. His wife was still breathing, staring at him with the look of defeat. Tears fell from his eyes inconsistently, as if controlled or resisted.
His hammer was resting in his hand but his arm was limp, unable to move. His sight blurred slightly and the color of the bloodstained night began to fade to grey scale hues.
"Shell, what is this?"
"It's not me"
Minos drifted to his final slumber as he heard those words and suddenly found himself in a strange garden beneath thick grey clouds. The wounds were gone and a woman stood before him.
Elegant and calm, with a perfume made from herbs and flowers that were extinct before humans even walked the earth. she reached out her hand, gesturing for him to take it. Her wild black hair and piercing green eyes enticed him to take it but he refused. Looking away from her pale face and down at her ornate black gown.
She shook her head, frustrated.
"it isn't pretty Minos, death never is."
"No, put me back, I won't let them leave my home alive."
"lots of talk for a dead man."
He paused and nearly fainted, never considering he was in fact dead.
"I won't quit, I'll go back, with or without you."
"You make demands of a titan? I am death personified, you don't deny me."
"...And yet here I stand."
"How many do you think have done this before? This exact routine? I've played this role for eons and I'm here to tell you that if you go back, you're stuck. You will not know peace, you will wander as a ghost waiting for justice that will never come."
"How could you possibly know?"
"it's not an original story. I am the ending to everyone's tale. I've seen this one many times."
She shrugged. "Sorry, I should be more understanding. I've never known love. Even the divine make mistakes." He stood up and faced her and she offered her hand again as she spoke, "don't be afraid, it will be better soon."
"No,"
"Minos-"
" No." He screamed, and pushed her away.
"Listen." she whispered.
"No, You will listen to me." He was shocked at himself, screaming at her was likely not the healthiest choice, if health even mattered anymore. "I care about as little of the uncaring world as it does of me. You can try to take me to whatever " peace" you promise and you will succeed, but I assure you I will fight with every fiber of my being. I will fight you as you drag me kicking and screaming. I will fight tooth and nail, swearing to any god who listen, I will not cease until they receive the justice that is deserved, not the justice that is allowed."
She softened and tried to console him reaching out as if to embrace him.
"Don't you dare touch me!" He cried backing away and falling to the ground in tears.
"Did you see it...The way she looked at me? looking to me in her final moments and..." He choked through the sobs trying to gain control over the spasms, his diaphragm seizing his lungs and keeling him over.
"... she knew we couldn't win... her face was so sad." He sobbed "With moments left to live and... I failed to show her that there was still hope. I failed to console her." For a moment he said nothing. He nodded, sobbing as if accepting the defeat. Then keeled over once more in a another fit of sorrow.
He didn't realize for some time that the woman was holding him. Stroking his hair through the tears. "Shh." She ushered him to his feet,
"I hear you." She whispered, " The universe is not as uncaring as you think." She grabbed the back of his head and a menace shrouded the kind demeanor her face once held. "You swore before all the divine, but I'm right here in front of you." She spat the words through livid tones.
"now you address me, blacksmith." She pulled his hair violently arching his head back and the clouds above began to part. "Swear it to me!"
"I swear, please." He pleaded, the clouds parted and he felt the scorching heat of light on his back. He screamed and tried to wiggle free but she spun him around by the back of his head and her grip tightened.
What he saw before him he could never unsee. It burned into his mind and on the back of his retinas. He saw a black sun, circled by a harsh white light. The spots of white dance along its surface and he couldn't turn away, despite compulsively wanting too. He felt his skin char to black and peel only to grow again continuing a painful cycle. The sight made it feel like his mind was splitting at the seems.
"Do not turn away. You address me now, blacksmith, swear to me."
He tried to speak but found it hard as the sun’s light caused such pain.
"Swear it before your only salvation refuses to hear " She whispered."
"I...Swear." He forced the words out and the sun disappeared in what seemed an instant. He fell to his knees into her arms as she fell with him. His skin healed but smoke rose from the pores. He tried not to blink. The black sun seemed burned to the back of his eyelids.
"She. It's almost over."
a feeling overcame him. He was in two places at once. He felt her caressing his hair, he also felt the wooden floor of his home, not a moment has passed since the dark overtook him. He closed and opened his eyes. He saw both her and the assailants. They looked frightened.
"get up," the titan whispered in his ear and he felt himself crawling along the floor of the house, drawn to the source of their fear. He propped himself up and between him and his doomed attackers was the black sun, smaller, and within reach.
the orb of light was the size of a woodburning stove and hovered in the air patiently. he heard the words. He felt he heard them before.
"Shell, what is this?"
"it's not me."
"Reach into the sun, minors." She whispered.
"Will it hurt?" He couldn't tell if he spoke or thought the question, but he received an answer. "Extremely." He winced and then forced himself to reach in. He felt his skin bubble and melt and screamed in both rage and agony. His skeletal hands gripped something, his skeletal fingers wrapped around it. It was a handle of some kind.
His position was more stable now, he could no longer see her. He could only hear her calming voice.
"Strike it."
He felt his attention pulled to his free hand. He was still holding the hammer. The pain was more bearable no, no nerves to burn anymore. His cry was of determination and fury as he raised the hammer and struck the heart of the black sun with more force then he ever dared at the forge. The sound of the strike was beautiful but rang with ill fortune. His attackers collapsed to the ground clasping their ears in hopes of deafening that which tolled for them. It was a thunderous drone that reminded him of the cathedral bells of Rouxsgate, only louder and distant, as if phasing between this world and the domain of death itself. He struck again on impulse and while light radiated from the star.
the bells told once more and the screams of the thieves, a chorus of agony only made it seem sweeter. He struck a final time and this toll was the loudest, the dirt and dust kicked up in a ring around him and the sound seemed to push the harsh white light out of the room in a flash and the neon black remained
He now felt that the object had weight and balance.
He slowly pulled his hand from the dying star and watched as the muscle tissue and skin reformed. The handle was black as pitch and the head of Warhammer emerged as the sun dispersed into nothing. The head of the hammer was beautiful, as if made of the star itself. Sunspot danced across its black and white surface.
His attackers stood up in pain and confusion, assisting one another in their attempt to flee. minos looked to the the face of his wife, fearful of what he may see. The look on her face was serene, even comfortable with the beginning of a amourous smile proudly frozen in her passing.
The ground was wet from the evening rain. He felt water rush into his shoes when he stepped out. The hammer hissed and hummed with rancorous sounds of stars as it moved in his hand. He looked around as he walked. Trying to see some sign of them when he sensed something. The urge came and hit hard. A compulsion to walk to his right. He indulged the urge and there they were. Gazing in wild fear. They tried to fight, but failed in the end. The girl called Shell mustered what little magic she could, exhausted from the running, the pain, and the dreadful tolling that still could be heard in her mind.
The ball of ice formed and she hurled it at him. The hammer hummed and jerked as if alive and transformed in a brilliant display of black fire and strata into a shield that caught the blow. A burst of cold surrounded him as a wall of ice erupted from the ground to almost ten feet above him. He ran around it and the hammer reformed as he impulsively took a swing and brought it down on her. The blow was vicious, internal bleeding and ruptured organs were certain, and when the shock almost took her, Minos heard a soft bell ringing in his ear and she screamed in pain. The younger thief darted forward and jabbed the blade into his side as he done before, but this time, tiny black tendrils flapped from the would, grasping the blade and are creeping the hit as it pushed the blade from his body. The thief yelped and darted back to receive light blow to the head. It was more than enough to kill, but he didn't die. Minos turned and saw the last of his marks running away. Minos felt the hammer move again and it transformed into a now with an arrow. He notched it and the bow guided his aim. When he fired, a burst of white and black light appeared before the arrow, and when it passed through, a thin black tendril attached itself to the arrow and flew with it hitting its target. Their screams echoed and fell on deaf ears. The tendril pulled its catch to the portal of light as Minos dragged the others to meet him. More tendrils weaved out and wrapped around them.
It was now time for tears. Many say that the cries of Minos Shea could be heard across Yithwitch. Many claims report hearing the cries of a man bereft with deep, scarring pain. Bards about the Old Shae Forge. Their attunement causes such distress that even hundreds of years after, they can still hear it, and it brings even the most controlled among them to tears to feel such sorrow. Minis wailed in between his ravings to the thieves.
"Three hundred and twenty-four!" They couldn't respond, the pain of death interrupted preventing it.
"The number of people you killed, including my family...including me." He circled them and the tendril placed their finger like tips on each of their foreheads.
"You will feel each death, each passing. You will know our pain...our fear..." He sobbed tears drenched his face. "Only then will I allow you to die."
The second reason bards never venture to the Old Shae Forge...they can feel all of that too...
It was almost dawn when he was done with them, the hammer faded into dust, and he turned to try to salvage what he could of the life he knew. When he turned to the house he saw the woman. Death herself perched on his doorstep. He sat beside her, a longing and something else in his eyes. He looked at a man does when he is utterly lost. He looked like a man with nowhere to go, and nothing to do, a man who lost a home. She turned to him.
i've never asked anything of my domain before, I've never done anything like this before, to be honest. Talking to oneself can be awkward...tedious. I mean if you as a mortal can even imagine it..." She paused and recomposed herself. "Regardless, I made another request and we are in agreement." He looked at her, tears still falling. She stood and ushered him to do the same.
"I have to go. I'll be back to give you your next mark."
He scoffed and she smiled at him.
"I've spent countless millennia feeling like life was a gift wasted on the living." She paused and looked to the sun creeping over the horizon and seemed to relax her elegant demeanor. She seemed to be focused on enjoying the moment.
"you have exactly seven days to prove me wrong...please." She turned to face him. "Don't waste it." She disappeared in a haze of black and white smoke and left him to his thoughts. What did she mean? What would he do? He looked down at the sign and considered putting it back up, opening shop again but that sign still rests on the ground to this day, for as he bent to pick it up, he heard a voice from behind...
"daddy?"
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