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Aelfric thought about the musters and how they had swelled, and had then set out in their lengthy columns upon horse and foot. He could even now see the pennons fluttering proudly in the breezes, and hear the wagon and cart wheels creaking with the strain incurred under their heavy loads of arms and supplies.

Everything had led right up to the moment that he now found himself in, converging within the quiet, resigned intake of breath before the thunderous roar of battle sounded. Aelfric looked outward, far past Morcar, Osmod, and Byrtnoth, towards the flowing grass blanketing the open plain and stretching beyond the farthest edge of the horizon.

The cleansing air filled each breath with a sense of the blooming spring that should have been a time for uplifted spirits and hope throughout the realm; the hope of bountiful fields, a wealth of wool, and increased trade in the markets. It was a time that should have been filled with riddles and song, abundant with ale and meat.

The coming onslaught was an absolute mockery of everything that Aelfric believed that the All-Father had intended for humankind. A part of him wondered why the All-Father would even tolerate the passing of such insidious times, when so many innocents would be caught up in an inferno of war, death, and suffering.

Aelfric did not need to be reminded that mortal life was so very fragile. Only the present moment promised even a shred of stability, and even that little scrap could unravel at any time, without warning.

The great thane and Ealdorman of the Wesvald had already lost two children. Both of them should have easily outlived him, but he had been made to helplessly witness a wasting sickness, as it voraciously consumed his young son and daughter, down to their last drop of life essence. He had prayed to exhaustion, but the disease had not hesitated to devour that final spark of light within his two dear children.

He had also lost one brother, one that he had grown very close to throughout his life, due to a vicious fight over the perception of offended honor. The sorrowful and unexpected loss had happened just a month before his beloved brother was to be married to the daughter of a thane that Aelfric’s family had long embraced, in warm friendship.

Aelfric’s own blade had taken vengeance on the man that had slain his brother, but only a cold emptiness had been left in the wake of the act of retribution. The passage of time may have aided him in learning to live with the hole in his heart, but it had never truly gone away. The sting of the shock of the loss still resided deep within Aelfric’s soul.

Life was not assured, nor did it ever seem to proceed in what Aelfric could deem to be any semblance of a sensible, understandable fashion. The empty horizon that he now beheld would shortly be filled from one end to the other with ranks of enemies, whose only purpose was to conquer and destroy the Saxan realm for all time to come.

The Saxans’ own encampment was indeed enormous, a far greater mustering than Aelfric had ever imagined that the realm could gather together. Yet he could not deny that the chance of victory lay to a much greater extent with the overwhelmingly massive enemy forces arraying against them.

He shook his head in sadness, as he slowly turned his eyes away from the green, windswept plains to the west. The undulating expanse of grasses would soon be dyed crimson with the blood of Aelfric’s own people, as well as the blood of so many others who were far removed from their homes and hearths.

It caused Aelfric to wonder why the invaders felt so compelled to attack, and why so many great and historic realms so willingly served the whims of such an obviously dark power, as the Unifier unmistakably was. Aelfric could not believe that the Great Vicar of his faith, Celestine IX, could tolerate such a senseless war between realms of fellow believers.

He mused that even the Grand Shepherd, residing behind the massive walls of faraway Theonium, sitting in authority over those that had broken away in the great Schism that had ruptured the once united faith of Emmanu’s followers, could certainly perceive the grave injustice of this coming war.

Another part of him wondered as to whether the most adamant protest by the two sacred leaders could even bring about a moment’s pause in the impending onslaught. Aelfric knew the answer to that well enough. It was a very sobering thought, to believe that the two holy leaders could not resist the will of the Unifier. The world was indeed changing fast, and not for the better.

“What troubles you?” Morcar asked quietly, grabbing Aelfric’s attention before the majordomo sank into even deeper fathoms within himself.

Aelfric looked up at him, and gave a very weary sigh. “Just life… no more than that. No less than that.”

“You need say no more my friend,” Byrtnoth said compassionately, from Aelfric’s other side. He lay a hand upon Aelfric’s shoulder, as Morcar nodded his agreement with the Ealdorman of Sussachia’s somber words.

*

AYENWATHA

*

Raw cries of anguish and sorrow permeated the forests of the Five Realms on the traumatic day of departure. Villages all across the woodlands were left behind, empty and purposely abandoned, as the great exodus began.

Emotional wounds suffered in the vicious attacks from the skies were ripped open even further. Most villagers had not recovered well from the sudden pronouncement of the Grand Council’s decision, for the tribes to desert the villages and their lands. They could not believe that they were leaving the lands that they loved, and had inhabited for all of their lives, heading into a future fraught with instability.

There had been no time to adjust or prepare, and the tribal people were not coping well. The decision of the Grand Council had been swift in its delivery, and absolute in its urgency.

Throughout the tribal lands, each village left as a group. Plans were quickly made so that the village groups would eventually combine together into larger contingents, all along the way of the various forest trails crossing through their extensive lands.

There had been no time for proper condolences, or even for the proper, traditional burial rituals. The hastily constructed platforms holding the wrapped bodies of the dead were cleared immediately, as the bodies were hastened into great pits. It was not wholly unlike their regular practices, but it was greatly shortened in terms of ceremony, and the methodical, tribal customs, something that was considered to be a very bad omen by many of the villagers.

The only comfort to be had anywhere was found in the fact that family groups would be kept together. The villagers would still have the presence of their cherished clan matrons, clan sachems, Wise Ones, and headmen walking on the long march with them.

Even so, between the confederated tribes and villages there were many friends who were being parted from friends, and lover from lover, making the exodus one of tremendous discomfort, pain, and frustration for the sorrowing people.

The people had little time to salvage whatever they could from their villages. Those who were a part of the great Healing Societies reverently gathered together all of the ritual masks that had survived the destruction, along with ash, rattles, and other implements used in their mystical ceremonies.

Foodstuffs of all kinds were scraped up and gathered into baskets, buckets, and any method of containment that could be taken along. Weapons were also collected, with quantities of arrows distributed and placed within quivers woven of corn husks, or fashioned of hide.

Ayenwatha, fresh from the formal war council, had volunteered to keep the seven exiles with him. None of the others in the village, under the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to care for the needs of the outsiders in the midst of the terrible calamities that had been mercilessly thrust upon their own families and clans.

When he found them towards the base of the hill, at the Place of Far Seeing, it was clear that his appearance startled the exiles, for his skin was now painted red and black for the impending war.