Calder nods. “Except they had already sacrificed him. Makt embodied the husk of my child while his young soul entered the Abyss, where all those children who die young descend.” He gestures further down the street, where the wind swirls dead leaves, and a light dusting of snow drapes from building to building.
“I slew the body of my son to destroy Makt. But the God of Power was already free of his shackles in the Abyss and unwilling to return. He began inhibiting any body he could possess.” Calder clutches her upper arm, stopping her from turning away, “I did what was necessary to stop Makt. Even if it was all for naught.”
She tilts her head away to look at the field between the town and the docks and experiences a complete, horrific shock.
She has nothing to compare the sight.
Fleeing in various hair-raising acts of terror are the people of Chillbury.
Men, women, and children abandoned all thought and reason to escape the panic induced by the sacrifice. As she nears the first victim, that of a woman, she realizes they are all frozen solid. Forever stuck in paralysis. Most were frightened, some in hysterics, and others bore a cruel understanding of their fate.
She stumbles backward.
This is what Calder meant.
He froze every last person to death to catch Makt.
“I don’t understand,” she shakes her head, “how did he kill them all? Briny and Freyr possessed Grandpa Thord and left him alive each time.”
Calder’s tense expression lessens to pity. “Gods have a choice. Makt is the only one who chooses to kill the hosts.”
Aura stops beside a little girl, who clings to her mother as she averts her gaze from the demon overtaking them. The Princess clutches the auburn-haired doll in her hands, wondering if this child had one in her home.
She is not sure how long she wanders through the carnage, memorizing every expression, shedding silent tears for the unnecessary loss of life.
And for the Iss Drengr’s soul.
Gods of the Endless Shore, I humbly beseech you to watch over Calder with your blessings of strength, wisdom, and good fortune. Briny and Maeve, please guide him. Ingvar and Astrid, Noxumbra and Gullveig. Do not forsake your son.
Maeve’s voice whispers in her mind, “He is not our child to protect. But his redemption will come if he chooses it.”
She sniffles back the tears as she returns to his side with the mystic words of her grandmother seared in her mind. “Why did you never free their bodies?”
“I couldn’t face them. Not after I buried my ex-wife and son along the shoreline.”
She clutches the Sacred Stone.
“Briny? May I control ice?”
“Yes, Aurie, dear.”
She feels the frost energy pulsing in her hands as she strides toward the first woman. Delicately, she holds her in her arms while focusing on reversing theseidr. The woman collapses into her embrace, long dead but no longer frozen in fear. She has released about ten corpses when she hears Calder behind her, unfreezing the other villagers.
They spend the rest of the afternoon until they all lay in the snow, free of their ice prison.
“Briny? May I control the earth?”
Maeve answers this time.“Yes, Aurie.”
She places her hands on the ground, urging the earth to open graves for all of the bodies. Calder follows her progress up and down the rows, placing the bodies into the frozen ground.
Skalor burial culture prefers deep catacombs of embalmed dead, but will bury bodies in the ground in a pinch.
Before they finish, she places the doll into the young girl's grave.
To think these townsfolk sacrificed Calder’s son without a second thought.
Vengeance wasn’t even on his mind, only saving them from the Draemonium.
