Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (2 page)

Catelyn was five cycles into her tenth sojourn when she
had lost her sight and her family. Despite being so long ago, she
could still recall the precise details of the horrific experience, six
sojourns later.

Perhaps it was because of the traumatic events which led
to her blindness, or perhaps it was the simple fact that she wished
to hold on to the last thing she saw, in spite of the horrors it
unleashed upon her to do so, but whatever the reason, that last day
was seared into her memory and she could recall every detail with
perfect clarity, as if it had formed permanent scars on her mind.

They were as familiar and comfortable to her as the scars
adorning her face and chest, and the many thickened pads on her
hands and feet.

Catelyn did not shy away from those scars, or the pain that
had led her to acquire them. Her parents had given her the gift of
unflinching truth before they had been ripped away from her.

She was their only child, and so they took great pains to
maximize her understanding of their lives and not hide the reality
of their situation from her.

Her father Tomas and mother Sera were loving, kind and
simple folk who lived as best they could under the insane yoke of
the Emperor Uriel, the Third of His Name, as did nearly all the
citizens of the continent of Exeter. To remain such warm and
compassionate people in the face of what they had endured was
rare, Catelyn knew.

When she asked them why other people she met, though
the occasions were rare, were not as kind, they simply responded
“It’s because they don’t have you.”

They had been teenagers when they had come to the Seat,
both children of farmers who had lived outside the Walls before
the ascendance of Emperor Uriel III, working the land in a tumble
down village just outside the heart of the Empire.

Since the rise of this new Emperor however, all citizens,
free or indentured, had been required by imperial proclamation to
relocate within the city walls.

Her parents had begun teaching her about everything they
could, from the humble lessons of their rural upbringing to the
history of their nation, as soon as she was old enough to
understand their words.

Her father always prefaced such lessons by declaring to
her that he hoped to one day chronicle these events, and that is
why he repeated them to her day after day. Her parents might have
been the children of simple farmers, but before the Empire had
forced them inside the Walls, they had been educated by their
families, and they recognized in Catelyn a keenness of mind well
beyond her sojourns.

Catelyn remembered the lessons her parents would give at
the end of every day, the weariness and the despair plain on their
faces. But somehow, they found it in themselves to leave their
cares outside their hovel and smile when they saw her.

She was not surprised to realize that she recalled nearly
every word of the last such lesson with her father, just half a span
before they were stolen from her forever. And she smiled at the
memory of her father’s voice, deep and full of warmth, despite the
grim subject matter.

“Uriel the Third of His Name, the Emperor, usurped...that
means to take away from someone else... the Empire from his own
father, Uriel the Second of His Name, in a military coup by gaining
control over the vast Imperial army, comprised of both free men
and mercenaries.

“The Imperial army of Exeter is renowned for its military
prowess and size. Under his father Uriel the Second, this army had
been spread far and wide across the known world. Uriel the Third
secretly recalled many of the army’s most elite units to the capital,
and used them to take control of the Seat, overthrowing his father
in a bloody conflict that nearly tore the city apart. After he seized
power, his first act was to recall every one of his soldiers to the
homeland, to be the fist that he needed to enforce his power over
the people.”

Young Catelyn tried to imagine the streets she knew
clogged with soldiers fighting and dying, but she couldn’t. She had
never seen so many people before.

“When the Emperor proclaimed his relocation order,
ordering everyone to move within the walls of the city, a number of
people refused and many were summarily executed. Outlying
villages, like the one your mother and I grew up in, survived for a
while, until Imperial army “death squads” were sent to eliminate
any who dared oppose the Emperor.

“Some of the commanders of the army were noble men,
and they refused to follow such inhuman orders. To a man, every
one of them was relieved of their command and executed in the
most horrifying ways. Uriel is merciless in his application of
discipline. When all the people saw what the Emperor was capable
of doing even to those he had once put his full trust in, they saw no
other choice but to comply.”

Catelyn always felt the pain of her parents deep below the
surface when they talked about this last act of defiance. Although
her mother and father were beaten down just as everyone else was,
she got the feeling that there was more to it. More than they were
comfortable telling her. Those moments always passed, though,
and the lessons moved on.

“Uriel spent the bulk of his immense wealth and power,
and the first dozen sojourns of his reign fortifying the city walls
from threats both within and without his domain. He rewarded the
most cruel of his commanders, and they soon rose to positions of
prominence alongside Uriel.

“With their help, and the unpaid labor of all the citizens of
the Seat, the walls were expanded to a number of the outlying
cities of the Empire, until finally the entirety of his Empire was
enclosed within walls several hundred paces high. Our entire
nation, and all of its people, imprisoned under the yoke of a mad
ruler.”

This last sentence was always spoken in hushed, clipped
voices, as though her parents feared being overheard by some
secret listener. Although they seemed cautious about revealing
such feelings, Catelyn also saw a spark of something in their eyes
when they talked about it.

“Only a few citizens of Exeter have seen the world outside
of these walls in the last two generations. Your mother and I were
among the last, with our families holding on as long as they could,
gathering what we harvested and using it to bribe officials to keep
our village alive and free from Imperial control.

“It took an Imperial regiment marching upon our village
before our elders realized the dire threat we all faced for not
moving. Our families gave up our homes and our lives and we
entered the Seat. Sometimes, I wish that they had made the
decision to just run and that we had taken our chances as fugitives.
But your mother and I were young, not that much older than you
are now.”

It didn’t matter whether it was her father or her mother
telling her this history. The look on their faces at the end of this
story was the same, and Catelyn felt a stab of pain at seeing her
parents so full of fear and regret.

They never talked much about their lives after moving into
the Seat, but Catelyn could fill in the gaps on her own.
She knew that her parents had been unprepared for the
radical change their lives had undergone. A simple life as farmers
may not have been glamorous or exciting, but it was a noble calling
and one which both her parent's families had taken pride in. But
within the walls, every citizen was assigned their profession, and
there was no discussion or debate about it whatsoever.
Despite having sojourns of farming experience for much of
their young lives, food production in the Seat was tightly
controlled and her parents did not have the influence to land such
fortunate positions. Instead, they were forced into trades that they
would have never considered outside the Seat.
Tomas was forced to work directly for the Empire as a “tax
collector”, which in the case of the rule of Uriel III, meant that he
ran with a gang of street toughs who in fact collected protection
money, extorting businesses in return for their continued ability to
remain unmolested by Imperial soldiers. Nothing could have been
more inappropriate for her father, as Catelyn’s experience of him
was of a warm, peaceful man at heart.
She couldn’t have imagined him being capable of raising
his hand in anger to anyone, but she also knew that he had no
choice if he was going to bring home his ration of food every week.
He also brought home the marks and scars of such a trade, but he
always made excuses about where such wounds had come from, so
as not to worry his family.
Sera, on the other hand, was employed to sell addictive
substances to her fellow neighbors, and on occasion, to sell herself
as a companion to Imperial soldiers.
Catelyn hated thinking about this part of her family’s
struggle, but her mother had never shied away from talking about
what she did or how it made her feel. She would always tell Catelyn
truthfully, “This is the world we live in now. I do this for us.”
Catelyn knew that it repulsed her mother to be made to
satisfy the darkest desires of the thugs which comprised the bulk of
the Imperial Army, but she bore this burden in order that she
might enjoy what remained of her life with her family, rather than
face execution.
Only once had Catelyn seen her mother unnerved by what
the Empire had made of her, and it was a memory she would never
forget.

Catelyn was just a few sojourns old, and she was playing
on the floor of their family's kitchen, with some wooden blocks
that her father had carved for her. Every now and then, she looked
up at her mother, pacing back and forth and biting her nails.
Catelyn had seen her mother acting like this before, usually when
they were waiting for her father to get home.

“It's OK, mama. He'll come home. He always does,”
Catelyn said, hoping to reassure her mother.
Catelyn's mother smiled at her, and she went back to her
play, confident that her father would walk through the door any
moment.
A knock on the door came instead, and Catelyn looked up
to see a look of utter despair on her mother’s face. Her mother
hurried to Catelyn and picked her up, saying soothing words and
trying to smile through the tears smudging the dirt on her face.
Her mother rushed Catelyn inside the closet of their home,
and shut the door, but not before putting one hand to her lips,
letting Catelyn know that she should remain quiet.
Catelyn could see through a crack in the door, and she
watched as her mother nervously crossed the room to open the
door to their hovel.
Catelyn wasn’t able to see who it was. Her view was
obscured both by the open door and her mother’s body. It looked
to Catelyn as though her mother was deliberately shielding her
from whoever had come calling, but Catelyn could make out the
muffled sound of a man's voice, and the sound of it still gave
Catelyn chills.
The exact words he said were unclear, but her mother was
saying “I've done everything that has ever been asked of me! When
will it be enough? Please. Please, just let me go.”
Catelyn was horrified to see her mother's plea interrupted
by a vicious blow that knocked her mother to the ground with
terrible force.
Catelyn forgot all about her mother's warnings to remain
quiet and hidden, and she opened the closet door, crying out as she
watched her mother try to get up and fight back, her hands clawing
at her attacker.
The man, who stepped into their home so that Catelyn
could see him, was an Imperial officer wearing a full set of armor.
His angry face, which Catelyn knew she would never forget as long
as she lived, was criss-crossed by a number of scars, clearly
identifying him as someone who made his living at war. His grey
eyes were cold, and he once more struck out with his metal fist,
effortlessly laying her mother low.
Catelyn felt her heart sink as her mother slumped to the
ground, beaten, and then she could only watch in horror as he
stepped over Sera’s prone form in the doorway and marched
across to where Catelyn was standing. Behind him, other men
entered the room and picked her mother up and held her between
them.
The man looked down at Catelyn, then turned and growled
at her mother in a gruff, heartless voice.
“If you won’t come with us, then we’ll be forced to take the
little one in your place!”
Catelyn watched her mother's face screw up and her
mouth moving wordlessly, as tears fell from her eyes, mixing with
the flowing blood from a handful of cuts.
The man turned back to Catelyn, his cold eyes glaring out
from within that mask of mangled flesh, and he simply reached out
and struck her with the same metal fist that he had laid into her
mother.
Catelyn’s world collapsed into darkness in that moment,
and she felt herself drop to her knees. She didn't know how long
that pain and disorientation lasted.
When she regained some semblance of awareness, she
heard her mother’s pleading voice, followed by the hateful shouts
of the man standing above her, as she was jostled roughly and
pulled to her feet and away towards the door.
And then finally, Catelyn heard something that would
haunt her nearly every night from that day forward.
Her mother’s surrender.
Sera broke free from the men holding onto her and went
to her knees, grabbing the leg of the man holding Catelyn.
“Please no, give me one more chance. Please. Don't take
my angel. Please. Take me. I'll go. Just let her be. Please,” her
mother wailed, each word more plaintive than the one before.
Catelyn was still dizzy and her jaw was on fire from the
blow, but she looked up to see the man shift his gaze from Catelyn
to her mother, and back again.
Finally, he reached down and slugged Sera once more, and
then dumped Catelyn back onto the floor.
“That one was for making us have to come out here to this
shithole.”
He grabbed her mother by the collar and dragged her
away, out the door.
Catelyn sat on the floor crying, in a numbing haze for
prayers, before her father Tomas came home.
Catelyn was only dimly aware of him at first, as he
frantically searched their home, and then he came running to
Catelyn, picking her up in his arms and holding her so closely. She
recounted everything that she had witnessed, and her father
simply listened, tears in his eyes as wailing sobs escaped his
chapped lips.
When he regained some of his composure, he spent that
afternoon caring for Catelyn, cleaning and dressing the cuts on her
face as she could only look at him in shocked, stunned silence.
Her mother returned to their home later that night, her
face still swollen and her eyes fixed in a rigid mask of pain. When
she entered their hovel, Tomas got up and ran to her, grabbing
onto her and refusing to let go, with the exception of when it was
time to put Catelyn to bed.
Once he'd tucked her into her blankets, Catelyn's mind
and body refused to sleep, and she spent that whole night wide
awake, listening numbly as her parents talked in hushed voices
until morning.