Howlen and Cassius were not alone outside the Consul's Longhouse. The rain had ceased, but the clouds remained low and heavy over the crowd amassed in the public square at the foot of its stairs. Two chainmail-clad men, each with ten-foot pikes, stood as symbolic guards between the Longhouse and the crowd. Everyone's story seemed the same.

A mother taken. A child. A father or brother, all vanished at sunrise. No one saw the moment but some were close.

"I had just turned away," a woman said through tears.

"We were alone, then she was gone," a young man said.

While his father joined in the crowd's pleas for answers, Cassius saw the Novissime flag being pulled from atop the Longhouse's peaked roof.

"Where did they go?" A man from the crowd shouted.

"Give us the Druid!" Another joined.

"My husband, my husband." Still another.

The guards did not move, their gaze remained fixed on some distant nothingness. Cassius was not close enough to see their eyes through the slits in their tall pointed helmets, but he imagined their faces had the same scared expression as his.

The Longhouse's massive wooden doors creaked open and the Consul stepped through without the customary purple cloak of the Novissime, Cassius noted. In its place was the Vencian blue. The crowd fell silent.

"I understand the distress we find ourselves in. Know that this has reached us all. Those taken were family and friends-"

"Where's the Druid!"

The consul, a graying woman, Cassius had always put her age at fifty, raised an understanding hand. "If a member of your house has been taken, we wish to meet with you individually. I have spoken with Elisor and I can assure you he had no hand in what happened. He and his followers however, may be our only hope in returning our loved ones to us."

Has she lost someone too? Cassius wondered. How terrible it must be to feel this, and have everyone depending on you. He looked to his father.

"There is more, I am afraid. One of our own, my son," The Consul paused. She had to. "He was sent to race at the Novissime's Festival. He has been murdered at the emperor's orders. While we grapple with the tragic mystery that occurred this morning, we must also face the world alone." Cassius could feel the uneasy surprise sweep over the crowd. He was not surprised though. Instead, he wondered if the others had not noticed the flag being taken down or the blue cloak the Consul wore.

The Consul continued. "As I speak to you, our brave Vencian Knights are overrunning the Novissime garrison on our island. We will force their withdrawal, or destroy them outright." The reality of war struck Cassius and he felt stupid. "Vencia is independent. This is our island once again. While we search for answers, please be mindful and brace for any counter-aggression from the Novissime." The Consul returned to her longhouse. Cassius thought it was an abrupt end to the speech. Did she go inside so we didn't see her cry? Tears welled up in his eyes, but he managed to keep them in like his father had shown him.

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A member of her court, not a guard Cassius could tell, came out a short time later. Cassius made a face at the man's shrill voice. "Attention! All who had a member of their immediate household taken must assemble in a line over here. All others are dismissed. You must leave."

Much of the crowd left, but the line formed by those who stayed was uncomfortably long. Cassius and Howlen were near its end. Was that her? Cassius saw a reddish-brown tuft of curls bobbing away in the portion of the crowd that left. I hope it was her. I hope she left.

Before too long it was Howlen and Cassius's turn. As fast as people filed in and out of the Longhouse, they fully expected this would lead to nothing. Cassius heard his father's short, forceful breaths and felt him shift weight from foot to foot. He wished he could address the feeling; reach out and hold his hand or tell him it would be ok, but Cassius did nothing.

They were led through the massive doors by a pikeman on either side and one in front. The inside of the longhouse opened up with no second story. The main hall reached to the peaked roof. In the center, a large fire burned and the Consul's throne sat empty on its raised pedestal. Father and son were then led around the back of the throne, through another set of doors, up a turning flight of creaking stairs, out onto a mezzanine overlooking the main hall and finally into a small, windowless room.

To one side of the room was a closed doorway. A man neither had seen before sat at a wooden table, nearly the width of the room, scribbling in a large opened book. He bore the Consul's crest on his left shoulder.

"Your names?" The man asked, tired.

"Howlen Juliei. This is my boy, Cassius."

"And who was lost?"

"My wife. Jennifer. This morning, she just vanished. We were so close to the house we could hear-"

The man lifted a hand to silence Howlen. He had been taking notes and did not look up.

"Our dog was taken too. We heard him barking, then they were gone." Cassius almost whispered.

"Your dog you say?" A fourth man in the room spoke from the shadows, "Cassius Juliei, was it?"

Cassius turned to see the man, cloaked in the black of the druids. His eyes widened. "That's right."

"Indeed, it is." The Druid leaned in, close enough for Cassius to smell the strange sweet stench of a lifetime of oddities. A long lifetime it seemed to Cassius

"Have you heard any calling prior to this, boy? Perhaps a dream or a voice in the wind?"

Howlen had gripped his son's shoulder, but Cassius couldn't tell. "No, I don't hear voices and my dreams are-"

"And you, did you have any hint of the changes coming?" The Druid stood to face Howlen.

Howlen shook his head.

"Did you? Do you know what happened?" Cassius pleaded. Howlen pulled harder at his son.

"No no, the boy sees me." The Druid said, turning back to Cassius. "Someone as practiced as I does get a sort of feeling when these changes happen. But it takes a special hand to alter the world's fate."

"How do we get our family back? Jennifer, all of the people? What do we do?" Howlen could hardly get the words out.

The Druid nodded to the man at the desk. The man wrote in his large book and said, "Your animals will be divided among your neighbors. We will need you to stay here for a time. You will leave with Elisor for the Broch when his work is concluded here. We expect three days. Perhaps less."

"The Broch? Why us?" Cassius did not know if the words came from him or his father.

The druid leaned forward again, for the first time revealing his pale wrinkled face and bright, almost glowing green eyes. "This is only the beginning, young Juliei. You must be ready for the darkest of nights and the coldest of winters, and pray to the Old Gods they do not come."