On the bleak week – Excerpts from Rites of the bleak week

...as devised by bishop Barnabei the Merciful in the year 438 ADM, the rite of Sunsight consists in removing an heretic’s sight and attaching them facing the east. They are then kept alive through the cold and starvation by the prayers of the faithful.

May all the sunrises they would see be given to another...

End of the year / First day of the Bleak week 782 ADM – Eternal Empire – Modona’s upper district – Merentah Library’s private study

It had now been over half a year since the last time Ulysse had tried to channel, what use was there to pursue something when it had been proved so thoroughly to be impossible.

Instead, he had grasped on faint hopes for... something else, Victoria had told him these who could get good enough at the chosen-tongue, which was likely just a fancy name for Necromundian, would get to learn magic. Ulysse didn’t care specifically for the unholy power, he had only heard bad things about it. But he knew it must have been strong, strong enough to strike fear in the heart of the believers at least, that was his goal right now, to earn a power of his own and no longer feel ridicule next to his sister.

Learning a tongue however was nowhere near as simple as basic channeling, it was a long-term effort he’d already been keeping for 5 months now, more than a fourth of the deadline Victoria had told him about. At first, he was glad for the monosyllabic words of the tongue, after all he wouldn’t have to worry about spelling errors. Yet as time went on and he scoured the pages of the book, that expectation was turned on its head, instead of learning spelling he just had an alphabet of apparently endless characters, which were also words, to memorize, thankfully the book only seemed to have a few hundreds.

Grammar was easy at least, Chosen-tongue, as he had found out with his increasing understanding, was a tongue that left a great deal of freedom in the way things were said. One could freely weave words together to form new, or slightly differing ones.

Thankfully he was not alone in that endeavor, it seemed the Librarian hadn’t completely given up on him as on the first day of each month, and apparently the bleak week to, he found a written test inside the library, the test would always come back the next day, corrected and with red notes on how he could improve, sometimes it even had small tips.

The clock on the wall made 10 ringing sounds in quick succession. That was his signal to close his book and shove it inside his pack together with all his notes. Standing up he stretched, causing small popping sounds in his back.

Grace would be waiting for him outside. Once she had been freed, she begun to train Ulysse in swordplay in hopes of preventing future mishaps. And it had already shown its results, if not in the intended way since it forced him to be awake at 10, and as such, not skip lunch. Coupled with the physical training he had begun to fill up a bit of his lanky figure.

He passed through the library’s already opened door, he didn’t like to close it anymore, ran down the spiral staircase, almost bumping into, but dodging last second, a passing librarian. When he came outside after pushing the heavy double doors he wasn’t even panting, and they didn’t feel that heavy anymore.

The Olian residence was sitting right next to the library tower, a fact he had grown to appreciate over the last months. Less appreciable however was his instructor who stood in training clothes with a displeased expression.

Ulysse approached her, his shoes crunching the snow with a pleasant noise. He shuddered, it could have been the dread of being late, or just the bone-deep cold of early winter.

At least there was still sunlight on the first day of the week.

“Dammit Ul', late once again, you’ll get eaten if you ever go in the military.”

“Hi Grace, I'm doing well thank you, and I have zero intentions of going. I just want to beat Al’ once.”

“About that, how are your duels doing theses day?”

“It has climbed back up a bit since she started double channeling, I'm almost averaging 3 to 5 now.”

“I don’t suppose she has changed her mind about learning actual swordplay? Or physical training?”

“Ho, you know her,” He takes on a high-pitched voice, “I’m such a genius, I know sword stuff already.”

“A shame, she is such a channeling genius, sometimes I think I'd trade some of my idiot kids for her.”

“Well, actually it looks like she is making progress, she doesn’t really go seriously against me, it’s more like she is testing things out.”

“Whatever, back to you being late lordling. How about you give me ten push-ups, then we go for a jog round the estate?”

“I’ll gladly decline if this is a question.”

“Rhetoric, go, and you’ll do five more.” She said with a chuckle.

Someday his tendency to banter would lose him.

He got down and started on his push-ups, the snow chilling his hands. The first ten were fine, the next five not so much.

Then the two of them started jogging along to edge of the estate. It had been a grueling task when he had first begun his training. Now he could actually finish it without dying, it felt nice to jog while watching his snow-white surroundings, even leafless the treed looked nice, and the gardeners had planted some sort of northern flowers that survived through winter.

The two runners had crossed about a fourth of their way along the estate’s hedges, and were approaching the gates when Grace grumbled something.

“So the rumors were true.”

“Which rumors?” There was so many he had heard about.

She raised a finger, pointing, “Look at the gates, they ended up accepting the snake's terms.”

Taking a look at the gates there was indeed a small assembly, he could see Agrios’ tuft of blond hair over the other’s black hair. They seemed to be welcoming peoples wearing oranges robes, with either dark skin or scales.

Ho, the ‘snakes’, she meant the Kabeys.

He thought the issue had been resolved with the trade deals and the truce, were the crown they paid not enough, or had they traded something more?

“We are going to take one of them as a ward, right?”

“Yeah, that, or maybe they are coming for some old books.”

“I don’t think so. Can we go see what’s happening?”

“You won't make me go anywhere near theses snakes lordling, and neither should you. Now let's go back to our run.”

“But!”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I won't let you make bad decisions on my watch, you already do enough of these when I'm not watching.”

“Ugh, whatever, you are just sore you lost a fight.”

She turned around violently, her speckled eyes shone in red and a few flames burst on her arms before she controlled herself. When she spoke, her voice was cold and tense.

“They could have killed us Ulysse, everyone here seems to have forgotten that fact when the gold came rushing from the trade deals, I have not, and neither should you.”

Grace took of jogging at a faster than usual pace. Ulysse hadn’t forgotten, not really, but it was hard to keep his anger when they had been nothing but good allies for the family since that event.

He eventually started running after Grace, it wouldn’t be good to anger her any more, they would be sparring later after all.

***

An hour and a half later – Merentah mansion

Somehow, Ulysse didn’t come back home sporting any new bruises. Grace had kept today’s lesson mainly on physical training and stances. That didn’t stop him from reeking of sweat.

Thankfully his bathroom wasn’t in use, he got in and locked the door behind him. The sight of a regenerative potion labeled ‘For Ulysse - dad’ made him smile, it was a sweet intention of Mogens who had begun to stock the bathrooms with potions in case Ulysse came back home with bruises.

Ulysse pocketed it for later.

He could take a shower or a bath but he was a bit pressed for time, wanting to speak with Agrios before dinner where everyone would meddle.

He stepped between two sheets of unknown metal, pitch-black and non-reflective as if it drank all light that reached it. The sheets were about two meter tall and a fourth as large, and engraved with the most complex enchantment he had ever seen. He could just put his hands on a specific place to activate it instead of using his mind. A task that would have been impossible for him a few months ago, however he had recently learned a trick that made him much better at using enchantments. Using words to accompany his thoughts.

He closed his eyes, thinking of the link, of connection.

“Link, <>”

Though his pronunciation was likely horrible, the word still helped realize his intent and he felt connected to the massive contraption around him. He turned his thoughts to purification, to activation.

“Activate purification, <>”

Ulysse pushed hard, not even the words could make this part trivial, then it snapped in place. A wave of slightly hot power washed over him, leaving his clothes and body steaming and deeply cleaned. He stumbled out of the enchanted purifier, feeling a bit empty like he did whenever he stayed connected with a powerful enchantment.

Fully cleaned and thankfully bruise less he left the bathroom. He hurried along the halls before getting out, it had started snowing once again. Once there he took off at a light jog in the direction of the gates, nothing like what Grace put him through on most days.

Reaching them Ulysse spotted a patrician guard he recognized, Cepore, the man had become infamous among the family after grandma had taken a fancy to insulting his relatives by comparing them to the man, saying she would gladly swap the two of them. Thankfully she had never said that to him.

“Hi mister Cep’.”

The man saluted him with a straightened hand over his chest.

“Hello young lord, may I be of assistance to you.”

“Maybe, were you there earlier this morning when the Kabeys were at the gates?”

“I was indeed young lord.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Agrios welcomed them and they shared a few pleasantries, they left a few gifts, as well as a young man, thanks the Eternals they didn’t try to dump us one of their subhuman.”

Ulysse frowned at that, he hadn’t known the man was a zealot.

“Was the young man named Osen?”

“I believe he was yes.”

“Ho, I see, you wouldn't happen to know where he went?”

“They mentioned giving him a room in the Merxau residence.”

“Thank you, Cep’.”

“It was a pleasure young lord.”

The news did make Ulysse a bit exited, Osen had been a mage last time he’d seen him, and he doubted that had changed since then. Maybe he could ask him questions about it. He even had an excuse to go, his ‘Deal’ with the lizardman.

The Merxau residence was empty during most of the year, situated opposite to the Olians, right next to the church. To Ulysse it was no surprise no one would like to live here, nobody would want to see that holy eyesore from their windows.

Entering inside, he could smell the accumulated dust and humidity typical of an unlived home. It was cold too as no fire were lit.

He yelled, “Hey, is anyone here?”

After a few seconds a voice muffled by thick walls answered, “Yes, who is asking?”

“Ulysse.”

He heard footsteps from a corridor and turned to see Osen approaching. The already tall young man seemed to have grown taller and thinner, unlike Ulysse who had mostly filled his clothes instead of outgrowing them.

Osen had an expression of surprise written all over him.

“Wow, I hadn’t expected you, of all peoples, to come visit me.”

“I guess the tables have turned, you are our guest now, an actual guest for once.”

“How have you been doing since then?”

“I’m fine,” he answered reflexively, “I’m just so much more scared by the church now that I know all sorts of stuff.”

"Yeah, I have an uncle of is deathly afraid of them too, never really got me though.”

There was a bit of an awkward pause, neither of them knowing what to say.

Ulysse spoke, “To tell you the truth I came in part because I made a deal with Veless, and grandpa always told me ‘None is more loyal than a Merentah’, so I guess if you need help here, just say the word.”

“I’m afraid I can’t take you up on that, I’m moving to the Merxau lakeside manor before sundown, I was just told to stay here until then.”

“Shit, hu can I still ask you stuff about magic before you go?”

“I’m afraid I can't go into the specifics, I still remember the yelling I got for talking so much last time... Maybe another time, if your family choses to make you a mage we might be able to talk freely about it.”

“I guess. The thing is, I'm actually trying to become a mage, we have this b... thing, where if you get good enough at it you get to become one.”

“That’s great, you should pursue that magic seriously,” His eyes shone with passion, “I have never once regretted becoming a mage, it’s so much better than channeling, it’s… magic is yours, not the other way around.”

“Not the best comparison, I’ve never managed to channel actually.”

“Ho,” Something seemed to tilt and he looked at Ulysse with envy, “You might not understand it yet but I'm pretty jealous of you.”

“What! Jealous, you have no idea how much it sucks.”

“And you have no idea how much of an advantage it will be when you become a mage. Listen, maybe, no, I absolutely shouldn’t tell you that but... The reason you can’t channel is that you naturally have mana inside you, you are...”

“I'm what?”

“Yeah, no, I have said too much already, I'm sorry, I'll just go back to my quarters. Don’t tell anyone about this please.”

Osen walked back into the corridor, retreating into his room.

“Wait, you can’t stop here, tell me!”

The door slammed before Ulysse as he was about to enter.

He gave it a weak kick, then stormed off.

***

That night – The twin's bedroom

A thunderous cacophony of bells could be heard through the windows, the long night had officially started and with it, so did the ringing. It was a religious tradition to beg the gods in ever grander and crueler ceremonies along the bleak week so that they would once again allow the sun to shine.

Literally.

The sun would not rise for several days in a row, and only once it did would the bleak week end.

The scary thing was that historical records dating from the beginning of the era, 782 years ago, had much shorter long nights, barely two days long, while they now lasted between six and eight days.

Speaking of records

Ulysse was distracted from his musings by the loud voice of his sister.

“Ul’, have you seen the thing I can’t talk about?”

“Yes, it’s on the ground next to your bed.”

“Cool, can you hide it?”

He frowned in annoyance, “No Al’, I can’t hide the book you can’t speak about, I'm not even supposed to have seen it.”

“Yeah, but don’t you see I'm busy.”

“I see you are hoarding the Linkstone.”

“Nooo, I’m watching for uncle’s signal.”

“Have you even packed for the trip?”

Alice looked proud, “Yes, look I put my sword here and I have a bag of cookies.”

“I’m not sharing my tent if we have to sleep outside. Do you even have warm clothes?”

“Yeah, I do, you are worse than mom! I was the one who talked Ro’ into doing this, trust me a bit.”

Ulysse yielded, picking up her Chosen-Tongue book and storing it in one of her drawers. Her book was the same as his, yet looked so different, there were no notes sticking out, the pages looked as if they had never been opened, and crumbs on cover told a whole story.

“Holy night! He’s ready Ul’,” she turned the Linkstone at him.

I’m at the back hedge kiddos

Hurry up

Time to go, Ulysse pushed the window open.