A Wolf's Kiss

Chapter X - Rise

Ceres could hear the screeching melody of the woman's singing growing louder and louder. The temple of the Bantis Mandia was located at the very center of the city of Narhiso, and many times a day one of the sisters would stand and call the other sisters back to the temple for training and for worship. The sisters hadn't been kind to Ceres, he was the only boy there and was often forced to dress and wash alongside the girls... at every chance they teased and made fun of him, it was humiliating. But still Ceres stayed in the temple, learning the ways of the sisters.

His brothers were not much better to him. Ceres was smaller than most of the other boys, and it didn't help that he learned with the girls too.

He could have easily escaped, left Narhiso in a single night and crossed the vast desert of Ahaelos to find refuge somewhere else... but Narhiso was certainly preferable to that journey. Beyond those walls... Ceres didn't want to face that.

The boys who were born into the Bantis Mandia were trained as fighters, they were called Bantis Mandos. The Narhisi were renowned as some of the greatest fighters among all the realms of men, as part of their training they had to learn to control every muscle in their body in order to have full mastery of their own power. The boys were also taught how to deliver precise, powerful blows by utilizing their speed and control of their bodies. By the time the boys were thirteen they could contend with men twice their size.

The girls were trained to become full sisters. An essential skill for all the sisters to develop was seduction, a sister of the Bantis Mandia needed to be able to continue the cult by having more children who could learn the ways. Girls also learned how to harness a range of skills to serve their prophesied King, the Qēlos Dārys. They learned truth-saying, the ability to detect lies, and star-reading, the ability to gain information from looking at the stars. Of course, they couldn't really see visions, they could only look for patterns.

Ceres was trained in both paths.

Everything the Bantis Mandia taught was to worship the Qēlos Dārys, everything they did was to advance his cause. All the power the Bantis Mandia had came from their Aetherite blood, but they had long forgotten the god of their ancestors. Even still, all the girls and boys were carefully chosen to have children with one another, in order to keep their blood undiluted. If they didn't, they would lose their power. Ceres tried to tell them of Deus, the god of the Aetherites, but they would not hear him. They believed only in Qēlos Dārys.

When he heard the call of the singer, Ceres was quick to start walking through the halls of the temple. The sisters did not like it when the students were late. He could hear the singer growing louder as he made his way through the dimly lit passages, the voice became more distorted as he walked. It grew even louder, changed even more.... now he heard two voices, once singing, the other speaking in a shrill tone.

The voice was so harsh it was difficult to understand what it was saying. He looked around desperately for its source, but saw nothing... Ceres began to become afraid. He started to run.

"Qēlos Dārys...." he managed to understand the voice distorting.

"Qēlos Dārys....." The voice repeated. "climb...."

"Rise!" The voice said, louder this time. "Qēlos Dārys... rise!"

Ceres saw a light ahead, and ran faster, desperate to reach it.

The voice stopped speaking, but Ceres saw he was no longer in the temple... he was in the forest outside of Krigarstad, with snow all around him.

He looked around, and his eyes fell on a tall figure standing in the middle of the trees, it was Jagur.