The Ends of the Infinite

Sudebni

Author's note: I apologize for the delay in releasing the next chapter. What I initially intended to release is taking longer than expected to write, and real life takes up a lot of time. This is a small piece intended to tide everyone over for a bit while I get the other chapter where I want it. Enjoy.

From the Records of Posleshan

Eight months ago, Ukhodnisl' received a command from us to fend off the hordes south of Beney Arabah, in the time that we, Posleshan, invitee as Prince of Beney Arabah, were in the great city of Holm-ir in order to exchange council with and pay tribute to our father, His Excellency the wise Prince of Holm-ir, Stareshan. Ukhodnisl's viceroyalty was to fight off the hordes who were entering our lands and bringing with them death and destruction and raiding our granaries and ravaging our women and killing our men and taking our children for their slaves.

Ukhodnisl' refused to carry out our commands. He failed, intentionally, in that he was to lead our men to glory and victory in the elimination of the horde menace, as we, Posleshan have done, and as our brothers have done before us, and our cousins have done before them, and as our father did before them, and as our grandfathers did before him, and as our great grandfathers have done, in the restoration of order in the plains.

Instead, the lieutenants of Ukhodnisl' tell us that he elected to consort with his mistresses, often for days at a time as the outlying villages and towns and settlements suffered the horde onslaught, as hundreds of the people died and were mutilated, when heavens have commanded and decreed that they be laid to eternal rest. When not carousing, the lieutenants tell us that Ukhodnisl' was to be found drinking much wine with his companions, such that over three weeks of destruction in the plains settlements, he and his companions consumed three barrels of wine. In all this time, Ukhodnisl' avoided and sent away without listening the repeated messengers from the settlements begging for the protection of the men of Beney Arabah from the rapacious and violent hordes.

Ukhodnisl's dereliction of duty and negligence could not be allowed to remain unpunished, as he needed to suffer as an example to others who may one day be in his place and in penance for the death and destruction and violation which he allowed carried out against our lands and people. As such, we ordered Ukhodnisl's punishment as follows.

The prisoner was made fast to a sturdy chair of iron and placed in a stone room to provide volume for the punishment to follow. The prisoner was gagged and his hands bound such that he could not manipulate. The prisoner was not made to keep his eyes open. In our directions and verdict to the prisoner, we stated that "though you may shield your eyes, you cannot avert your ears from the sounds and the cries which we condemn you to hear."

Ukhodnisl's family and friends were summoned too, and some were captured attempting to leave Beney Arabah, and there they were arrested, and made fast to several rows of benches fifteen arshins in front of the prisoner's seat, such that the prisoner could see his affiliates and offspring and womenfolk in the room. The directions were read to this group before Ukhodnisl', so he too could hear our orders, for this was among his punishments. The group was not to be gagged, for they were simply forbidden to cry out. Those who noised would be punished ahead of the others.

First, a friend of Ukhodnisl' was unbound from the bench and brought to the center of the room. There a barrel of wine retrieved from his home, like that from which he and Ukhodnisl' had drank copiously, was placed before him. His hands were bound behind his back and two guards held him fast as his face was submerged into the open barrel. After a minute, he was permitted to surface and gasp for air for several moments before being finally submerged into the wine for ten minutes, at which point bubbles ceased to disrupt the wine's surface and it was clear that he had died. His throat was slit and the corpse was rolled to Ukhodnisl's feet. Just as his fondness of this wine had killed the people of the land, so too had the wine killed his friend.