Tales of Cubonia

The Golden Hourglass 9 - The Festival

The Midsummer Festival was a celebration of two things. The first was a recognition of the sun being at its zenith which marked the official middle of the summer season. Many in the Magecraft profession believed Midsummer to be the most ideal time for spell casting and potion brewing as the sun's ever prominent position in the sky had deeply magical properties that imbued even the tiniest of insect with its own bit of magical resource. Many Sages and Soothsayers believed Midsummer to be a good omen, and were hard pressed to find anything menacing or ominous in the stars as they were normally wont to do, but that had mostly to do with the fact the stars rarely made an appearance while the sun blazed its radiating path through the sky.

The second celebratory aspect of the Midsummer Festival was the remembrance of the victims of the unholy unicorn uprising in the Year of the Unholy Unicorn Uprising. Unicorns, now believed to be extinct, were interesting creatures with hides of the purest white and manes of spun gold. Their solitary horn was made of a material a hundred times stronger than steel and nearly priceless. After being hunted one too many times by poachers and the like, the unicorns banded together and laid waste to Old Andora in the middle of the night during Midsummer when the city least expected it. None of those who survived remain on Cubonia today, but the histories tell that the massacre was both bloody and rather beautiful as the streets eventually ran with rainbow blood of the attacking unicorn force.

But time passed, as it has an annoying habit of doing. Many years went by and the real reason for the Midsummer Festival was lost to the annals of time, as is so often the custom with holidays. Midsummer Festivals were now more or less just an excuse for people to gather together with people that they have only ever partially liked in the first place and drink copious amounts of mulled mead or ale until they forgot their differences or brawls broke out over them. The only holiday that was celebrated as widely and vehemently as Midsummer was Yuletide which was many moon cycles away, but that did not stop some merchants from pedaling Yuletide wares almost before Midsummer had truly ended.

Broderick and Adhemar found themselves in a quaint inn located on the edge of the Royal District of Old Andora on the eve of Midsummer Day. The Royal Scepter Inn was the kind of place visiting dignitaries would allow their closest advisors to lodge themselves while they stayed just a stone's throw away at Castle Andora. Plush carpeting lined the floors of every room and the windows were covered with velvet curtains. The whole inn smelled faintly of mincemeat and fresh lilacs, and the staff bowed courteously to all its guests whether those guests wanted them to or not. It was not the kind of place either Broderick or Adhemar would ever seek lodging, preferring the lower end establishments that sold cheap ale and the typical patrons were salt of the earth kind of folks that would just as soon rob you as look at you. The Royal Scepter's proximity to Castle Andora made it ideal, however, for the task that they had taken on.

Broderick was sitting in an uncomfortable chintz armchair looking out a spyglass toward the castle when one of the inn's room servants entered carrying a silver platter upon which sat a freshly uncorked bottle of sweet cherry wine with a pewter goblet and a small, but impressive spread of cubed cheeses. He set the platter down on the doily covered end table next to the armchair, bowed silently, and left the room. Broderick had told the staff that he had no need of refreshment or any of the inn's other amenities during his stay, but the message had not gotten through and regular deliveries of wine, mead, pastries, fruits, cheeses, plush bathrobes and slippers, local periodicals, and bath salts had continued so frequently that Broderick had given up trying to stop them only hours after their arrival at the inn.

Through the spyglass Broderick was watching a changing of the guard at one of the side gates to the castle. It was very strictly regimented and choreographed. The gates swung open at exactly half past the hour. Two guards in highly polished armor carrying highly polished sabers emerged. The two new guards stepped precisely to where the old guards stood sentry. With a salute, the Spears of the Watchmen were passed from one guard to the next, and the new guards took their rightful positions. Once the Spear was passed, the now-off-duty guards march rigidly back through the gates. The gates slid smoothly shut behind them.