Winter Induction

So in the manner of the Wintermark Scops let me set the scene for you.

Above Anvil squats a storm, unlike the storm that brought the Steinr this storm seems to be intent on replacing the land with the sea, and the roads and camps of the nations begin to look more and more like the marshes from which the Hautakorpen come. The only difference is that no dead faces stare up through the puddles.



Three Hautakorpen come trudging through the mud. One wears the mantle of bone, the ancient symbol that marks him out as the High Priest. This is Halwende Corpse-heft, who will soon be a bone on that mantle himself having buried the Empress in the Waters of the Kallavesa with the honoured dead. With him come two other of the Hautakorpen. Where his face is deeply scarred and plastered with Peat Ash, theirs are unmarked and clean. Not for much longer, for today they will be inducted into winter magic, and they will be changed.

They approach the tent of the Holt Hyrd and with a smile and warm words the high priest asks if they could have use of the tent for a short while. Otherwise he asks if they can give their solemn word to never reveal what they learn. They choose to leave, a wise decision it turns out given what happens next. He warns them to ignore the screams when they come, no one inside will be in need of aid despite the sounds.
Halwende asks the students to sit, and as he does the mask drops. The warm smile he usually wears is replaced with a blank stare like that of a dead man. The livileness of the voice dissappears with the suddeness of a winter gale, replaced by one that seems to speak from a place far away, a place with no warmth, or hope, or feeling, nothing but the cold and hunger of winter. In his dead mans voice Halwende begins to explain what they are asking him to do, explains how it will change them.

"Winter" he says in his dead mans voice, "is the realm of hunger, the realm of loneliness, the realm of loss, the realm of death. Once you accept the power of that realm into your soul you change what you were. The world looks like a different place afterwards, and you will never feel the same. Worse still, one of the eternals of that place is an enemy of the Empire. Always when you are working with the power, you need to be certain that it is your own will that is directing your actions, and not that things whispers driving you to unnatural acts. You must be aware of that things lies at all times, for it will try and tempt you."

"The dead are our concern and the magic of winter gives us a huge amount of power over them. We are the Hautakorpen however, we are their custodians, their protectors, we do not lightly wield our power. People know us as readers of portents and of the skein, but again they do not know our other duties, our other rights. The honoured dead of the Mark are our charges, it is us who hold them safe."

Halwende pauses as the two initiates, one a naga and one unlineaged nod in understanding. He knows that they do not understand truly what he is saying to them, as they could not. They have asked for the power, they have asked him to bring them into the use of Winter magic, but there is a small part somewhere deep inside him that hopes one or both of them will balk.

He knows they won't. Ambition is part of Winter, it already has its mark on them.

"Very well", he says again in the terrible flat voice, "when I open you up to Winter you will feel pain. It would be easier if you were Draughir like the Saker, they are more used to feeling its icy hand. It helps to give your mind something else to concentrate on." Here Halwende's hand drifts to the deep slashes in his cheeks, the tear-runnels as they are known amongst the priesthood. "I will provide a knife. Cut as deep as you can, the pain will help."

Then the question. "Are you ready"

Both initiates nod.

"Who will be first."

They have definitely listened to the words the High Priest has spoken, as neither volunteers at first, they look at each other for a moment unsure. Then the unlineaged initiate says that he will be first. With a wave of his hand Halwende motions him to sit in front of him. Almost gently the High priest reaches out a hand and places two fingers over the heart of the initiate.

"I open your heart to winter" and with those words the world changes.

Despite the stove in the corner of the tent the inside of the tent is immediately rimed in frost, the temperature dropping so fast that ice creeps in from the sides of the metal goblets. The initiate stays still for a moment, his face a mixture of horror, pain, and realisation, a look Halwende knows well. Then with a scream he crumples forward weeping. The naga initiate looks a little frightened as the high priest watches impassively as the other initiate writhes on the floor, before pulling his bone handled knife from his belt and pressing it into the initiates hand.

He grabs it eagerly and plunges the point into his cheek so deep that there is a crunching sound as the point grinds into the bone. With a rip he opens first one cheek and then the other, before taking a deep shuddering breath. He moves back and sits with blood sheeting down his face, shivering as if from the cold.

The Naga moves forwards and Halwende opens her heart to the Winter as well, again the air in the tent turns crisp and cold, again the initiate falls, and again the high priest hands over the knife. The Initiate has more trouble, the scales that cover her face resist the knife somewhat, but soon she is also sitting with blood sheeting down her face. Halwende waited as they got themselves under control and then opened the tent to allow all of them to leave.

Shivering and cold the three head to the Great Fire Pit of the Wintermark camp, the rain having stopped. Halwende once again resumes the friendly warm mask that is his more usual mein in public, it takes effort but he achieves it, and the three of them settle in amongst the stories and drinking of the other Wintermark people. Halwende watches the initiates carefully, this is no doubt a difficult time for them. They huddle close to the fire, as if frozen to the core.

After a few hours the unlineaged initiate approaches the High Priest with a question.

"They are all made of meat." the Initiate says.

"I know". It is the only response the High priest can come up with.

"How do you live with it?" the initiate asks.

"You don't."

"Oh I see." the initiate speaks in the same dead voice Halwende used earlier, before returning to the fire.
Halwende nods to himself and leaves them to it, three quiet voices amongst the throng of the Wintermark camp.