Chapter One
The winter thawed
The ice so thick
But never would they look
For the death coming for them quick389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTH8xiQ1cH
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Damon looked up from his hammering. The inside of the house where he was working was his and Cariline's very own dwelling, where the walls were coming along great. They had been working through the winter to get back inside the confines of the city wall. The winter had been harsh. They had lost around two hundred people to the cold. That was substantially less than the expected number of half the seventeen hundred survivors but everyone, after the disappearance of the Grim, drew together to build a temporary shanty town out on the eastern banks of Dim Lake. There was no going to the next town for food or trade during the winter this far north. The Great Eastern Trade Road clogged with snow, and they had destroyed all the sleds when they burned everything in the Battle for Tharpe.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JUq8FNg90
Damon had chosen the remains of his old house, near the Temple, to rebuild. Faldo had been there every day to help him through the blistering cold of the winter winds. They got the roof on and the fireplace patched up, and now they were working on the inside. They had to redo all the beams for the second floor and then the interior walls, but with the chimneys in good working order, the winter cold got a little more bearable. The trio moved from the shanty town into the unfinished house before the spring thaw came after the equinox. They stayed in Shanty Tharpe long enough to celebrate the Feast of Evilline with everyone. It was observed on the equinox in memory of a necromancer who had built the first Temple on Ratar'.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuyCx9Y5BD2
Cariline had started to really complain about her awkward belly that seemed to be catching on everything. Just last week, the baby began to move and kick. Damon had just brought in a load of wood to see Cariline standing and holding her swollen belly between two shaky hands. She gave a small gasp, and then she burst into tears. When it came to the baby, Cariline tended to be very moody, often swinging wildly from joyous giggling to brooding sad in the same breath. Jen had held the final Ceremony of The Souls on Grim-Tide to place the baby's soul in Cariline's stomach. It was the first time since the creation of second-man that a soul had been awarded to an unborn babe.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpngrwWkNnD
Since then, everyone treated her with kitten gloves, Cariline did not want for anything. If she needed food, it was found the wife of Grim. If she mentioned she needed a bath; one of the guards was known to get one warming for her. The women in the town would bring Cariline freshly made clothing for her growing figure. She complained about the treatment but as Isobelle pointed out as she uncharacteristically massaged the pregnant woman's feet, she was having the last baby for what would likely be three years and that she better get used to it. Cariline's baby would probably be a spoiled little brat, Isobelle would often comment, usually with a smug smile pulling on her lips.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCyU6omw95
Today a warm early-spring wind came up from the swamp, Damon opened up the shutters on one of the rooms they had finished on the house and turned to his wife who lounged in a chair by the crackling fire.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡioYzXNvxfO
"It is nice to have some fresh air for once." He said smiling. Damon's dark eyes, with that hint of red, took in his exhausted wife as she shifted uncomfortably in her padded chair made especially for her by one of the citizens of Tharpe.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBb5i92nNLO
"Yes," she said, stifling a yawn, "I just wish this one would calm down at night.--” She rubbed at her sore belly, “--Seems when my body says it is bedtime, it says it is wake time."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtopTOTMja5
She stretched her feet out to a footstool that Marlin had made for her in the new workshop he had got back up to snuff just last month. Only about five hundred people had moved back into various buildings in the city. The other citizens remained in what was termed as Shanty Tharpe. For some, the memories where just too painful and for others, it was a question of their skills to rebuild the existing structures. The latter would wait for those with skills to prepare houses for them and then repopulate the destroyed city.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgg7hVwcwe6
He turned to stare at the ruined city and remembered his father's words and the charge that The Grim had placed on him this past winter. Damon turned thoughtfully back to Cariline to ask her about his mother, who once again was keeping company with Marlin and found her staring at a reaper in front of him.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXldaw733R
"You can see him?" He asked her incredulously, gesturing at the skeleton waiting patiently in front of him. She slowly shook her pale face in acknowledgment, pointing at it with a shaky finger. Her breath came in slow, short gasp as she slowly sank further into her seat.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXwIOHQrpS8
"Is it your first time seeing these?" He asked the next question, and she once more nodded furiously and tried to back through her chair. Damon put out a steadying hand towards her chair, so it would not tip backward and spill her into the stone floor. The young man looked concerned for the first time at his wife.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpkCMb1RzE
"Love, calm down. He is not here for anyone in this house. Are you sir?" He asked the reaper, who was watching the ongoing events with a head cocked in amusement. Getting to know the reapers emotions had taken some intuition. His reaper father, Rascus, had spent some time with him, to explain and show different body language of reapers, to keep him from abusing any more skeletal servants. There had been a few instances during the winter were Damon had mistaken laughter or disbelief for hostility. The end results meant putting back together unsuspecting reapers.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEIOnmKfZq3
"No, although I am supposed to pick some up on the backswing. We are still cleaning up the mess here. It is getting easier with the portal uncovered." The reaper said casually.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzd5iEggK8
"And your name is?" Damon left the question open-ended while extending a hand in greeting.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjwQWDlfE1
"If you don't mind, I will keep my hand this way. I heard about Baine and the others. You do have quite a reputation around the Underworld sire." The reaper said with a chuckle, "My name is Chuck, and I bear a message from Lucy."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYlv7dmZwtt
"And father said that wouldn't work to help keep the reapers in line," Damon scoffed, shaking his head in mock disbelief, "What is the message?"389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvrOW22FY43
"A part of the prophecy finally, she has been working herself into a second grave. The work has paid little in the way of information, here is the sliver we have found." Chuck said, "And a pestilence shall come upon the land from the East, and it shall resist the Order to which has been till the day which the prophecy is to be fulfilled."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLUXcgC0hQ
Damon's face grew red as he froze in place. He clenched and unclenched his fist and the reaper, Chuck, took a few precautionary steps back from the new, volatile, Grim. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjG8AoYDTuu
"Baine," Damon whispered darkly. He stepped to the mantelpiece and stared into the crackling fireplace. If the prophecy held, then that would answer why none had seen Baine since the day Grim disappeared. All other reapers, including the other six originals, had shown at the Underworld on a regular occurrence, even obeyed without hesitation. Baine had dropped from the face of the OverWorld and despite all summons, remained unseen. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfZHt3uC3kS
Damon and Faldo had been in communication with the seneschal, Lucy, for the better part of two months. She had kept them up to speed on the souls coming in for any clue to where the Seed of Destruction was hiding. The prophecies had so far been useless, not giving very much in the way of information that could be helpful. As he understood it, the number of Prophecies in "his" Palace were vast. Even with a shade that never slept, it could take a lifetime to run through them all. At least chance was on their side. Now he would need to consult the council set up to run Tharpe.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1el319rNEs
He turned to Chuck and smiled congenially at the reaper to reassure him that the reaper's Master had calmed, "Thank you, sir, but I am afraid I need you to run a few more errands for me before you may do your return."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJrxFOTQik7
The reaper gave an indifferent shrug of his shoulders, "You are the new Master of the Underworld. What is your command?"389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPpamNFUG7T
Damon groaned loudly while shaking his head furiously, "I really wish people would stop referring to me like that. I may be the Seed of Grim, but dammit I am not him."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxNv8qDNmIE
The reaper shook his head in agreement, "No, you are not." he stated flatly "You are his son. As such with him gone, you are now heir to the Throne and Grim. You can accept it or deal with it. But you cannot do anything about it."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm9J2wd2006
Cariline got up shakily from her chair and ambled to the reaper. She raised her hand and touched the skull and screeched loudly, reeling backward landing on Damon. She curled around Damon like a frightened child peeking around his shoulder.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXuxkFSzXQ
"I can touch it!" She grabbed Damon's arm, dragging his face close enough he could feel her warm breath and looked at him horrified, "Why can I touch a reaper? Is there something wrong with me?"389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXI8lhRqXX
She wiped her hand frantically on her dress as if trying to rub something off while staring in wide-eyed horror at Damon.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ptF6826Qz
"No dear they exist in this plane, just the same as you and me." He patted her arm absently and turned his attention back to the reaper, "Sorry sir, now we need to convene the council. The Second has been spending a lot of time in the Shanty Temple. Can you go out there and let Isobelle know she is needed for an emergency meeting and then find Rascus too."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjGyoJraVL
"As you command sire, Rascus might take a few hours. I do believe he was fulfilling a promise to a soul for an escort." the reaper said as he turned to walk out.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr3KZpL4qiw
"Not sire dammit, just Damon!" the little man shouted after the reaper. He heard a raspy chuckle in return. He turned to see Cariline still shaking her head back and forth. He sighed and decided it was time to take her to the Temple and have a long-overdue talk with the Matron. Not everyone was raised around this insanity.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5eT3kev6KZ
Tharpe had been razed two weeks before Grim-Tide by her own people to survive an invading army known as the Resistance. Through the winter, despite the trauma of losing the All-Father, they had triumphed. They started clearing sections of the city of burned timbers and ash, all the while taking the dead out to lay them in skeletal rows, with reverence, in preparation for when the portal would open back up. No matter if the dead were part of those who had turned and attacked their own, all were treated with the dignity due to a deceased. No one knew when one of those souls that lay there would be re-born as one of their very own children. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZz3GKTWRG1
Another group gathered the stone into neat, orderly piles where the Temple once stood, working continuously to uncover the portal to the Underworld. Everyone wanted to see the communications re-established and the souls of the lost returned home to waiting loved one's arms.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlo56d19Dr5
The food got lean, and as the snows piled higher, the game in the surrounding hills got scarcer. They stopped being able to fish in the boat as the ice built out from the shore. They would sit out on the ice with holes cut through the frozen Dim and hope they would catch something to sustain them that day. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcDj62iTwX
The shelter problem was quickly cured. One person had an ingenious building technique of taking timbers and reed grass and building a low, sturdy shelter and then covering it with snow. It was fast, simple, and sturdy but most important with the hole in the roof to allow the smoke ventilation. It was warm. The building technique became popular, and the tents quickly were abandoned in favor of the warmer snow huts and the town weathered the winter well.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHwmfSC53sN
Shortly after Grim left, the people all gathered for a town meeting. They had agreed that a new form of government was needed to help rule fairly and justly. After the corrupt rule of the Mother Matron Bethel, even those persons who remained steadfastly loyal to the Grim were not overly eager to return to absolute control of the Temple. At first, they wanted Damon, Grim's seed, to lead the Temple and Rule. Damon had flat out refused, wanting nothing to do with the thought of ruling. Herbert, a homesteader, on one of his trips to check on the town, suggested a council somewhat like the council of Dukes in the Federation. The committee could hold the chosen leader accountable. All were in favor, especially Damon who had already cast his vote against himself.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXsDrzY00e1
Faldo was elected, almost unanimously, to the head of the council. He cast his vote for Damon, who celebrated by the voting box, at his best friends elevation of status. Now the new council met on a weekly bases to decide on necessities for the Great City of the Lake. The system had worked so well they had yet to require the necromancers for Judgment. They had swapped from the Shanty Tharpe Temple for meetings to the newly completed City Hall inside the walls of Tharpe Proper. It was a less formal atmosphere than a place of worship, where the citizens felt more welcome when the council met for their open-door meetings every fifth day.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡljPnMMnNjI
Faldo walked into the big room that used to be the common room for the Inn of the Second Home and smiled a little. It always gave him a little joy to know that this building would finally come to some good use after what had been birthed from the loins of the owner of the old establishment. The walls were whitewashed and bright, reflecting the light of the chandeliers hanging from stout iron chains, high above, on the ceiling beautifully. When they rebuilt the inside of the building, over the council room, they left the second floor open making a balcony so more citizens could watch the meetings. The smith, Marlin, did appreciate the ceiling extensions greatly. The giant of a man had problems in most of the older buildings that used to exist in Tharpe.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikPXyMvXo6
Faldo walked around the oaken table, with the seven council chairs, to his at the head. He still did not know what went through his friends' minds. Just because the big man could hold the power of the Immortal Grim by the technicality of birth, did not make him qualified to run a town. He sat heavily in his padded leather chair and breathed out a deep sigh of burden and leaned forward onto his elbows. The blonde bravado rubbed at his aching temples and wondered for the hundredth time, just what the capital of the federation would be like.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhcz2CUlI9s
"Come now 'O fearless leader." Damon's voice shot in a sarcastic tone from the door of the chamber. "It isn't all that bad, is it?"389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMs9qcCzRnS
Damon strode forward from where the entrance was to the offices upstairs. The city council now employed a host of clerks and secretaries to help with the day to day business, leaving the necromancers and the other council members open to more regular daily lives. Jen and Isobelle thought Damon and Faldo's ideas were astounding and revolutionary, but the two younger men had run a criminal empire before the Battle of Tharpe. To them, all this was common sense, or else you would never get anything done.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN2TJSMracb
"Says you," Faldo shot back at him rubbing at his eyes, "At least as a regular member of this council, you still get to sleep at night. I am stuck here signing every stinking piece of paper they put before me. It takes me forever to wade through it. Sometimes I think they scribble random shit just to get my signature."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjRpUs2lhHi
Damon raised an eyebrow at his friend, "Sleep at night? I'll let you share the bed with my pregnant wife for one night, and you will beg me to switch places back. With that baby growing, she tosses more than an angry bear. I slept by the fire this morning."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0BZpaITep
The big man smiled up at him from his spot at the table, "I guess I did forget about that, sorry. So what is this emergency meeting that the reaper woke me up for?"389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsAcesBovB
"Woke you up? Lazy, lazy." Damon chided him, shaking his head as he came to sit at Faldo's right hand under the symbol of Grim, "You should aspire to set a better example as our fearless leader. With behavior like this, all our citizens will soon be no good layabouts, and our fair city will never get finished."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHQbzQ1MpLK
"What is it that Wallace says 'We need to act Human and not like our shit don't stink.' So hey, I have my vices and like them too." Faldo shrugged nonchalantly.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChiI26dOYL
"Speaking of Wallace, did you send someone to fetch the good Master Sergeant and for Marlin? I keep forgetting when I send a reaper to be my messenger boy. They can't fetch them two." Damon said as he pivoted to put his feet up on the table. He leaned back idly in his chair, enjoying the idle banter thoroughly that he and Faldo rarely got a chance at anymore.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUl6MCefuiE
"And you called me lazy. Using your reape-" Faldo began, but Damon interrupted him holding up a finger, glaring at him irritably. His black eyes had that red tint they got when he got the least bit mad.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIaFAzeA91N
"They are not mine; they are my fathers. How many times do I have to correct you, people, for the love of Chaos." He said exasperatedly.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp9dbz6pEbA
"Well, it is why you are called the heir my friend. And if I am going to be stuck with this Thrice Grim cursed sorcery bouncing around in me and a life of servitude, to you right now and your father later, then you can be master of the Underworld for a few years, quit bitching." Faldo finished shaking his finger playfully at his friend, cocking his half-grin at Damon. It had been rare for Faldo to do so since his near-death experience. The trauma of the event had changed him from a jovial, natural going bravado to a serious and dark brooding young man.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaH4XvSl3B
"Thank you for explaining that to him finally!" Isobelle said from the door as she came over to kiss Faldo, "Hello lovely, you didn't come home till late."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Za6jRqiCO
"Sorry, but they had me signing paperwork for the new Temple till midnight. You were asleep when I came in." He said pulling the thin blonde hair into his lap gently. He gave her a playful peck on her neck, eliciting a small squeal from the necromancer. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBw4FNGXjbA
Their relationship had developed as Isobelle had helped Faldo become accustomed to his powers. The first time they slipped up in front of everyone drew a collective gasp from the group and a disapproving look from Bethel. Everyone thought Isobelle was one with an eye for girls. Since, they had become a usual sight together, keeping company most of the time when Isobelle was not performing her duties out at the Shanty Tharpe Temple.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs8uuP5J289
"I wish they would finish it," she said curling into his broad chest, "Then I could come back into town and be with you most of the time."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡueYzGkc9zv
"Don't bet on that," came Jen's stern voice from the entry. She had in tow a trader, fresh from the road and still mud-splattered. "Thank you, Damon, for calling an emergency meeting. I don't know what your emergency is, but we have one now on our doorstep."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzthdgn8Itj
"We need to wait for Marlin and Wallace," Damon said. "Marlin was on his way down the street. There is no missing that giant. Wallace will be along in a few minutes; he was drilling the north and south regiments. He had to get Sergeant Thad to take his place."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ17fusrWy6
"OK then," Faldo said as the giant Marlin came lumbering into his big chair at one side of the table and sat down with a shutter from the furniture, "I call this emergency meeting of the council of Tharpe to order. Who is absent."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQnvWNFa2z
"My wife," He looked at Jen, "She is seeing reapers and as such is having a theological crisis. I think this is your territory. She is up in your office away from the meeting."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMVkqOPXfh
Jen nodded her acknowledgment, "We can discuss that later then."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KnJy5FHAm
As she finished, Wallace walked in, his chain mail jingling at his swift stride. He looked around with a questioning look at the group.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj3kHPe5kpU
"We were just taking role call mate," Marlin explained. 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIATMdnACzq
"Now, Damon called the meeting. Let us hear why." Faldo swept a hand, with some trouble, accidentally knocking Isobelle on her head. She sighed and went to sit in her chair to listen to business. Damon got up to come before the council. He walked back and forth a few times, his heels scuffing the polished wooden floors before the table where everyone waited with baited breath.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcqnyTQTEwq
Wallace finally rose irritably."Out with it man.--” He demanded, glowering through his lowered eyelids “--I left training troops to come here and not to watch your ugly ass promenade." He emphasized it by rapping his white knuckles on the gleaming oak surface smartly.389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpDsOtfNdV
Damon turned and favored the Master Sergeant with a friendly smile, "Thank you, Wally. You are the first one not to treat me like some sort of Heir or other ridiculous crap today."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEkDPvvcExO
The Master Sergeant looked puzzled and sat back down confused, as Damon began to speak, "A reaper showed up at my house, and he bore an important message. One that we were waiting on. I know who the Seed of Destruction is."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8HxapzRHG
Jen came forward with her charge in tow eagerly, "Who is it?" 389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQC7TBVCSkS
Damon turned and favored the Matron with a warm smile, " I punted his skull out a tent door, and then he provided me with the best fifteen minutes of entertainment of my life."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7FBFVGd3XV
Jen's head dropped into her hands, and she started to sob. Faldo looked around puzzled and finally spoke, "So who is it."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVpi4NRoqY
"Baine, my Love. The Seed of Destruction would have to be the reaper who Damon embarrassed last winter." Isobelle grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest, "You did just have to go and piss on the ogre's head while we were sneaking up on the dragon, Damon."389Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRBksRoL1Z
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