Lo
Following straight on from Emun of Mor, we find Lo the Prophet held captive in the Orc homeland of Narelzbad.
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The Light Bearers.
“A curse be on your loins Chieftain!” Lo glared up at him out of the filth that she called home.
“I could kill you now, witch,” the chieftain snarled back, his armour swelled up as he took a deep breath. It was all that he could do to keep himself from leaping down there and tearing out her throat with his tusks. Orcs were not renowned for their merciful nature and Chieftain Daktar was among the hardest of orcs leaders in known history. Having publicly deposed his father Daktar had never once been challenged for his place as head of the clan for more than fifty years. This old chieftain was no pushover and never would he be.
“If you could you would have,” Lo said without flinching, “you are weaker than your son,” she taunted him neatly sidestepping the short bladed sword as it flashed past her head. “You are growing slow, chieftain. Soon you will sleep for the last time.”
“Not before you I won’t,” Daktar kicked a pile of dried excrement at Lo before he stormed off back through the village to his seat. He would deal with this stinking human witch in his own good time. Lo chuckled to herself, at last she had a weapon for when the time came.
“You are most cunning witch, most cunning indeed,” the gravelly voice spoke burdened with pain.
“Seff, are they still keeping you alive also?” Lo asked without looking at the mystic.
“Alive yes, keeping no,” Seff sat on the edge of the pit digging her heels into the dried mud wall, “they fear you,” she said lowering her voice, “they all fear you, more than they do me.”
“I guess that is why Daktar does not kill me as he promises to every day,” Lo reached out her hand to help Seff down in to the mire, “Welcome to my home, would you like a tour?” Lo’s white teeth sparkled against the black of her skin.
“How kind of you, still a little short on furnishings I see,” Seff made a play of walking around the pit in the ankle deep ooze. “Why do you suppose they keep you alive?”
“Perhaps it is because they took so much trouble to get me here,” Lo shrugged her shoulders uninterested in the reasons why.
“You are the one mentioned in the heresy.”
“Heresy?” Lo stood with her hands hips.
“Yes, heresy,” Seff put her left hand into her pocket and pulled out a chunk of bread, “here child,” she passed the bread to Lo who tucked into it eagerly. “The writings speak of the forerunner who will come and make known the path for the light-bearers to come. You are that forerunner. You are the one who would cry out in the darkness and usher in the light. Light is not something that we like in Narelzbad, no,” Seff shook her head slowly from side to side. “Light is bad.”
“I can see that,” Lo said looking up at the pitch black sky on which was painted a pale yellow sun that gave neither warmth or light. “Why is it so dark here?”
“It is not dark child, there is light in the sky but it does not light the earth. All light is absorbed by the darkness and that is how we would like things to stay. You are the one who would spoil all this,” Seff leaned back against the side of the pit.
“Not much to spoil is there really,” Lo said as a matter of fact, “Everything is layered with black: the sky is black, the earth is black, even the food is not white.”
Seth glowered back at her, “you also are black,” she smiled.
“I am, that is so,” Lo held her hands out in front of her, “but not all of me,” she turned her pink palms upward producing a harsh hiss of disapproval from Seff to which Lo grinned.
“I have never seen anything so disgusting,” Seff swallowed hard on the bile in her throat.
“I cannot help how I was made. I have friends that are white all over,” Lo waited for the gut reaction and got it.
“I could not imagine anything so repulsive,” Seff wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Tell me child, do your people have a prophecy to guide them?”
“We have many, it depends upon which of the Divines you follow. I follow the way of The One,” Seff hissed again, “to which belongs the Great Prophecy. I would imagine that is the one to which you refer.”
“It is,” Seff lowered her gaze for a moment, “it is close to our own but not quite true to our father, Accuson.”
“In my land Accuson is the father only of lies,” Lo knew the risk in speaking such a heresy but she also knew the greater risk in holding back the truth in which she believed. She would do nothing that would raise a barrier between her and The One.
“Accuson is loyal and faithful to those that bow before him. He has always led us with strength.”
“Strength? Is that why your chieftain sent a whole army capture one human girl?” Lo turned and walked away.
“We got you, that is strength,” there was a degree of satisfaction in Seff’s tone that was little short of smugness.
“And now the light bearers will come. Is that not what your writings say?” It was a moment of divine inspiration as though The One himself had planted the knowledge deep within her. “Does it not say that is so?” Seff held her tongue, “Is it not also written that that a great tribulation will sweep throughout the lands as a sign of the defilement that the light bearer brings?”
“It does,” Seff conceded.
“Then your great strength is mere folly,” Lo whispered in Seff’s ear.
“There are none as strong as the orcs; we have survived for centuries by our wits and cunning. Our strength has brought down the mighty dandril of the Forest Mountains in the north and it has driven the scourge of man from our lands and it has beaten the Frith. I doubt that you, a mere human, could last more than a day in the mind of the Frith,” Seff dug her hands into the mud wall and began to climb. “Perhaps we shall yet see how you match up to the Frith,” she cackled with laughter as she trudged her way back to her domicile.
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