White Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

abbot.
    “Yes, Elder Brother.”
    “Did many people own dogs there?”
    “Yes.”
    “Were there sheep in fields close to the town?”
    “Yes, Elder Brother,” replied Braygan, mystified.
    “I came from such a town. Men would walk their dogs close to the sheep, and there would be no trouble. Occasionally, though, a few dogs would gather together, and run loose. If they went into a field of sheep they would suddenly turn vicious and cause great harm. You have seen this?”
    “Yes, Elder Brother. The pack mentality asserts itself. They forget their training, their domesticity, and they turn . . .” Braygan stammered to a halt. “You think the people in the town are like those dogs?”
    “Of course they are, Braygan. They have come together and indulged in what they are led to believe is righteous anger. They have killed. They feel empowered. They feel mighty. Like the dogs they are glorying in their strength. Aye, and in their cruelty. These have been harsh years—crop failures, plagues, and droughts. The war with Datia has sapped the nation’s resources. People are frightened and they are angry. They need to find someone to blame for their hardships and their losses. The church leaders spoke out against this war. Many have been branded as traitors. Some have been executed. The church itself is now accused of aiding the enemy. Of
being
the enemy. The mob will come, Braygan. With hatred in their hearts and murder on their minds.”
    “Then Brother Lantern is right. We must leave.”
    “You have not yet taken your final vows. You are free to do as you wish. As indeed is Brother Lantern.”
    “Then
you
are not leaving, Elder Brother?”
    “The Order will remain here, for this is our home and the people of the town are our flock. We will not desert them in their hour of need. Think on these things, Braygan. You have perhaps a few days to consider your position.”

2
----
    Abbot Cethelin felt heavy of heart as the young priest, Braygan, left the study. He liked the boy, and knew him to be good-hearted and kind. There was no malice in Braygan, no dark corners in his soul.
    Cethelin moved to the window, pushing it open and breathing in the cool Tantrian mountain air.
    He could taste no madness upon it, nor sense any sorcery within it. Yet it was there. The world was slipping into insanity, as if some unseen plague was floating into every home and castle, every croft and hovel. A long time ago Cethelin recalled seeing a host of rodents, close to his home, scampering toward the distant cliffs. He and his father had walked to the clifftops, and watched as the rodents hurled themselves into the sea. The scene had amazed the boy that he had been. He had asked his father why these little creatures were drowning themselves. His father had no answer. It happened every twenty or so years, he had said. They just do it.
    There was something chilling in that phrase.
They just do it.
    Mass extinction should have a better reason. Now, at sixty-seven, Cethelin still pondered the reasons behind the madness—not this time of rodents, but of men. Had it begun when Ventria had invaded the Drenai? Or had that merely been a symptom of the madness? War had spread like an unchecked bushfire through the heartlands of this eastern continent. Civil war still raged in Ventria, a result of the Ventrian defeat at Skeln five years ago. Rebellions spread throughout Tantria as well, only to be followed by war with the country’s eastern neighbors Dospilis and Datia—a war that continued still.
    In Naashan, to the southeast, the Witch Queen’s forces had invaded Panthia and Opal, and even the peaceful Phocians had been drawn in to help defend against the invaders. To the northwest the Nadir had swept into Pelucid, crossing the vast deserts of Namib to raze and plunder the cities of the coast. War was everywhere, and in its wake came the carrion birds of hatred, terror, plague, and despair. Cethelin felt the last worst of all. To spend a lifetime