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2. the living dead
The Children of God are hunted and seldom can stay in any one place more than a few days before having to leave again. To his and others' great unease, Naxosos finds has become magnetic to all sorts of creatures, some human and some not, and there are many unusual and often distressing encounters. The tribe must be creative in eluding pursuit.
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OUR STORY THUS FAR: Naxosos desires to confront the Meriezirim Honey, who has established herself in the city of Viragos. To gain this, he has had to argue at great length with all the members of his ever-growing, ever-expanding tribe.
Required by circumstance to make a quick exit from the Gorardeno Nathaniel's galley Irista's Bull just outside the great harbor of Viragos Haven, the cohort travels first to Dargana Sud, a fishing village some miles from the city, then on to Letratha, a village friendly to the Children of God quite a bit closer to the city walls, within the province.
There it's decided that the jolly band will split up to make life harder for the multitude of entities trying to detain and/or capture them. Naxosos, Naemas, Korsis, Joliel, and the warrior Zyanonchoulain travel back to the mouth of Viragos Haven and then by boat to a place near the shore owned by the sorcerer Joliel for some years now, a residence he won from the dishonest merchant Moratis – the story of which is recounted in "King of the Waste [5] / demonstration"
Paranis is of course competent and wise, and if the reader has read "the vineyard laborers" (King of the Land of the Dead [4] the poison tree) s/he knows that he becomes one of Naxosos's disciples and journeys with them on foot a great long way – this, however, is a couple of years into the future. Here, Naxosos has only just met Dantozi Paranis, who helped him and his cohort escape from Irista's Bull as it was about to be boarded and searched.
Nirith is pregnant with Naxosos's child* and she has remained in Fehischian-Rah, a mountain stronghold, where the Children of God had to take refuge after being kicked out of Fehischian-Or – Honey's town of origination – just in case anyone wonders. That Nirith and her child have been threatened by Honey, the Meriezirim, is one of the reasons Naxosos seeks to confront her in one of her lairs.
* There has scarcely been anything published about Naxosos's kid with the sorceress Nirith, Thais's Second, as of today, 22 November 2025. The girl, Shaenaelli, is mentioned as being deceased as of the beginning of "King of the Land of the Dead [3] a devil's work" at about two-and-a-half years old – in "KOTLOTD [1] a bitter draught" Nirith is still pregnant, the reason she isn't with the cohort at the beginning of "a bitter draught" (the excerpt "about thirty)" and all during that chapter.
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7 May 2019 / 22 May 2025 ♃ / 20 October 2025 ☽/ 23 November 2025 ☉
JTPYO – King of the Land of the Dead [2] / the living dead (excerpt: at the house of Moratis)
Copyright © 2019, 2020, 2021 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 by Kristi A. Wilson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Which is me.
"You may also recall, therefore," the sorcerer continued pleasantly on, "the tale that Naemas assisted me in recounting, that of the merchant Moratis, who endeavored to cheat the tribe, perhaps worse, and was remanded in full measure for his infraction that very same evening."
In Letratha Village the cohort had decided to split up: Thais and the warrior Merelioides, and Sabelko – who had at Travowil been freed from demonic possession, though it had killed him, then brought back from death – brothers Kozvit and Andiamo, and priests Tolalo and Naimejo would remain in Letratha, a place friendly to fishers and the Children of God. (In fact, after a couple of days Naxosos didn't want to leave, discovering thereby that he was increasingly reluctant to continue the mission he'd fought to initiate; he expressed none of these misgivings to anyone, however.)
Naxosos, Naemas, Korsis, Joliel, and the warrior Zyanonchoulain would per the plan take a covered cart to the shore south of the city walls, where one of Paranis's boats would pick them up. Circling widely out into the Channel, west and then north to get all the way around the sea-gates, then making east to Viragos Haven (with luck, this would not take all night and they wouldn't be hailed by anyone), the abbreviated company would, assuming their entrance into the Haven itself went uneventfully, set southwards into the Lower Haven (exchangeably, the Lower Bay or Lower Harbor) – a broad, shallow inlet sheltered against fractious waters and wayward winds by Cape Kra'a'el to the west and to the east, the encircling cliffs of Viragos.
Once they were disembarked upon the Lower Quay, there would be left only a short walk to a property owned by the sorcerer Joliel, formerly the estate of deceased merchant Moratis. The house, Morativela, lay well within Viragos's walls.
All this so the five of them could pass into Viragos without having to dare the city's gates. ("Although," Korsis had commented sourly, "I'll bet you ten zees that Honey knows where we are right now and she'll be waiting for us when we land!")
And so they parted.
Their plan began its unfoldment with a nerve-wracking journey of some miles around the southernmost walled border of Viragos, lying covered in a ridiculously small trap pulled by two mules (and briskly, though for the hours it lasted the ride was jolting, hot, and distinctly uncomfortable).
The cohort reduced to five arrived, at long last, to spend another uncertain hour waiting (and rubbing bottoms sore from a few hours of bouncing in a farmer's cart along a rocky, rutted, lane – where an eagle-eyed patrolman could have spotted them from almost any place upon the southwestern wall, if they had not been covered) upon a lonely, bracken- and bramble-grown, gravelly spit. Just as the sunset, all of brass, drowned in green, was about to disappear into the depth of the western Channel, Paranis's landing-barge showed up and they were able to board.
To everyone's relief, this part of the operation went as planned – of course it was much too soon for a victory celebration and Korsis took the opportunity to repeat his dreary trope about the Meriezirim more than once; Naxosos observed thereby that Naemas was distant and upset. He's worried about Honey. Of course. Then, with shame: Still angry, too. At least it was dark enough that he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing his blushes.
Then he remembered the warrior Two-Swords, whose thoughts and emotions currently were shielded from him: This one had been her husband for a few weeks, and that at his request, Naxosos, sovereign of the Children of God. The project had not gone well, and this was why poor Two-Swords (Zyanonchoulain) was with the company on this mission, though he liked it not. The fighter was not eager to be close to the Meriezirim again, and he was not the only one who wanted to be anywhere else than here.
Naxosos began to consider that perhaps his mission to confront the woman in one of her strongholds was juvenile and ill-considered: By her ability to possess others into participating in extreme acts, the Meriezirim Honey had gained a number of holdings in just a couple of months.
That the project was childish had already been suggested, of course, but since Naimejo had been the strongest advocate of "Naxosos doesn't know what he's doing, so let's all sit back down and argue about what to do for another couple of days," Naxosos had been able to overrule him.
He said nothing about his apprehensions. It's too late; I have to do it.
At the third hour past sunset, then, the group finally rounded the second sea-gate and pointed itself toward Viragos.
Paranis's rowers rowed with all their might for many long and stressful minutes before the shore could, from the low-slung, toiling craft, be clearly seen.
Naxosos was exempt from having to work the oars today: Before they had to crouch down in the boat and hide, he was able to get a view of their surroundings – something he'd viewed from the heights many, many times, and from out on the Channel, but never from this vantage. It was both exhilarating and dire, considering their mission and how many of their party had objected to it.
Viragos Port, the Haven it was called for more than an age, was vast; the tide was out when they entered, with the Etrisiato running over the mudflats, producing streams and billows of silt to impede a rower – at least the brakes of lode-thorn were easily seen and avoided.
To make things a bit more troublesome, the craft dragged a net weighted with empty casks and crates to give the appearance of fishers returning from the Channel with a haul – this to serve as explanation for why they were riding so low, for the warrior Zyanonchoulain lay hidden toward the stern. (The tillerman had joked, "He'll keep my feet warm!")
(23 November 2025 ☼)
