Pit or the Threshold (2/2)

After the 2 officers finish their meal, the Alastan King sits on his throne pensively.

Deep in his heart, Kanus really fears Das because of the man's ability to meddle with people's lifespan. 'If that god can easily give Kalastros another 100 years to live, he can kill me 100 years sooner… or even worse if I anger him!'

Kanus puts his hands on his chin and thinks, 'I don't know if the Emperor or this Commander Fisco will agree to imprison Haalfrin instead of deploying him to the Threshold…, but I can't leave this to chance. What to do?'

A few more moments pass, and King Kanus curls his lips into a smile. 'I know…'

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All while Kanus is plotting and scheming to please Lord Das, Freyya is watching the man from her house in a scrying mirror. Seeing the king smile devilishly with that "Aha!" look on his face, the Crow goddess bites her fingernails and feels her heart sink. 'No!' she thinks, 'He's got something planned. I don't know what it is, but I feel like it'll work.'

The goddess leans back in her pile of blankets and looks up at the ceiling. 'I've looked all over this Threshold,' she thinks, 'and I saw dangerous lands filled with dragons and hostile Rehkin clans. Frankly, Haalfrin wouldn't last very long if he gets sent on missions outside the walls. That means he HAS to go there!'

She then turns onto her side and pouts aloud, "'hat man – er – BOY has become a little too powerful for his world. He'll probably never die in battle at this rate… Well, there IS that dragon who made it past the Threshold, but I'll have to plan in case Dakka fails to kill Haalfrin.'

The crow goddess turns on her bed of blankets again and sighs, 'It's too hard to get ahold of mortals on Haalfrin's world. I don't have any shrines or worshippers here, so I can't just send people visions like Das can. I'll just have to get lucky and wait for Haalfrin to get into a battle or something.'

'Well, whenever I get ahold of Haalfrin,' she thinks, 'I'll have to warn him about Das's plan to imprison him.'

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The day after Haalfrin sets out on his journey to the capital, there is a small bandit alcove full of a dozen slimy and vile-looking men. It's not their frame or facial features that make them look so unpleasant… it's the darkness and apathy in their eyes.

"Oi, boss!" one of the bandits calls over, "These people were hardly worth the catch!" He empties out the pockets of an unfortunate corpse on the ground to demonstrate.

The bandit boss shrugs, "Meh. I know a couple of black sorcerers, so their organs can sell at least." Grinning evilly, the bandit kicks aside the sword still gripped in his latest victim's hands, who wouldn't let go of his weapon even as he died.

The poor sod must have been desperate to defend his family... not that it mattered!

Just as the bandits are about to bend down and cut away at the corpses, a thick black mist engulfs the entire camp, and a dreadful feeling wells up in every bandit's heart. The fear of death grips them with such force that they can control nothing – not even their instinct to faint.

Indeed, Freyya has the same ability to control the Death Aura as Haalfrin… except her control of it is far finer than his. Despite withholding the majority of her Aura, she's able to expertly control the bandits' reactions… for those who have fear are slaves to the subject of their terror.

It is a Truth of the world that Fear is the closest thing you can get to enslaving another's mind. Usurpers create something for the people to fear so that they can present themselves as the solution to the problem – thus gaining more power. Tyrants use fear to intimidate the people into obedience. Manipulators and demagogues use fear to make you predictable and control you.

A god's innate divine power always stems from their understanding of Truth. So Freyya, being far older and wiser than Haalfrin, can use their shared ability to manipulate Death Aura to not only make the bandits back off, but to also control their actions, so long as they're cloaked in her Death Aura.

Then, the bandits all kneel on the ground and watch in horror as a light brown-skinned woman with hair blacker than a starless night forms amidst the baleful mist. Despite being shorter than all of them, the 2 large wings on her back make her appear large and imposing.

The crow goddess looks down at all the bandits with disdain and opens her mouth, "You fools and murderers… If you don't want my curse upon you, you'll go to the capital road and waylay a traveling boy. He'll appear alone on horseback, and he looks to be around 10 years old."

After giving the bandits one last glare, the crow goddess disappears. As her influence fades, the bandits look up and see the sky slowly turn back to its normal color. They'd been so focused on the goddess down below that they didn't notice that the sky had turned ashen grey in her presence.

Now that the bandits are free from the goddess's grip, they all gain control of themselves again. The first thing they do is collapse onto the ground with varying degrees of terror. Some faint, some soil themselves, and some do both.

The bandit chief lays in a pool of his own feces, too weak to move. His eyes dart left, and his chest is stiff and tight (as he's too afraid to breathe freely).

In silence, the boss starts crying in his heart, 'Dad. I'm sorry for running away and becoming a bandit… I promise I'll be good from now on…'

After all the bandits wake up and are able to get on their feet again, the bandit boss looks around at all his men and says, "I don't know about you all… but I've had enough of this banditry business."

One of the younger men frowns and says, "What're we going to do boss?"

"I don't know what we've done to attract the crow goddess's attention," the boss replies, "but everybody knows she only visits this world after a battle. Everyone knows that she's a demon who wields curses…" He shudders visibly. "Whatever business she has for me, I'll have no part of it!"

Another bandit chimes in, "But… if we don't do as the crow goddess says, then she'll curse us!"

"Fool!" another bandit rebuts him, "The goddess can only torture us for all eternity if we die in battle! That's why Boss says we should all retire. If we kill other people or get killed, then we'll meet the goddess again. So long as we keep all peaceful like and bury our swords, then we'll avoid the goddess's wrath forever!"

All the bandits look at each other and nod. With trepidation, all the bandits throw down their swords and go their own way… They were the ones holding this mountain trail, so it's not like they have bandits to worry about on the way back to the nearest town…

And thus, Freyya did some unintended service to the world. She may have been trying to force a meeting between herself and Haalfrin so that she could warn him… but her plan failed.

…Well, at least she turned a dozen men away from a life of murder and debauchery. From that day to the end of their lives, every single one of those bandits never harmed another soul, and they all die as old men having lived peaceful lives.