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Diazuul is getting more powerful.

And why wouldn’t he, when Lymok is conducting a ceremony to venerate him?

More guards crouch on the ground, chaining Harok’s ankles to the rings at the bottom.

Harok fights his chains the entire time.

Lymok smiles when it is done. “Now the kushir. Tie him to the base.”

Tobi yells out as he is dragged forward.

Harok’s eyes are flashing dark. “No,” he snarls. “No, Lymok, you must not do this.”

Harok pulls at his chains, but the stone holds him. Tobi is placed on the ground at the foot of the sacrifice stone. Ropes are brought out and his wrists are tied behind him and attached to one of the iron bolts sunk into the stone’s base.

“Ah yes,” says Lymok. “A fitting place for a kushir.” He strolls closer and looks down at Tobi. “On your knees at the feet of your Ereyek.” He leans closer and whispers in Tobi’s ear. “Your Ereyek, for now.”

Tobi does not think Harok heard, but perhaps he guessed what Lymok says because as Lymok straightens, Harok jolts so hard in the chains that Lymok pulls back in alarm. “Fuck you, Lymok,” Harok shouts. “I am your Irgo, named heir by Irgo Lal, my father. This is not the way of the Solwen.” He keeps going, a torrent of something in fast angry Ambolk that Tobi cannot quite follow, but seems to be a threat to kill Lymok in some brutal way.

Lymok takes a breath and, almost casually, backhands Harok around the face.

Harok splutters. As Lymok draws his hand back Tobi can see Harok’s cheekbone is split from the ring Lymok forced from Harok’s finger.

“The way of the Solwen was corrupted by you, Harok, you and your heresy. We were loyal to Diazuul for two hundred years ever since he helped us drive out the Azurians from Urynwud. Since you ended the tributes to him, the Solwen have known nothing but pain under your foul reign.”

Lymok turns. Tobi cannot look away from Harok’s bloody face. Lymok shouts something else to the crowd about the glory of Diazuul. He walks away from them, ranting on and on to the crowd.

Tobi hisses up at Harok, “What will they do? What is the Trial of the Trees? Will they just leave us here?”

Harok shakes his head. “No,” he says, his voice rough. “We will be given a drug. Abieum. It is made from the sap of a certain rare tree.”

“Abieum,” says Tobi. “I know it. We have it in Azuria. A yellow syrup that makes you see things that are not there. Mystics take it to speak with spirits. But why give us that? What is the reason?”

“Abieum is sacred to the triple God. Used in old rituals to bring Solwen closer to trees, beasts, earth. But its true purpose is twisted by Diazuul. It is part of the trials. Used to weaken the mind for Diazuul.”

Tobi thinks of his mother. Quietly, he says, “I have madness in my blood.”

“Suskara,” Harok responds, also speaking quietly in his low rumbling Ambolk. “When I am given abieum, Diazuul will take control of me. End me. You will be trapped here with Diazuul. You did not run, Suskara. I told you to run.”

Tobi swallows, but he says as calmly as he can. “I missed your heart. My fault. I could not kill you. I could not leave you. I will save you.”

Harok lets out a long heavy sigh. “No, Suskara. You cannot. And it is not your fault. Never your fault. My foolish actions and thirst for revenge caused this. I cursed myself and all the world.”

Tobi looks across to where Lymok is still ranting to his crowds, while something is happening around a small fire. A man amongst them is wearing a dark red robe. A Blood Priest. Mereli told Tobi once that the first Exceli were the Blood Priests. One of them, it seems, has retaken his old mantle.

Slowly Harok says, “Diazuul is readying himself. I can feel his thoughts. He taunts me. He tells me he could easily break these chains that hold me if I only let him take control. He is telling me how sweet it will be to become a demon and kill them all. I am sorry, Suskara. I fear what he will do to you when he has control of me.”

Tobi shakes his head. His heart hurts. “Diazuul cannot control you. You fought him for many years. You fight him now. You are strong Irgo.”

“I am not strong enough,” Harok growls. “Not for this.”

Neither of them speak for a while. Tobi wonders how long it truly takes to prepare Abieum, or perhaps this wait is merely part of the torture.

Eventually, a cry goes up from the crowd Lymok is ranting to. The Blood Priest lifts a brass bowl high in the air. It catches the firelight, glowing bright orange.

The Blood Priest turns and walks towards Tobi and Harok. Lymok follows and the crowd draws nearer.

The Blood Priest is making a slow incantation in an Ambolk sweet sing-song. Tobi can understand it easily. “Trial of Beast, Trial of Tree, Trial of Earth. The three Old Gods of the Ambolk. Bow before our one true God. The Great Diazuul. Protector of the Solwen.”