It was the morning of the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year and, by Dean's reckoning, the coldest too. He wrapped his jacket tightly around himself trying to conserve as much heat as possible.
For the first time since arriving at the monastery, he stood within the cathedral. He had always wondered why such a large and ornate structure had been built so far away from civilization. The nave was lined with marble columns leading up to the altar, while natural light poured in from elaborate stained glass windows, illuminating the finely carved marble statues of the Goddess and famous Priestesses. The statues and other areas around the cathedral were adorned with various evergreen plants like holly, laurel and bergenia. A large fir tree even sat behind the altar where the greenery was so prevalent it bordered on overgrown. An enormous hole in the roof normally allowed sunlight to enter, but now all it allowed in was the snow.
Dean knew that sermons were usually only held on clear days. The winter solstice festival was an exception. The people who had gathered wore heavy jackets to protect themselves from the cold.
Footsteps echoed on the tiled floor as people entered the cathedral. Dean had decided to stand near the back of the Cathedral and stay out of the proceedings as much as possible. He could see Matin and Marianne sitting near the front next to Oscar.
It was cold, but he was much better off back near the entrance than with that group of people. Oscar's face looked even more rugged than before, and he wore a slight scowl. He looked to Dean as if he would explode at any time.
"So they finally let you in, huh?"
Dean turned to find Maria and Rosetta standing in the aisle. They wore black dresses that resembled the habit Layota wore yesterday.
"Like them? We wear them especially for today." Maria said, doing a little twirl.
"Stop that. We're in the cathedral." Rosetta whispered.
"Don't worry, most people can't see us back here, anyway. Mind if we sit here?" Maria asked.
"Go ahead." Dean replied, making room for the two women.
He had to admit to himself that they both looked good. The dresses fit well and were complimented by gold embroidery on the cuffs and around the neck. The material looked rather light.
"Aren't you two cold?" He asked as they both settled in.
"Freezing." Rosetta muttered dourly.
Rosetta's teeth were chattering as she tried to speak.
"Well, why don't we cuddle up to Dean?" Maria said with a grin. "I'm sure he could warm us up right fast."
Rosetta shot another glare at Maria.
"Why do you have to say such things here of all places, if anyone hears you..."
Dean wouldn't have minded sitting between them. Rosetta, with her blond hair and blue eyes, could easily be called beautiful if it weren't for her constant scowling, and Maria had a certain air about her that made her fun to be around.
"Oh, you're no fun, but you've got a point." Maria said.
Dean was careful not to let the disappointment show on his face. Of course, he didn't want to attract unwanted attention either.
Maria sent her own glare towards the front of the cathedral, where a group of monks were busy lighting candles near the altar.
"I can't believe this place hasn't burned down yet," Dean said as he looked around at all the various flora decorating the cathedral.
Maria giggled.
"Now there's an idea. All those plants look real dry too."
"You wouldn't." Rosetta said, face going pale.
Dean laughed.
"Oh, come on, Rosetta, can't you tell when someone is joking?"
Rosetta shook her head.
"She's not joking. She's tried to burn something down before!"
Dean's felt confused and not knowing how to react, he turned to look at Maria for confirmation.
"Sarah had it coming." Maria muttered.
Dean really wanted to find out more about this, but Maria was unwilling to elaborate. Rosetta looked to be on the verge of tears, so he decided to leave her alone too.
Before long, total silence fell on the congregation, and Methaeus walked up to the altar. The people in the aisles stood as he reached his destination.
"As the Goddess is certain to fall, so is it that she is certain to rise again. Let her warm embrace shelter us once more." He spoke in chants.
"Let her shelter us once more." The congregation echoed.
"Good evening, everyone."
"Good evening, Brother." Came the echo.
"As we gather here today on the day of death, let us give thanks to the Goddess for a bountiful year.
Upon hearing these words, everyone in the cathedral bowed their heads in silent prayer. Dean took a moment to look around, but when he saw Rosetta glare at him, he hurriedly followed everyone's example.
What followed was a collection of prayers and low, mournful hymns, which had the unfortunate effect of making Dean's eyelids rather heavy. He almost yawned but valiantly fended off the temptation. After a while, sister Layota stepped up to the altar.
"This is an account of the last days of Itsuyana." She said solemnly
The story of the first priestess was one that had been drilled into Dean's head from a young age. It was read every year during this ceremony.
"As a harsh winter gripped the land and people slowly began to succumb to the cold and hunger, thus Itsuyana spoke."
"She told them that the Goddess' power was waning. If nothing was done, then the world would be lost in an eternal frozen hell."
"It was at that moment that Itsuyana told the people to worry not"
"I shall return to the Goddess and lend her my strength, Itsuyana said, I ask you all to pray with all your might that I may reach her warm embrace."
"Itsuyana had everyone build a large fire. Once it was lit, she walked into the flames, giving her life without so much as a whimper of pain."
"Soon after, spring returned to the world, and the people rejoiced. And so the Priestess gave her life for the survival of the people. Let us give thanks."
"For the priestess' sacrifice we are eternally grateful." The congregation spoke.
Having finished her reading, Layota bowed her head and left the altar.
Dean looked around the cathedral for signs of Addi. He had assumed she was somewhere here and that she was too short to be easily seen. It was odd that she hadn't spoken or even been mentioned yet.
"Where's Addi?" Dean whispered to Maria.
"I don't know. She should have given that reading."
Maria had a rare look of concern on her face, and Dean noticed that some of the people in the Cathedral shared the look. No one decided to speak up, however, and so the sermon continued. Next, it was Methaeus' turn to speak.
"On this day, let us take a moment to remember and pray to Itsuyana's successor; the second Priestess Adaleus the scribe."
Dean sighed as another reading began.
"Adaleus met with the druids, leaders of the old folk tradition, and brokered an agreement with them after days of constant negotiation and no rest."
"Thanks to her wit and charisma, she joined the two beliefs into one true word of the Goddess and soon after, penned our holy book, taking into account the words of her master, Itsuyana. It is thanks to her genius and perseverance that we may celebrate today with confidence."
Methaeus continued on for some time, but Dean could no longer keep to attention.
What followed towards the end was a ceremony of sorts where all the lights in the cathedral, including the myriad of candles, were extinguished and then meticulously re-lit representing the death and rebirth of the goddess during winter and spring, respectively.
"As the Goddess is resurrected, so too shall all the souls of the faithful be one day gifted with a new life. Go now and serve in the light of her presence and grace. "
With those final words, the sermon ended, and Methaeus made an announcement.
"We will now commence with the sacrifice of the priestess. I ask that everyone please gather in the gardens."
Chatter began to fill the hall as the crowd slowly shuffled out of the cathedral.
"I'm worried about Addi" Rosetta said immediately. "I'm going to go look for her."
Rosetta left the church while Maria looked around the Cathedral, her eyes sharp.
"I'm going to go ask Methaeus about this." She said, her voice low.
"You think he knows something?" Dean asked.
He got up to follow Maria, but she held out an arm to stop him.
"You go on ahead. I'm going to talk to him myself"
"Hey, I want to know where Addi is too." Dean protested.
"Stay out of this!" Maria hissed. "You've been gone long enough to be considered an outsider. You'll only complicate things if you come with me."
She walked off, leaving Dean standing by himself.
Maria's words stung. She'd been one of the few to greet him as an old friend. He supposed Addi's absence was irritating her and possibly allowing her true feelings to show.
"An outsider." He echoed.
He hated that word. It had everything to do with the problems this monastery and his friends faced.
"Why can't they all just get with the times?" He muttered to himself.
He wrapped his coat tightly around himself as he left the cathedral. The snow crunched underfoot as he stepped outside. The crowd was making its way towards the gardens, but Dean went in the opposite direction. He had to do whatever he could by himself.
He hurried from one building to the next but couldn't find Addi anywhere. Some of the buildings, like the Cathedral and library, were simply too big to search alone.
"Dammit, Addi, why do you always have to go and run off?" He complained to no one in particular.
Realising that searching alone was useless, he decided to go to the gardens. They were located behind the cathedral and consisted of a large open lawn with various flowerbeds dotted around. The garden ended where the great forest began, so there were plenty of trees about too.
A platform had been constructed in the center of the green, and people were gathering around it.
Dean's eyes caught sight of a huge figure on the platform. It was the effigy of the priestess Layota had mentioned the day before.
"Looks as unsettling as ever," he said to himself.
"Don't be like that. The people of the monastery put a lot of work into it, you know."
Dean turned to find Matin standing behind him. He was now wrapped in multiple layers of clothing, making him look comically bigger than usual.
"Hey Matin, you see Addi anywhere?"
Matin shook his head.
"No, I've been wondering where she is. Oscar was livid when she failed to appear, but Methaeus assured us that he would cover for her."
"I wonder where she went." Dean said.
"It's not strange for her to run away. She probably didn't feel like giving a speech this year. Maybe she went back to the forest?" Matin suggested.
Dean had thought about that too as he searched the town. However, the cold meant that going out into the mountains now would be suicide. The small trails that led to the woods had already been lost in the piling snow.
"Let's go look for her after the bonfire." Matin said. "Mother insisted we stay for that at least."
The effigy was a colossal figure made of hay and wood. It looked vaguely like a woman, wearing a large white sheet that resembled a dress. In its left hand was a wooden scepter and in its right, a wreath of evergreen leaves. A lot of effort had clearly gone into its creation, but Dean found himself wishing they'd hurry up and set it on fire. The featureless head on top had given him nightmares as a child.
A monk was currently giving a speech about the dying Goddess and the need to send the priestess' soul back to her. To Dean it sounded like more of the same drivel he had heard back in the Cathedral.
"Do they really need to go through all this again?" He complained.
"It only happens once a year. We just gotta put up with it." Matin replied unhelpfully.
Dean took a look around. He could see Oscar standing next to Methaeus near the altar. Both men were looking straight ahead and almost appeared uninterested in the proceedings. If anything, Methaeus looked even more serious than usual. It was the most important ceremony of the year, so Dean didn't find their behavior unusual.
Marianne was standing on Matin's other side, and while she had been buttering up Oscar over the past few days, she looked less than thrilled to be standing in the middle of a snowy garden. She periodically sniffed loudly, and Dean couldn't tell whether she disagreed with what the monk was saying or had a runny nose from the cold.
He also noticed Layota and the middle aged man he had seen in the parlor the day before. They were standing at the back near the forest. Layota was seemingly lost in prayer while the man was looking left and right as if trying to find someone in the crowd. Dean heard footsteps approaching from behind.
"Hey"
Dean turned to find Maria standing there. She didn't look at all happy.
"No luck?" Dean asked.
Maria shook her head.
"Methaeus thinks that she's probably run off again. He didn't look angry or anything, which is weird. It's the most important day of the year. He should be taking this more seriously, dammit!"
Dean couldn't help feeling anxious. Maria's bouts of anger were infamous in their group even as children. He'd received many a bruise for pushing the wrong buttons. It seemed that she hadn't changed much.
Dean felt a bit of her frustration, though. They had gone through all that effort to find them the day before, and now it all seemed pointless. Aside from their group and Oscar, nobody seemed overly worried about the disappearance. It seemed they would all rather look at a burning straw woman instead.
"This is all wrong," he muttered.
If no one was going to do something, then he'd have to do it himself. The cold forgotten, he could feel his nails digging into his palms. He took a large step forward towards the altar. He'd cut this ceremony short. He'd...
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't" Maria warned. "You don't know what you're dealing with here. Look, they're starting the fire.
Dean looked up and, sure enough, Methaeus was holding a flaming torch up to the straw figure. The dry straw caught fire immediately, and soon the whole thing was alight.
Dean could feel the heat hit his face like a truck. The people closest to the effigy backed away as embers began to fall to the ground.
"Looks like they used too much fuel this year." Matin said, covering his eyes.
"No kidding, some years the straw takes ages to catch fire. It went up like a pile of matchsticks this year despite the snow." Maria said.
"The warmth does feel good though." Matin said, holding up his hands towards the fire.
No longer worried about the cold, the group stood there for a while, watching as the straw figure began to burn away. Despite his current fears, Dean could at least appreciate the warmth of a good bonfire. Many in the crowd seemed joyful at the display and chatted among themselves freely. Others appeared to be lost in thought or prayer.
"Hey, do you smell that?" Matin asked.
Dean paused his observation and sniffed the air. He did smell something. It smelled like barbecued meat or a roast.
"Are they having the feast out here or something?" he asked.
He remembered that there was usually a feast after the ceremony. During the winter solstice, it was held in the dining room for obvious reasons. They couldn't have moved it outside in this cold.
"The smell from the kitchen couldn't travel this far, could it?" Matin asked.
A scream erupted from the crowd.
"Mother?" Matin said, stepping forward.
Dean looked toward the front of the crowd. Marianne, who had made her way to the very front, was pointing up at the burning effigy, her eyes wide and face pale.
He followed her shaking finger and saw what she was pointing at.
At the center of the fire was a massive pole. The surrounding straw had been burned away to reveal it. Dean thought it was supporting the straw figure from the inside. That may have been the case, but there was something else there. There was something tied to the poll.
He took a step forward. A person was tied to the poll. A person? No, it couldn't be.
He took another step forward. Some people's screams and shouts had joined Marianne's. Oscar was grabbing Methaeus by the shoulder and shouting. He took another step forward.
Dean began to run. Somebody was tied to the poll or rather, somebody's remains were tied to the poll.
The smell.
Dean could feel bile rising in his stomach, which threatened to spill over. Stopping to take a few deep breaths to calm himself, he looked around in a daze.
The crowd's reaction was strange, to say the least. Many people were acting as you'd expect, screaming and pointing. However, some looked to be deep in prayer. Who in their right mind would pray at a time like this?
"Who is that? Hey! Who is that?"
Maria kept shouting her questions over and over. He looked back over his shoulder. She was grinding her teeth and looking to her left and right.
Dean saw Matin comforting his mother while trying to drag her away from the fire.
Dean continued to walk through the crowd and towards the Fire. He had to be sure. His mind was filled with thoughts of Addi and Nicolas.
At that moment, someone ran up to the altar from behind the fire. A lanky figure with black hair and disheveled clothes.
"Nicolas is alive? Then who's tied to the pole?" Dean mumbled as his mind began to settle on the worst-case scenario.
Nicolas' face looked sorrowful as he slowly approached the fire. He was whispering something, but Dean was too far away to hear.
"... again soon, Addi. I hope your passing was painless at least."
Nicolas looked as though he would walk into the fire himself, but he stopped a meter away.
"Addi, it can't be," Dean whispered upon hearing Nicolas, the strength leaving his voice.
No, there was no need to jump to conclusions. The corpse had been burnt to the bone. There was no way to identify it without special equipment. It could still be anybody else. It had to be someone else.
Ignoring the sickening feeling in his gut, he forced himself to look at the charred corpse. It was smaller than an adult, but it was not a young child either.
Dean shook his head in an attempt to ignore some dark thoughts. There were many young people living at the orphanage. There was still no proof it was her.
However, Addi was the only person unaccounted for now that Nicolas had returned.
"No, no." Dean mumbled, feeling a sharp pain in his chest.
Cackling laughter reached his ears. Nicolas had turned towards the crowd. He had a manic grin on his face that Dean had never seen before. He raised his arms and spoke.
"The priestess has been slain!" He yelled. "She was unfit for the role and has paid the price!"
The confused crowd could only stare in shock as Nicolas continued to speak.
"I tried to get her to flee. To save her life, you see, she was very important to me. But she refused! And now look at her charred remains! All hope seems truly lost for you!"
The crowd began mumbling to each other. Who did this kid think he was? Was he mad?
"Doubt, I see doubt in your eyes!" Nicolas shrieked. "Yes, I look mad, but I will tell you now..." His voiced trailed off as he gazed over the crowd.
"The one who killed your Priestess in a pathetic attempt to gain power was none other than our dear councilor himself, Oscar Durin!"
The crowd gasped as their eyes turned towards the accused. Oscar stood there, his eyes wide and teeth bared. Next to him, Methaeus was bowing his head, his lips a straight line betraying no emotion.
"You speak nonsense, boy! Such an accusation demands strong evidence. Your words alone are meaningless." Oscar said, his voice solid and confident.
Nicolas smiled confidently.
"I don't need to prove myself at the current time. Future events will be my proof."
"Future events? Have you gone mad, boy?"
"Not at all. You see, the Goddess has blessed me with foresight. I knew of the priestess' demise long before it happened, and I know you, along with Methaeus are responsible."
Dean had heard enough. For whatever reason, perhaps it was Addi's death, Nicolas had lost his mind. The people in the crowd seemed to share Dean's thoughts. They shook their heads or looked at Nicolas with suspicion. Emboldened by this, Dean stepped forward.
"Very easy to say that you saw something coming after the fact." He shouted.
Dean was surprised at how angry he sounded. His words dripped with venom towards his old friend.
Nicolas turned to look at him. His confident smile twisted into a snarl.
"You doubt me now, just like always. But everything that happens from here on will prove me right, and then I will take what is mine by birthright!"
"Bullshit," Dean shouted. "You've clearly lost your mind after wandering around in those woods alone for two days."
Nicolas laughed. He giggled uncontrollably for a long time. When he stopped, he lowered his head for a moment. When he looked back up, his face was completely blank.
"Go ahead and doubt me. None of you can understand what I truly am and that makes you all fools!"
He looked across the crowd, disdain clear in his eyes.
"The Goddess will curse those involved with the death of the priestess, for they must be punished. Their deaths will serve as proof of my divine visions! Listen well, for the Goddess has told me about the future!"
He reached out his arm, holding up a single finger.
"First, the flames of wrath will be quenched in frozen water. The guilty man will die, his false dreams of a family revived, lost forever."
He held up a second finger.
"Second, those who climb high have even further to fall. The woman will die, ended by her own insatiable greed."
He held up a third finger.
"And third, the ever loyal dog will go willingly to his death. The man will die, his pride at last granting her peace."
The garden fell silent. Despite never having been much of a speaker, Nicolas somehow had everyone rooted to the spot. They looked at him with a mixture of fear and confusion, and not even Oscar or Marianne dared move.
Dean wanted to say something, anything. But the words caught in his throat. What could anyone say in response to such madness?
"Three have committed a great sin and so three will die. Once they do, you will all know my words for true! If you repent, you will be forgiven!"
With those final words, Nicolas jumped from the platform and fled towards the forest. No one seemed willing to stop him. The crowd stood in stunned silence.
Dean didn't care for Nicolas anymore, his eyes were fixed on the remains of the bonfire. He felt sick and short of breath. For the sake of his sanity, he should have looked away.
It wasn't her. He repeated those words inside his head repeatedly. It was the only way he could stay sane
He felt someone grab hold of his arm.
"Come on, we need to get back to the guesthouse." Matin said.
His voice was choked and eyes wet with tears
Dean nodded and silently allowed his friend to lead him away. He couldn't allow himself to give into despair. He had to know the truth. Only when he confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Addi was dead would he allow himself to mourn.