Taking another sip of whiskey, Emlyn continues her story, “The second Guardian wanted to know if we had ever committed adultery. Since none of us had ever been married, that was an easy question to answer. He opened his gate and let us pass. We hadn’t gotten very far when we saw a bear attacking a woman. It was very odd because she didn’t seem able to escape the bear, and the bear didn’t seem to be able to do any lasting damage to the woman. Still, it was obvious that the bear was hurting her. Her screams were pitiful, so we killed the bear and took her with us for a time. She turned out to be a vile creature. As we made our way to the next gate, more spirits beset us, and she always seemed to provoke a fight with them, even with the ones that weren’t hostile when they approached us. Finally, in a fit of pique, Dian killed her, angry over the spirits she had forced us to slay.
The third Guardian asked us if we had ever given false testimony in court. Since we were all paladins and clerics, the answer was easy to give. He told us that we had not passed the test, though. He didn’t seem overly concerned that we had killed the woman. It seems that we should have killed the woman and not the bear, since she had attacked the bear first. Still, he did open the gates once we explained that we didn’t see that. When we came upon them, all we saw was a bear mauling a woman, so we tried to help her.
We stayed on the Soul’s Path, but it began to branch and meander, intersecting with other paths. We discussed it and decided that this was the next test. We were careful that not all of us leave the path at the same moment. We took turns standing our ground as we were attacked by spirits that seemed intent on driving us off the path. Still, we managed to hold on until we reached the fourth Guardian. The fourth Guardian asked us if we had been faithful to our god. We stood there, unable to answer him, for so long that he started to become angry. Midir told him that it wasn’t an easy question for us to answer, given the reason that we were there in the first place. Neit said to him that we were being faithful to what our god was when we took our vows. Cian told the guardian that the answer to that question was beyond us – that we could not, in all honesty, answer either yes or no. The Guardian seemed puzzled by this, so despite the warning from the First Guardian, we had to explain again why the still living were on the Soul’s Path.
We were nearly to the fifth Guardian when we came upon what appeared to be the sacrifice of a young girl on a dark altar. Recalling our lesson with the woman and the bear, we approached more cautiously, leaving Cian on the path. We were able to dispel the illusion that she had woven, and saw that the priest was sending a devil back to the Hells. Still, by the time we made our way back to the path, Cian was surrounded by spirits who were draining his life away, and we couldn’t reach him in time. That’s when we found out resurrection spells didn’t work there. We decided to carry him with us and see if we could get to a place where we could resurrect him, but the fifth guardian wouldn’t let us pass his gate with Cian’s remains. We had to bury him there on the Path. The Guardian wasn’t unkind and even helped us raise a cairn.
I think that if we had not been so distracted by grief for Cian, we might not have lost Neit. The next test was one of will. We were beset by every temptation you can imagine, trying to lure us off the path. We were offered everything any of us had ever desired – men, women, food, drink, money, power, kingdoms, armies – literally anything and everything. Under normal circumstances, faced with such temptation, we would have prayed. That avenue of respite was blocked for us, though. Before we realized what was happening, Neit stepped off the path and straight into the arms of a succubus. She drained him as dry as a husk in moments. When we reached the sixth Guardian, he also helped us raise a cairn because he wouldn’t let us pass with Neit either. Then the Guardian asked us if we had ever broken an oath. That, thankfully, we were able to answer that we had not.
The path to the seventh Guardian was perhaps the most difficult. Instead of tempting us off the path, the things there tried to enrage us so that we would pursue them. They hurled insults at us and screamed accusations, but this time we were better prepared. We locked arms, and we all remained on the path. The seventh Guardian stopped us and demanded to know if we had ever done evil. That was when I started crying – not in fear or pain, mind you, but in sheer frustration. I was so angry that I momentarily lost my composure. Dian said that I kicked the Guardian in the shins, but Gwladus said that I only kicked dirt at him. I only remember him leaning down and asking me why I was so angry. He said that he’d never seen anyone react so strongly to his question, and he wanted to know why. So, I explained it this time, kicking and cursing, and ready to fight him if he wouldn’t let us pass. I’d lost two of my dearest friends, and I was not about to be denied. Do you know that the Guardian laughed at me? He told me that if I still felt so strongly that I couldn’t possibly be evil. I told him that he hadn’t asked me if I was evil; he had asked me if I had done evil, and that was a question I really couldn’t answer. He laughed again and said that evil is ninety percent in the intent of the deed. Then he let us pass.
We found ourselves in a line, waiting to be judged. We waited while Lugh passed judgment on those in front of us. Some of his judgments frightened us, while others were reassuring. We were still shaking in our boots as we stepped up to face him. He looked down at us from his great throne, and he frowned at us. I cannot tell you how afraid that made me. He roared at his staff, wanting to know what the living were doing on the Soul’s Path. None of them knew, so he sent for the Guardians. I’m not sure, but I think the first Guardian winked at us. When Lugh demanded to know who let us in, he stepped up and said that he had allowed us to pass. Lugh gave him a dirty look that made him swallow hard, but he stood his ground.
That’s when I lost my temper and started yelling at Lugh. I told him that he wasn’t any better than Rigan. I said that we had paid with two of our friends’ lives to stand before him, and he could at least do me the courtesy of listening. I also told him that if that’s what gods were like, I was done with the whole sodding lot of them. I told him that I had more than my fill of petty, capricious, bratty, whiny gods who must certainly have a family tree that resembled my hair braid, judging by the level of maturity and intelligence I’d seen from the dozens of them I’d encountered so far.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Because I was being really insulting, Midir and Dian were trying to shut me up the whole time, but I wasn’t having any of it. Midir even tried to pick me up and move me, but I kicked him and he let go. Finally, Midir asked me to stop before he became angry. I told Midir that we had already faced one angry god and that I was quite prepared to go for two. I ranted at Lugh for some time, until I finally ran out of words. When I was done ranting, Lugh just sat there looking at me for the longest time.
He turned to Dian, Midir, and Gwladus and asked them if they felt the same way. Midir told him that while they wouldn’t have used my words that the gist of it was accurate. Then one of the Guardians piped up and asked him if he saw why they had allowed us to pass.
He sent the Guardians back to their posts, and he came down off his grand throne and he…he blessed me. He said that all mortals have a point beyond which they will not be pushed, and that he understood. He told me that not all gods are petty or capricious and that he hoped that I’d find another more to my taste. He also wished me luck in raising my companions. Then he told us that we couldn’t stay there and, since we were living, we couldn’t pass through. When we asked him what he was going to do with us, he just grinned. He climbed back on his throne and became serious again. His judgment was that since we had not died, we must be sent back to finish our lives. One second, we were standing in his Hall of Judgment, and the next, we were sneezing in some dusty warehouse.
We were free and home and nearly delirious with joy. It was very short-lived. We quickly figured out where we were and went to Gwladus’s home first since it was closest, but we saw the smoke rising from half a league away. Rigan seemed to have found out about our pilgrimage, and his revenge was… horrific. No building was left standing, save the temple. There wasn’t a single thing left alive, not even a chicken. It seems that a goodly portion of the townsfolk had sought refuge in the local temple to Rigan. Rigan wrote his name in their blood on the walls, over and over. The heads of Gwladus’s family were neatly arranged on the altar, like some obscene offering. Everything in the town had been rendered down to ash and blood.”
“Easy, lass,” Atres says as he can feel Emlyn starting to tremble, “You are here, with me, and safe now.”
“My family’s home,” Emlyn chokes and stops for a sip of whiskey, “was… I don’t have words… Everywhere but my family’s home was identical, a smoking ruin, blood-covered walls, and the same obscene offering on the altar. My family home was… worse. They raped and abused my brothers and sisters. Myfanwy had finally learned to say my name properly... I think…that… they… skinned Gwern alive, but it was hard to be certain it was him… They nailed Briallen to the bed and took turns with her while the others played cards. When they got bored, they set the bed on fire. They broke little Lefi’s jaw to make it easier to abuse him.”
Breaking finally, Emlyn dissolves into big hiccupping sobs, and Atres rocks her, “Oh, lass. I’m so sorry you saw that, but their fear and pain are over now. Here, have another sip or two. I think you need it.”
Patient and calm, Atres soothes her until Emlyn is ready to take up her story again. Still hiccupping a bit, she continues, “We’d grown up together, friends before our tattoos had been started, when we were all still small enough to be in skirts. We’d known each other’s families well. We were all reeling, stunned. We’d gone to Midir’s home last, hoping that since it was so remote that they might have been spared, but no. It was just as much a smoking, leveled ruin as any of the others. Gwladus, Midir, Dian, and I stood there staring at each other.
After what we’d found at my family’s keep, I had been dumbly following where they led me, eating when they put food in my hands, drinking when they put a cup in my grasp. Midir was the one who finally snapped me out of that. Midir suggested that with our families gone, keeping the secrets of our Houses was now irrelevant and that each of us should train the others in all that we knew. Between my own House, House Irilan, House Rethin, House Dongal, and House Munad, plus some of the things Bedo taught me, I am heir to nearly every bit of war lore that four of the oldest and greatest Houses among the Cymry ever collected, along with what Bedo taught me, since he had no children of his own. Since Dian, Gwladus, and Midir were male, none of the secrets of their family line were held back from them as my father did with me, thinking I would wed and be joined to a different Great House than our own. This was common at the time, but it’s a practice I have come to regret.
We made a pact to share what we knew with each other, not knowing which of us might get some slim opportunity to strike. We began teaching each other everything we knew that the others didn’t already know. That was when the gods came courting us. There were so many of them. All of them offered to let us convert so that we wouldn’t go into our fight against Rigan godless. Most were gods of vengeance, murder, assassination, or warfare. They came from every pantheon but our own. The ones I can recall are Sotar, Geenta, Brika, Edmus, Tades, Fenrir, Ardon, Ophon, Bellona, Idros, Ares, Agen, Junga, Zouros, Bast, and Odin.
There were other gods, though, and lots of them. A couple of dozen more, perhaps, and often ones who came from pantheons we’d never heard of. Many of them blessed us. Others offered us weapons or armor. A few even offered us entire armies. One offered to simply take us out of Rigan’s reach. In the end, we took none of them because we refused to be trapped in a strange god’s afterlife. After all, that would leave us unable to save our people. Every last one of them did or said something that led us to believe that they’d arrange for us to fall in battle and be trapped in their afterlife.
Every last one of them demanded oaths that would bind us, even after death. We were still hopeful that we would be able to save our people and wary of anything that would bind us in that way, because it would likely require all of us to save the Cymry. We also weren’t foolish enough to think that we’d be able to do this without at least one of us needing to be resurrected at some point. If any of us were bound like that and fell in battle, resurrection wouldn’t have been possible.
Mostly, we moved constantly, trained religiously, and raided supply caravans for food and weapons. Our first real success came at Lake Nwdir. Our supply raids had been so successful that they came hunting us with nearly thirty thousand troops. We readied our potions and our scrolls to protect ourselves from fire. Since you’ve probably never seen Lake Nwdir, let me describe it for you. The forest there was thick and ran for leagues. The path between the forest and the lake is narrow, and the lake is broad and deep, with a steep slope that drops into deep water just steps from the shore.
We waited until they were well and truly trapped, and we set fire to the forest. The forest blazed because we’d stocked it with every flammable thing we could find. Those who tried to swim were quickly pulled under by their armor. Those who tried to run discovered that we’d set fire to nearly a league of the forest in every direction. For those that didn’t try to run or swim, we came howling out of the inferno like vengeance incarnate. I think that perhaps a dozen or so of them survived. That was when they learned to fear the four of us.
Would you have tried to walk the Soul's Path? Let me know in the comments.