Legends of Belariath
Saret
Along came a spider....
Along came a spider who sat down beside her. Much to her surprise the creature of this evening's darkness just hovered and dangled in front of her like a treat awaiting to be tasted. The forbidden captive nature lurked from the embedded shrouds of the inn. She watched fascinated, detailed, and clearly fixated within the lingering dance on the silk strand. Was he to be her latest prey? Or was he there to provoke her inner most thoughts? Was she strong enough to resist the arachnid?
Saret would soon seek out the obvious answers to her devoted questions of the mind. Captivated by the mere jist of his presence brought fourth a cat-like curiosity she had to inflict upon the creature. For he sought her, and not the other way around. Saret just lingered in thought for a long moment or three. Until finally she uplifted her stealth like hand, and presented it fourth. Much to her delight the creature a heard to her whim, allowing his silk stalkings to be spun lower until he dangled onto the flesh of her hand.
"Help Me" he withered his little fury body about, crying out toward the sadistic woman that he held onto. "Miss Kleer, he has sent me to you, he has brought me for you, it is him you owe penance too." The spider called into his mindscape emphatically.
Soon the Cleric twisted her facial features into that of utter mimicry, allowing the thick, ebony, lashes to fall veiling the illumination of her brilliantly blue eyes. She answered back ....
"He has sent you to me? Yes of course he has, he is testing me you know. He has put me through many a things lately, and now he tests me using you, a simple dwelling roamer of the eve. His immoral behavior suggests my own to mock him, however I shall give him what he craves, Sir lord of the Darkness Hear me call, for I am walking under the stealthy nightfall..."Just then Saret would uplift her palm and hold it above her head ....
Watching ....
Waiting ....
Wondering ....
Whorling ....
Soon the time became upon her and she knew it was the exact moment of infinity. The divinity was calling to her, the soul in which she possesses was tingled with afterthought, thrilled, yet holding some fear. Some mimesis was mistaken that night, however the Cleric moved forward, taking her left hand against her right palm and crashing the spider within her home-made cage. Her voice lingers fourth under the night fall, calling out in utter significant tone....
Milord, my Savior, blessed be.. Tis I Saret Wysteria Kleer. I've come to amend your want, and show you my desires. I call upon the darkness to set my soul free, I call upon the times to change my ever lasting destiny. Fate we shall forever debate, for I am in control of my existence, you merely guide. I provide the path and movement to in which my feet roam.
The arachnid looked upon the darkness of his cage, cringing in thought of what would become of him, for Saret was not sacrificing him, or making him a ritual, she was giving him rebirth to the land of the Devine. His eight legs fluttered and swished over her hand, as the cage enclosed upon him, until the last breath of resolve was felt, and her palms were moist with crimson fluid. She called out in a loud commanding voice ....
I present him to you my lord, my savior. This creature of the darkness is yours, take him and show him the way! I implore you! I vanquish you! I rectify the mistakes and bring to you, his rebirth.
Medical thinking, trapped in astrology and leechcraft, stressed air as the communicator of the disease, ignoring sanitation or visible carriers. The rumors of the East told of "foul blasts of wind" which carried the infection to run its course, and the idea that the plague was caused by a corrupted cloud of mist or smoke, which destroyed those as it passed over, became widely accepted. Some thought this cloud had been drawn up by the sun from the stagnant depths of the sea. Others blamed zodiacal influences and planetary alignments.
But to the people at large there was only one real explanation -- whether from bad air or planets, the plague was the wrath of God. A scourge so sweeping and unsparing without any visible cause could only be seen as Divine punishment upon mankind for its sins.