“… house be emptied of blood,
and the larder be emptied, even of dust.
The name [static] will rot for lack of mothers to birth it,
and its sons will claim to be born of [wights] instead.
Never shall you [all] be forgotten,
but never shall [all] your memories be pleasant.
This you [all] shall remain until another takes your place.
This you [all] be until [the universe] remembers differently.
No one will forget.”
I rolled up the parchment and wrapped it in cloth cut from a used death shroud. The cloth bundle was then wrapped in a piece of leather made from an animal skinned alive. The leather bundle was then placed in a lead pipe, with the cap sealed with pitch. The pipe was then tied with a rope stained with the blood drawn from hanged criminal as they still hung on the gallows.
The shallow grave had been dug in the atrium of the manor. A dog had been killed over the opening, allowed to bleed out into the scar, then dumped on top of the sodden ground. The prepared pipe was thrown on top of the carcass, and all was quickly covered with the bare minimum of dirt to say the burial was complete.
I looked around. The massacre had been complete. All the human bodies had been dragged to the atrium, to surround the shallow grave as a wall of dead that reached past the second floor and spilled over to every surface save for the path to the exit. Somehow I knew the purpose of the dog was to prevent the spirits of the human dead from entering the underworld.
I had no idea what transpired to cause such a reaction from this clan’s enemies. Not only were the inhabitants of the manor and surrounding lands slaughtered, but descendents of the clan to the fifth generation were called back to the ancestral seat by guile or by ignorance to be killed the moment they proved their legitimacy.
Only unproven bastards survived the purge, and no bastard was going to claim the seat now.
“It is done. We depart, and the gods depart with us.” My guard was supposed to be protecting me from any sympathizers. I knew really he was to make sure I followed through or my body would join the damned.
As we left, my eyes stung from the great amounts of salt that had been plowed into the fields surrounding the manor, and the smoke from the forests felled for the sole purpose of burning. The manor itself was left as is, scarred and stained from all the bloodshed, but not a single treasure or memento removed.
As we reached the boundary of the holding, I could feel the edge of the dream. I knew I had been hired to pronounce the curse, but I still did not know by who. The guard handed me a leather bag. I knew it was supposed to be my payment of precious jewels and unique talismans. The weight of the bag felt right.
We walked across the boundary, watching each other, expecting betrayal and being amused when we both kept our word.