Rise of a Demon chapter two

2

By the time he reached home, word already made it. His parents were hastily preparing for the questioners visit. Normally, each house was to hold a single questioner for a night. He would determine whether or not they lived by the word of the word of the Karon-Naz. Once the house proved its loyalty, the questioner questioned each person individually to find thoughts of impurities. They always asked about dreams first.

Corsec was the only city where the rules were bent. The city was more than six thousand years old, and its religious groups were rooted there stronger than anywhere else in the known world. Even the current banner of Corsec- a gold bear with a different religious symbol in each corner- held to this. Disrupting these groups would cause a civil revolt in the city, and the whole empire would be in jeopardy. So, for now, they let them be.

However, every house that worshiped Karon was questioned. Four times this happened while Kalo lived, and each time he was forced to lie about his dreams. It had made him a better liar than most, not that he liked doing it, but if he needed to, he could.

Each questioner was chosen for his uncanny ability to interrogate. They were fierce in their questions, and they never asked exactly the same ones twice. They also had to be good fighters. Questioners went to battle and were responsible for the taking of prisoners. The prisoners were questioned, and converted or killed.
Kalo helped his mother as she stuffed the mattress for the questioners stay. Then he unfolded the sheets, made from the finest material and best embroidery in the house, and laid them over the top. He collected religious idols and spread them around the area.

A hard tug from behind pulled Kalo to the floor. He felt the cold, hardness of a knife against the side of his neck.

“Answer truthfully boy if you do indeed follow true to Karon!” His father’s face was a fierce scowl only inches from his own. “Tell, me have you ever had a dream pertaining to the great battle where Galon was defeated? Answer quickly boy!”

Kalo hardened his features determined not to flinch or give any sign whatsoever of lying. “No, lord questioner, I have not.” he said

“Boy, if you are lying to me let Karon strike you now where you lay!” He paused, but nothing changed in Kalo’s demeanor. He nodded and helped Kalo up. “Good son, best that I’ve ever seen you do it. Pray to Karon that you can do it when the questioner comes,” he said as he pat Kalo on the shoulder.

“Thank you, father” Kalo said. He looked over to his mother. Her hand was on her chest and she grimaced visibly. She never liked the practice runs, almost as little as she liked the real thing.

Suddenly there was a loud rapping at the door. Kalo’s father opened it. One of the Karonian soldiers that escorted the Questioners was staring in at them.

“God morning to you sir,” the soldier said. “It is by the decree of the Questioners, let Karon shine upon them, that I give you your date of questioning. The Questioners shall be starting on the other side of the city.”

Kalo’s father showed the small part of a smile, just for a fraction of a second.

“So the questioning shall take place three, four days then?” he asked

“No, we have found a way to hurry the process, and at the same time maximize results, thank Karon. Your house shall be questioned tomorrow,” the soldier said.

“But, the questioning has always taken longer, how now do they do it?” Kalo’s father asked.

“Sir, do you follow Karon?”

“Yes, but-“

“Then you shall have no trouble. I must be off,” he said, and with that departed.

Kalo swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. What did he mean ‘maximize results’? Kalo’s father looked unaffected, but Kalo could tell he was fearful by his voice.

“Don’t worry. If you become nervous Kalo it will just make it easier for them,” he said.

They worked to get the house as near to perfect as they could. They practiced the Questioning a few more times, much to Kalo’s displeasure. At the end of a longer session that Kalo was used to his father said: Your brothers are just old enough this year to be questioned. I need you to help me talk to them while your mother and sister are away at the market. We need to prepare them for what they will be facing. The last thing we need is for them to panic and say something that they don’t mean.

When his mother and sister left, Kalo and his father rounded up the two little ones. They had been chasing each other with sticks, pretending to be warriors. He first stopped Manta, and then his father grabbed Joro. Believing first that they wished to play along Manta swung his ‘sword’ very nearly taking off Kalo’s head. He ducked just in time and pulled the stick out of his hands. Seeing the seriousness in his face, Manta, who was smiling from ear to ear, suddenly became as somber as his brother.

Their father started, “Boys you know that you will be questioned for the first time this year, right?”

They both nodded at the same time. They always did things together. Kalo could not remember something that they did separate.

“You need to understand, that no matter what they ask you, never, never, never, tell them about your brother’s dreams. And no matter what, never let them tell you something untrue. Neither of you have had dreams like your brothers, right?”

They shook their heads in unison.

“Anything you want to tell them?” Kalo’s father asked.

“They are going to be scary the first time they question you. They will have weapons. Just don’t be afraid, Okay. They can’t hurt you as long as you tell the truth,” with an afterthought he added: “except about me.”

His father practiced questioning on each of them. It was hard for Kalo to watch, they were so small, and they were on the brink of tears when his father was done, but he knew that the Questioners would be no gentler.

Then they went inside and went over the verses of the Karon-Naz. They practiced the verses for nearly an hour before Kalo’s mother and sister came home.

They walked in followed by a tall man wearing a tan leather coat. The man had the same dark hair as Kalo’s mother’s. His eyes matched hers two. Other than that, he had taken most of his features from his father, while Kalo’s mother had taken her features from her mother. The man was Kalo’s uncle, Brine. He was a trader with Kalo’s other uncle, Ari. Brince ran the land business and Ari did the sea shipping.

Kalo’s Mother turned toward him. “Kalo, you have to leave,“ she said. Her eyes were red with tears.

“The church has started what many have begun to call the Great Questioning,” Brince said as he motioned for them to sit around the table. “It seems they have taken the sword against their own people. They are saying that people in their own lands need to be purified,”

Kalo’s jaw dropped. Never before, had the church taken up the sword against their own people.

“They have a new method for questioning. I have never seen the likes of it. Somehow they force you to tell the truth. And it’s not just what they want you to say anymore, but the cold bare truth. I, myself could not overcome it. It compelled me. I’m just lucky that they didn’t ask me about you, Kalo. I suppose now they don’t have to,” Brince said. He gave Kalo a quick worried glance before returning his attention to his parents.

“I have witnessed executions with my own eyes. They have killed women and children for no better reason than living against the church. What makes it worse is their justifications. I have seen villages burn because the roots of the town lied in another religion. They say that they must remove anything that goes against the church, and they will not stop until it is utterly finished. I know firsthand; they can pry out the truth easier than you can believe.” Brince’s face became grimmer with each word.

Kalo’s heart began to pump high in his chest. He survived on the fact that the Questioners could only tell truth from lie as well as a normal man. What was to happen now?

Almost as if he read Kalo’s mind Brince said “I can take him with me. I can hide him in my wears. They will never suspect, especially if I say that it is something that can’t be exposed to air or light. They won’t chance having to pay me back for my goods.

Kalo’s father sat head in hand. “There’s nothing else we can do, is their?” he asked, though he knew the answer. Brince nodded. “And they always tell the truth?” Brince nodded again.

“Yes, like I said, the boy will be safer if he is taken with me. He should start packing tonight just in case we should need to leave early,” Brince said.

As if there had not been enough surprises for the day, the door swung violently open. Vortin sprinted in and collapsed onto his knees, looking disheveled and terrified. He was out of breath and looked as if he had ran full out from his home to Kalo’s “Hide me… please… They’re going to try… and search for me,” he said between breaths. His voice had a panicky quality that Kalo had never heard. It was stark contrast to the typical optimism that almost always carried in his tone.

Kalo rushed to his friend’s side. “What’s a matter, Vortin?” he asked.
“My house,” he said. “They burned it down…My…My family, I don’t know how many got away. They couldn’t have got us all, but I saw my parents in chains!” he said.

Kalo knew that it would have been difficult to catch all of Vortin’s siblings. He had six brothers and four sisters. Some of them had to have gotten away.

Kalo’s mother dropped to her knees beside Vortin. She always acted like a mother away from home for him. “Don’t worry; they can’t get to you now. We’ll hide you and in the morning, you can leave with Kalo,” she said.

He looked over at Kalo. “Why does he have to leave?” he asked.
“Because of his dreams. They’ll take him as surely as they’ll take you. We have a plan to get you both out of here,” Kalo’s father said. He gave Vortin a breakdown of the plan. Vortin nodded when he was finished.

They spent the rest of the night hashing out the details of the plan and packing. Tonight there would be very little sleep for anybody.