The banshees wailed again, signaling another incoming attack. These started farther away, and the arc grew higher. Once the shriek stopped, several dropped harmlessly into the water surrounding the Endeavor. Meghan watched, knowing each splash spelled death when it hit.
“Get us underway now!” she shouted, but her orders were drowned out from the next launch of banshees.
Miller reached her on the sterncastle. “There are at least six of them!” he shouted over the incoming attack. She discovered he’d been badly burnt. The effects of the weapon made evident on his body. He neared hysteria. “What do we do now?”
Meghan spoke calmly as the shrieks of the incoming banshees ended overhead, signaling another rain of death. “We die.”
Memories of her late husband flooded Meghan’s mind for the rest of her life. A mere few heartbeats. Lucky for her, she never witnessed her great fleet destroyed.
The End
of
Fractured Loyalties
To be continued in
Fractured Spirits
Find more of my books:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/greg-alldredge
It is estimated that only one in a hundred people that read a book leave a review.
When you leave a review, it is like leaving a tip after a great meal, like hitting a fastball into the outfield, like great sex… All right, I might have gone just a little too far, but authors love getting the stars.
There is a practical side to reviewing independent authors: a number of the larger booksellers will increase exposure for books that receive a certain number of reviews. The more the reviews, the more we get exposed. Believe it or not, this helps us sell books.
I know I have gone on too long, but please, if you like the book, go to where you bought it and leave a quick review. It will help me out, and all your friends will know what good taste you have.
The Gods of Fractured Lands
Over the past hundred years or so, the spread of trade around the local city states has caused a number of separate gods to be melded into a single cosmology. The cities may or may not agree on this understanding of the gods, as there is still flux in the belief systems. No one system has spread to cover all known shards. Some still undiscovered civilizations might have a completely different belief system.
Creation Myth
The gods have always been. Humans are a recent addition to the shards and cracks.
The Father and the First Son had a fight of earth-shattering proportions. The result was the area of the shards called the beach, a great wasteland the shards radiate out from. There is a rumor that at the center of the beach lies a great black glass desert, and at the center of that glass sheet, there is a hole that leads to the realm of the gods, the hells. None have ever been able to reach the glass or the center of the beach and live to tell about it, so it is all speculation.
The Son won the battle. In winning, he dropped the Father so hard on the ground, it shattered the earth and cast the Father deep to the center.
During the fight, blood was shed over the shards, from the blood of the Father came man. The First Son begat the animals and monsters.
The brotherhood believe they come straight from the monsters that sprang up from the blood of the First Son.
Most humans think little about the gods and religion. They pray to whomever is expedient. A few will become devoted followers of a divine for special favors. Rivals between the different holy orders and nonbelievers can be brutal and bloody. There is little room for differing opinions between the fanatics.
A few strange explorers have tried to master the many shards and cracks. Few have been able to chart more than a few. The Father keeps the people scattered to protect them from the horrors of the world. A few believe the shards are connected, and all people spring from one connection between the Mother and the Father. Like the gods, they are made in their image. This is a limited belief mostly driven underground.
Father
Also known as: The Sleeping One, the Absent God, the Uncaring Bastard
Patron: Currently not in favor of any specific city
Realms: Lost causes, sleep, and dreams.
Depicted as: A senile crippled old man beat senseless by his eldest son. A twisted staff of wood for his weapon
Mother
Also known as: Durra’ah
Patron: Zar; flag: white tree on blue field
Realms: Spring/rebirth and motherhood
Depicted as: A beautiful mother figure. A small set of shears for a weapon
Eldest Son
Also known as: The First Son, the One Son
Patron: Abaraka and the Brotherhood of the One Son; flag: black fist on a red field
Realms: God of war and the mountains
Depicted as: A large man with flames for hair. A giant metal staff for a weapon
Eldest Daughter
Also known as: Sinead, the unstable one, crazy bitch, keeper of the dead
Patron: Freeport; flag: plain black
Realms: The sea, the dead, and crazy people
Depicted as: A naked woman with green scaled skin, sea snakes for hair. She needs no weapon, she controls the sea
Second Son
Also known as: Zinan
Patron: No city will claim him, but most taverns will have a shrine to him. Drunks, drug users, actors, and any profession that deals with the above people
Realms: Altered states
Depicted as: A small man with a huge erect penis. He can use his member to great effect, ending most fights before they start
Second Daughter
Also known as: The Huntress
Patron: Currently the main temple for the Huntress in in Cliffside; flag: solid green
Realms: Childbirth and hunting
Depicted as: A young woman in green leathers, she hunts with a bow
Third Son
Also known as: Yuan
Patron: Perdition; flag: white scales on black field
Realms: Trade and commerce
Depicted as: A man that carries a large sack slung over his shoulder. The bag, full of coin, he can wield with great effect
Third Daughter
Also known as: Anshika
Patron: Only a few scattered schools outside the wall
Realms: Magic and the twin moons
Depicted as: A pale woman, normally naked, her body covered in magical runes, one breast larger than the other. She throws magic at ease
The Fourth Child
Also known as: Harper or the Conjoined Fates.
Patron: No city would risk the bad effects of worshiping this god
Realms: Good and bad luck, fate
Depicted as: Male and female conjoined twins. Good and bad luck is all the twins ever need
The Old Ones
Over the history of the shards, any number of human and nonhuman deities have been worshiped. Many of these have slipped out of fashion and into antiquity with no current concentration of followers as far as the citizens of the city-states know of. Collectively, they are called the Old Ones. In rare cases, may be collectively known as the Ginners.
Fractured Loyalties Page 17
