A Bedtime Story about Nu Mantia

“Are you ready for bed? How about a story?”

“Father, please, just let me go to bed.”

“None of that, daughter, this is a very special story.”

“Ugh.”

“A long time ago there was a boy of the woods with his mother. There was great strife—”

“Father, I just want to slee—”

Munch — munch — munch

“If only I had some bread… Ah well, let’s try this again, Ruma, and please don’t mind the blackbirds.”

“Okay, father.”

“A long time ago there was a boy of the woods with his mother. There was great strife as the one they called the Usurper was coming. The Usurper wreaked havoc and destruction wherever he went. All trembled in fear at the sound of his coming. The mother ran off with the boy as the thundering steps of fate heralded their destruction.”

“But it wasn’t the end was it, father?”

“Very astute, Ruma, you are correct that it didn’t end there. The ‘Usurper’ was defeated and yet the people still quaked in fear.”

“What did they have to fear? They won.”

“Yes, they won, but they had no idea what they lost. There were whispers still of a coming menace, an heir to the destruction that was stemmed.”

“You.”

“No, my dear Ruma, I am just a herald of the coming dawn. A convergence centuries in the making. I had to forge myself anew to elevate our order to that of significance.”

“With the Razor! Right, Father?”

“We are all razors, Ruma, cutting against the heart strings of lesser men and faiths. We are forged in fire to free ourselves from the shackles of liars and thieves. We become free in not only name but desire, for we are no longer people of the wood, but a higher culture, refined in torment and ecstasy so that we might know both and how to deal in such moods and affairs. For one must suffer to appreciate pleasure in its entirety. For only through this tempering will we be ready for Lord Dagon’s coming.”

“When will he come?”

“Soon, my dear Ruma. When the betrayed regains his crux, after the thrice blessed thieves are robbed themselves, will the Godsbody come. We shall be his heralds and rewarded in Paradise.”

“Now go to sleep, Ruma, the blackbirds will watch over you until dawn arrives.”