Jystana's Frostfell List

[Dicey Reilly]

((okay on another board there was a writing challenge posted to take a Christmas Carol and use it as a backdrop for how your character interacted with Frostfell.  This is Jystana's and I am warning that it isn't pleasant and it is pushing the PG 13 content with its subject material though there is nothing blatant and most is left to the imagination.))

Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."

Jystana sat at her desk, quill in hand while her scribe waited.  There were three names written in elegant script already on the page, and pausing she added one more to it.  She folded the parchment carefully then picked up a deep purple candle allowing the wax to drip and seal the document.  Her personal signet was removed from her finger and pressed deeply into the wax.  No other signature was needed.  The three who waited in the chapel praying in their simple pilgrim's robes would recognize the handwriting anyway.

Frostfell is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold

The scribe entered the chapel quietly.   As always he was unnerved to see the three stand as one even though their backs had been turned and they had appeared to be lost in worship.  A gloved hand reached out for the parchment and the scribe handed it over without a word.  Though the scribe did this every year, he had never seen what any of the three looked like.  They kept their hoods pulled up and their faces cloaked beneath in darkness.  He wasn't sure what race, age or even what their true build was.  He just assumed they were female by the delicacy of the fine gloved hand that received his Sovereign's list.  Even in that though, he was not entirely sure.

Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling

The three exited the hall silently and entered the Thieves Way, where the pilgrim's robes came off to reveal deep and supple blood red leathers.  Sleek female forms were covered head to toe, with no a distinguishing marks to be seen among them, expect for their eyes which were all different colors.  They were an ice blue clear as a Halasian winter sky,  a deep moss green that invoked the smell of Kelethin's underbrush, and a golden sand filled with the heat and fire of Ro's setting sun.  The parchment was removed and the three committed the names to memory.  A whispered incantation saw the page burn bright as ash drifted slowly down into the murky waters, the only thing left of the Sovereign's Frostfell list.

One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the air

Minutes after the three left Jystana came up to the chapel and knelt before the altar in prayer.  Already the three had parted ways, each for different districts of the city.  The hour was late but still respectable.  People meandered home with packages and the scent of merriment on their breaths.  The woman with the cold blue eyes arrived at her destination first.  It was but an ordinary appearing hovel in the Scale yard.  The woman had scaled a nearby building and to her good fortune an upper window had been left open to let in the cool night air.  Not that it mattered she would have gained access regardless.  The occupants were not yet on the upper level for the evening and she could keenly hear the sounds of the evening meal coming up from below.  Melting into the darkness, she waited.

Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,

The second to arrive was the woman whose eyes sparkled with the shifting sands.  The guards at the gate of the estate in Northern Freeport didn't notice as she slipped in on the top of the carriage that they had allowed into the courtyard with the packages that the Lady of the house had acquired earlier that evening. Six young children ranging from the age of seven to eleven were loaded out of the carriage bound and clearly frightened.  They were led to a small outbuilding where they would be cleaned and taught the ways of the household from the last batch of broken children the Lady and Lord bartered for.  Across the courtyard a clang was heard as a Frostfell ball clattered across the stones allowing the woman to descend from the carriage unseen.  The servant's door opened and closed silently and a draft followed her up to the chamber where she would wait as well for the two occupants to retire.

Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Frostfell is here

Only a skeleton crew remained on the slaving ship in South Freeport's harbor.  It took the final woman a few more minutes than the others to watch and to time her boarding then it had taken the others to position themselves.  The crew that remained were disgruntled and half-heartily manning their posts.  They were in friendly waters and it was the holiday season.  Crouching low, the woman's moss green eyes noticed some netting and rigging that had not been tied down properly by a port hole. With the grace of a circus performer, she climbed the netting and twisted herself silently through and onto the boat.  The Captain's stateroom was locked, but that was little obstacle to one trained such as her.  The door showed no signs of being marred by the tools used to enter, and the woman fingered the fine linens that lined the bed with her gloved hands before taking up her vigil waiting for the Captain's return.

Merry, merry, merry, merry Frostfell
Merry, merry, merry, merry Frostfell

The Frostfell tree had arrived at The Discipleship and the Sovereign directed her servants with the placement of evergreens and candles.  The wreaths were hung and the fires casting a cozy glow.  Everyone took their seats, the normal cheer of the season wafting about the hall mingling with smells of the coming feast that drifted out of the kitchen.  Jystana always set the feast to start at the 9th bells of the evening.  Tradition was important to her, and this one was especially personal.  There were but a few more moments and she bowed her head before her Disciples waiting for the toll of the bells to begin the blessing.

On, on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To ev'ry home

A look of horror crossed the man's face as death stood above him.  The woman with blue eyes had placed her boot directly on his groin as she drew her dagger across his neck.  The blood saturated the mattress, and the slave handler had a collar dropped onto his chest before the woman melted into the shadows again.

Ding,

The Lady of the house was bound and blindfolded as her Lord mounted her.  It was one of their most favorite games, pretending she was one of the new girls or boys that had been delivered earlier in the day.  They would play with the real ones tomorrow, the eldest of the group first.  Tonight, would be just the two of them though.  She was beginning to enjoy their coupling fully when her lord stopped his thrusting and fell forward.  A metallic smell hit her nose at the same time as the blood began to flow warm and slick between them.  Her mind didn't even process what had happened before the knife bit into her throat, and two more collars were dropped onto their bed.

Dong, Ding

He had entered drunk, much like the last woman had expected.  She wanted to play so she had bound, gagged and stripped him.  His eyes were frantic hoping beyond hope that one of his crew would come to the stateroom.  He knew there was no rescue from that quarter.  His men had been trained to leave him alone in port.  Heads had rolled across the deck in the past when someone had dared to disturb his drunken slumber.  Her green eyes had smoldered in the candle light as she had alternated between carving intricate patterns in his flesh and branding him with his own branding iron.  He pleaded with her silently, giving up long ago to struggle against the bonds as it only made her more fervent in her toying.  She heard the beginning of the bells and frowned.  It had been too soon, and she had not had enough time.  Taking the Captain's encrusted dagger from his belt, she directed the dagger to his heart.  The final collar had been placed around the hilt before she departed and his life seeped out onto the fine linens below him.

Dong.