rix_scaedu

I wrote this to ysabetwordsmith's second prompt.

“So,” Colexes looked across the plains lying before them, “what do the Benarians think they’re cleansing?”

His companion on the hill top gazed in the same direction.  From here they could see three towns lying along the river and downstream, on the edge of their vision, was a smudge that was the smoke above the city of Xorxas.  “Sin.  Failure to live like them, believe like them, be them.”  Micorah shrugged his shoulders.  “They believe that they’re the favoured people of the gods and that thus they’re entitled to anything they need or want.  They’ve thought that ever since the Great Flood wiped out the Senlorines just as Camoreen the Great was going to conquer them.”

“Did the gods wipe out the Senlorines with the Great Flood?”  Colexes looked at Micorah with interest.

“Not deliberately.”  Another shrug.  “The Great Flood was a burst glacial dam caused by a volcano erupting under one of the feeding glaciers.  I remember the Senlorines being given warnings to get out of the flood path for weeks before the dam burst, but less than a quarter listened.  It was a tragedy.”

“How old are you?”  Colexes asked.  “I’ve known you for years but this is the first time you’ve spoken of anything that long ago as if you were there.”

“I haven’t needed to before.”  The angel stretched his wings to feel the breeze.  “I’m younger than the universe, of an age with the younger gods and older than you.  I talk to you because I like you and I’m talking to you about this because the Benarians have managed to annoy enough of my divine masters that they have given me orders to meddle.”

“Meddle?”

“The Benarian leadership is planning to break that upstream dam your people hate so much.  The priesthood have had the country praying since last winter for deliverance from evil and for divine guidance on their future.  Many of their people would see a devastating flood here as a divine mandate to move in.”

“And now?”

“You’re not the only one I’m telling.”  Micorah laughed.  “I like you but I don’t overestimate your influence.  Forewarned the damage can be mitigated, the Benarian schemers stopped in their tracks.”  The angel smiled.  “The gods and I trust your ingenuity.”