Read Tale of a Winter Night :: Kasatan

Through the realms of Death and the terrible Rage of God, surrounded by a night that could not dawn and a darkness even deeper than the one before Creation, the three brothers descended with fearless hearts the paths that no mortal had ever walked before. Wails, shrieks and whispering voices, terrible and cruel- they muttered of endless pain to the ears of those who for the first time were there to hear them; they swirled around the deafened souls of the three brothers, whose minds were focused on the muted murmurs of a river that flowed alongside the path, and on the notes of Ada Ebi's zither.

Sanesro's fingers plucked the stings with a cadency that seeped into the ears of his brothers and embraced their minds and spirits, plunging them in a silent trance. The cadency, so lulling and harmonious, seemed to keep away whoever owned so terrible wails; and, at the same time, it encouraged the three brothers to take one step after another in the darkness. Westward, always westward, on a road surrounded by unholy shadows, longer than winter itself, for it made the memory of the person they had loved appeared before the mind's eye, and she was singing as she had sung so many times before when it was time to sleep and when they woke up to a dawnless night.

There stood Ada Ebi, young and old at the same time; her hair cut short and long, all black, all white. She sang with sweet voice the deeds of her father Sil Ebi, the old stories her aunt had told her when she became a witch. And the three brothers, absorbed in the music, saw the high mounts of Saillan covered with green spring and with blossoming summer, and the sunny Valley of Tyar as the Shavit River flowed during the rainy season. They saw the heavenly abode of the King and the Queen too, as well as the nightly councils of their thousands of sons and daughters.

Through dreams and music, the three brothers walked the path, aware of the dangers Sanesro was keeping away with his singing.

Suddenly, the echo of their footsteps boomed in the silence when they had reached a wide gallery, the vault of which shone as the night sky had done once, according to Ada Ebi. And that was fortunate, because, had they continued in the shadows, they would not have seen the end of the road, and would have fallen in the cold waters of the Akan River, where Death dwells. At its shore, they discovered a raft that barely kept afloat and, without any word, they got aboard. The song of Sanesro made the raft move and held it together with its own will.

They didn't dare to look overboard, fearing what they might find -the ice-misshapen faces of all who had dared to raise arms againsts the Will of God. Halfway down the river, however, Idaro stood up on the center of the raft, stretched his arms to the front, and prayed for them, hoping the tortured souls could finally find redemption and eternal rest.

The three brothers finally reached the other shore and had barely left the raft when it sank into the dark depths of the Akan River.

In front of them stood the impregnable walls of Kasatan. Guarding them, the biggest beast they had ever seen stood before its wide gates. Similar to a huge wolf, from its jaws sprouted sharp canines that would tear the flesh of a mammoth just by touching it, and its fierce eyes would paralyze anyone who dared to try to cross the gates of Kasatan.

'That one is Nis Adi,' said Adhero Ebi, 'who teared to pieces the body of the King with its mighty jaws. Now its breath can burn us. We will be dead if we try to approach it. To go into Kasatan it is necessary to outwit it.'

And so Sanesro, clever as a fox, came with a plan which pleased his brothers. Using the power Ada Ebi had given them as an inheritance, then, the three of them blurred their shapes and took that of harmless beasts. And it was that Nis Adi was in charge of stopping every human that dared to cross the gates of Kasatan. Rejecting the paralyzing fear in their hearts, the three brothers slipped under the shadow of Nis Adi, accomplishing what no one had done before. Once inside the walls and only when they had left well behind the fulgent stare of Nis Adi, they decided to recover their true shapes.

They continued through the unknown paths of Kasatan until they reached the impregnable palace, guarded by the Sword of God, who had killed their father Aro Ebi. Versed in the various tricks of shapeshifters, the Sword of God would not be outwitted as easily as Nis Adi had been. So, hidden within the shadows of the Underworld, the three brothers sat dawn and deliberated what they should do next, for they'd be dead if they tried to face the Sword of God in unequal combat.

So Adhero plucked a hair from his head and turned it into a bug.

'Go to the Sword of God and bite them so you can bring their pure blood,' ordered Adhero to his hair.

So the bug did, and it carefully deposited a drop of the golden blood of the Sword of God on the index finger of Adhero, who then whispered to the drop: 'May your shadow be at my service, because I now know your name and who you are at all times, Aman Emi.

Then, strong as a lion, or maybe because he truly was a lion, Adhero threw himself against the Sword of God, and subjected them with the punch of a claw. Back in his true form, the son of Aro Ebi gripped the sword and held the soul of Aman Emi with magic, so they could not run away.

Cleared the way, the three brothers went to the hall of the divine throne at the rhythm of a litany that Sanesro was playing on the zither, while singing "destined to fight in revenge of the hosts of Diuren Garan against God" once and again, for there was no need to be quiet now that they were approaching All-Knowing God. Thereupon, when they finally entered the hall of the divine throne, it didn't surprised them finding God Themself waiting for them.