The gods unkind

The fields lay idle

The children are crying

The waves come crashing

The wolf rides crimson

sword in hand

The palace is burning

The temple in waste

The kings head on a pike

The wolf rides crimson

sword in hand

The grain lays hidden

The houses nailed shut

The men in solace prayer

The wolf rides crimson

sword in hand

The ravens are feasting

The houses lay spoiled

The children are taken

The weeping, the gods will not hear

The wolf has come to bring

the crimson sword.

- unknown

12 years earlier

The guests of honor were stuffing their faces with wine and meat. The room was lighted by candles swimming in pools of oil, idols of Baal with red glowing pot bellies burned resign flooding the room with smoke streaming from their noses and the smell of incense. The warm air inside the palace overlooking Kition was aromatic and filled with the taste of exotic spices.

They were rich merchants, rulers over a vast stake of the bronze trade of the aegis. From here they controlled the production and shipment of all the thousands of ingots produced on the island called Alasiya. It was their bronze which fueled the wars of the great kingdoms all around the world, Egyptians, Hittites, even Assyrians and Babylonians carried swords whose copper came forth from Alasiyas rich deposits, melted into bronzen ingots in the islands furnaceses.

To demonstrate their power they forged the bronzen body of their god, Taish, into a statue, towering over even the highest building.

Their city was Kition, glory of Alasiya, without the burden of defending their lands themselves, for they were protected by Egyptian and Hittite swords, as long as they produced the ever needed bronze, they indulged in splendor which was only matched by the Egyptian and Hittite kings themselves.

The glory of Alasiya gathered into one place to display, for the whole world to see that the pillars of Kition were unshaken by the unrest in east and deaf to talk of a crumbling Hittite empire, the rebelling Lukka and the raging Sherden wolf.

At the helm of the feast was Neraph-at-Hep younger brother of Amun-At-Hep god-king of Ugarit, a god himself, sitting on his massive throne fashioned from a giant slab of marble. Carvings fashioned by the greatest artist filled with gold and painted in the deep blue of lapis. The seat of the king, on high, to overlook all of his subjects.

He was the center of the universe, which was Alasiya and although his older brother ruled the kingdom from Ugarit, he overlooked the daily business of Kition, every merchant had to bow to him and pray for his approval.

For every transaction and shipment of goods coming in and out of Kition and Alasiya had to be approved by the gods Baal and Dagon which he was the personified embodiment of.

Tonight the air was thick with wine fueled chatter, bickering and laughter, still there was nervous tension. There were rumors of the Sherden joining forces with a large body of warriors from the north, led by a renegade Hittite general.

To calm the nerves of the easily frightened merchant folk, Neraph called for a feast knowing full well of the dangers which lay to the east. But fears could be tamed by displays of might. Demonstrating the recognizable order in the world.

Cutlery from the north, pottery from the west, bread from the south, fish from the east and women from all over the world.

Greasy hands on young succulent bodies, bellies filled with the fruit of countless laboring hands work and talk of waring kingdoms eagerly paying to fight wars which mean nothing but profit for the men not partaking in them, these things made even the most easily frightened mind confident in the notion that this world was made to serve the powerful.

Still, even the refined art of bolstering was brought to its knees when the gathered noticed the garrison chiefs clumsy attempts to move unnoticed into the kings vicinity.

Paling faces spoke ever quieter words, while keen ears were pricked up to ascertain the reason for this late intrusion.

Like a foul vapor the awareness of the garrison chiefs presence spread throughout the rooms, demeanors changed and conversations were although not stopped, muffled.

Neraph knew the situation had to be addressed, as a leader accustomed to merchant folk he knew when to be subtle and when not. And the time to be subtle was over. A dramatic response, demonstrating utter confidence, was in order to make this particularly well stocked burrow of frightened rabbits forget the lions stalking above.

As he tracked the chiefs way through the great hall he contemplated his options, the numbness of boredom vanished from his mind, for he was a leader of men and his skills in the manipulation of minds were finally put to a worthy test.

There were several people who could be sacrificed to calm the unsettled populous, first among them the chief himself for daring to appear at such an inappropriate moment, but then again for the chief to make an appearance the situation must be dire. He was not that much of a fool, he knew what his appearance meant. Still he deemed the news important enough to be delivered personally.

The king found himself intrigued by the possibilities these news carried to satisfy his need for a public scarifies.

While demonstrating aquiline calmness on the outside, Neraph was ecstatically impatient on the inside as the garrisons chief finally arrived at his side.

In silence the chief lowered his head awaiting his first judgement, a small movement of the kings index and middle finger signaled that the first verdict was favorably and he was to speak of the intelligence he had gathered.

He leaned in towards the kings head and spoke in a hushed tone, as only a clumsy man of the military would. Like fool he displayed to the whole room the secretive nature of the conversation.

"Hail Baal, my king I bid you forgiveness for the intrusion, but a man claiming to be a messenger from your brother, the king of Ugarit, has arrived."

"Claiming?"

"The man lacks proper identification, he has brought with him a seal which he claims belongs to the king, but nothing else."

A fleeting smile wanders over the kings features as he observes the object, the chief handed him.

It was a magic seal. A bronzen cylinder, with handles of pure white ivory on both ends. When rolled over a bed of clay the cylinder would reveal its magic incantations, but Neraph already knew its content.

"Which news are so dire that proper verification of royal correspondence is supposed to be ignored?"

"He speaks of a burning Ugarit. A cry for help from your brother. My lord it is widely known that the Hittites, in their weakness, have claimed a large part of the ugarithian army. My lord the capital was, for the 4th winter, open..."

A small movement of the kings hand halted the increasingly nervous remarks of the chief.

"Bring him in. Let me speak to him."

"Into the palace?"

The paling garrison chief replied.

"I do not wish to repeat my orders."

Without a word the chief bowed and hurried out of the room.

Orders barked in ugarithian military language could be heard shortly there after. Clumsy fool. In his position by nought but the right of his birth. But it was this way or uncivilized chaos, even though the king thought of his father as a weak man he knew that he himself and his brother were born to rule these fools. At last, he thought as he looked into the crowd of frightened rabbits, these fools could be trained and they were in dire need of a lesson.

The room was heated now not by the warmth of delight but by the heat of argument, the women were ignored and the serving boys returned with full platers.

The king delighted in the unrest of uncertainty, his actions had created.

Only when the palace doors opened and a messenger, wearing ugarithian colors entered the room, did the flood of heated conversation ebb.

The great hall of Kitions mighty palace, filled to the brim, yet silent and focused on a solitary man entering.

A scrawny one, his body marked by the hardships of the last days. Confused by an unexpectedly harsh reception, frozen in the hallway.

Frightened he looked at the orgy before him and a thousand questioning eyes returned his gaze. Until the forceful hand of the chief herded him down the hall to the great throne.

From the chief there was no mercy for the dazed man, being pushed by his unrelenting hand he had trouble navigating the maze of plates filled with half eaten delicacies. With his bare feat he stepped into pools of spilled wine and bodily fluids.

Humiliated the young man stepped before the king, not like a messenger of the king, but a prisoner of war, to be mocked and executed. A naked lamb surrounded by the claws and teeth of lurking danger.

Upon his arrival before the throne, the man kneeled as it was custom, waiting for the king to question him.

The king purposely took his time, the man beneath him felt crushed by the silence and the pain of his sore knees pressing against the hard marble floor filled him with anguish.

Finally the kings voice boomed through the halls.

"It has been relayed to me that you are a messenger from Ugarit. Is that truly your claim?"

A fragile whimper of a voice answered.

"Great king of Kition. Son of Baal. Heir to the ugarithian throne. I was send by the great king of Ugarit to deliver a warning."

"So it is true? You claim to be my brothers messenger. Is it also true you arrived completely alone and without a proper message or identification?"

"Great king, there was no time... I was handed a seal belonging to the king of Ugarit himself, I was told it would suffice as identification, the guards have taken it from me, but if the Great king of Kition would order them..."

"I have already seen the it."

And the king lifted the seal for all to see.

With a movement of his finger he ordered a frame filled with clay to be brought before him.

A priest came rushing with it, hastily opening a bottle and sprinkling a fluid on the clay, while murmuring unintelligible incantations.

Neraph hated the ritual, if done properly it would take hours, just to roll the seal over the clay and reveal its magic content.

The king handed the seal to the priest who begrudgingly took it showing his disscontempt for being robbed of his privilege to perform the ceremony to its full extent.

After an unbearably long time the priest finished his task and presented the king with the imprint.

"The merchant from whom you bought this seal surely must have demanded a good price for it."

The man almost raised his head to face the king as he heard these words, but caught himself before he committed the digression. Almost smashing his head against the floor as he quickly faced down again, his body and voice shaking with fear.

"Great king this seal was handed to me at the great court of Ugarit."

"I know what it is supposed to be. And it enrages me that someone from outside the royal palace does too, but it is not a convincing enough forgery. Who ordered you to deliver this token!"

The little kneeling figure started shaking even more and pools of tears formed on the marble under his face.

"It was given to me by the Great Kings scribe Master Akosh Tar Neham."

"Your lies have been well researched, still it is a imitation!"

There was silence, the only thing which could be heard were the whimpers of the messenger as he tried to suppress his cries of terror.

"Still. Tell me the message you were supposed to relay."

The messenger struggled to catch his breath and speak in any reasonable manner.

"Great king I do not comprehend the seals meaning, but I implore you to believe me! It was handed to me by Scribe Master Akosh Tar Neham himself not 3 days ago. I was to deliver a warning. Ugarit is no more."

In unison a hundred hushed voices gasped for air.

"The armies are claimed by the lords in the north and the city was guarded by no more then the cities garrison and the mighty kings personal guard, the first wave of enemies was bravely defeated by the god king himself, I saw them return, little more then a hundred returned when fivehundered went out. Holy God King of Kition when I was sent on Aram the fastest ship in the kings fleet I saw the horizon and it was covered with the enemies ships! Kition must prepare for battle and call on its troops, least it will share the fate of Ugarit!"

The king leaned back waiting for the dramatically perfect moment to retort, while the hushed gaspers started mumbling.

"You say Kition stands in flames?"

"Yes, Great king"

"Have you seen the flames?"

The rooms attention went back to the messenger.

"I...I have not, I fled before the attack."

"So you are admitting to not having seen a burning Kition? You are admitting to being a coward and a liar?"

"Great King..."

"Silence!"

And the boy knew he was lost.

"You admit to being a coward. Fleeing before battle! Claiming to be a messenger of my brothers. Which has been proven a lie! A lie proven by the very same forged seal which was to deceive me! The great king of Kition! To what end? To call in my armies and leave unprotected the great cities of my kingdom? Leaving unprotected the mines, furnaces and ships of these very guest of mine? Making it possible for pirate scum like yourself to sack our cities!"

With the last words the room erupted, people were screaming, guards had to restrain them from grabbing the messenger who was subdued without resistance by the guards and brought to the dungeons.

The messenger knew not to resist.

With a wink of his hand the king ordered the chief to his side.

"Make him testify the truth. Tomorrow in the afternoon he will be crucified in the market place, if he screams a word of a burning Ugarit. You'll follow."

"Ofcourse Great king."

"And call in all the fighting man we can get, double the men on guard and by Baal be quiet about it!"

The paled chief.

"Great king you think the messengers words to be true? Shouldn't we send men aiding besieged Ugarit and your brother?"

"Ugarit is burned to the ground and my brother is gone."

Nobody noticed the pale chief making his way to the dungeons, the king leaned back.

He looked at the seal between in his hand. He had an identical one locked away in his private chambers. Once his brother had given it to him, after he had killed all their siblings except for Neraph.

He had given it to him as a token of power, he knew his youngest brother was capable and smart enough to not challenge him and he needed someone to rule from Kition.

The king knew the seal could only mean one thing.

What a curious thing. He thought himself trapped inside the walls of Kition, now total control over the kingdom was within his grasp, but on the other side there was total annihilation.

He took a look to his right at his newly wed wife and decided it was at least more exciting then this wedding of his.