The Book of Temples Chapter 37
People used magic
to end the disease,
the Wasting Slumber had passed.
Hand and Knife was pleased.
Her People were safe
but her disease still thrived.
For Greedy Noble’s
People contracted
it while they were visiting.
They brought to their home
the Wasting Slumber
where it had spread rapidly.
They knew its source not
nor how to fight it,
but the Child God knew their kin.
Greedy Noble told
their People to go
back to Hand and Knife’s temple.
Go and accuse her
of pestilent crimes
and demand she give a cure.
The healthy people,
those unaffected
would make the journey eastward.
Visitors returned
to Hand and Knife’s land
and entered the settlement.
They only saw hale
people in this place.
They were now free of disease.
Strangers demanded
that Hand and Knife come
to meet and discuss her crimes.
For Greedy Noble
had revealed to them
that she had caused this disease.
They said she must bring
a cure that they could
take home to heal their people.
Hand and Knife’s people,
they laughed and declined,
and said she answers to none.
Nor had she a cure
her People could share.
Instruction was forbidden.
She gave them magic
the practice of which
was a closely guarded thing.
They sent them away
to Greedy Noble
with no hope, but much anger.
With fury they claimed
their restitution
as wronged, things must be made right.
They refused to leave
without their owed aid
the criminal god must pay.