Castle Veroinen

The castle spirit Haltija, was silent and contemplating while her people slept. She tried not to have her feelings hurt or feel angry at what she could sense was happening just outside her walls, to the people of Zandor and the land. People thought the Castle was alive it was easier to let them think that than to try and explain that it was simply a shape she took. She was an age-old magic that was innate to the land and the very materials she was formed from were magic. She was also a living breathing spirit and when people disrespected her family, or the people who lived within her walls, it was hard to not feel offended.
Valdin and Helena had not ruled as many Gods and Goddesses did. They gently guided their people and allowed them to make decisions, plan their own crops, share their own harvest and the Castle Veroinen had taken its shape for them to provide all the inhabitants of Zandor a meeting place. A safe place to discuss the rules and laws that would govern the land.
Now the deamhan Elias was spreading words of poison to his neighbors and then to their neighbors. Words of hate, anger and discontent about everything from the weather, to blight on crops, to the cottage next door’s haltija is bigger than mine, more magical and better. Elias had fueled so much hate and discontent the land itself felt poisoned and perhaps it was. The deamhan was not above poisoning the land, the Haltija thought.
Piru had been siphoning off the magic and Elias was nurturing non-believers and there wasn’t much she could do but take care of all who took shelter within her walls. Although in reality, she did more than provide shelter. There was food and drink that appeared whenever it was needed or wanted and the castle stayed at the optimum temperature for everyone inside. She had felt sorry for her sister Haltija’s but now… so many here complained also. The drink was too warm and burned their mouth, too cold, it was undrinkable. The Goddess Helena didn’t save their crop by providing water during the drought. Valdin couldn’t be enough places to settle disputes and for the first time in the land’s history the people were physically fighting and her heart hurt.
She felt sick and the walls shuddered at the idea of the yearly gathering, both inside her walls and out. Rumor had reached Castle Veroinen of cottage Haltija’s throughout the land retreating from their homes, leaving empty shells, their magic disappearing as more and more angry people forgot to believe, to be grateful, to love each other and the land. In the past when a Haltija felt the need to leave their dwelling, the magic returned deep into the earth of Zandor. It was like a collective, a magic flame that everyone could draw from, but these recent Haltija withdrawals hadn’t returned to the magical collective, in fact they had left a hole and grief. A piece of the land and magic had died, her sisters had died.
It was a very deep hole she felt. As the oldest and strongest of the Haltija’s she had the ability to take care of the needs of a God and Goddess, their son and at least once a year, all of the people who journeyed to the fall celebration. The Haltija rumbled, gently thanking her people for the wonderful life she had here. She felt Helena’s gratitude in return. The inhabitants of the Castle was stirring, and the Goddess was awake.
Enough feeling sorry for herself. She magically shook all the scruff from the curtains and a gently breeze whisked through the castle taking with it all the dust off the surfaces and floors. Doors and windows opened and the dirt moved outside. Castle Veroinen rumbled with the joy of taking care of her space. In response to the young master Lokai’s thoughts of cake, the oven warmed, and the ingredients mixed, the smell of sweet berries, honey and some ground wheat filled the halls and brought Lokai down to the kitchen.
“Haltija, what wonderful thing are you making for me to eat?” Lokai asked as he tried to open the stone oven by the fire pit. The Castle jiggled it closed and started a pot of water over the fire for tea. The Haltija rumbled softly shaking the tile of the floor and moving Lokai away from the fire pit towards the table. He moved knowing the tea pot was in response to his parents who should be walking through the door at any minute. Doors rattled as the castle opened and closed them, drawing his parents to the kitchen.
Valdin’s voice reached the kitchen “Our purpose isn’t to rule, but to advise.”
“I know my dear.” Helena said as they entered the room, “But we need to have a plan when Elias subverts the people or if Piru gets stronger.”
Valdin looked at his son who was sitting in the kitchen. He didn’t want to think of what was to come. His vision said things were going to get far worse, but he wasn’t ready to share that and worry his family and a few more days of not worrying were all he could hope for. Until things happened there was still hope. The Castle thrummed around him happy to have her family together in the kitchen. She was a living entity that welcomed them, housed and fed them. Valdin was grateful, but sad, as somehow, he knew all that they loved here together with Castle Veroinen was coming to an end. His vision had showed great change coming, but for today he would enjoy some honey cake with his wife and son.
*
Several years later
This year’s gathering was harder than anyone expected. Fall winds swept in from the north carrying with it the cold of an early winter. Some families had left before the final day, voting day, where the community gathered together in a great hall of the Castle and voted, shared their thoughts and dreams. Today was that day.
Castle Veroinen was tired. She had worked hard to bring extra wood for the fires, magically appearing in the clearings where people camped. She had carefully divided the scarce crops up for all the Zandorians and added her own magic to make it plentiful, but it drained her and very few said thank you.
Elias’ strong hold over the people had grown and he had turned his energy into creating a tax and a distribution of goods system, which only benefited a few. He had a plan and spread the word that he was building a new Castle in Aatu, for a new government without a Haltija, without magic and God’s and Goddess of old. A place for the non-believers to gather and create a true government for the new land, with a Cabinet and Parliament who would keep the leader in check. But if the house is stacked with all non-believers, who would defend the magic of the land or the non-humans? Halitia wondered. No Fairy’s, Elves, Haltija’s, Pekko’s or any of the other magical creatures of Zandor would be allowed to sit in the new government and what was a world without dragons?
Somehow Elias was forcing a new Zandor without magic. Just the idea hurt and made her tired. It was harder to do magical things now, to provide for her people and the land with so many other Haltijas gone. She was weaker, parts of her magic were missing and this year Valdin and Lokai had to do much of the work to get ready for the gathering.
*
The gathering was today, and rumor had reached Lokai and Valdin that Elias had proposed to not have a gathering next year. Instead, each area would have a representative appointed to go to Valito, the government. Castle Veroinen felt abandon, even if they didn’t vote to join him, too many had become non-believers. Valdin and Lokai were now called Shaman not the Gods that they were in truth. The True Witch Leah had met Lokai, their connection was instant, and they had worked the crowds together helping people. The Haltija would be very glad when they were safe in her walls and when these people with their anger left.
The Castle felt a disturbance in the land and knew things would not go well today. There was a presence at the edge of her reach. She could feel the Shadows but couldn’t see or touch them as they stayed just periphery of her senses. These creatures had traded their soul’s to Piru to have… whatever…it never mattered what they’d wanted, they never got to enjoy the thing before the Devil called them into service.
She searched the crowds, watching where Lokai was helping a young couple pack up their belongings. They had decided not to stay for the vote, although they weren’t the first to leave. There were too many who had already gone and all of the magical creatures had been driven out the first day by the hate and discontent Elias triggered in the masses. It was suspected that someone was capturing them for an unknown purpose. Fae were sensitive creatures, fear and hate were powerful emotions not easily tolerate by the Brownies, Fairies, and Sprites. And the Dragons had quit coming years ago. They made the people nervous and they quietly ruled themselves.
Today was a decisive day for all. The people who were left voted, and they voted not return to Castle Veroinen. So she too would make a decision; she would protect her people and the magic but, she couldn’t do that if she returned to the earth. She would have to do something that had never been done, she just didn’t know what. But she trusted the magic, when the time was right, she would trust her instincts and do what she had to do.
*
Lokai stood in shocked silence, watching a man with a bag collect taxes at the back of the room. They had lost the vote, or the farce that had been called a vote. Valdin had warned him, but he had never expected things to be so bad or so many mean things to be said about his parents, himself and the beautiful Leah. The words Witch, God and Goddess were said with true hate and Elias had enjoyed informing Valdin of the results. He wasn’t sure he could ever forget the feelings of betrayal the man had evoked.
After collecting their tax, they filed outside, leaving a mess all over the Castle and the surrounding area. Valdin felt that Zandor had been injured and wondered if she would ever recover, because the system that had served the land so long allowed the people to vote and choose. In choosing Elias, they had set into motion a new destiny for Zandor.
Castle Veroinen felt the pain, they all felt. She shuddered and shook, the land around her shuddered and shook. People began fleeing the area where they had camped the last several days. Helena and Valdin each put a hand to the Castle’s walls and nodded to Lokai and Leah to do the same. They fed her magic, because she was the only one who could do what needed done.
The Castle, a living entity of the land, shook in rage and frustration at the lies told, the intimidation used to collect the money and the manipulation that had stripped the land of its individuality. With the added power of the God and Goddess, their son and the True Witch, she was strong again. She shook so hard the whole cliff trembled. The Castle and a portion of the land it had sat on for centuries shuddered loose and floated into the air. As the people of the land waited, the castle disappeared into the clouds, taking with it Valdin, Helena, Leah and Lokai.
Castle Veroinen was no more, she became Castle Pilvilinna.