The Sacrifice of Yalak

Originally sent to newsletter subscribers in September, 2023. Sign up for the free newsletter now to receive exclusive stories months in advance.

Twenty-four chances. Twenty-four small slips of paper with the name “Shalif Trubor” inscribed on them, each one representing an entry into the drawing which would determine who was sacrificed to the Forest Tutelary, Adjali. In a town of less than two hundred, twenty-four chances was quite a lot. Shalif had spent every coin he had saved trying to find a cure for his father’s illness, and it still didn’t work. With no money left to buy out any of his entries, he knew what could be awaiting him as he walked through the gates of the Naming Arena.

Shalif settled into a seat in the third row, as far from his former classmates as he could manage. Given the wealth of their families, they had been able to completely remove themselves from the selection process, just as they would for the next few years until they reached the cutoff age of thirty. For Shalif, even if he managed to survive the selection process this year, his odds would only continue to get worse as he aged. He couldn’t even afford to buy out a single entry, let alone the twenty-five he would have next year. It was only a matter of time until he heard his name called and he was gifted to Adjali.

Why couldn’t he have been born into a wealthy family, one who just happened to live on a piece of land rich in minerals that could be sold to the buyers from the cities? Better yet, why couldn’t he have been born into one of those cities, where even the poor could hope to survive among the tens of thousands of entries into the yearly Naming? It wasn’t fair. He had lived a good life, tried his best to do what was right, and still he had to suffer.

“Attention, people of Yalak,” the Namer shouted, his voice amplified by the metal horn held to his mouth. He looked tired, like his trek across the nation sending young people to their deaths had taken its toll on him. “We will now commence with the yearly Naming Ceremony, in which one of you will be named as Sacrifice to the great and powerful Adjali, Tutelary of the Forests.”

A chorus of cheers and boos intermingled to create a boom of sound shouted down at the Namer. A pair of assistants hauled a large, clear ball containing the slips of paper that would determine the fate of someone, sending them to the forest to die. Compared to the massive size of the ball, the pile of paper looked so pathetic. The same ball was used for every Naming process, and was surely filled for the largest cities, like Agnur or Labni. But for the tiny village that was Yalak, the entries barely covered the bottom. And twenty-four of those belonged to Shalif.

“It is a great honor to give one’s life to the Tutelaries,” the Namer continued. “By giving oneself to Adjali, you will be providing them with the power to protect one of the world’s most precious resources. The forest provides lumber for our homes, homes to the many creatures that inhabit Tus, and protection for many travelers. Without the wonders of the forests, I have no doubt this nation would be but a fraction of its current glory.

“Now, for the selection.”

The Namer spun the ball around once, twice, three times. He loosened the opening and reached inside. After wiggling his hand around for a moment, his fingers latched onto a single folded slip of paper. Each person in the crowd was holding their breath, even those who had nothing to worry about. It was a force of habit for the people of Yalak.

“And this year’s honorable sacrifice is,” the Namer began. He unfolded the paper and held it up. “Shalif Trubor.”

All eyes turned to Shalif. His breath caught in his throat. Emotion lumped behind his eyes. He steeled himself and stood, his shoulders back and his face hard. Begging his legs to move without trembling, he descended the stairs and walked to the center of the Naming Arena, where the Namer was waiting with an outstretched hand.

Shalif took it and shook, his mind and body numb. He barely registered the Namer’s words as the man addressed the crowd. He scanned the crowd. For just a moment, his eyes locked with those of his childhood crush, Malvira, before her gaze darted to the dirt before her.

“… And with that, the Naming Ceremony has reached its close.” Shalif snapped back to attention just as the Namer was finishing his speech. “Shalif Trubor, you have been Named. Thank you for your sacrifice the Adjali, Tutelary of the Forests.”

A half-hearted cheer arose from the crowd. It was supposed to be an honor to be chosen as the sacrifice, but to the people of such a small town, it was more of a theft. The Tutelary was stealing one of their own from them, someone they had all known their entire lives. Someone whose children would have been born to continue the great traditions of the community. Instead, a life was being ripped from the world in the name of a being none of them had ever known.

Shalif nodded once to the crowd and allowed himself to be led out of the Naming Arena by a pair of heavily armored “escorts” with huge swords hanging at their sides. They were supposedly there to protect the Namer, but they had a secondary role as well. They would make sure Shalif made it to the Sacrificial Tree without trying to run or end his own life before Adjali took him.

A single tear fell from the corner of Shalif’s eye as he entered the dark tunnel leading out of the Naming Arena. It was finally starting to truly hit him. He was going to die before the end of the day.

#

Shalif’s head drooped down for a moment before he forced it upright. His eyes were heavy. He had been tied to the Sacrificial Tree, his arms strung up above him and his legs pinned to the trunk of the enormous tree by a rope pulled tight by the Namer’s escorts. The ceremonial fire, which had started as a pile of dead branches and dried leaves taller than Shalif, had burned down to only a few orange licks of flame shooting up through the coals. The darkness of night had taken over. Even the moon refused to shine on Shalif this night.

A strong wind whipped through the clearing, flaring what was left of the fire and sending a shiver up Shalif’s spine. When it settled, he could hear twigs snapping as a creature approached. If the heavy footfalls were any indication, whatever was coming for him was massive. If Adjali didn’t show their face soon, Shalif would end up as dinner for the forest predators lurking about.

All at once, a powerful grip reached around and pulled his head back against the tree, forcing him perfectly upright. He struggled to move, but he was totally immobilized by the rope and the mysterious force. His eyes darted back and forth, straining to see what had come for him. It felt as if the tree itself had him in its grasp. The bark pressed against his cheek, rubbing his skin until it was raw.

Shalif closed his eyes, desperate for his heart to slow. He was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The best he could hope for was a moment of peace before Adjali removed him from this world, just as they had one sacrifice a year for centuries.

He stayed that way, eyes pinched shut, long enough for his breathing to normalize. He took one more deep breath and opened his eyes.

Before him stood a creature well over two men in height. Its head resembled that of a bear, though with the antlers of a deer, while the body was clearly wolf-like, scaled up to a massive size. The beast had the legs of a powerful tiger and the tail of a monkey. Still, despite the amalgamation of animals, each part seemed to flow together naturally, as if everything else was messed up and this was the true form of the forest.

A realization struck Shalif. “Adjali?” he struggled out through a dry throat and cracked lips.

The creature nodded its massive head.

Shalif nearly fainted. He was the only one left alive to have laid eyes on a Tutelary. He wondered what the others looked like. Were they all combinations of animals related to their respective domains? Was Grozor, Tutelary of the Sea, a cross between a shark, a whale, and a turtle? Was Imbid, Tutelary of Civilization, just a mashup of domesticated housepets?

Something like a growl escaped Adjali’s throat. Shalif snapped back to attention. He struggled to remain steady beneath the Tutelary’s powerful gaze, but he managed to meet their eyes. The creature nodded again. In an instant, the pressure on Shalif’s head eased. He whipped his head to the side in time to see the bark of the Sacrificial Tree retreating back to its usual appearance. A moment later, two long vines rose from the ground and looped through the knot around his wrists and legs.

The ropes loosened, sending Shalif careening down. The vines wrapped around his waist and lifted him, allowing him a moment to gather his legs beneath him before releasing their grip. Shalif nodded his thanks to Adjali and stretched his back.

“I don’t understand,” Shalif said at last. “Why am I still alive? Was I not a worthy sacrifice?”

“Quite the opposite.” Adjali’s mouth did not move, but Shalif could hear the voice reverberated through his mind as if the Tutelary had spoken directly into his ear. He jumped in alarm. “You, Shalif Trubor, will not die this night.”

“What do you mean?”

“You, like those chosen before you, will not be sacrificed.” Adjali approached and lowered their head to Shalif’s height. “The Named are not sacrificed to the Tutelaries. We do not need human sacrifice to maintain our power.”

“But the bones?” Shalif said. “Every year, I cleaned the discarded bones from the Sacrificial Tree.”

“Used to maintain the illusion,” Adjali explained. “The people cannot know the true purpose of the Named.”

“And what is the purpose? If I’m not going to die, why was I chosen at all?”

“You will join forces with me, as my avatar.” The Tutelary of the Forests breathed onto Shalif. Their eyes glowed in unison. Adjali touched their nose to Shalif’s forehead. “You have been given access to the Power of the Forests. With it, you will fight alongside me and my other avatars to defend the forests of this world. You will become a warrior. An Acolyte of the Forests.”

Shalif stumbled backward. His vision had shifted. It was as if he could see the plants breathing all around him. He could sense them all, bombarding him with sensations and information. He had spent his entire life compartmentalizing. He wouldn’t have survived without that skill. He took three deep breaths, and slowly the plants quieted. They were still there, but in the background. He was able to narrow his focus.

His eyes fell on Adjali. Thanks to the powerful Tutelary’s gift, his life finally had a purpose. After twenty-four years of struggling against the circumstances of his birth, against the constant fear of being sacrificed because he couldn’t afford to buy his way out of it, he had finally been given an opportunity to make something of himself. He was finally going to be able to do something that would have a positive impact on the world. For as long as he lived, he would never be able to thank Adjali enough for the opportunity and blessing.

Shalif looked to the Tutelary with tears of joy in his eyes. “When do I start?”

#

“Acolyte Trubor, you must concentrate,” Acolyte Jhulik barked. “You have tremendous power, but you will never succeed as an avatar of the great Adjali if you don’t learn to control it.”

Sweat splattered on the ground as Shalif shook his head and focused on the cluster of trees before him. Acolyte  Kiyah Jhulik, the sacrifice Named just four years before him, had been assigned to train him. She was tough on him, but not mean. Her critiques were specific, motivating him to improve a little at a time. She didn’t expect him to be perfect, only to get better each day.

It was his second week at the hidden temple deep within the forest, hundreds of miles away from his hometown of Yalak. Every day since arriving had been basically the same. He would wake before dawn, study with Acolyte Jhulik until lunch, and spend the rest of the evening training to control and focus his newfound abilities. By the time they finished, he was exhausted. He was lucky if he managed a full meal before he collapsed into his makeshift bed formed from leaves and moss.

He had progressed quickly at first, but he was struggling to contain his powers to only the assigned task. He wanted to let loose and see what he could do, but Kiyah kept warning him that if he couldn’t do the small things, he had no business trying anything else. Shalif was growing frustrated. He had been staring at this same patch of trees all day, trying to grow each tree into a sequence of ascending height without the tallest of them growing taller than the next thicket. Each and every attempt, one of the trees shot up into the air, nearly to the canopy of leaves far above them, before he could control and slow its growth.

He gripped his hands tight and released them, forcing his muscles to stay loose as Acolyte Jhulik had taught him. She promised it would come easier in time. With a burst of the newfound energy inside of him, he pushed the rightmost tree right up to the appointed height limit and froze the tree in place. He could feel its innate desire to grow taller and closer to the sun, but he resisted.

“Good,” Kiyah said. “Now continue.”

Without releasing his hold on the previous tree, Shalif went to work on the next one. He grew it to within a few inches of the first tree and stopped. He managed to do three more trees in the same way, each one of them earning him a word of praise from Acolyte Jhulik. He had just two trees to go when fatigue began to set in. The sixth tree grew more slowly, wavering as it extended upward.

“Keep going,” Acolyte Jhulik said, her voice soft. “I know you can do this. You need to control your powers. In the event of a battle, you need to understand the limits of the forest.”

Kiyah, the other Acolytes, and even Adjali had mentioned battles or wars on multiple occasions, but Shalif still didn’t understand who they would battle. He understood that he may need to use his powers to protect the forests against natural disasters like fires, floods, or severe drought, but he couldn’t imagine who they would have to fight, or how something like that would come to be.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled. “Acolyte Trubor, are you moving the roots again?”

Shalif shook his head. “I promise, this time it isn’t me.”

“Strange.” Kiyah looked around, searching for other Acolytes who may be practicing nearby. Her eyes widened in shock as a cry rang out and was abruptly cut off. She turned to Shalif. “Go to the temple. Now. Get into the Defense Room and lock the door. Don’t open it for anyone. Not even me.”

“What is going on?”

“Don’t ask questions. Just go.”

Shalif was forced into a run by the grass growing around his feet and urging him forward. He followed Kiyah’s instructions, sprinting toward the temple even as the ground continued to shake all around him. He jumped over a crate which had overturned in the quake. He braced his legs for the landing, but the ground wasn’t there. A hole had opened up and was continued to grow, already so deep he couldn’t see the bottom.

With a cry, Shalif reached out to the sky above him. A vine shot from a nearby tree and wrapped itself around his wrist. He grabbed ahold and pulled with his powers. The vine stretched nearly to the point of breaking, but it absorbed his weight and he was soon lifting himself up and onto solid ground again. He looked around at the chaos that had broken out. Tree branches, vines, and razor sharp leaves whipped across his vision, just as rocks flew in the opposite direction. Trees and structures collapsed as the dirt gave way to more and more holes.

The cries of the forest reached a dizzying pitch in his mind. Pain shot through each blade of grass as its roots were ripped from the ground. Birds, squirrels, and countless other animals had their homes destroyed as trees fell into the rifts that continued to open without warning. A pack of coyotes howled as they were crushed by falling debris. Shalif felt all of that suffering.

He fell to his knees, the forest’s pain overwhelming his senses. He couldn’t stand it. He had to do something. He had to put a stop to this.

Shalif forced himself to his feet. He let the cries of pain empower him. He drank it all up and held it inside as his newfound power grew until his entire body vibrated with its energy. A throat-shredding scream escaped his lips as he loosed the Power of the Forests to its fullest extent. Acting on pure instinct, he unleashed destruction on everyone who might cause harm to the forest he had been assigned to protect.

Without placing limits on his abilities, the energy flowed through him faster than he could comprehend. It surged outward even faster, tearing through everything around him. It was too much.

His vision blurred before blacking out completely.

#

Shalif peeled one eye open and then the other. He stood in the center of a clearing. The ground around him was riddled with indents and loose dirt. The trees had been stripped clean and leveled.

Panic rose in his chest. He spun in a wide circle. Where was the temple? What happened to the trees? What about the animals? Where was Kiyah?

Shalif fell to his knees. Could he have caused this? This was too much. The forest no longer cried out to him. There wasn’t anything left to sense, at least not for in his immediate area. He could see the edge of the destruction in the distance, where the trees stood like a fence marking the area of death. Death he had caused.

“Acolyte Trubor.”

Adjali’s voice was like an explosion in Shalif’s mind. He whipped around to find his face within inches of the Tutelary’s bared teeth.

“Great and powerful Adjali,” Shalif recited before falling into the bow and salute of the Acolytes.

“Stand. Now.”

Shalif obliged. “What happened?”

“You disobeyed the orders of Acolyte Jhulik,” Adjali said. “In doing so, you have brought dishonor to my name.”

“I was only trying to protect the forest,” Shalif cried. “To stop the pain.”

Adjali stood to their full height, towering over Shalif. “You were warned about using your powers without restraint. Your actions caused the destruction of my temple, the death of Acolyte Jhulik and eight others, and the unlawful deaths of over twenty Acolytes of the Soil. Grimtur will be furious. And, worst of all, you have gone against your core designation to protect the forest. Your outburst completely desolated the forest for miles around.”

Shalif’s shoulders dropped. “I’m sorry, Adjali. I didn’t know.”

“Even in battle with other Tutelaries, there are certain rules,” Adjali said. “I have no choice. You are to be stripped of your powers. As of this moment, you are no longer an Acolyte of the Forests. I, Tutelary of the Forests, hereby relieve you of your position.”

Adjali’s eyes glowed a deep red. In an instant, they disappeared from sight, leaving Shalif alone in the ring of his own destruction. He was struck by how quiet the world around him was. Without the forest to keep him company, he felt so alone. He fell to ground in a cry of anguish, his throat searing in pain.

He stayed on the barren ground for some time, begging to the sky for Adjali to return and give him a chance to redeem himself and make things right. When it was clear Adjali would not return, he rose. He turned away from the town of Yalak. He hardly had the will to go on as it was. There was no way he would be able to live with himself if he returned home and had to explain how badly he had messed up. His only hope of survival was to settle in some other village and try to build some semblance of a life for himself.

He took one shaky step through the dusty cleaning, and then another. Each movement send a fresh jolt of pain through his aching muscles, but he was thankful. The physical pain distracted him from his mental torment. He managed to walk nearly a mile when he sensed a presence following him.

He turned as quickly as he could manage, but the only thing behind him was more dirt. He turned back, his heart heavy with despair, and found himself facing a tall figure with long, bony limbs. The figure wore a strange black hat and a black coat which reached all the way to his ankles. Their head was dipped, obscuring their face. Shalif yelped in surprise and stepped back, reaching for the forest to defend himself. But the forest didn’t respond, not anymore.

“Greetings,” the figure said in a voice equal parts sinister and inviting. “I understand you’ve had some bad luck with one of my colleagues?”

“A-are you a Tutelary?” Shalif croaked.

“Of sorts,” the figure said. “Though not one you’ve likely heard of. I am new to the group, you could say. Am I correct in my assessment that you never had much wealth, and that is how you had the misfortune of being Named?”

“Yes, that’s true. Why?”

“How would you like to change that?” The Tutelary asked. “To become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams and help others reach that same status? To live the rest of an extremely long life getting back at those who have wronged you while fundamentally changing the world?”

“I’m not worthy,” Shalif said.

“I think you are.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I would like that. All I’ve ever wanted was to make a difference.”

The Tutelary finally lifted their head, only to reveal they had no face. Where their nose, mouth, and eyes should have been, only skin remained. They were totally anonymous. “I am Quoniks, Tutelary of Wealth. You will become my first Acolyte.”

Quoniks touched their head to Shalif’s. A whole new world spread out in Shalif’s mind, a world he could help create. He could sense the desires of people over a hundred miles away, and he knew instantly how to help them reach those desires. It was so much better than being able to sense the forests. With this power, he could do so much more.

“When do I start?”

#

“So, gentlemen, as you can see here, the profits you could generate from drilling within the next two months would be more than double what you would make by waiting and continuing to pour effort into your previous project.” He pointed to a screen projected onto the wall. After hundreds of years, he had learned how to hook powerful men and bend them to his bidding, all while making them think it was their idea. “You were right when you suggested abandoning that pump. It’s nearly obsolete anyway. But here, with this new drill system, you could start collecting oil in a fraction of the time.”

“What about the forest around the old spot?” One of the men said, apparently the only one with reservations. “And the new one, for that matter? Won’t we be destroying those ecosystems?”

“Yes, there will be damage,” Shalif admitted. “That is unavoidable. But that is going to happen anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to be the ones to claim this new deposit before those greedy pigs at FuelCo move in?”

The men glanced back and forth to one another before turning to Shalif and nodding in unison.

“Very well,” Shalif said.

He shook hands with each man as they signed the group contract he had prepared, giving him access to five percent of the profits on this next drill. After a quick round of goodbyes, Shalif made his way to the elevator, staring out at the city before him as he began the long descent. Outside, he turned in a slow circle and breathed in the smells. Exhaust fumes mixed and mingled in the already thick smog that settled over the city each morning. It was beautiful.

As Shalif turned and walked deeper in the city, he turned his face upward and spoke under his breath. “I hope you feel this one Adjali. I hope it hurts.”