The king's messengers, brightly colored in black and red, rode straight into lord Tolen's city of Turstone and declared the king's will to the priests, who then set a day to proclaim it to their own people.
Lord Tolen and his curious son rode through the throngs of multitudes, parting for them to pass, to the city gathering square. Tolen came more to watch the reactions of his people, rather than to hear the word, which he already knew.
The king warned all people of Pharshena to be on guard. The surviving demons from the Crystal Mountain had begun to come among the people in forms of such great likeness that only their inability to comprehend and produce speech still distinguished them. The king asked all people to be vigilant, and to report any strange behaviors immediately to the priests.
As lord Tolen expected, the people were badly frightened by the declaration.
For the entire long winter, every town and village in lord Tolen's lands kept watch, while hunting parties and foresters with their hired men searched the woods. Accounts of terrifying encounters abounded. Every unusually large wolf or a blood-thirsty bear to attack the flocks became a changeling demon.
Lord Tolen promptly responded to the calls as his duty required him. But each time he went, his heart was troubled. And when the alarms proved false, he felt relief that he did not have to shed any more blood. He thought he was alone in his doubts about the creatures, which the council of the priests judged evil and condemned to be killed on sight.
And then the laeden of Turstone privately grumbled to Tolen about the wisdom of the council elders, frightening the people into such frenzy about creatures who might not be the Kali, at all.
"You do not think them demons?" Tolen asked of the elderly priest, startled. He was never very close to Gaedus. Ever since he was a headstrong child, Tolen preferred to rely upon his own judgment and avoided the elder priest's advice.
"I do not think them demons at all." Laeden Gaedus shrugged. "I have carefully searched the accounts that the elders presented to the king as proof of their determination, and thus far found their research lacking. I have no doubt that the true Kali demons, if such really still exist, would be far more ferocious. It would have been much harder to destroy them than these beings from the crystal castle."
Lord Tolen grunted in agreement.
"I doubt that any of the creatures of ancient legends still exist. Neither the fearsome Kali, nor the powerful Guardians who extinguished them had been seen since their legendary war. Truly, the age of giants has passed into oblivion long ago." Laeden told Tolen with regret. "And this is merely the age of man."
"But if they are not demons, what are they?" Tolen asked. Gaedus shrugged.
"Some sort of other strange beasts."
"Beasts?"
"Animals. These creatures do not possess the power of speech, despite their uncanny ability to imitate human semblance. And is not our speech the single determining characteristic of true intelligence? Our ability to make and comprehend speech sets us apart from mere animals. Thus, I think it likely that these creatures are some strange and exotic beasts. There have been accounts of such in some other studies, and I will see if I can find more and later make a presentation to the lower council to be considered for debate. Of course, I cannot know for sure. If I could only see one of these beings for myself, I could perhaps determine exactly what they are. But the king's declaration makes it all but impossible."
The priest cast the knight a conspiratory look and gestured for him to draw closer. Frowning, lord Tolen complied.
"Perhaps, next time you hunt one of them down, Junad, if you could delay and keep it alive, so I could at least see it." The elder suggested wistfully.
"Of course, laeden." Lord Tolen agreed respectfully and straightened again. "But why? Do you not have the record of study completed by laeden of Lunn?"
"Ondes Ganos?" The elder winced slightly.
"Honorable Laeden of Lunn has strong faith and conviction and fervently follows his duty… But he has never been a good scholar." The elder commented politely, but drily, his face expressing deep dissatisfaction, which told lord Tolen how little he thought of the man.
Laeden Gaedus didn't have to wait long. The very next day an outcry arose at one of the villages, and lord Tolen took his men and hunted down another wolf. But when laeden Gaedus arrived to look upon it, he found that it was just a plain gray-back wolf. Another time, it was only an old, scraggly, confused moose, which had wandered into the vicinity of Turstone gate, and scared everyone. People panicked, thinking that it, too, was a changeling. Laeden Gaedus was very disappointed.
"Laeden, perhaps you should not waste your time... I don't think there are any changelings left in Pharshena." Lord Tolen confessed to the elderly priest.
"Why do you think thus?" Gaedus inquired.
"I would say that the last time I hunted after a true changeling was this late January, after the festivals. I followed a wolf's track all the way from Lasput. I knew it was not a mere wolf, though, by how the track changed. It converged with three earlier tracks, and they all lead West, over the mountains. There are no safe known paths there, so I could not follow them."
"So you think that they all already left?"
"Yes." Lord Tolen said firmly.
"You killed two at the Eastern Path."
"My men wounded and killed one, a pregnant female. Its mate turned on us like a vicious animal. It nearly killed several of my men. I had no choice but to put it down." Tolen recalled, seeing again the creature's hate-filled black eyes, and the blinding curses it thundered on the men before lord Tolen finally beheaded it.
"Since then there have been no more sightings at any of the passes. I think they all left by other, untried paths. Such strange creatures… I also do not think that they were the demons of ancient stories. To this day, I have not found proof that they actually harmed anyone, except when cornered…"
"The most harmless animal if cornered will bite to defend itself." The old man muttered.
"Where could they have come from?" Tolen allowed himself to wonder out loud.
"Most likely the sky rivers. The writings say that bits and pieces of alien worlds float within them." Laeden answered and in an absent-minded way pointed his wrinkled hand to the dimly glowing bands of light that crossed the sky.
"They shift from time to time, and touch down upon the earth. Perhaps an errant stream brought down this crystal mountain, and these creatures along with it."
Lord Tolen nodded his understanding, seeing the elder's point, but kept his doubt. He still recalled the vivid dream he had about the first demon he killed by the Durnaldeen cliffs. That one and the younger ones he saw in the crystal castle did not act as mere animals. He had seen keen intelligence in their eyes. And they spoke in his dreams...
He was not sure what to think and did not contend the point with the old priest. Either way, there was no more proof, because all the changelings were gone, despite what the priest of Lunn claimed to justify the numerous arrests. And with each unsuccessful hunt, and each unconfirmed questioning by the priest of Lunn who continued his hunt after the changelings, Tolen became more and more certain of that.
…
The fears continued to spread wildly among the people, especially in the villages around Lunn, Guthslon, and the royal city of Reolth, where other priests charged by their Order Chapter to handle the matter, continued to arrest people with abandon. There were at least some people killed there, lord Tolen heard.
Upon a recent friendly neighbor visit to Turstone, a greatly disturbed lord Raden described how the irate people in his home city of Maerdom turned into a mob and grabbed the baker's mute daughter, beat her father and brother when they tried to defend her, and then burned her alive. The priests had treated the baker before he was brought into lord Raden's presence in the city justice tribunal.
"His daughter lived in that town for fourteen years. Witnesses confirmed that everyone knew she was a deaf mute... She was not a changeling!" Raden said and angrily slammed the feast table.
"My physician checked her remains, and they were clearly human. And the priests admitted... They said that they knew she was not a changeling as soon as they saw that she didn't change in the fire. They could have still saved her! But they did not lift a finger, for the fear of the mob. Bloody cowards!"
Sir Raden could not punish an entire town. He ordered everyone who had been a part of the mob to pay the baker recompense. The girl's father found it a bitter comfort.
Soon after this, several fights broke out in Turstone, where lord Tolen ruled. People who hated each other began to speak dangerous slanders, accusing their enemies of being disguised changelings. Tolen investigated the matters and found them to be nothing but vicious lies. He heard of similar events developing at the estates of other lords.
Accusations prompted the arrival of Questioners - a new brand of priests trained by high priest Ondesganos to seek out the changelings by performing grueling tests upon the accused. Hearing of the numerous arrests that recently took place in the holdings of other lords and having no desire for the same to spread to his own lands, lord Tolen determined to put a stop to it.
Lord Tolen sent out declarations to all the villages in his province, warning the people that anyone guilty of an accusation later found to be false would be flogged and fined fifty gold marks. He only had to make two public examples before the vicious rumors stopped, and people began to settle down again.
Less than a week later, in the village of Narta, which was farthest in sir Tolen's holdings, a wandering simpleton was stoned to death. He, too, was proven to be merely human by the fire after his death.
Sir Tolen was furious. That was when he enacted a local law, which was soon emulated by several other lords, including his neighbors and friends, sirs Raden and Ruben, and then finally put into full law for all Pharshena by the king.
Sir Tolen ordered that anyone accused of being a changeling, but never seen to actually change form, be first brought before the priests, alive and unharmed. Only those witnessed by many to have changed their form could be killed outright, as the king's law commanded.
The people living in lord Tolen's holdings felt very proud that it had been their lord's suggestion, which caused the king to amend the Law of the Land. They were glad that their lord was so wise and just.
By the end of this cruel winter, many people were weary of fears, and wanted to forget the rumors and return to a normal, uneventful life they had always known.