Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I have a deadline tomorrow for the Patreon, and I was spending this evening finishing up the polish for my story for this month. What is below is not that: it is, instead, something that I’m putting up now so that I won’t forget that I want to write this, like, next month or something. It has potential, I think. Also: it’s not really going to be horror, despite the title.
A Bargain With Yig
Occupied Deseret, 2456 AD
President Mark Smith tried to close the eyes of his last bodyguard, only to give up after a minute of futility. Just like everything else lately, thought Mark. And, equally bitterly: And I am tired of watching better men and women than me die, just to keep me alive. Although at least that last humiliation was probably almost over. To say things looked bad was to stretch the definition of understatement until it snapped like a rotten longbow.
Mark looked around. The cave that he was now hiding in at least seemed like it had been unoccupied lately; there was what looked like a fissure in the back that might lead to another chamber, but it would take a lot to make Mark consider fleeing down it. But at least there was enough kinks in the passage leading to this chamber to let Mark risk starting a small fire, over the feeble protests of his now-dead companion. The bodyguard had been right, of course; even a small campfire might attract notice. But Mark was past caring. If the Universal Dominion found him at this point he’d just die more quickly anyway.
Twenty men and women had been in the guard detail that pulled Mark Smith out of a burning Salt Lake City as Dominion mages ravaged the city. Their staring corpses marked his futile flight west, into the mountains. In light of that, it seemed almost petulant for Mark to dwell on how his entire family was likely also dead. Or, worse, wishing that they were. Eradicating the ruling dynasty of Deseret had been a goal of the Dominion for over four hundred years, and now they were apparently down to one.
He couldn’t stay in the cave, of course. The bodyguard’s corpse would attract scavengers, and putting it outside the cave would attract notice. As far as Mark could work out, he was still in Dominion-occupied territory, so getting far enough west — assuming that they stop before the Pacific, he thought — had to be the next step before… what, really? Mark didn’t know. He did know that he would be probably literally damned before he would spend less effort at dying than did the people who traded their lives for him. That would have to be enough. It wouldn’t be, but it would have to be.
In the meantime, the fire no longer served any purpose; the man that it was trying to comfort was dead. Mark carefully smothered it. He also appropriated back the blankets that the bodyguard no longer needed. He deserved the warmth no more than he did the firelight, but it was his job now to survive for as long as possible. Mark would have enough to answer for, for the disaster that had befallen him, his family, and the realm and faith that they once ruled over. Better not to add ingratitude to his list of sins.
Sleep came easily enough, surprisingly. Mark contemplated offering prayers; but now seemed like an obscenely hypocritical time to start. He settled for a heartfelt I’m sorry to the heavens and hoped that this would be enough.
I wrote a long critique of the geography, but the page refreshed and ate it.
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I’ll try to make another run at it later, but don’t know when I’ll have time, so here’s the nutshell version:
Flip East for West, and West for East.
Mountains and isolated mountain towns are East.
Salt Flats with nobody and nothing are West.
Yikes. Much obliged.
Much depends on just where the boundaries of your new Deseret are at ..
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If you go aaaaaall the way across Nevada (and wave at Black Rock City as you go past) .. the Sierra-Nevadas are certainly mountainous enough .. they’re just mostly in California.
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That said .. there’s not a lot of reason for anyone to claim northern Nevada (other than Black Rock City, of course) so .. would Deseret have gone to the trouble .. and *if so*, then naming the mountain range Smith’s pullin’ his “King David” in (Wasatch Range, Rockies, if you want to go all John Ford, you can mention “Valley of the Gods” .. Sierra-Nevadas in California ..) would give a good “ah, that’s the border of Deseret” hint to the reader.
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Mew