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Smother

by Deliverer

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  • DIY Limited Cassette
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    Hand made cassette capturing 6 epics of barbarian folk. 16 copies only.

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1.
No Home 03:11
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Reunion 04:06

about

You knew even then that this palace was not your home. It was the way they spoke of your origin, finding you among the reeds, or on the river, like some story out of their divine book; it meant that your raising was to be an offering to their god. To think of all those years you, not knowing any better, went gladly along, eager to please. But what did it mean when they, all of them, looked at you like an object? You were, after all, presented and not introduced. Even servant children felt some kind of power over you, though neither you nor they could properly grasp what that was. Every night for the last year, you cut one strip from your bedclothes and braided it into a rope. It started out no more than a cubit long, but you would keep adding to it; someday you were going to use that rope to climb down the walls and get away.

And then one day you rode with some forgettable man whose resting posture, even in the cramped palanquin, oozed an unearned confidence. As you rode, your route took you across the plain, where some miles away blood had been spilled, and a village burned. A small clan of heathens living in the most desolate part of the plain to avoid contact with the empire, you would later learn. A great wind blew, carrying the smell of vengeful blood with it and to your nostrils. The forgettable man fought back his sick. Your eyes flared. A knowledge had entered your heart - or perhaps awakened from a deep slumber there. The fear of the people so recently slaughtered, but also their knowledge, their experience. Their bloodlust in battle when it was needed. Their rituals of deep earth and of deeper sky. You and the man exchanged a look. You would never see him again.

You return to the palace late, and are to bed without bathing, catching the eye of more than one attendant. Lying in the dark, you can see - and more importantly, feel - the workings of the survivors from this village. They had nothing left to lose. They planned to attack, and tonight. You intended to help them.

And later, the two attendants who are required to sit upright all night, finally slouched into their seated sleep. They will survive the night. You've snuck around the palace while everyone else slept before - you know when they all sneak off for sleep, for trysts, for sustenance. You cut your final piece from a sheet, and silently remove the rope from its hiding place between the layers of the curtains. It's gotten long in just a year, but you tied the final strip to the end just the same, completing the ritual you created out of need. You went on, then, to the guard tower, encountering no one, as you knew you would, and let the rope down. Instead of climbing down and off into the night, you waited. Not long after, a figure on the edge of your vision, then another, then a dozen more. Men and women, their bodies painted in blood and ash. You shake the rope, and plant your feet - and from your mouth comes a shriek like you've never heard in the bounds of the empire. It is a matter of instinct for your throat, and your lungs, and the cry is returned, en masse, as they begin to climb the rope.

credits

released September 28, 2018

All instruments, vocals, and compositions by Deliverer.

In rejection of assimilation, in challenge to oppressors.

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