Winter winds

She took command of the northern army and sent a regiment to every independent state up north. Her only instructions,

Barricade the city gates and set it on fire.

She thought that after a few fires, the rest of the continent would kneel before her. But she underestimated the will of the northerners, who created a united front against her. Northern noblemen put aside their squabbles to face their common enemy, the same thing that had happened centuries ago in the southern continent. But this time, their army was far greater than hers.

She needed the noblemen in her court to be on her side because each family had its own private army of loyal soldiers. She had sold her strategy to the people as being infallible, perfect, approved by the Greater man. After several defeats in the front, her words lost credit. The united front pushed her kingdom south without any intention to let her sue for peace.

She accused the noblemen and the king’s ministers of fearmongering and defeatism. She blamed the defeats on sabotage and people’s lack of faith in the Greater man during her speeches at the capital,

The lord over all will deliver us from our enemies, but only if we believe blindly! Your leaders are gripped with fear, but I am not. I will defeat their filthy heathen armies and the Glory of the Greater man will shine from coast to coast!

As the enemy closed in on the capital, she sped up executions of civilians and army officers on charges of espionage, sabotage and treason. Those too coward to fight in the war became members of the new state security organs built to root out enemies of the state. She really was a creature of habit. From one of the castle’s balconies that led to a large patio, she yelled at the masses:

It’s your fault that a bunch of stinking heathens are about to conquer us. Your lack of faith offends the Greater man, who has forsaken you. All you can do is surrender to his Will, only then will He save you.

Every day the united front drew closer to the capital. By winter, the kingdom had been reduced to the capital and a few adjacent farmlands. Enemies approached from the south, east and west. The union finally took the farmlands and pushed her army back to the capital, depriving them of provisions. Her once glorious army was now outnumbered, exhausted and famished.

The siege plunged the capital into chaos. The army disintegrated after the soldiers saw the never-ending lines of enemies marching through the solitary plane that led to their city. But she called, and her voice was so irresistible that the whole capital gathered to listen. Every man, woman and child in the city ceased panicking and listened to her words,

These are the times that try our souls. We are judged not in times of peace, when being good is easy. Now is the time of our judgment. Only if you stay true to Him, only if all of you truly believe in Him will our enemies be buried before us! This is your final test: if you pass, He will always protect this kingdom, this people. If you show your love for Him, He will repay it a thousandfold.

The people in the kingdom were about to collapse. There was no food, barely any drink, and that winter bit colder than the North had ever known. There was no sun. Cold gnawed its way through old rags right to the bone. In the face of impossible odds, people crumbled and begged the Greater man to deliver them from the heathens. Thousands were at her feet, freezing but begging for salvation. And she would not fail them.

She took them all to a well-provisioned underground bunker she had ordered to build soon after taking over the kingdom. Their enemy took the capital, enjoyed their victory and rejoiced. But it was a short victory, for the temperature kept plummeting. The cold crawled under the skin of every soldier and put out every fire. The strong winds cut the faces of men and kept them trembling all day. The animals fled in terror from the cold only to become meat popsicles. From the underground bunker, her kingdom listened to the screams of the men and animals that were dying above.

The winds blew and carried away everything that had prevented the people of the northern kingdom from fully embracing the Greater man. Those winds wiped the armies of their enemies off the face of the earth.

The day of the Big Cold branded an important idea into the minds of every survivor: The North owes everyting to the Greater man. He is the only reason they survived, his chosen people. And He is always watching. At any moment he can obliterate his enemies. It was a fear for a thousand years; a fear she had carefully planned.