The Rideis

For Spooktober 2024, word "ancient"

They did not look so different, really, only a little more elongated where humans were pinched together, and the slight differences could mostly be explained as a variation of type. The tips of their ears were not so pointed as in humans’ popular art and could often be missed. The humans, in their forgetfulness, called them demons, or sometimes the Selks.

They called themselves the Rideis.

They were a great people with an ancient history—but secretly, Kayvin wondered if their days of greatest glory were gone forever. They no longer made active war on each border, fighting both scales and leather, and while Kayvin practiced daily his forms and magics, he spent more hours with his music. His great-great-grandfather had led hordes into battle, but now his father passed his days and nights with his sera qadra, achieving conquests of another kind.

Most days, Kayvin did not trouble himself with these thoughts. He had his music to occupy him, and a sera qadra of his own, and if the burden of state grew less weighty by the time it descended to his own shoulders, he could hardly complain. Most days, he woke to one of his pleasure women sliding into his sleeping pit with a tray of breakfast, trained his hands in magic or music according to his mood, and then attended his father for any court business.

This morning, though, he was awakened early. “My lord prince?” The voice was apologetic, but not fearful; Kayvin was not given to fits of temper. “My lord prince, you’re called.”

Kayvin stretched before opening his eyes, brushing against a woman who made a sleepy sound of protest. He made a face; another candidate determined to win his favor. He rolled over and glanced up at the servant kneeling at the lip of the sleeping pit. “So early? Surely my father isn’t awake yet.”

In truth, he wasn’t sure what time it was, though he could see daylight from the open balcony at the far side of the room, but he had a fair chance of being correct. If Gromgest had been an early riser in his days of war, he had not kept the habit in peace.

“Nonetheless, my lord prince, you are called.”