If you missed it over the summer, FANTASCI's seasonal anthology involved catastrophic events in a sub-genre setting.  Here's my contribution, and I chose High Fantasy... go figure.  Enjoy!

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"Rattleberries, ferelen, and mol," Voda murmured to herself for the hundredth time as she trudged through the overgrowth of the sacred forest. The High Mage insisted that he needed these very important components for a very important spell very quickly, and she barely had the chance to properly lace her boots under her apprentice's robes before setting off into the wooded world beyond her tower.

It wasn't that she minded the task- herbs and roots were her specialty and the High Mage knew it. But to have such a request bestowed upon her so early in the morning... Voda was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes an hour later as she finally came upon a patch of wild rattleberries she knew grew ripe next to the river. And helping herself to some for breakfast wouldn't harm anyone either.

She stored what she knew the High Mage would need safely in her pack, and then took a handful for herself, tossing each sweet juicy berry into her mouth as she continued her trek along the edge of the flowing river that was, in essence, the life-blood of their kingdom. From the Great Dam nestled within the mountains that surrounded them, it flowed down through their sacred forest to the kingdom, bringing with it the coolest of mountain water and the freshest of fish ever caught. Without it, they would cease to possess the prosperity they required to exist.

Voda began the slow uphill climb along the river's edge that would bring her to the patch of ferelen that surrounded the Great Dam, and then it would be an easy walk back to her tower to gather the mol she would need along the way. She had made this trip plenty of times during her apprenticeship, not only for the High Mage's daily requested ingredients, but also for her own personal education and research. She knew herbology was her calling, and she adored getting her fingers dirty with moist earth as the dug and pried every root from its home, every leaf from its stem.

But none of it would be possible if not for the river.

And the river would not be what it was if not for the Great Dam.

She could just make it out now between the branches of the trees in the distance. It was a powerful structure of thick black stone found nowhere else in this world, built by no man's hands from this world. It was called the Great Dam because that's what it was- beyond the black stone waited a devastating amount of river water that Voda knew would eliminate all life within the kingdom should the Dam itself ever fail.

The stories varied, but all correlated the same- that once this land of their was completely submerged in water, but as a gift from the gods, they used their mighty strength and power to cleave the mountains apart and all but plug up the outlet that caused such desolation. The Dam kept the mighty river from flowing from the mountains, and while the land has its sense of reprieve the water receded and the land flourished with the lush greenery and wildlife ideal for survival. It took thousands of years for it to be ready for man to begin to inhabit the precious piece of paradise, but not without knowing that it was the gods that allowed it.

Every year that Voda could remember there were festivals and celebrations honoring the gods and thanking them for the prosperity their Dam had allowed them to survive in this once dangerous land, but none truly dared go near the Dam. That which they did not understand instilled fear, and they would rather worship from a distance than dare anger the entities who may or may not be watching from on high.

But Voda was an educated female, and though she was female of faith in their deities, she was also a female of education, and could not, on blind-faith alone, believe that the Great Dam arrived there not only by god-like hands, but that it could also remain there for thousands and thousands of years and remain untouched, unmaintained.

But very few dared to travel this far up the river, and even few ever approached the Dam.

Voda, on the other hand, did both. And often.

Of the stories and legends, there was some truth in what they told. The water demarcation lines were more than visible on the ancient trees and boulders that bordered the river and throughout the sacred forest within the kingdom. The land, too, was so fertile that only nutrients seeped deep within the soil could provide. The annual climate of the kingdom was too arid, too dry and too warm for the greenery to grow and survive any other way.

But there was something different about the trek she made that morning. The river seemed to be flowing faster from its mountain outlet. There was something off about where she had to walk to avoid the river's raging rapids. As she climbed higher, the patch of ferelen she was looking for was oddly half-submerged under the rushing water of the overflowing river.

Picking through the herbs she knew the High Mage would be able to use, Voda stashed what she could into her pack before her attentions turned towards the pathway before her. Instead of looking towards the way she knew would take her down to the mol she still needed, and eventually back to her tower, she turned her attentions unused walkway that would take her deeper into the sacred forest, higher up the mountain, and directly to the Great Dam.

Deeper and higher she went, and with each step the river rose closer to her boots, soaking the bottom of her robes as she had no choice but to begin trudging through the muddy shores if she was to get to her destination. And as the Great Dam came into view, its black stone shining in the morning sun, her suspicions were confirmed.

The river's rising depths wasn't due to increased rain or a felled tree diverting its path, but instead because the Great Dam itself- the very structure their kingdom viewed as a gift from the gods...it was failing.

From where she stood, as plain as the day was warm, she could see the fissure within the stone, and it looked as though it had been growing larger for some time. She wondered if the kingdom's hunters and gatherers had noticed the river's change during their excursions, and she began to feel a slight pang of anger at them for not saying anything, and even more fury for not doing anything. She was about to take a step closer, and consider casting the mending spell herself, when she was stopped in her tracks by a loud clap in the distance akin to a crack of thunder. And before her horror stricken eyes, she swore she saw the very damn crack further, and watched as the barricaded river water began to flow past, tenfold.

The mending spell could wait until she had help, she decided, and she picked up her robes and ran down the mountainside as fast as she could, slipping in the mud as she went, falling three times before she took the turn to drier ground, and made her way back to the kingdom.

She needed to see the High Mage, and managed to grab a handful of mol along the way as she raced towards the Mage's Citadel at the center of the Kingdom. The last thing she wanted anyone to think was that she wasn't an apprentice of her word, spending her time playing in the mountains rather than doing what she was told to do, but something needed to be done about the Great Dam, and done fast, and the best way for her to begin the process was informing the High Mage.

He was exactly where she expected him to be, working within his room at the very top of the Citadel, and Voda said not a word to any other mage or apprentice as she rushed past to get to him. Throwing his door open without permission to enter, she rushed in and tossed her pack onto his work bench while she tried to catch her breath.

Startled from whatever book he was reading, the High Mage looked at her through his rounded spectacles, and blinked. "I assume you found the herbs I requested?"

Voda only nodded as she held onto the workbench for support as she doubled-over and coughed.

The High Mage opened the bag cautiously and when he saw the requested ingredients, nodded and returned to his tome.

Voda had regained her composure enough to allow her jaw to drop at the casualness of the High Mage's inspection. "Aren't you going to ask me how my journey was? Or if I came across anything interesting or out of the ordinary?"

The High Mage brought his gaze to hers once again. "How was your journey, Voda?" he asked, his tone oddly causal. "Did you come across anything interesting or out of the ordinary?"

Her eyes widened and she because to feel her blood boil. "The Great Dam is breaking!" she snapped incredulously.

His brows furrowed at her sudden outburst, and he finally rose from his chair to walk over to the still-opened door of his workroom. Casting a glance from one side to the other, he closed the door and returned to where she stood. "I know," he finally admitted, taking the herbs and roots from her satchel. "That's why I sent you out this morning."

It was only at his words that Voda looked at the rattleberries, ferelen and mol he had asked her retrieve that morning, and suddenly it clicked. "These are for a spell... you were going to cast a mending spell."

He nodded as he began to spread the moist ferelen out to dry before piline the rattleberries into a bowl. "A group of hunters updated me on the status this morning- I had been monitoring it for the last week."

"And you didn't do anything?" she hissed.

"I am doing something," he informed her heatedly.

"But we need to tell somebody! Warn the kingdom, begin making a plan..."

"And instill fear where there doesn't need to be any? No, I think not. Instead, there will be a ceremony of thanks to the gods tonight and I will cast the spell and the kingdom will be none the wiser for it."

"But will that be enough?" she insisted.

"It will have to be," he responded, though wearily. "Now grab that knife and start chopping the mol."

*****

The ceremony went just as the High Mage said it would, and under the cover of thanks to the gods for their mercy and plentiful bounty, he cast the mending spell in the direction of the Great Dam high above them in the mountains through the sacred forest, and Voda silently prayed that it was, in fact, enough.

It took every ounce of energy Voda had left within her to remain throughout the ceremony and it's lingering festivities. As the High Mage's apprentice, it was her responsibility to assist him in his pomp and circumstance, and even more so when there were spells involved. He drew on the power of the mages surrounding him when he cast, and she knew he would need as much help as he could if the mending spell was going to fix the Great Dam.

Which was why, Voda knew, she was nothing short of exhausted as she trudged up to her top room within the mage's tower, reserved for the apprentices, and as she was the High Mage's personal assistant her room was the largest, but also at the end of the most stairs to climb. A blessing and a curse, she reminded herself on a daily basis, but especially a curse at that moment when she had just enough energy to close her door behind her and trudge to her bed, remove her boots, change into her sleeping gown before crashing back on the bed to allow sleep to overtake her.

No sooner did she swear her head hit the pillow than was Voda awoken by what sounded like two boulders smashing apart with a godlike force. She lay still, her eyes staring at the wooden beams of the ceiling above her until she heard screams. But by the time she scrambled out of bed to find her night robe, the screams had been replaced by the sounds of rushing water, and Voda felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach.

Cautiously she approached her window, the one that faced the sacred forest, and her every fear was confirmed.

Waves and waves of river water poured through, cascading down the mountainside and into the kingdom. Trees and wildlife and- to her dismay- unsuspecting people and structures fell victim to the uncontrolled flood, and there was nothing Voda could do. The water level was rising high and higher, well above the demarcation line she used to notice during her travels within the sacred forest, and from where she watched in her tower, there would be no where she could go but up.

Gripping onto the window sill she climbed up and out, clawing her way onto the overhanging thatch roof of her tower until she was steady enough to gather her feet underneath her and stand.

In the distance, as if emanating with its own luminous glow, the Great Dam stood...

Cleaved in two.

And everything surrounding her tower- the entirety of the kingdom- was submerged under the river's raging rapids as it threatened to take everything she once knew and loved away from her.

She let out a sob at the devastation, surveying the land for something- any sign of life that would give her hope there was some way out of this. And that was when she spied the High Mage's form on the roof of his own Citadel, watching the same horrors as she.

She was about to yell to him- about to ask him what they could possible do, when an unexpected rush of the river cascaded down from the mountaintop and into the Citadel, strong enough that the whole structure weakened and crumbled, crashing down into the waiting waves. Voda screamed then, calling out for the High Mage, watching the spot where he went under, waiting for him to resurface.

He never did.

It was then, with tears streaking her cheeks, that Voda returned her attention to the broken Dam, its halves reaching through the trees of the sacred forest like two dark hands clawing for the skies above, asking why the gods had forsaken them.

And to those very gods that damned them, she prayed.