So, Guild is out skipping through the post-apocalyptic Alps one day when he stumbles upon the Village of Werewolves. Now, contrary to the name, this village doesn't have any werewolves in it—so far as anyone knows—but it has had a history of being infiltrated by werewolves, of suffering werewolf attacks, of hosting werewolf-lynching parties, et cetera. The fact that this village still exists after generations of such attacks is a testament to the villagers' logic, perception, and absolute selflessness and ruthlessness.
This village is not without its scars. All of the windows were shattered in attacks and boarded up. Every mirror was ground to dust for their silver... which proved ironic during the subsequent vampire infestation. An ongoing consequence of which is that nobody's willing to look at their own reflection. The argument at the time was that, because of the scarcity of mirrors, anybody who's trying to see their own reflection is obviously aware that other people can see them trying to see their reflection, they're paradoxically more likely to be vampire trying to prove their innocence by being too eager to attempt the impossible. Tortured logic, but while that policy may have killed more than one innocent, the vampire infestation was wiped out, so the tradition remains.
After so many years of exposure to various strains of lycanthropy, a new and particularly subtle lycanthropic virus has been plaguing the town for a long time. The only observed effect of this version of the virus is that the carrier's eyes turn permanently red. No hostility, no transformation, no compulsion to spread the virus: just red eyes. So far.
Every person born into the village must swear to kill him or herself, in his or her house at midnight, if he or she discovers that his or her eyes are red.
Ten years ago, a traveling druid was passing through the village, and witnesses who saw his wolf form mistook him for a werewolf, and burned him at the stake. He'd heard of the disease, and in his anguish and wrath, he cursed the inhabitants of the village: no-one living therein may talk or write about eye-color, except to take the village suicide-oath. With the subject of eye-color forbidden from discussion, the villagers lived together in peace, with normal-eyed and red-eyed villagers living side by side, and nobody ever killing themselves.
Guild, being an outsider, is not subject to the curse. He announces: "At least one of you people living here has red eyes." With this knowledge, something dramatic will happen to the village. What is it, and when will it happen?
Author
Topic: Riddle Me This (Read 7365 times)