The world had no use for the old sensibilities. Almost nothing grew in the earth any longer, save in those places where water could be found. When grain was rarer than gold, men looked for anything that might sustain them. Cattle were of limited use. They ate more grain than men, or were needed for war. Hunting brought but gamey creatures, barely fit for a meal. No, ultimately, meat became common fare, meat wherever one could find it.
The wisest chiefs pointed to enemy ranks and spoke of feasts to their hungry warriors. The more practical pointed to the traitors, the elderly, or the useless among them. And the most ruthless found meals in the dead and risen.
And, of those that cried out against this necessity? Those that wailed at the cruelty of it all? The next into the fires. In her death throes, the world had long lost the luxury of sentiment. Food was where one found it. Even meat long decayed was a banquet to the starving.
