"I know you," croaked the woman in that corner, wrinkled and creaking with age. "I know also why you come."
Karyna started. How could she possibly...?
"I know many things that I wish I did not. I know what you think. I know what you feel. I knew THEN that you would be back someday. It's the ember you see... it tells me things."
The old woman slowly stood up and for the first time Karyna noticed her eyes. They were completely devoid of iris and pupil, shining a subtle emerald white. Karyna gasped and took an involuntary step back.
"This place called to you, didn't it? It whispered to you in the dark of night. It murmured to you constantly even in the day. You could not escape the call, so you are here. You are here, and you brought HIM..."
This last word was uttered in a sort of raspy shriek. A withered old finger pointed at the figure beside her, which stood completely still and silent. Karyna could only nod. "I... I need your help. He... He is not well. It started a couple of years ago. Soon before the voices in my head. There is something dreadfully wrong, and it is only getting worse. I thought... I thought the voices meant that I was to bring him here, to you. You can do so much. You can help him!"
"FOOL!"
The word was screeched and echoed in the room, the fire in the hearth flickered. The room seemed to shrink and groan and grow slightly darker.
"It WANTED you back here. You were supposed to be strong enough to resist its call." The old woman spit on the ground, and glared at the boy. "And you most likely would have been. If I had known then that it existed... this, CHILD" She grimaced and spit the word out like it burned her tongue, "I would never have let you leave this place then."
Karyna stared. What was this old crone saying? "He is all I have! This accursed place has already cost me so much. I refuse to let it take him too! You will do something you old hag!"
The old lady began to laugh. It was an awful sound, like a million rats scurrying in the walls. Karyna winced.
"There is nothing I can do. Your fate is sealed now my child. There is only one thing to be done, yet it is you that is going to have to do it. Nobody else has the power for this task. That boy must die, and it must be at YOUR hand."
"NO!" Karyna pulled her son to her, glaring at the woman with an intense hatred. "I brought him here to be healed you witch, and this is what you tell me?! A pox on you!" With a choking sob, she grabbed the boy and flew out of the shop, slamming the door behind.
For a few moments, the old woman simply stood there staring after her. Then she closed her eyes, shutting off the greenish otherworldly glow, and dropped her head. So it was done. She would have tried harder but she hadn't lied about being able to see inside that woman. The weakness that was her love for that... well, it wasn't a child anymore was it... would be ALL their undoing.
The gods help them.
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Karyna poured over the latest tome. It was only a few months since her encounter with the old healer. A few months since she thought that there was nowhere else to turn. Nothing left to do. Yet one day a book had mysteriously appeared on her desk. A book that began her on a path what she thought might be her son's salvation. She was still here in this town, in Torchlight, though she had no godly reason for staying. It was those voices. They were maddening in their persistence. They threatened to tear her mind apart if she even began to think about leaving again. So she stayed. Perhaps they would eventually help her find an answer. An answer to Ven's ailment. An answer to why his mind had seemed to suddenly vacate his body, leaving him a shell of a boy. Leaving him with those sunken eyes that stared into nothing. Leaving his skin pale and lifeless, though he still drew breath. He would eat if food was put in front of him. He could perform cursory functions. He could walk. Yet there was nothing else. He did not speak. He did not laugh, or cry, or seem to feel pain. He did not show that he understood when you talked to him, but would follow if you led him somewhere.
Karyna felt tears well in her eyes once more, and the words on the pages blurred. No. She could not let the despair overwhelm her, for here in these pages seemed to be the answer she sought. She blinked the tears back and focused once more. Yes. Yes, here it was. A ritual involving some of the deepest ember. A ritual that promised to return her son to her.
It never even occurred to her to second-guess where this tome had come from. Why it had appeared. That there might be another reason for such a ritual. It hadn't occurred to her for a second.
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Karyna nodded her head slightly at the figure, which then turned and disappeared into the dark. For a moment she glanced into the leather satchel before shutting it again. She finally had it. A piece of the ember that she had been searching for now for some time, ever since learning about the ritual that would restore Ven's mind. She could not go into the deeps herself anymore, not with Ven counting on her to be there for him, but that was no matter. Even though the adventurers of the past no longer came en masse to this place, they did still come. She knew that it was only a matter of time before one made it deep enough to get her what she desired.
Today was that day.
Yet for some reason she did not feel happy, or relieved. For some reason there seemed to be a dread upon her that she could not explain. Even as she spent the next few hours preparing her room for the ritual, making sure she got every little detail perfect, the dread grew. She had to keep looking up at her boy who lay on the bed, eyes staring unblinking at the ceiling, to force herself to remember why she was doing this. The voices in her head had fallen silent ever since she had begun reading that old tome. She took this as a sign. That she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. That there was a reason she had come back here and it hadn't been that old hag that pretended to be a healer. The one that had turned on her and wanted her to kill her son! Kill him! Like he was some evil thing to be put to rest.
Karyna shook her head to clear her thoughts, and gazed upon Ven. So little. So innocent. He didn't deserve to be like that, as near to lifeless as a body can get and yet still breathe. Until this had happened he had been such a precious child. Always quick to laugh, his eyes shining with a brilliance that could charm the most foul tempered adult around him. He had been like his father in that way, although his charm had only had positive results. Now, an empty shell. Karyna clutched her breast and closed her eyes tight. This had to work.
It had to.
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She looked up, exhausted. It had taken hours. Hours of chants and precise hand motions. Hours of energy threatening to break loose of the control she so tenuously held. Hours of pain and near suffering.
Yet it was over. It was done.
She looked up, exhausted. She looked up into his face as he stood there and a choking sob escaped her. For she no longer looked into the face of an ashen ghost. She gazed upon a memory. She gazed upon chubby, pinkish cheeks. She gazed upon eyes that looked BACK. Yes, they seemed lost. Confused. But they were no longer lifeless. She gazed upon her son.
"Mommy?" One word.
Karyna pulled him into her arms, her emotions finally broken, sobbing in joy, her heart threatening to break in two. He was back. She had done it, she had brought him back and he was hers again. Her boy. Her Ven. Her lif...
... the pain didn't happen right away, yet she knew it would come. She looked down as Ven slowly backed away from the embrace she had taken him into, then let go of as suddenly. Protruding from her gut was the handle of a dagger, one of the items that she had used in the ritual. She stared at it in disbelief. She stared at it, at the blood that began to seep through her clothes, and cover the hands she had brought down to grasp the handle. She opened her mouth to ask, why? what? But all that came out was a gurgle and a crimson bubble on her lips that burst and sent a spittle onto her chin. She stared at the boy before her, unable to comprehend. He only stared back, and didn't move. Her mouth moved a couple more times, trying to make sound but failing, and then she collapsed forward. As darkness began to take her and she went toward that final pathway to the gods she heard one last thing. A voice tender and sweet...
"I loved you mommy."
Death took her.
The boy stood a moment more, then turned and walked out the door. There were voices in his head.
He listened.
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