Raderius

I don't understand it.

Father is afraid.

I don't understand it.

My brothers and sisters don't treat me the same as they do each other. They're creeped out.

I don't understand it.

Mother only radiates love and admonishes anyone who treats me coldly.

I didn't understand it.

My name is Raderius. I'm five years old. I don't look anything like my siblings, mother or father. My hair is pure black, my eyes have a odd slant to them and my complexion isn't the same as theirs. No matter how much I try to play and study in the sun it remains pale. Mother says I was born in the winter and perhaps was blessed with this complexion by some outside source. She said that my differences while strange, are to be embraced, because she knows that no matter what, I am her and my fathers son.

Mother is too kind.

I can read and write at a more advanced level than my siblings. Furthermore, I've been told my vocabulary is more advanced than to be expected from one my age.

Why?

When a concept is new to me, I'm able to process and understand explanations surrounding it. Yet, the other children my age stare blankly, some don't even question the concept. Others who try to be near me don't understand what the adults say and try to tear me away from them. Even now, I sit in a play zone built by adults, the other children, including the one who dragged me over have long since left. Yet, I remain. Sitting and thinking.

This power I have. It must be the source of my circumstances.

What is it for?

Why has father asked me to not reveal it to anyone? It can do so much more. Magic, can be so much more than what i've seen the village mage perform. Yet, the truth remains. Father trembled. He feared. He places restrictions on my freedom and watches my every move. Would he have preferred the priest to have slain me? Father forbids discussion on the matter. I wonder how he hid the results of my magic?

I wonder why he hid the results of my magic? The priest was evil. It seems like a waste to. I'm sure with practice I could have raised those bones to work our farm. Then father would be less tired every day!

Perhaps I should speak to mother? I've listened to father, hoping that doing so would heal him. However, that's failed. If I want total freedom then I must take on a new strategy!

I rush home and immediately know something is wrong. Everyone appears grim, they hide it behind faces of determination, but I can see through those false faces.

'What's wrong?' I ask Daniel, my second oldest brother.

'Its mom, she's really sick. Collapsed during lunch, father took her into their room and they've been in ever since.' Daniel replied with honesty. Daniel is the biggest liar in this house. Most of his lies aren't mean, and very often he tries to make the family laugh. No attempt from him at lightening the mood scares me.

"Can I see her?" I replied to Daniel as calmly as I could, trying to not let concern overtake me. I look him in the eye as I ask, just as mother instructed. Eye contact is important if you want people to listen to you is what she said. Daniel recoiled. This isn't the first time and he isn't the first to do so. Why do my eyes bring fear, yet when my Father or Daniel speak to someone it brings respect or joy.

"Dads with her right now, but I'm sure once he's out he'll let us in." said Daniel as he turned to converse with David my eldest brother.

I waited.

Nothing.

I waited.

Nothing.

I waited.

Still nothing.

I began pacing and felt ready to barge into my parents room.

"Hey Raderius, you've only been home for fifteen minutes. It might be a while, you've got to learn patience kiddo." I turned to hear the voice of Harriet my 2nd eldest sister, admonishing me. She's the closest to treating me like a sibling. Rarely gets scared from my eyes. "Here, the time will pass by more quickly if we play a little game." she said sweetly as she grabbed my hand and led me outside.

Time passed and finally father emerged and allowed us to see mother. "My children, you need to be prepared. Your mom truly isn't well. I've done everything I can, but I'm going to need to go to retrieve Doctor Johnathan. David, you're in charge while I'm gone, treat your mother gently."

David affirmed his responsibility; and while Dad ran out the door, we went into their room.

Mother looked pale. As pale as me. Hey, we're finally the same. Surely, this can't be bad? Mother...

Daniel spoke first to mom, her voice was nary above a whisper. I got as close as I could so I could hear her.

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"Look after your siblings and your father to. He's going to need your help."

Look after us? I guess she will need the help while she's sick.

Each of us went one after another to speak with her. She provided my brothers and sisters with words of advice and love, I was starting to get impatient again before it finally became my turn.

"Raderius, you're a smart boy. Growing up will be hard for you because of it, but I know that you'll succeed. Use that big head of yours and make the world a better place for everyone. Make me proud and remember me with this." She handed me a small copper ring, adorned with the smallest diamond I've ever seen, no larger than half my fingernail.

"This was the first ring your father gave me, before he was able to start his own farm and had nothing to his name." She smiled and my attention was drawn in. "Hopefully you won't find yourself with nothing, but regardless I'd like it if you could give your future love this ring, you may not realize it, but you're a handsome boy and you're going to be a handsome man. There'll be no shortage of ladies who'll try to win your favor when you change the world. Test them with this."

This time I don't entirely understand her words, but I cant find it in me to question her, instead I listen to her as she continued to speak.

"Raderius, I love you. Try not to get offended by the ignorance of others and try to get along with everyone. Please, don't resent them and i'm sorry that I'll be leaving you."

Mother is dying. Just like that man died. I don't understand. Mother is good, why would she die?

"Mother, I love -"

Father came in with the doctor. "Everyone out!" he said. I didn't move a muscle, tears streamed down my face as Harriet grabbed my hand and led me out of the room.

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Joseph

"Can you save her?" My voice cracked for the first time in many years, as I pleaded with the doctor.

He took one look at her and without even retrieving anything from his medical kit said "No."

"Why not! You haven't even tried!" I raged, my grief making way for a new emotion.

"She's a victim of the 'Widow Maker', the Milos Witch Curse." The doctor said matter of factly.

"Milos Witch Curse?" Confusion, yet another emotion taking control of me.

"The Royal family of Milos had a confrontation with a powerful Witch. Raised an army to defeat her. From what I understand before they slew her she cursed our Kingdom. Declaring that for destroying her love she'll destroy love in the Kingdom. Even as we speak throughout the land one in a hundred couples have one of their partners dying before their eyes. Nothing can heal them and one month after being inflicted with the curse, they die. That being said, your wife seems to be in the advanced stages of the curse. As if the dark magic of it is attracted to her and being amplified. Strange. With your permission, I would request that when she passes away, before burial that I study her."

The doctor kept talking and every word fell on deaf ears. My wife is dying. My Hilda, I spent all afternoon tending to her to try and make her comfortable, but I can't save her. This doctor can't save her.

Who can save...

The image of Raderius came to mind. If its dark magic that has done this to Hilda then maybe Raderius can do something to prevent it. Maybe he can save her.

Adams corpse flashes in my mind. The stench of his death, the panic as I buried his corpse, far from prying eyes. The desperation.

The fear.

What if Raderius were to kill his mother early? What if his magic attracted attention that doomed our family. A curse is killing spouses around the entire kingdom, likely more than just my family are currently affected within Remire. How would others react to dark magic like Raderius's? Restricting his usage is for his protection as much as it is the rest of the family. No, I can't rely on Raderius.

But...if I don't...Hilda...I'll lose her.

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Raderius

Harriet held me as I cried. She felt warm, and tried to smile the way mother does, but I can see that she's barely holding herself together. I wipe away my tears.

"Thank you sister." I said as I freed myself from her grip.

The doctor left and father looked half as pale as mom.

"My children, please spend as much time as you can with your mother she doesn't have long to live." He bade us all into their room.

Father explained the situation, how mother is cursed and there is nothing to be done. To make every moment left with her count.

No. This is wrong. A curse? My magic should be capable of what father describes, therefore it should be able to eliminate curses to!

I stomp out of the room and run to the barn.

Each day and night for a week I practice my power on one of the animals. First, learning a curse. How to shape my magic, to place it on another and manipulate that person. It isn't so different from the aging spell I devised to protect myself from the monsters in mothers stories. A draining curse, one that fatigues the animal is my first creation. Shaping my magic into a parasitic force and inflicting it onto another turned out to be more complicated than my first spell. Yet I succeeded, the chicken requires twice as much sleep as it used to and constantly looks tired. Now I try to learn how to remove my own curse, to see the layers of magic I have placed and shaped on the chicken and to destroy them. One piece at a time. The process takes me an entire night to unbind a curse that I had casted in a few seconds. Its to slow, but mother doesn't have much time.

I'm going to save you!

I run into the house, my family is surprised to see me. Only Harriet, who has been bringing me my meals and conversing with me has seen me this week. Even now, I respected fathers wishes and didn't reveal what I was doing. From what I learned from Harriet, father asked everyone to not push me to see mom and give me space. It seems he understands what im doing.

Good, surely you now see that your worries were pointless father.

I enter my parents room. My Father looks at my eyes. Without fear or hesitation he nods and exits the bedroom. Mother is sleeping. Good, it'll be easier without her talking.

I look at the curse on mother and...

I'm speechless. The intricacies of each layer of this curse, its like a endless looping labyrinth. Destroying one layer of the curse requires precise aiming from my magic at many spots at once, figuring out which spots those are and the exact amount of magic that each one within the layer will respond to is a terrifying task. Worse still, are the number of layers. Over one hundred different labyrinths to conquer.

I will save my mother.

I spend the next fifteen hours without sleeping attempting to break the layers. The first layer took me eight, the second took me seven. Progress, as I improve at this i'll surely be able to save mother in time! It is strange though, that she hasn't awoken yet, I need a break and I want to hear her voice.

"Mother". I jump on the bed and start prodding her to wake.

"Moooother, wake up!".

Somethings wrong, I feel mothers head. She's cold and the sensation I feel in the air is barely different from when I slew the priest.

I was to late.

My mother is dead.