"When darkness strikes, beware of the roaming light."

Ýhmir Trýn

The Book of Sorrow

2. Life

Inside a small remote house bordering next to the river Tigris that runs through the two nations of Dawn and Nomaria, lives a young shepherd named Auris. The day began like any other, the sun rose over the horizon and light poured into the small house made of stone through the wood window.

The sheep, chicken and cows began to wake. Auris lives alone in the house, he has been without human interaction for days at this point and revels in it. He woke when his dog began to jump on him and remove his blanket.

Auris awoke blinded by the morning light and began to open his eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the morning light. He yawned as his eyes fully opened and stretched his tired body. He then moved away from his bed into the living room where his dog now laid.

“Good morning Whright.” He said to the dog as he tussled her back carelessly. He stretched out his body once again and began to dress himself with the clothe made of wool that lay on the brown wood planked floor. As he wore his shirt and short pants he moved towards the stove in the middle of the room and picked up some bread that lay on a plate next to some burned wood. He took a bite of the hard bread and left the house with Wright in tow.

The sun was beginning to rise and the animals with it. He felt the sun heating the surrounding cold from the night as his body slowly went from feeling the cold to the warmth caused by the sun. He looked at the fences next to the outhouse which lay on the back-right side of the small stone house where the sheep began to wake and could on his right hear the cries of the chickens as they woke in their cages.

He moved groggily towards the old stone well and tossed down a bucket made of wood that hung on a coarse rope, which had an urgent need for a change, but Auris couldn’t afford one for now.

The bucket brought up the water necessary for Auris’s long day of work, he then proceeded to place the water in the bucket onto the bowls made for the animals. He divided the water evenly between the chicken and sheep.

He also took some of the water for himself, he used it to wash his face before drinking and rinsing his mouth with a small amount of it.

He then afterwards walked towards the other fence where the sheep lay. He opened the gate to the fence and began to take then out for his daily walk. With one hand he held a large and thick stick made of wood and the other a hard piece of bread that he had difficulty with chewing.

The sun had risen over the horizon and was some good distance up on the sky. The sun warmed the pasture bed and Auris felt the ground soften under his feet. The warmth radiated from the sun had heated up the cold and hard pasture bed. The dew though had made the ground somewhat wet.

As Auris walked his sheep from one end of the pasture to the other he realized that one of his sheep had disappeared.

“Wright, stay with them. I think that sly Ethum has gone off again.”

Wright barked and Auris took it as an affirmation to his request.

Auris then began to walk towards the forest that lay on the outskirts of the area. The sheep Ethum had time and time again escaped captivity and gone inside the forest, as to the reason why it for searched refuge inside it, Auris knew not.

Realizing this Auris knew that the hour Tehva was soon upon him. He began to run towards the forest entrance. The warm rays of the sun heated up his body as the cold wind cooled him down. It took him not long before he appeared besides the forest entrance.

As Auris entered the forest he began to feel the air turn cold. The hair on his arms rose and he felt something at the back of his mind tempting him to go further inside, but his body held him from acting on such thoughts.

Never had the forest given him this feeling before, as the thoughts began to get louder and louder he heard Ethum yell inside the forest. He looked towards his right and saw Ethum standing there on a natural elevated platform made of primarily rock looking towards a dark spot between two trees.

The sun illuminated the entire area through the branches of the trees so Auris had almost the entirety of the forest visible to him. But the area where Ethum was shouting towards were completely black. No light went in, and none came out.

Ethum continued to scream, increasing the tone, till it sounded like a scream that one typically would prefer to come from a man.

Auris could swear on the true name of Tehva that the dark spot moved ever so slightly, as if in respond to Ethum’s screams.

“What is that!?” He muttered subdued by a stabbing sense of fear. Never had he felt that way before. His innermost senses compelled him to turn his tail immediately and never return. But as his almost primordial instinct could take over, it failed to overpower his deep sense of fear that appeared at the sight of the ghastly figure. The deep undulation that he felt from it quickened not only his heart beat but also the sweat that poured of his pours.

The ghastly figure veiled by the darkness of his surroundings turned its direction from Ethum towards Auris. Though the figure appeared to possess no facial features or anything resembling a being that should exist on the mortal plain. He felt it’s gaze on him, just as he was about to dolt away as his primordial instincts instigated him to do, he felt the warm rays of the sun appear on his body, the rays of the sun had penetrated the thick and tight trees that covered the sky.

As the sun’s rays was about to hit the being veiled by the darkness it disappeared. Without any trace of its ever having been there in the first place. Auris felt a shiver emerge on his spine, he felt drained of all energy and fell on the somewhat wet forest ground.

“Ethum! Ethum! What was that!? What are you doing!?”

He knew that it was futile to question a sheep, but the incredibly weird situation had removed any semblance of intelligence from him, fear ran rampant in his mind.

Auris then ran towards Ethum and climbed up on the elevated rock platform, grabbed Ethum with both his arms, jumped down and ran outside the forest with him. How he was able to carry Ethum, he knew not, but he decided to throw the thought at the back of his mind and continue to run.

It was not the first time Auris had encountered things unnatural around him. Since the first days of his departure from his home in Therum and moving into the small house besides the river, he had heard strange things at night and at times footsteps around his property.

At first, he ignored the sounds, not because he doubted his ears, but because of fear. He had grown up with the stories like Malkiel the fool and knew that acknowledging, when they did him nothing wrong, would only amount to his early demise.

Similarly, to the fool Malkiel, Auris lived alone out near the woods and river, it had only been then that he came to understand the similarities between he and the fool. They both heard sounds at night and at first both ignored them. But Malkiel in the story enraged by the continuing sounds made in the darkness of the night, departed from his house to confront these annoying men of darkness.

His ventures outside his home ended in him being found days after by merchants. He had been hung from his ankle with a black rope on a tree outside his home, his eyes had been gouged out and numerous sticks of wood had been inserted into his ears.

The people knew then of the folly of Malkiel and dubbed him the fool for confronting the men that wander the darkness, the Kéltín.

Though Auris had long since doubted the truth of these stories and at times even believed them to be stories made up by mothers to frighten the children to sleep, he had now come to terms with the truth of these stories and had begun to fear the night.

Auris ran like a man possessed by the wind, he exited the forest and continued to run down the road to his dog. It took him no longer than half the time from his walking to discover the location of Ethum to his running back.

Wright and the pack of sheep were where he had requested them to keep still. Auris still feeling the adrenalin rushing through him sat down and tried to calm himself. Ethum who had long since been placed down returned to the other sheep’s and began, like always, assert his dominance over them by taking the place of those that possessed the best grounds for food.

Wright came slowly over to Auris and felt his distress. She licked his hand and tried to calm him. She succeeded and Auris thanked Wright. He looked up on the sky and found it to be noon. He quickly gathered the herd of sheep’s and with them returned to the small house by the small river.

As Auris saw his home a few dozen meters away surprisingly also found a figure standing near the door. Still feeling the fright from before Auris walked slowly towards the house, hoping to get a clear look at who stood before his door.

“Auris! Is that you?” Yelled a woman as she waved towards Auris.

It was then that he came to see that it was a black-haired woman that stood on his doorstep.

She wore a multi-colored apron dress with patches of color sewed in on the sides. She possessed a moderate build and with a thin face, not an overly thin one that one would expect from a malnourished person, but one made from years of hard work farming.

She wasn’t an old woman, but she had begun to feel the effect of time. Her back had begun to act up and she felt easier victim to the conditions one who passed thirty winters possessed. She had in her hand a square wooden basket hung with a thick rope on her shoulders that was covered by a small white blanket.

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“Come here boy, I hear that you will be twenty after this spring.”

Auris moved with a quicker pace towards his house as he locked the sheep and let them roam freely within the fences.

He wished she would stop calling him boy but had failed in persuading her time and time again. The thought of a young him and Mrs. Kirke arguing over this brought a wide smile back on his lips and made him forget his previous encounter in the woods.

“From whom did you hear this Mrs. Kirke? Don’t tell me the old ladies of the village have begun gossiping about me again?” He asked with a smile that usually wouldn’t appear on his face.

He liked Mrs. Kirke, she was unlike any other woman in the village. She did not, like others nag him time and time again to him to marry their daughters and to aid them in frivolous matters.

Neither did she join in their gossiping of others, she is too proud to include herself with such a bunch.

“Lady Tarwin forbid, I heard it from the young blacksmith apprentice Tori. He was sharpening my kitchen knife and let it slip while we were talking.”

She said smiling. Though she was beginning to age, Auris felt none of the women he knew possessed more beauty while smiling than Mrs. Kirke.

He sighed and knew then that it would be the last time he told his friend Tori anything about himself. The boy was prone to gossiping and letting people know of things only he possessed. The boy was good with extracting minor pieces of information about someone and subtly driving them to tell something private about themselves, that was why most of the village evaded the youth.

“He is worse than those old ladies sitting in their homes gossiping all day long.” He said while laughing.

“So, what brings you here today Mrs. Kirke? Is it to only congratulate me in advance?” He asked.

She shook her head and presented him the wooden basket.

He took it and awed at its contents after removing the white blanket that covered it.

There was soap, a fine napkin, some candles and a plain book with some ink and a quill.

“This is too much I can’t accept this.” He almost immediately rejected the basket. He tried giving it back but was rejected by Mrs. Kirke.

“You can, and you will. This wasn’t bought by me but by some rich noblewoman that came into town not long ago. She gave many baskets like these freely to anyone that was quick enough take them.”

She said while laughing. She continued. “Mine included perfume, soap and some silver nuggets that I sold to the blacksmith.”

He then looked at her incredulously. “Why would a noble lady provide gifts for the ordinary folk of the town and why is she visiting us?”

“What is wrong with visiting us?”

“Well… The village is very isolated compared to other villages. It would take you some time to get here from the nearest city and there is nothing beyond here except trees and grass. We don’t possess anything out of the ordinary and frankly this place is anything but interesting.”

He told Mrs. Kirke. With a serious expression.

She just laughed and slapped him on the chest.

“I know, we had the mayor welcome her, he invited her to his “humble abode” I believe was what he told her. She accepted, she now resides in his mansions, she told him that she had left the city due to the situation down there at the moment.”

She then laughed and said.

“She told him that this was the most isolated place she could find.”

“Oh.”

She laughed once again and then began to leave.

“My dear husband also told me inform you that if you are free this evening, to please come and dine with us this evening. He caught a large boar in the forest this morning, so it will be a sumptuous meal.”

Auris then quickly turned from his door to Mrs. Kirke. Faster than he had at first meant to do.

“What? Inside the forest? Did anything happen to him in there?”

She stopped and turned in confusion.

“No not that I know of, he was fine when I left him not so long ago. Why? Did anything happen to you inside the forest?” She asked him worriedly.

He wished to tell her of his encounter in the forest, but then felt that it would worry her if he told her anything.

“No not at all, I simply asked because I saw a somewhat large animal from a distance this morning.”

She kept staring at him and sighed.

“You know if there’s anything wrongs you can come to me with anything, you know, that right? I owe you too much for me to not do so. I owe your mother everything.” She said while looking at Auris with a worried expression.

At the mention of his mother Auris felt a knot tighten in his chest.

“Don’t worry about it. Nothing happened today, trust me.” He said with the largest smile he could muster to make.

She sighed and left after ordering to come eat dinner with them.

Auris then looked at her while she disappeared over the horizon. As he saw her disappear from his sight, he sighed and entered his home after looking at the sun.

“Wright! Come it’s time for supper.”

He looked down at the basket below him and sighed.

“We have a long day’s work ahead of us.” He then entered the door with the basket over his shoulder as wright followed.

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‘’Damn those kids, they need to be taught some manners! Who runs through mud all day at their age! The Madam is too kind on those stupid brats, they should just disappear and let us all live-in peace!’’

A young maiden uttered under her breath while using the water in the river to clean of the mud on the afore mentioned brat’s clothes. She had been going at it for hours and was not even done by the slightest.

As she stopped to take a quick break from washing to let her aching hands and body take a second or two to regain their strength, saw the body of a youth coming towards her end of the river.

In shock, not knowing what to do, as she had never been in such a situation before. As the body was quickly coming towards her, she jumped into the water and took hold of the child, bringing him into land.

‘’My gosh! What were you doing in the freezing cold water!? The sun is about to set, and you would have died if not for me saving you!’’ She shivered while yelling at the boy not realizing that he was unconscious.

Not getting an answer, fear slowly crept into her, she slowly went over and probed him with various pokes to discover whether he was alive or not, while doing so her fear dissipated and she then proceeded to inspect his face and body for wounds. Seeing that he had none - except for an missing arm, for which she sighed upon seeing, relaxed.

‘’Liana for what reason are you yelling, stupid child? And why have you stopped cleaning the mud stains of the young master and mistresses clothe?’’ Said an older woman wearing black and white, like the dress Liana wears came into her view.

When she saw the body of the one-handed youth soaking wet and Liana as well, she shrieked and yelled furiously at Liana. ‘’Liana what is this! Explain what is going on!? AND WHO IS THIS!?’’

Liana not expecting her elder growing so furious, seemingly started to quiver in fear of her being reprimanded. She had heard stories told of disobedient girls being sold to sadistic and cruel men.

She opened her mouth in haste as she saw her elder turn more hostile due to her lack of any answer, told her she had rescued the youth who was floating downstream, and that she did so only after taking a break from cleaning the clothe when she saw him before pleading for mercy and begging her not to tell her mistress.

The elder maid sighed and relaxed as she heard Liana tell her story.

‘’Liana you need to be more aware at the consequences of your actions. If anyone else other than me had arrived and seen you and this youth lying near the water soaking wet, they would not have asked what was going on.’’ She sighed once more and found something Liana could use to dry herself with.

The elder maid told Liana to change her soaking wet clothes as she would go down to the mansion to report what had happened and ask for help. She returned half an hour later with three guards, wearing metal armor plates and swords in sheaths by their sides.

They took a quick glance at the youth and was astonished to see the fresh, but closed stab wounds on the chest and his missing arm.

The lead guard took a closer look at the youth and examined his various wounds and his body for any identification, but those were taken not long before by the two men who threw him into the river.

’The wounds look new and he must have lost his arm some weeks ago. All his wounds have healed nicely and wouldn’t have done so without the use of expensive medicine. His clothe is also made of silk and other rare materials. He must be some noble, but I don’t remember ever hearing of a noble child with one arm in the area. He couldn’t have come down from far up the Eurytate river… right? And why is he still warm from being in the water, the young girl is still shaking from the cold and even if he did come from up there, isn’t the water supposed to turn freezing cold in the night since winter is so soon upon us?’

He thought slowly and decisively as he examined the youth before carrying him back to the mansion to await further instructions from his master.

They went through a wide trail inside a forest for a good ten minutes before coming to a big mansion by the hill, a mansion that was seemingly overlooking an entire city under it with several roads coming and going from it.

As they approached the mansion gates, they stopped, saluted and told one of the guards to call for the master as they had found a youth by the forest and wished to know what to do with him.

The guard sent for the butler and respectfully asked for his master’s presence due to a youth that was found in the forest. Sometime later the master of the mansion came outside to see what all the commotion was about.

The master of the mansion was the mayor of the port town below, he was given his place as a mayor due to his contributions in the recent war against their neighboring kingdom.

As the burly master approached he saw two servant girls and three of his guardsmen at the entrance, one of the guardsmen took a step forward and bowed.

‘’Speak then, for what reason have you called me out here. Be quick I have work to finish guardsmen.’’ The lord told his guardsmen sternly and apathetically.

‘’My lord, the servant girl Liana has found an unconscious youth by the Eurytate river, from his clothes we can deduce that he descents from a wealthy family.’’

The guardsmen reported to his lord as the other two brought out the cart and presented the youth to the lord

The mayor widened his eyes in astonishment but quickly steadied himself once again.

“He is full of wounds, why have you not taken him the medical officers in the city?”

“Sir! Though he may have numerous wounds on his person, he is anything but wounded. All the wounds have already been healed fully. I suspect an unnatural element, maybe magic is at play here sir.”

The lord held his hand on his chin as he scanned the youth. As he saw all the closed wounds and his right arm, he sighed.

“I know not whether magic is at play here, but the child has been through much, that I can see. Place him in the guest bedroom and call upon the lead medical officer down in the city. Let him examine the youth and discover any abnormalities in him.”

He returned to his study and put everything about the youth at the back of his mind. He looked to the letters on his desk that came through from governor’s office.

The content of the letter asked for him to send his daughter to meet her fiancé.

He gripped the letter and threw it into the fire by the hearth.

His face seemed devoid of any emotion, but only he knew the raging fury and disgust he kept at bay inside.

‘’Over my dead body.’’ He squeezed out before disappearing from his study.