The Farmer's a Wife #019

When his arm was secure, Valdis stood, businesslike again. "This is the place," he said. "The darkness is deepest here."

"Is that why they attacked us here?" asked Anya.

Valdis nodded, but then frowned. "Those shadows were beastly, unintelligent. This great a darkness so close to human settlement... every sign tells me that this is the work of a greater intellect. I am certain there is more to find here."

"We had best start looking, then," said Anat. "Let us not spend longer here than we must."

They spread out over the area. Valdis could not exactly location the epicentre, the wellspring from which the darkness flowed, and so they worked slowly across the forest.

It was Matthias that found him. A boy, sitting hunched-over in a washed-out hollow beneath a web of tree-roots.

When he first saw him, Matthias thought he was a statue. His skin was white as snow, and he was almost perfectly still. Only after staring for several seconds did he see the slow, shallow breaths, the occasional blinks of eyes that otherwise stared straight ahead. The boy's clothes were ragged and torn, 

He clambered down into the hollow, trying to look as kind and unthreatening as possible. "Hey," he said, smiling gently and reaching out to the child with one hand. "It's okay. I'm here to help. You're safe now."

The child did not respond, not even with a flicker of his eyes.

"Hey." A little louder. "Hey." Louder again. Nothing.

He reached out and grasped the child's shoulder, shook him gently. Still, not even the faintest glimmer of recognition. The child stared straight ahead with dark, dead eyes.

A chill ran up Matthias' spine, and he wormed his way out of the hollow. "Brother!" he called to Valdis, who quickly stepped towards him. He nodded towards the child. Valdis looked.

"He's in some kind of trance. I tried to wake him, but he doesn't respond. It's like he doesn't even know I'm there."

Valdis nodded, slowly, staring at the child. He climbed awkwardly down next to the child, grasped his hand, and drew the Silver Blessing on his forehead. The boy did not reached, but wisps of shadow sparked from the boy's forehead for a moment. The Purgator sighed. "A vessel, prepared but not yet... filled."

Matthias stared. "But... he's only a child."

The look on Valdis' face was grim. "Some vessels are willing. Some are not."

"Do you think he's... her child?"

Valdis shook his head. "He was taken in his sleep. This child is in day-clothes. Come, help me out." Seeing Matthias' concern, he added, "He's not going anywhere at the moment."

As Matthias helped Valdis out of the hollow, Thanos called to them. "Brother Valdis, you may wish to see this."

In another hollow, very similar, lay the lifeless bodies of three other children. Matthias' heart grew cold and hollow in his chest at the sight.

"No!" Anya's desperate scream came from behind him, but by the time he could react she had already pushed past him into the hollow and was frantically turning over the bodies.

She turned over the third one, and Matthias could see the tension ease from her body, but she nonetheless collapsed besides the three bodies, sobbing desperately. "Few fates are worse than an uncertain one," murmured Valdis.

Anat stepped carefully down into the hollow and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come, Anya. This is not a place anyone should be." He led her up and out. As she stepped past him, Matthias caught a glimpse of her face in the light of his torch. She looked pale, and gaunt, and the anger that had burnt within her had been replaced with black despair.

He had never seen that look on any person that would live through the night.