He's sitting in on the kitchen table, sprawled over the stool as only teenagers can. Arms askew, staring at his script, porridge forgotten, a mess in the background from everything he touched to make it.
Typical teen nonsense. But I can see past it to the little boy inside - he had really blond hair when he was a toddler, only streaks left now. And he would look up and give that smile, his brown eyes so like Sarah's I can't help feeling love tightening like a vice around my heart and throat. Maybe it's because I remember him when he was little that the snark doesn't bother me. The lasting echoes of my sister's memory.
Ulrak doesn't like him at all. I can sense the huff of disapproval as he appears at the door and takes in the mess. he thumps in, leaving his own trail of mud from his boots, followed by those bloody bears he loves. I give him a warning look to not say a word and he closes the mouth before the first word comes out.
"Good morning wife" he kisses my cheek, and the nasty beasts at his feet push repulsively past my legs, their fur wet from the early morning dew. He smells of snow and pine cones and warmth, a calming presence despite the tumult of outside he's brought in with him.
"What's your plan this morning" I settle down at the table. Balrik just shrugs, gesturing with his head towards his cabin, and I can see husband grit his teeth, but he bites his tongue and stays silent.
"I'll need to fix the fence in the woods, something got in last night, maybe wolves." Ulrak guzzles down his coffee, a man on a mission.
"I have some work also, I'll be in my workroom I'll just settle Bizil before I head out" the cabins are in a circle around the compound, and the heavy trees obscure sound even on silent snowy nights. Ulrak goes for days on his hunts, or if I get busy stocking up my potions or my meditation, I sometimes lose track of entire weeks. Till the kids came, with news of devastation and horror, drawing us to daily routines like never before.
The happy chortling of a 4 year old comes from around the corner. being the youngest, Bizil lives right here with us. Afshal her maid, follows close behind, but almost immediately starts tidying up the mess Balrik has made. Good girl, must tell her mother she's trained her well.
Bizil, with her blond head and joy lights up all of us. "tata chu" she calls me, as she comes towards me, but then dodges my attempt to pick her up and cage her in the chair for breakfast, and ignores Ulrak's beasts her usual favorites, and toddles over to Balrik's stool and hugs his leg "babalEE uppiEE". He good humoredly yanks her up to his lap as she squeals with joy, and then immediately upends his bowl the second she gets access to his lap.
"Ufff" Afshal huffs, "Balreeeeek you need to be more cArful" she says, with her lilt, but she's already mopped up the mess and put the milk out of reach, bless her.
"Bring her around to my workroom at evening Afshal, I have the feathers I need to braid her hair"
----
It's twilight, and I surface from the meditative state I get into when I'm deep in my potions. I need to lower the guards because Afshal and Bizil will be coming. I've been so engrossed in my work that I haven't notice the day go by. But before I can move, I hear it.
A creak.
A creak from inside the cabin, when I'm alone, and it's guarded by wards so nothing can get in.
I freeze, considering my options. I could yell for Ulrak, but by the time he gets here, even if he does hear, I'd be dead. I pick up the cutting knife and tuck it into my wristband. I feel it nick me just a little, giving me an idea, but I don't have time for that. I'm still hunched over my potion like I have been for the last hour, so the intruder may not realize I know they're here. but before I can finish the thought, she emerges from the shadows. The witch. the blight that destroyed my sister. And she's brought an army.
----
I'm panting exhausted. My circle has kept them just outside unable to kill me, but I am near defeat. i am sweating, and I know even one drop falls and touches the line, they'll come through.
The door flings open, and for a minute I feel hope that someone has heard and is coming. but stupid stupid me, it's Bizil and Afshal. how can anyone know we are under attack. the silent snow dampens everything and my wards obscure everything else.
The forces of darkness ripple, and the witch screams, dropping the fight and running towards the door, Bizil too much of a prize, making the witch forget me.
and in that sliver of a second I see my only chance. I launch myself from the circle of protection. my cutting knife now unleashed. I slash my wrist, and murmur my chants of blood, runes no human should know. the witch turns, sensing danger, and I can see Afshal has picked up Bizil and is running for the horses. the witches hounds 10 feet behind.
But my focus is the witch. My jump lands me clumsily on the ground at her feet, and my only hope is to touch her with the blood curse, and bind her.
but she is too clever.
She dances out of the way, inhuman, like a shadow to my clumsy humanity. and in that close quarters, at her mercy, she kills me.
Or to be more specific, she pushes my soul out of my body.
I see it crumple at her feet, as Bizil screams, a piercing piercing scream that seems to shake the trees. that poor baby. She must have seen Sarah die the same way.
But Sarah was not a witch.
My cutting knife, iron with my blood, with my runes, is now my holding stone. The tether for my soul to this world. I had a feeling I wouldn't make it, and this was my half baked plan, thought out in feverish nights after Sarah's death. How could i save her children, if the blight ever reached us in our corner of the isolated planet.
----
I am wind. I am weightless. I am snow. I am light. I stream past the witch, out the door against my will, my lifeless body with open eyes bloody on the floor behind me. The hounds leave my corpse alone, but the witch seems to know something is up. She blows some powder at me from her belt, and seems to know I'm incorpereal. I must go and warn Ulrak. I blow past Bizil and Afshal, a flurry of snow and wind, a thought only now, love and hope and warmth to Bizil as she sobs, and an idea to Afshal- go to Balrik. Afshal seems to hear, good girl, and changes direction from Ulraks woods towards Balriks' cottage.
God be with them now, I know Balrik will save them. they have a chance. He has defeated them before, and is more powerful than anyone I have ever known.
---
Predictably, the blasted hounds are heading towards the house, at the speed of darkness. But I am wind. I blow through, faster than their shadows, as high as the sky and as low as the snow. I can sense Ulrak, he's not in the house, still in the woods. lighting torches, he too now knows it wasn't anything ordinary that broke through. I can see that his beasts are in full armor, as is he, patrolling the trees to find the intruders. he was too far to know they were already inside. he must see me, or the squall of wind and snow I'm bringing, because he stops and turns around. away from the woods, finally looking towards the danger. I only have seconds before the beasts, they're here. so am i. i will try to help.
His face twists with horror and worry, as he finally sees. But he screams my name as the beasts reach, his blade is up and the bears are ready, But they have a fighting chance. I carry the flames from the torches, up up above, a phoenix in the wind, and light the woods on fire, driving back the shadows of the witch. He continues to scream my name, I can sense him crying in the wind, as he fights, the light defeating the darkness.
---
