Tenebroum

Chapter 41: Seen and Unseen

Thanks to the drowning, Todd lingered on death’s door longer than the other orphans at Garvin’s Gift. For better or worse, that was the reason for everything that came after.

That far from civilization, the little town had almost been skipped by the plague entirely, but in the end, all it took was a sick caravan guard to lay everyone else low in a cycle of sickness and recovery that had taken weeks longer than the other towns of Greshen county because the Cult of the Drowned Woman had not come to help them.

He hadn’t been the sickest of course; several of the other young boys had died in the grip of the bone-breaking fever. He was just the sickest one to actually survive. As stunted and malnourished as he’d been, it was no surprise to anyone that he’d almost lost his grip on this life. The only surprise had been that he had lived at all while many stronger boys had died, but while he’d lingered in the darkness between life and death, he’d seen her, and in his delirium, he had been foolish enough to tell the sister that had tended tirelessly to his dying body about her.

He’d told her about the drowned woman and the way she had harvested the souls of those that had lacked the strength to swim to the surface. He doubted that anyone would have taken him seriously, except for what happened in the days that followed. While he was still too weak to stand, he could see which of those that struggled to breathe in the infirmary was going to be the next to die. In his feverish state he hadn’t been smart enough to keep his mouth shut, and each time he saw that someone was about to die, he’d tried to warn the sisters about the darkness swirling around the next victim.

That was why Brother Faerber had traveled all the way from the holy city for the opening ceremony of the temple here. He said it wasn’t, but Todd knew better, even if he didn’t know exactly why, or why he knew. The brother wasn’t like any of the other priests he’d seen. He didn’t have a small glow, or sparkles of light when he made an invocation. The lights around him glimmered all the time, and when he beseeched Siddrim, lord of heavens for a boon, he truly shone with power. Driving all the darkness from the room away with his blessings.

Even before the brother pulled him aside to speak with him in private under the noonday sun, Todd knew that it was going to happen. In all the days before, during the ceremony, and the mass after, he could feel the weight of his gaze upon him.

“Tell me about the drowned woman,” Brother Faerber said simply as they walked up the hill behind the small temple, so he could get a view of the town. Todd was hesitant, but the brother reassured him. “You’ve done nothing wrong child. I only seek to know the truth, in all things.”

“Well, if that’s true, then why are you taking me to the cemetery,” the boy asked nervously, making the priest laugh.

“I didn’t come all this way to execute you Todd,” he said patiently. “Even though there’s some blood on your hands there is not nearly enough darkness in your soul to justify such a thing. You’ve lived a hard life for one so young, and I won’t second guess that. I have merely come to learn about the woman you saw and your sight. Everything else can be forgiven later.”

Todd cringed at the realization that just as he could see light come from the priest that gave him clues about his godly nature, the priest might be able to look at him in the same way. He clasped his hands behind his back as if that could hide the way he’d let Cole die, or the way he’d encouraged Bradwin or Leo to follow in his footsteps once their bullying had become unendurable.

“I… It was like she was right there, in the room with me,” he faltered, not sure exactly what else to say. “We were all lying there in our beds, floating on the surface of that dark water, but there was no floor, instead there were just monsters moving through the depths, and the sicker you got, the harder it became to keep your head above water, and sometimes they would grab someone and drag them below until the bubbles stopped.”

“So you couldn’t see her clearly then?” the priest asked fishing something out of his pocket.

“No I could,” Todd swallowed hard, and his eyes flickered towards the sun for reassurance. The only darkness on this rugged slope was what they’d brought with them, and between its light and the priests, even the darkness of his own shadow was barely there any longer. “But she was hard to look at. She was a pretty lady, but she was so sad, and she was chained to something larger in the deeps. I couldn’t see it, but, but - I didn’t want to.”

“Did she look like this?” he asked, handing Todd a folded piece of paper.

He was hesitant to take it at first because darkness dripped off it like the ink was still wet, but he steeled himself and did just that, reassured by the priest’s gentle presence. Earlier he’d thought that the man was going to execute him for his strange gift, or perhaps his crimes, but after their short walk to the top of the hill, he found the priest’s presence strangely comforting.

The paper was a piece of parchment folded into quarters, and when he unfolded it completely, he could see that it was a page of a book. The writing was meaningless to him because he only barely knew enough letters to write his own name, but the picture that dominated the page didn’t rely on any of those to get its message across. His grip tightened as he studied her. The picture lacked the detail to give her eyes the sadness that he knew was there, but he was sure just the same.

Todd nodded, handing the drawing back to Brother Faerber as quickly as he could. “That’s her, only she had long chains instead of the long hair the picture shows.”

“And were there any other differences you can remember? Anything at all?” the priest asked, studying the picture. “Was there anything else that should be in the picture?”

Todd thought long and hard as they trudged up the hill, trying to figure out what he could say to make the priest happy before he finally said, “What about the jewelry she was wearing?”

“Jewelry?” the priest asked.

“The thing the chains were attached to. She had golden bracelets on her wrists and ankles, and…” Todd answered, but the priest cut him off.

“That’s enough for now, thank you,” he whispered, making the sign of penitence. “Any more and we’ll draw the evil eye upon us.”

“Am I cursed then?” the boy asked, as he felt the comfort that he’d held for most of their trek begin to fall away.

“No,” the priest insisted. “It’s just the opposite. You’re blessed by the gods with a terrible gift. You’ve been given the sight, and you’ll be able to see and do things that few others will ever be able to. Unless we develop your gift though, and sanctify it, you’ll probably just go mad.”

“But, I don’t want to go mad,” the boy insisted, feeling fear shoot through him. “Just tell me what I have to do, and I’ll—”

“That’s why I’ll be taking you back to the holy city with me,” the priest said talking over him. “The church does not waste such gifts, even when they come in the form of sickly young orphans like you.”

After that, they prayed together on the hilltop, and for the first time in a long time, Todd wasn’t afraid to gaze out at the wider world rather than staring at the dirt beneath his feet. From here he could see the lake that the mages had built and the canal that linked it to the Oroza far to the south. From this distance, he couldn’t see the evil wafting off that water, but he knew from trips to gather supplies that it was there. This close to town he wouldn’t be able to see the elemental spirits of mud and dust that sometimes wandered the red clay hillsides either.

On the hilltop, he could see the spirits of the dead trapped in their own graves though. He could see how they would sometimes stagger up from the ground or reach out, even in daylight, though with the priest here studying him, he tried not to flinch at the sight.

“Even if this wasn't hallowed ground, they still wouldn't be able to hurt you,” Brother Faerber reassured him. “They're too weak, but it's a rare graveyard that doesn’t have some spirits, and murder victims are always the most active.”

“You can see them too?” Todd asked.

“Of course,” the priest said, staring at Todd like he was looking right through the boy. “I see more than you can possibly imagine. My gift was not so strong as yours, but it has been nurtured by the church for longer than you have been alive. Such diligence pays off.”

“Can I learn that too?” Todd asked, feeling excitement rise in his heart for the first time in a long time.

“If the gods allow,” Brother Faerber shrugged. “That is why I am bringing you and the cursed gold that the brothers have collected off the corpses of the dead over the last few years. We will see if either can be forged into a useful weapon for the fight that is to come.”

“The gold? You mustn't,” Todd said. In an instant both his sense of safety and excitement were banished by fear. “The goblins can feel it. I don’t know how, but they can. If you try to leave the red hills with any of their ore, then they’ll tear you to bits!”

“I know,” the priest smiled. “I would love to see them try.”

He didn’t have to wait long. They stayed at the temple just long enough to consecrate the new building properly, and two days later, he and Brother Faerber along with his guards and his servants made their way back toward the dock where the ferry would arrive.

They made no effort to move quickly, and when the night came, they did not attempt to seek shelter in a cave or defensible outcropping. Instead, they camped in a wide flat area that was almost entirely defenseless, and roasted meat that was sure to attract the goblins' attention, even without the gold.

The little monsters came just after midnight, but Todd was too worried by the prospect of being murdered the same way his parents had been to get much sleep. He saw them coming in the night as their malice began to bloom red well past the edges of the firelight, and he went to warn Brother Faerber, but the priest was already aware, and already praying. He seemed utterly unconcerned that they were already outnumbered 20 to 1, but Todd didn’t understand why until he unsheathed a sword that shined with almost as much light as the fire did.

“Wait in the light with the servants,” he told Todd, and then he was striding out into the dark while his men stayed behind to guard those who couldn’t fight and their animals. Some of the goblins thought to try the men grouped around the campfire, but they met a swift end at the hands of the soldiers there.

The rest of them attacked Brother Faerber in a tide of blood. Normally Todd shied away from such things, but he couldn’t help but watch the hypnotic violence that happened over the next few minutes before the goblins were utterly routed by a single man.

The way his holy blade glowed made it easy to watch every scything blow and brutal strike, but the way that he mowed down the goblins two and three at a time was not the most brutal part of the show. It was what they did to the priest in turn that Todd found hard to watch. Despite the ease with which he dispatched the goblins, he did not walk away uninjured, or at least he shouldn’t have. Time after time, their spears and arrows found their mark, but each time the priest refused to die, healing almost instantly instead. In one case a warband leader riding a mangy boar managed to tear through the brother’s armor, goring him so thoroughly that the man was almost disemboweled, but even that wasn’t enough to keep him from beheading the foul beast.

Five minutes after he strode off into the darkness the forces of evil were in retreat, though only at half the strength they’d started the night with, and the priest was returning to the light wrapped in his own aura of golden, coruscating light. As he sheathed his glowing sword it quickly became apparent that only his clothing and armor were the worse for the wear.

When he saw Todd gawking at him, he simply said, “Don’t worry Todd, our god of light and righteous battle would never allow me to meet such an inglorious end at the hands of vermin.”

“B-but, how?” the boy sputtered, making the soldiers around him laugh.

“Our god rewards those who spit in the face of death,” one of the other soldiers answered, causing everyone else to nod in agreement.