Chapter 3

When the cold winter storms claimed their rule over the sea, forcing the villagers to abandon any hope of casting their fishing nets into deep waters, Niar was gone. I buried him in one of the small caves in the cliffs and blocked the entrance with heavy stones I had spent days carrying through the raging storm.

A part of me wished that the waves would claim me and pull me into the raging seas, crushing my body against the sharp rocks and putting an end to the curse that flowed through my veins.

But as long as I paid attention, my feet always found strong ground supporting my weight. My perilous task left me unscathed, in the same manner as my knife neither bent nor broke when I carved Niar’s name on one of the stones that sealed his grave.

Did I regret not asking him more when I still had time to do so? No, he passed me all the knowledge I needed as a Keeper. When I carried his staff, I felt neither anger nor the need for vengeance in me. They disappeared with Niar, in the cave I buried him in.

Did he know it would happen and, for that reason, let me indulge in those feelings, knowing that one day they would be gone? Or did he really hope that I would leave before I would turn my wrath against the people who had once abandoned me so long ago? I had no way of knowing.

I ordered the villagers to purify themselves and for three moons to abstain from any joy and comfort they wished to seek. But it was only a shadow of what I planned for them when I sat alone on the beach, listening to the waves crashing against the steep cliffs. I did not act on it, though. When they brought to me a man who fell ill, I healed him with herbs and charms like Niar had done before me, not even considering for a moment to turn them away.

It was in the middle of winter, when a thin layer of frost covered the ground and the storms kept me inside for most of the days, that the gale that had raged for days, covering the sky with heavy grey clouds, brought an unexpected visitor.

Bells rang with the first light, forcing me to leave my shelter and climb down the frozen path to the village below. But before I reached the bottom, I saw the reason for the bell tolling so frantically. An airship rested on the wet sand, its metal hull covered with the night’s frost, reflecting the light of the rising sun. A group of strangers, clad in armour, and a lonely hooded figure standing among them, surrounded it. A cold chill shot through my spine, and I clenched my fist holding my staff and halted in the middle of the path, cautiously watching the unwanted guests. They must have spotted me, and the cloaked figure slowly laid their sword on the sand and waved their hands before taking a few steps away from the ship.

They weren’t traders. I knew it well, as our village was too small and insignificant to make it worth the pain of mounting an airship only to gain a few shreds of star steel and glass from the trade. Niar had told me enough about the world that lay beyond the wooden gates of our village to understand it.

I took a few more steps. If they were raiders, they could have taken our village at night when no one manned the walls. The villagers believed that the freezing wind was a better deterrent against anyone who would dare to travel so far east only to steal a few metal tools and barrels of salted fish than any force we could raise to defend them.

So who were they…? The lonely figure now stood on the beach far away from their ship and looked at me, waiting patiently in the cold wind. I took a few careful steps on my path as fear slowly crept into my heart, mixing with the chill of the morning. Strangers… What did they want…?

The stony path gave way to the cold sand that crumbled under my feet as I walked, breaking the frost that covered the beach with my steps. They stood still in front of me, their face hidden by the cloak decorated with motifs of blooming flowers and small birds that spread throughout the rest of their clothes.

They raised their empty hands in a similar gesture to the other strangers who came to trade with us, and I lifted my staff into the air as I used to do with them. I could see their soft eyes carefully watching me beneath the cloak, and I dropped my guard a bit under their gaze even as fear screamed at me to leave. I wished that Niar were by my side; he would know how to act, but he was gone, buried in the small, dark cave in the cliffs.

What an ill omen it was to have strangers arriving here, I thought. Even if they left swiftly, their visit would linger in the memory of the village for generations to come. It would lead astray many of those who, in other cases, would have stayed safe and protected from the world by the wooden gate.

I wished that they had never come. I wished that their ship had been lost in the storm, crushed against tall cliffs that loomed over the beach. But they were here, and it was my duty as the Keeper to meet them.

As I took the last steps and halted before the stranger, a wave of calmness overtook me. My body relaxed as I watched her remove her hood and look at me with her soft emerald eyes.