Chapter 10: "Her Choice, Their Fate"

Small waves started to bite my feet: the water had surrounded us.

Zera prepared herself for combat.

“I don’t want to do this, Darek. Don’t make me hammer my ideas into you.”

“Do you want the people of the village to live? Then we have to kill him, can’t you see?”

Don’t be naive; the last thing I want is to fight with you.

“Of course I want to help them, but this is not the way. You assume he is the cause. Why? Because he is not anemic? Because he can talk?”

I reconsidered for a second.

We just killed a Plague Knight on the top of a mountain with a snake sword and a guardian golem while it snowed… and now we are fighting over a child? How did we fall this low?

“Darek, you don’t want me as an enemy.” That was her ultimatum.

I came to my senses.

“I will not raise my sword against you. If you don’t want to kill him, I won’t. What’s more, I won’t do anything. Let’s go to the next village and leave this one on its own.”

The idea of saving people tires me out. Do they think I care? It’s not my obligation to do anything for them!

“How can you say that?! Is your coldness worthier than their lives?”

“We investigated this village from top to bottom and found nothing! The only thing standing is that child…” I said, unable to contain my voice.

The seagulls that had rested atop the wooden rails of the bridges took flight, frightened.

I don’t want to have stupid arguments. Either we go, or we go.

“I nEvEr SaID I dId nOt wAnT to HeLp,” said a non-human voice, emerging from the shadows. Deep and cavernous: I heard thousand throats speaking at the same time. Every word pierced my ears, and a shiver ran down my back, freezing my blood.

What the fuck was that?! I knew it—something was wrong with the village. I was right, of course I was!

We both looked at the child. His smile widened beyond the limits of his face, letting his pointy teeth stand out. His expression, once defenseless and childish, turned into a cryptic aura, similar to that of The Eternal Whisper.

The water level kept rising.

“Forgive me… I don’t usually let that tone escape me.” His voice returned to normal.

“Told you! It’s a monster, we have to kill him! He’s the one who caused this disaster.” I jumped toward him, eager to try my sword.

“If I were you, I’d think twice… If you kill me, you’ll kill Eran as well, the child I’ve possessed.” He said confidently, knowing he would remain unscathed.

I froze in my tracks.

Lured by his voice, lucky cats appeared everywhere—small black felines with bells on their collars and red ribbons around their necks. A cloth covered their heads, and on it, macabre stitches sealed their eyes and mouths forever.

“If these creatures are here, that means you are a demon,” Zera explained. “They attract bad fortune and chaos, so they tend to stay close to beings like you.”

If there are only a few, they’re not a threat; they can even be adopted as pets.

However, in this case, there weren’t a few, but a black tide of them—climbing walls and scaling rooftops until it looked as if the entire village were covered by a tapestry of black bodies and stitched gazes.

They delight in seeing the world burn, in suffering and despair.

“It’s been days since I’ve been stealing strength from these people,” he explained, using Eran as a mediator. “You have no idea how fun it was: I barged into their homes with some vague excuse, and when they least expected it, I consumed their vitality.” He burst into laughter.

“How can it be that you take pleasure in that!” Zera recriminated. “You cause them suffering for fun, for entertainment? I don’t get it—what enjoyment could there be?”

The kid started turning in circles, his back crooked. Some lucky cats perched along his spine. He dragged his feet in a tumbling motion, wracked by spasms. His laugh turned strident, sickening, exposing his extreme elation.

“There’s a way to make me leave and return the villagers’ vitality. My actual body is sealed in the catacombs beneath the church. Release me, and my powers will vanish with me.” He offered, believing it was a fair proposal.

It’s an awful deal.

“A filthy being like yourself has no right to ask for freedom,” said Zera, supporting me.

“ThEN leT tHis ViLlagE…DiE!” he sentenced, then escaped, running over the roofs and climbing into the trees. The lucky cats merely remained, spying on us.

He left us with a dilemma. It frustrates me to think I have to solve this. I want to leave roght now.

“What do you think, Zera? Do we set him free and let the villagers live, or do nothing and let them die so no one else suffers?”

“Are you seriously considering doing what he says? No… there must be another way. Maybe he lied to us… or hid things…”

Like humans, monsters steal and hurt others following their own ambitions. This world keeps reminding me that cruelty does not forgive.

I’ve spent a large part of my life surrounded by people, and without exception, they were unfair to me. At first, I despised them; it was my most instinctive emotion. However, over the years, I understood that hating them only tired me out: now I’m indifferent to them.

“We could leave and leave this problem in other hands. In the first place, why should we help them?” I insisted.

Ignore the existence of this village—forget about it. Anyway, if we had chosen any other path, we would never have encountered this place.

“How can you ask that?! We have to help them because they are people, like us. Their lives have value, even if you don’t know them,” she said, pausing briefly and looking at me, indignant. “Moreover, it’s unfair that just because of the whims of fate, that demon is under this village and torments them.”

Value? Justice? Those are abstract concepts. What will I gain in exchange for helping, for putting myself in danger to deal with that creature?

“Can your coldness perhaps bear the deaths of all these people?” Zera continued. “If that’s the case, how do you differ from that monster?!” She shouted at me—her first time doing so.

I won’t waste energy arguing with you.

“Fine, you’re right. Let’s suppose that we have the obligation to give them a hand. In that case, releasing him is not an option! Do you have any other plan?”

Do you think they would do the same for us? That they would be willing to put themselves in danger to save us if we needed it? No, they are humans: they ask without giving anything in return.

An awkward silence settled. Zera was frustrated, lost in impotence. Anguish gnawed at her spirit.

A mournful calmness hovered over us. The water reached our knees, as if it were slowly consuming us.

“If we kill Eran…the creature possessing him will leave his body…and the villagers will regain their strength…” Her voice trembled; she herself doubted what she was proposing, but unquestionably, it was a valid option.

I remained astonished, unable to believe that Zera had just said that.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” I asked, confused.

“Of course not, Darek!” she said, sobbing. “How did we end up deciding the future of dozens of lives? What a horrible decision!”

“You chose to leave the mansion and confront the real world. This is its nature: cruel and sinister. Mercy is a myth, and violence is the only law.

It was what the Eternal Whisper had taught me. No, I recant: I learned it living alone for so many years in Aurethys.”

Zera fell to her knees, her face consumed by suffering. The weight of failure crushed her soul.

“How… how did we end up in this situation? It’s not fair,” she said, crestfallen.

“Let’s go. Leave this village to its fate. Kill a child? Set a demon free? Let innocent lives die? No one asked us for help; we don’t have to interfere. We gain nothing.”

She is an innocent soul, too pure to fit in a world that only knows gloom.

“If you don’t want to do anything, I accept your decision. That’s why… wait for me on the outskirts of the village,” she said, standing up without looking at me. “I’ll solve it on my own. I won’t dare to escape like you.”

“At the mountain, you said you would support me no matter the decision I took. Now, I’m saying the same.”

**********************************

Sitting at the edge of the river, I took a chance to meditate. I remembered that, long ago, a very old sir, marked by the traces of time, had told me that at the river’s source once stood the temple of a Goddess.

He had also mentioned that the river flowed near a condemned village.

After a while, she returned, her head lowered.

She is devastated.

Without saying a word, she stopped beside me. Zera revealed a different face, shrouded in shadows. Now, her tears were only a memory.