Chapter 17: "A Fair Exchange"

If that thing is here, it means that they are planning to use a forbidden power to keep their son alive.

Intermediaries were creatures that only appeared when a man’s will was broken. Wandering the world in search of the unfortunate, at the moment their hope vanished, they seduced them into making a deal.

It is said that they are the link with the essence of another world, incomprehensible to humans. The Eternal Whisper had mentioned that they were created from a forgotten element, one that does not belong to anything related to Genesis or Ruin.

“They can grant any wish in exchange for an equivalent sacrifice. The problem is that they don’t tell you how high the price is or when they’ll charge it,” I said to Zera, while gazing at the creature, astonished.

The Intermediary sneaked into the family hug, interrupting the grieving moment. With its tail, it clung to the mother’s neck and pronounced:

“Accept, give up.” Its voice sounded profound and ancestral.

With superhuman strength, Kui pushed his parents away. His mien was dead, empty of thoughts or emotions.

“Mom, Dad, let me go already. Don’t you understand that I must go? They wait… they are waiting for me…”

“Please, son, stop!” the father shouted, bereaved.

“This is not something Kui would do. Please, give us our son back,” the mother sobbed.

They are devastated. I feel awful for having lost time in the vision with Zenith. What’s more, we couldn’t do a thing for the children of the lagoon. Is there a worse ending than this?

I observed them from a distance, powerless, knowing I couldn’t do anything. Kui had lost his humanity.

“He fell into the mist’s hands. You’ll never be able to get him back. Accept, give up,” the Intermediary insisted, expectant.

“No… it’s not possible. There must be another way,” said the father, throwing the creature against the wall. A cumulus of eyes and claws surrounded him threateningly. “Why is this happening to us?”

“I’m not the problem, I’m the solution. Accept, give up.”

The mother cried, dejected, on her knees, grabbing Kui while he struggled to escape.

“Mom, Dad… don’t abandon me,” he suddenly said, sobbing.

Is there still a part of him that can be saved?

Chirpy, Zera rushed over to the child, firmly grabbing him by the shoulders. She glared into his eyes, drilling into his soul.

“Kui, are you there? Answer me, you have to! You know who your parents are, that they love you so much, don’t you? Return to them,” she said, trying to save him from the trance.

It looked like it was working. Maybe they’d have a happy ending.

“Our son is still there… a part of him is fighting to come back,” the mother muttered, unable to believe it.

Kui remained still, frozen.

“His consciousness will return! He is himself, after all!” the father cried, filled with joy.

Zera relaxed her shoulders, and I gasped in relief. Hope filled the room. The only one that wasn’t happy was the Intermediary: it hadn’t gotten the deal.

Those creatures are vile scavengers: they seek to benefit from the worst of people.

Kui ran toward his father, hugging him with suffocating force. I couldn’t help but let slip a small tear.

How exciting! Helping him made me feel a vitality I never believed possible. Could it be thanks to Lumen? Or maybe because of Zera’s enthusiasm, always supporting those who need it?

Zera moved her feet in joy and excitement. The mother, on her side, lay on the floor, expelling drowned cries of the anguish and stress she had suffered.

Then, we saw how Kui’s arms tore apart his father’s chest. His body was shredded from the waist upward. Pieces of flesh and bone flew everywhere, dyeing the walls red.

“If…the children of the lagoon shouted…you’ll shout as well,” he threatened, showing a crooked smile.

The father’s head rolled, leaving a trail of blood and guts behind until it collided with the mother’s head. She burst into a cry that tore through the air, a mix of fear and despair.

I stood petrified, unable to believe what had happened.

I don’t understand. We rescued him, didn’t we? Hadn’t the mist yielded?

The Intermediary transformed into a black, amorphous bulk that filled the entire enclosure.

“I told you, it’s futile. Accept my Pact. Accept, give up,” it bellowed with such force that the place shivered. Its eyes lay before the mother’s face, and she kept shouting, heartbroken.

The kid started walking slowly toward her: she would be his second victim. Zera gestured to stop him, but the brutality of what she had just seen made her legs shake with horror, preventing her from moving.

What the heck? Are the children in the mist so miserable and wretched that they are capable of this? Is it their despair or their thirst for blood?

“Please, stop!” the mother begged.

Kui placed his hand over her face. Without intervening, the Intermediary tangled itself around both like a snake. Zera and I just watched.

“Stop, stop, STOP!”

He started sinking his hand in. The crack of her breaking nose echoed. The Intermediary turned into a heavy mist, and its darkness swallowed the room.

“I accept, I accept the deal!” the mother finally cried. “Please, give me my son back!”

Hundreds of red eyes appeared, floating in the air. An indecipherable whisper filled the space. Its ethereal body swirled with fury in the center of the room with such force that we were thrown against the walls.

It adopted a bizarre, humanoid form. From its back came Kui, as if he had been reborn.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, mum,” said the child, with a sorrow so deep it took his breath away. “I didn’t want to do it. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He stood in front of his mother, dismal.

She had passed from absolute panic to joy in a blink: the muscles of her face tensed and relaxed, forming an unnatural expression of happiness.

Everything is… over?

While the child glanced at his mother’s face with a mix of sadness, guilt, and happiness, the Intermediary charged the Pact.

Three monstrous jaws appeared, each with thousands of spiky teeth arranged in endless rows. Curling around her body, they devoured her limbs, took her eyes, and crushed her ears. It was so fast and ruthless that she couldn’t even scream.

Then, the Intermediary, despite her wounds, managed to keep her alive. It vanished afterward, bequeathing Kui an indelible scar and a devastating memory.

With the passage of time, it would disfigure his spirit and lead him into madness.

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

Hours passed. In the next room, Zera and I were tucked in our beds. None of us could find sleep.

“Darek, they sacrificed themselves for their child: they gave their lives for him.”

Those images were stuck in my mind: how the father’s organs detached from him, how his guts hung from the ceiling… And the mother, dismembered right in front of their child. Dying could have been a more human fate.

“That made me remember my childhood,” she continued. “Would my parents have done the same for me? Would they have given their lives to protect me?”

I can’t stop thinking. Damn it! If we had arrived before the mist, maybe we could have taken the child out of the village! Or even taken him with us!

“I have the feeling that they wouldn’t, but why? Why am I doubting my happy memories of them? Are they a lie?” she said, heartbroken. “When I saw the Intermediary, I felt a familiar connection with it: I’m certain that it has crossed my path before.”

How could we allow such a raw ending? What kind of world can give birth to these kinds of creatures? Reality is corrupted, broken… or, to put it better, insane.

“But why can’t I remember them? And if I have lost more than I believed I did? What other fragments of my past have I forgotten? Even though I don’t want to know, it frightens me just thinking about what my mind refuses to reveal.”

I could have done more! This ended up like this because of my fault. I stood frozen, only able to watch. How helpless, how weak I was!

“I envy him for having parents that care for him. But after seeing all the suffering they endured just to protect him, I feel awful for envying him. I despise myself,” she said with a broken voice.

A cold current of air entered through a hole in the wall. The loneliness of the night offered neither repair nor solace.

“Zera, can I sleep with you?” I asked, defeated by my own thoughts, which tortured me for having failed.

“Yes,” she answered absentmindedly, lost in her mind, absorbed in her vacillations.