Apparition

Cheering, toasting, wild laughter and music could be heard from a distance away as Edgar, Cedric and Lorenzo gazed out at the golden light emanating from The Raven’s Tavern.

“Guess we are not as missed as we thought,” Cedric remarked.

Their small bonfire lit the night as the three of them sat by themselves in the dark lane, pushing tonight’s tepid roast with disdainful spoons.

”Ugh, this is… dry,” Edgar said, “and cold.”

”Forgive that I am not the cunning master cook you deserve,” Cedric said. “But you soured that arrangement with your… show of initiative.”

Edgar lowered his head with shame.

“Edgar is remorseful, let’s not relive it,” Lorenzo said then, putting down his own untouched plate and briefly hugging himself against the sudden chill, while his eyes lingered on the woods around them.

Soon, Cedric and Edgar also turned their heads to look at the forest.

“Did we dream it?” Edgar asked out loud.

”All of us? The exact same dream?” Cedric asked.

“Delirium. Perhaps something in the ale. Certain toxins are known to cause an altered state,” Lorenzo said then.

”Apparitions,” Cedric nodded. ”Where I’m from, they’re known as people of the mounds. They keep to the woods. They’re known for making the air grow cold. And your limbs so heavy, you can’t move them.”

”A woodland spirit guarding a baby nun?” Edgar asked. “Do fae follow the faith now?”

Sensing a slight air of mockery, Cedric said no more.

”That is enough, Edgar,” Lorenzo said, then noticed a dark shadow approaching them. A lantern bobbed with his quick running speed.

“Cedric, Cedric!”

They looked up just in time to see Alaric.

“It’s the butcher! He’s taken a turn. Hurry!”

Cedric dropped his bowl so it spilled upon the ground.

Lorenzo and Edgar followed.

✨✨✨

John, the butcher, was coughing blood into a bowl when they arrived. All three doctors found him retching with violent spasms, the widow catching sprays.

”Madam, move aside,” Lorenzo instructed immediately as Cedric ran to the man. “The miasma is potent here tonight.”

”When did it start?” Cedric asked.

”Two hours,” the woman said, already moving back, holding a rag to her face. “I sent for a priest to administer Extreme Unction, but was sent away.”

”I have an astringent mix in my cloak,” Edgar said, digging through his leather pockets.

”Fetch us a cold compress,” Lorenzo instructed the wife, who nodded and left.

“Help me lift him,” Cedric said, opening the chest portion of his robe as all three positioned the hefty man upright.

”Drink,” Edgar said, but as soon as the man took a gulp of the astringent, he immediately vomited it.

“Open the vein, Lorenzo,” Cedric said then, catching the fluids into the bowl. “You have a steadier arm than me.”

”He’s far too weakened for that,” Edgar said. “Cupping might be the right course.”

”You’re right,” Cedric said.

”Edgar,” Lorenzo called.

Edgar looked up from the butcher.

”Huh?”

“Edgar,” Lorenzo said again. “The widow.”

A sudden grim realization dawned on him.

“He is right. You must go to her,” Cedric stated. “In case she, too…”

Edgar then nodded and both Cedric and Lorenzo stared after him as he rushed away. Cedric then reached for his cups.

”Ce-Cedric…” the gasping man rasped. “Cedric.”

“I’m here,” Cedric said. “I’m here, John. Don’t waste your breath.”

”Cedric…” he said again and extended his hand.

Cedric then took it.

But it was just in time to see John’s eyes roll back as he released a final, gurgling breath and went limp.

Both doctors froze in place.

The wife hurried with the compress, but only to find her husband had already expired. She dropped the linens and began to wail.

No one said another word.

Later, Lorenzo waited in grim silence as Cedric completed the mark upon the door. They could still hear the woman’s weeping from the street. Edgar walked in slowly.

Lorenzo and Cedric turned when he joined them.

“She’s still alive,” Edgar said.

“Good,” Cedric said. “Good.”

Quietly, each one left and walked in their separate directions.

Back in his room, Lorenzo lit the candle and his long fingers approached the small blue vial. He lifted it up and held it against the light, before shaking it.

The stars danced and dispersed inside the indigo. He then approached the stopper. He hesitated, then placed it down on the table, unopened.

He didn’t bother to remove his mask or cloak.

Instead, he extinguished the candle with his fingers and lay down.

The wick on the beeswax candle still smoked, and the blue vial began to glow mysteriously from within.

The stars inside began to slowly stir, a small firmament turning on its axis.

Outside the open window, the night sky’s own constellations turned with it, following the pattern drawn inside the glass.

The stopper gently lifted and fell out to the side of the vial of its own accord. Despite this slight noise, Lorenzo continued to sleep.

”Lorenzo…” a gentle, womanly whisper issued from the small bottle.

But the sleeping body remained perfectly still on the bed.

”Lorenzo…” the voice echoed again.

Lorenzo barely stirred.

Then, louder now.

This time, as an eerie swarm of overlapping voices whispered, drawn-out breathy syllables that vibrated across every surface of the room.

”Lorenzo…!”

He could ignore it no longer. The doctor sat up on the bed, breathless and bewildered by the haunting ululations that now seemed to come from every corner of his room. Yet, his eyes immediately focused on the open vial. On its shifting stars.

”Who-Who are you?” he asked.

”Lorenzo,” the voice, that was also many voices, responded. “Why do you fear me, Lorenzo?”

“I don’t…I do not fear you,” Lorenzo said.

Then, the voice from the bottle combined with the smoke from the wick to form a darkly haunting silhouette on the wall; the same long, lithe woman with the tall crown of twigs, thistle, bone, antlers, and roses.

“I defy thee, devil!” Lorenzo declared loudly then.

”Hm,” the voice let out a soft laugh. Her shadow then quickly moved to hover right above Lorenzo, still sitting up on the bed. “Fool. In my presence, thy devil quakessssssssss...”

”Who are you?” he asked after regaining his voice. “Were you the woman…the, uh..… one from the woods?”

Her silhouette turned its head to the side, as if looking curiously around the room.

”Have you a name?” He asked then.

Her head turned forward again.

”Duessa.”

”Duessa…” Lorenzo echoed under his breath. “And what do you… why have you come?”

”I have chosen,” she said. “One braver than thee. Stronger than thee. Worthier than thee. To defend my tiny child from what is to come.”

”Do you mean… Agnes?” he asked then.

”A knight has come forward,” she said. “So where men have banished him, I will restore his honor. Where men have disgraced him, I will exalt his valor.”

Lorenzo didn’t say anything.

”Still…” Duessa said, her image moving in the wall as though she were taking a turn around the room. “Agnes too has chosen. And she has chosen thee.”

”Me?” Lorenzo asked.

The shadow turned to him and nodded.

”My tiny raven-haired child trusts thee,” she said. “And so I must trust thee.”

”Trust me… with what?” he asked then. “Is she a child of yours?”

“The great trial begins,” she said then. “It has fallen to me to be the champion of men, in this battle against the great corruption. I must enlist many in my army.”

“Army…? But I can’t… That is, I am not…” Lorenzo stammered. “I am a physician.”

Duessa paused for a moment.

”My littlest one chose thee, physician,” she declared then. “You will prove yourself worthy. Keep her from the decay that moves swiftly downstream.”

”Downstream? I don’t understand…”

It seemed night itself exhaled and, with this, the shadow on the wall dissolved and escaped through the window.

Determined not to let it escape, Lorenzo ran behind it. He secured his hood as he ran out the door

He raced past village walls into the lush fields as the night wind howled and the faint trail of green sparkling light dragged past the flower patches, over the river, and headed straight into the forest.

He followed it for as long as he could.

Upon reaching the threshold of the dark woodland, he felt immediately deterred by the dark, sweeping wind that howled through the shadowy trunks and menacing branches.

He stopped running upon facing the darkness of the forest.

“Your vial…” Lorenzo said, once alone in the dark. “It didn’t work.”

He received no answer, except for the sigh of the gloom.

The stars themselves had ceased turning, and the golden stars inside the blue indigo vial dissipated, until they sank to the bottom.