Beyond Prav

“So you’re the man I love, I suppose?”

“Do you always have to welcome me like this, Milena?” Dragomir theatrically clutched his chest. “I just came to shop!”

The old windmill had already been rebuilt. Milena leaned through its window and handed him a loaf of bread.

“This is the best bread in the whole world!” Dragomir declared.

“Flattery will get you nowhere. You still have to pay.” She tapped her fingers against the window frame. “But it does sound nice… although a little extreme. Maybe the best in Levoslavovce.”

Dragomir handed her a silver coin. “Thanks!”

He squeezed past the line that had formed behind him.

“Dragomir!” Milena called as he walked away. “Will you come tomorrow?”

“And will you finally go on a date with me?”

“You don’t have to come, then! I have plenty of other customers!”

“Alright, alright! I promise!”

An old man at the end of the line squinted after him. “Was that the famous bohatier? Dragomir?”

“Yes, Grandpa!” A little girl replied. “It’s thanks to him that you don’t have to be afraid of turning into an evil spirit anymore!”

***

“Good morning!” Dragomir strode into the courthouse, where Zduhach was already waiting.

“You’re late, Debilmir!” Zduhach furrowed his one healthy brow. “Have you been harassing Milena again?”

“Hey! That’s not what I’m doing! And when did you start calling me ‘Debilmir’ again?”

A formally dressed clerk barely looked up from the stack of wanted notices in front of him. “We thought you had quit, Dragomir. The condemned is due to be executed in fifteen minutes.”

Soon, Dragomir stood on the execution platform, his trusted axe firmly in his hands.

This time, however, a cloth covered his head.

“Bring out the condemned!” Zduhach unrolled a scroll beside him.

Two guards led a familiar man onto the platform.

Blond hair.

A sigil on his forehead.

Perun.

People had gathered from far and wide to witness this for themselves.

Zduhach cleared his throat. “For the countless murders he committed against the people of Yav, the court has sentenced Perun, formerly known as God of Thunder, to death by beheading.”

The guards forced Perun to his knees and placed his neck on the executioner’s block.

Perun looked at Dragomir. “I have to thank you, bohatier. I had forgotten how wonderful real food tasted. How comforting it was to get a good night’s sleep.”

“Don’t try to make a happy ending out of this, Perun.” Dragomir traced the edge of his blade. “You don’t deserve one.”

“Is your personal vendetta piercing through those words?” Perun’s face was numb. Not a smile. Not even a spark in his eyes.

“If this were about my personal vendetta, I would’ve beheaded you a year ago.”

“I spent those twelve months as an ordinary human… in a cell. Just like in my younger days. Why do you think you’re any different from those spirits?”

“Because people built a system. An imperfect one. Sometimes painfully slow. But if someone’s life is going to be taken, the judgment better be as certain as we can make it. No more senseless killing without a trial.”

Perun closed his eyes. “There’s no coming back now. I fear what truly awaits me after death.”

Dragomir raised the axe.

“Nobody knows. As it should be.”

The blade fell. And Perun’s head rolled into a basket.

***

Back inside the courthouse, Dragomir and Zduhach descended into the dungeon, carrying torches as darkness swallowed the stairs beneath them.

A guard saluted. “Mr. Warden!”

“Thanks!” Zduhach patted him on the back.

“You should watch your manners. You’re a respected man now.”

“So I should force myself to act differently because of some job title?”

“Heh. You’re right.” Dragomir raised his torch as they continued down the corridor. “Any new clues?”

“Nope. Leshy’s forest is just another ordinary forest now. Baba Yaga’s chicken-legged hut is gone. As far as I can tell… there’s no way to get there anymore.”

“Hmm...”

They stopped where the corridor split in two.

“Are you going?” Dragomir asked.

“Yes. But only to make sure that bastard’s alive. I don’t plan to talk to him.”

“I still think a life sentence is a far worse punishment for Dazhbog than death.”

“Go. We shouldn’t stay down here too long.”

They parted ways.

At the end of Dragomir’s corridor stood a single occupied cell.

“Hey, Drago!”

Golden eyes gleamed in the darkness.

“How are you feeling today, Veles?”

Dragomir pulled out the bread he had bought and tore it in half.

Or tried to.

One piece ended up considerably larger than the other.

He passed the smaller one through the bars.

“I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose.” Veles bit into it.

“Do you know how hard it is to split bread with only four fingers on one hand?”

“Stop blaming everything on that!” Veles snapped. “Just give me some interesting news.”

“Perun was executed. His funeral is in three days.”

“I see…” Veles chewed slowly. “Do people still bury their dead with Lada’s ritual?”

“Not anymore. It took some time, but they’re slowly accepting that it isn’t needed.”

“So the world is healing.” Veles sat down on his bed.

“Veles.” Dragomir’s expression hardened. “Just admit it already. We’ve searched for it for a year. Even a half-god can’t find the entrance.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Negotiator almost sang.

“Alatyr. Before I touched your forehead… you destroyed it, didn’t you?”

“Too bad you didn’t think of yourself first, Drago. The crystal orbs shattered. And with them, your last chance to get back everything you lost.”

“I have everything I ever wanted.” Dragomir looked down at his four-fingered hand. “My old life is gone. Maybe that’s for the best. Now I get to build a new one more responsibly.”

“Ahh… people really do change, huh?” Veles lay back. “Just look at me. Nothing left to sell. Nothing I want to buy.”

“Well, you could sell those withdrawal episodes you get from time to time. If that were possible.”

“Heh.” Veles closed his eyes. “Will you come tomorrow?”

Dragomir smiled and walked away.

***

“Did you sell all the bread again?” Dragomir asked.

He and Milena lay in the grass beside the windmill.

“Of course.” She yawned. “Now be quiet. I want to enjoy this.”

Milena turned her back to him and closed her eyes.

She wasn’t afraid to nap anymore.

Dragomir smiled at the sky.

“I knew I’d find you here!”

Dragomir immediately raised a finger to his lips.

“Shhh!”

Jozef stopped beside them.

“Don’t wake her up!” Dragomir whispered, getting to his feet and leading him a little farther away. “What are you doing here, Father?”

“Well, since my son won’t visit me in Arkona, I thought I’d come to him!”

“I was there last week!”

“Once a week is enough to see your father?”

Jozef didn’t remember raising his son, but for the past year, they had been making new memories and rebuilding the bond they had lost.

“Alright,” Dragomir sighed. “I’ll visit more often.”

Milena stirred behind them.

Jozef noticed. “Ah… I’ll wait at your house. Whenever you two… finish whatever this is.”

“Get out of here.”

Jozef laughed as he walked away.

Dragomir returned to Milena.

“Slept well?”

“I barely slept five minutes.” She glared at him.

“And somehow, I sense that’s my fault.”

“Dragomir…”

Her expression softened.

“I appreciate that you come here every day. But from what you and Zduhach told me, I didn’t only forget our old life. I forgot most of our journey through Prav and Nav too.”

Dragomir stared at his boots.

“It’s thanks to you that nobody can ever exploit my parents again. They looked so peaceful. And I’ll always be grateful for that.” Milena touched his cheek. “But you can’t expect me to suddenly awaken feelings for you just because I loved you once.”

“I know.” Dragomir sighed. “We’ve been through this. I can’t ask you to love me just because I love you.”

“No. You can’t.”

Milena looked toward the horizon.

“But I asked you for time. And you gave it to me.” A tiny smile crept across her face. “So I guess we can go on a date tomorrow.”

Dragomir’s eyes lit up. “You mean it?!”

“But don’t think that means we’re a couple! We’ll take it slow. And maybe… someday, I’ll understand why I chose you the first time.”

She squeezed his hand.

“I’m sure choosing you the second time will be easier.”

Dragomir held her hand tighter.

“Then I promise I’ll make sure you never forget our tomorrow.”

There had always been somewhere else to reach.

Nav.

Prav.

Another god. Another answer. Another rule that could make everything right.

Not anymore.

For the first time, tomorrow led nowhere but forward.

No god was waiting for them.

No world needed to be rewritten.

Whatever came next belonged to them.

And perhaps that was what had always been waiting beyond Prav.

END