Witch, Wolf, Woods

CHAPTER 12: UNWELCOME NEWS & A BRILLIANT IDEA

"Given that we have no way of communicating with him or even knowing for certain if he's still alive, it's been difficult to confirm something we can't measure ourselves, but today in speaking with the Nicht foresters, they provided the measurements we have lacked."

Sprechen Dorothea paused, cast a long look around the room, then said, "Their measurements confirm the Schwarzwald is spreading. It is expanding outwards and growing at a real and measurable rate."

"How can that be?" demanded someone whose face Katja couldn't see. "It's been over two hundred years. Surely the Waldkonig is dead by now!"

"He is the spirit and embodiment of the forest," countered Sprechen Dorothea. "But whether the force expanding the forest is the same Waldkonig who orchestrated the Great Purge or another named to take his place, I do not know."

"Wouldn't expanding the forest be a violation of his treaty?" asked Tante Bettina from a table near the front.

Sprechen Dorothea made a face indicating she didn't particularly like the answer she was about to give. "The treaty requires him to stay in the Black Forest. I do not believe there were any stipulations beyond that."

"But if the forest is expanding, that means he can come closer to us!" called out someone else in an obviously frightened voice.

"Yes," nodded Sprechen Dorothea. "That is my concern and hence the reason for this meeting. We will continue to seek information on the growth of the forest, but eventually we will have to make some very difficult decisions.

"I don't anticipate having to make them anytime soon," she assured everyone, "as the Neckar River provides a natural barrier, and our Seers have seen no way of the Black Forest crossing it...but then again, simply because we are unable to see something does not mean it cannot or will not come to pass."

Katja thought of the trees she watched through her window and imagined them edging closer to the river, roots extending an inch at a time, creeping, crawling forward, branches reaching eagerly to dismantle the stone of the castle. She couldn't imagine the entire Hexen packing up their belongings and fleeing the castle to find safety somewhere else, but it seemed there was a very real possibility of such a thing happening at some point in the not-too-distant future.

"Are the foresters certain?" called out a voice Katja recognized as belonging to Tante Winola. "The Black Forest does play tricks on the senses, after all."

Sprechen Dorothea nodded. "Yes, it is too easy to confuse what is real from what is presented in that forest. I have seen the numbers for myself, both the older forest measurements and the newer measurements taken more recently. The foresters were as surprised as I was to find the Schwarzwald had expanded."

"Did they mention seeing any evidence of the Waldkonig?" another witch asked.

"No," admitted Sprechen Dorothea. "I was hoping for at least some sort of confirmation as to his existence, but they had none...which means we don't really know whether or not he's behind the expansion."

The Waldkonig—at the mention of his name, something always stirred inside Katja, like she was a metal tuning fork struck so hard, everything inside of her resonated.

According to the stories she'd heard, the Waldkonig was an incredibly powerful being, intimately tied to the Schwarzwald and charged with protecting it and keeping it healthy. As he'd become obsessed with running the forest as he saw fit and disposing of anyone who disagreed with him, he'd become increasingly selfish and unbalanced, and Katja knew from overhearing her aunts' discussions that many believed he would one day have to be dealt with, although no one knew how or what that might look like.