"Why should I believe your stories? Everything keeps getting twisted around. I don't know your motive. Things always blow up in my face. I'm tired of it. Why don't you find another pawn?" Dovi paced back and forth in front of the fireplace. The room had gone from warm and comforting to choking and stifling. Sweat trickled down between his shoulder blades. Gray eyes simmered. "Well, don't you have anything to say? Are you like all the other conniving fools?" asked Dovi, sounding harsher than he had intended.
Tuck leaned over mechanically and placed his pipe on a stand carved in the likeness of a swoop-necked heron with upthrust wings. He turned to Dovi, ran his tongue behind lips pressed together in a tight line. "Your tizzy quite finished? Or have you a spare rant left in your pocket?"
Dovi's face reddened further, but shifted from anger to embarrassment. He ran concealing hands down his cheeks.
Tuck sighed deeply. "Follow me if you dare to follow any fool, for I know only a foolish fool thinks himself fairer than the other fools." He pushed himself up off the leather chair, straightened out his crooked back, walked to the front door, and left the cottage.
Dovi scurried after him.
The sun sat nestled between two jagged peaks cresting the treetops off to the west. The gentle breeze welcomed Dovi like a long-lost friend. I'm glad to leave that choking place. He shook his head at Tuck, as the old man stopped in the center of the clearing and gazed into the sky. What trick will be played upon me this time?
"Unhelian Aerdaed Fugelwylle," called Tuck as he raised his arms.
Birds swarmed, wheeled and swooped to form a whirling field of feather and flight. Small, crafty azure blues and vibrant yellows sailed alongside wings of reds and browns and whites. Tuck Sooth swung his hands down low, then raised his palms up high, and directed the massive, flowing flock to follow his command. "Unhelian Aerdaed Fugelwylle," he repeated, his voice growing louder.
Dovi's heart swelled and his mind soared. The avian cloud transformed into a swirling live motion show. His mother stood in front of the well at his family's farm. As the birds moved, so did his she. Absolutely incredible. Oh, Mom, I miss you so much. He brushed the tears from his eyes. I'm not ready to see this yet.
His mother climbed atop the lip of the well, then without hesitation, plunged into the darkness. Why did you? The dark silhouette splashed into the watery bottom. Dovi watched on in horror. Chalia struggled to stay afloat, clawing and groping her way along the slimy well. A desperate hand caught hold of an iron rung driven into the stone wall. Mom, you can't swim. Why? Dovi cringed as she took a deep breath, then followed a series of iron rungs not up, but down beneath the waterline. Rung by rung, she pulled herself lower. Lips pressed shut, lower and lower she went, fighting against the need for air.
Dovi watched in horror, his breath coming in heaving wracks. Stuffed down suffering burst to the surface. What is she doing? Why would you leave me? I don't want to watch her die.
"P-Please, I don't want to w-watch her die. Please, d-don't show me anymore," said Dovi between staccato sobs.
Tuck ignored Dovi's plea. The birds continued to cascade across the sky, spinning and sliding in and out, diving from corner to middle to bottom. The speed in which the aerial painters flowed dazzled the eye, as wings and tail feathers formed acid grays, murky browns and deep purplish blues.
Chalia pulled herself down, fought the mounting pressure in her ears, and finally reached the bottom of the well.
Dovi wiped away his tears. A light at the bottom of the well? The soaring image swirled once more; three flowers emerged from a carved stone base, each pulsing with colorful life: red, blue and indigo. Chalia removed a pulsating blue stone from her pocket and pushed the orb into a depression in the rock floor.
Dovi grabbed his head as a piercing wail filled his mind with hatred and a cunning desire. His body convulsed. Each pore cried out from a thousand prickling stabs. Spider, scorpion, wasp, hornet, dagger, spike, nail, arrow: struck him a thousand times over. He should have died. He wished for death and still he watched the scene before him. His mother's face was twisted agony, as rays of blue and red shot out from every pore. The two colorful spraying rays circled round the well, blurring from many to one, when at last a single blinding indigo ray seared upon the stone floor. The light sizzled across the rock and doused each flower's flickering glow. When the last flower ceded to the dark, the light in Chalia's eyes also flickered and faded away.
The birds swirled once more. Craeve appeared at the bottom of the well as the blackened, broken flowers drifted by. Her face twisted in rage as she slammed her fist into the wall and scratched the surface where the flowers once had bloomed. The blue stone was gone as well. Dovi started as he watched Craeve wrench his mother by the hair and push back towards the surface.
The unrelenting pain finally subsided. Dovi dropped to the grass, rolled upon his side and pulled his knees up to his chest. The physical pain was gone, but a much deeper pain remained.
"Why? Why? Why would you show this to me? What purpose did it serve?" Dovi rocked weakly upon the ground.
A hand touched his shoulder. Bisby Wroughton offered a hand to help him to his feet. The short man's eyes shone knowingly and compassionately. He nodded once and waited for Dovi to take his hand. When Dovi reached his feet, the sky hung low in a fading purple light. The birds were gone. Tree frogs belched and bellowed, filling the meadow with a mellow melodic chorus.
"Tell me why this happened. Please," said Dovi despondently. Pleading eyes locked on Tuck.
"Your mother sacrificed herself to save us from the Shadow gods. She closed the last known True Rhist spring remaining in your world. Bisby gave her the Sealing Stone when you were just a child. She knew this day would come. She's been waiting for the Sealing Stone to pulse with life. It called her when True Seeing saw the risk of Shadow had weighed too heavy on the scale of Being. I'm sorry. We did the best we could. We had no other means to get it done. Not even your father knew the burden. She was very brave and loved you more than you could know," said Tuck. He walked over to Dovi and put an arm around his shoulder.
"I don't understand. Why?" asked Dovi.
"That well watered you with Rhist. You may still become a powerful Maege, but you are no True Rhistmaege. Your mother's sacrifice is what unlocked the Rhist within you. Without the sealing of the rift - tapping your Rhist would have burned you to oblivion. You would have been overwhelmed by the True Source."
"My father didn't know? Why not tell him? Why couldn't he have died?" asked Dovi.
"She didn't want to risk his interference. She said she'd handle it on her own. Takes a female's will to bear the pain to seal the Rhist."
"My poor mother," seethed Dovi.
"Do not fuel the fire with an ignorant mind," said Tuck. He turned and put two hands on Dovi's shoulders. "Your father is not some evil soul born with a rotten core. He made his own pact with Bisby. He too made a sacrifice and your mother was just as unaware. He did it for you Dovi. He took Venom's taint upon himself, in order to further purify your Rhist. Without his sacrifice, this pure Rhist would have driven you to a very poor ending. He suffered much more than you could possibly know."
"But he hurt both of us. We suffered. How could that have helped? Life was a living hell," said Dovi acidly.
"Do you know why he often disappeared? Did you wonder why he would sometimes leave in a heated rage?"
"Because he hated us!" shouted Dovi. "You don't know what we lived through. You don't know the half of it. Have you ever watched your mother being slammed into the wall so many times that the house's framing cracked? Have you been hit with a hammer? Punched by your own father? Cut? Whipped? You don't know. You don't."
"It was the Venom. Most times he never even made it to Dwolcraeft Den. He wandered like some frothing beast, hiding himself away in deep woods or black, bottomless caverns. Many a time he considered ending his madness by his own hand, but he chose to live on, in order to help you. It takes courage to live a feral life by choice. Living in constant fear. Running away from yourself, but never gaining a step. It's been hard for him. He did it all for you. He did it without thanks or recognition. He did the best he could. You've more than enough reason to hate him, but don't make your mother's sacrifice to be all in vain. You must find a way to forgive him. Purified Rhist must be wielded by a purified heart. Right now, all the Rhist, all this power, may be at your fingertips, but with the black heart you carry within your chest, it might as well be a million miles away. Are you willing to try?"
"After he gets what's coming to him, then I'll consider it." Dovi spat on the ground, turned and walked away.
"This is bigger than you Dovi. Your parents knew. Walk away and we all walk in shadow," called Tuck, raising his voice as Dovi moved towards the lake. "You should not leave the clearing at night. I'm warning you. It isn't safe out there. There are things out there. Dovinicus, don't walk away. I won't be able to bring you back if they find you."
"What makes you think I want to come back?" Dovi quickened his pace and disappeared into the darkening woods.