“My dear, boy,” Haldis began. “Life is a fickle thing. It takes us through countless journeys in an array of directions, some good and some bad. But all things happen just as they should. You can either choose to be defeated and angry by it, or try to understand the good that can come out of it. For all things have a good, no matter how dire or hopeless they might feel in the moment. Sometimes you just have to search harder for it.”
“How is what Oriana has done been good for anyone but herself?”
“Oriana has a reason for the decisions she has made. None of them have come lightly, Garren. You would be wise not to judge someone so harshly before you have truly understood why they have done the things that you so greatly despise.”
“I just can’t fathom how she could have been so selfish as to imprison an entire village just to avoid her duty. I can’t see any good in that. She has left these people to suffer so that she does not have to.”
“Have you actually seen the people of Sardorf suffer?”
Garren shifted his gaze from Haldis for a moment. Every image that came to mind from his time in the town was one of happiness. Merchant carts overflowed with wares on market day, children gleefully running through the town without a care in the world, and he had not seen a single beggar on the streets like in his hometown or any other city in Svakland.
He thought about the gardens on the rooftops, every one of them overflowing with vegetation and crops to feed entire families. He hadn’t seen an unhappy, underfed, or sickly face during his time here. Haldis was right; the people were not suffering. They were thriving.
When Garren looked back up at the elderly woman across from him, a knowing smile spread across her lips.
“She provides for them,” he stated, realization blooming within him.
“The people want for nothing. Sardorf is a place of beauty and peace, of love and happiness. It was not so before Oriana. Yes, it is true that the curse is a terrible, terrible castigation that has been the cause of great grief for both the people here and Oriana, but this town was on the decline in those days. They were starving and had fallen into poverty.
Sardorf lies at the base of the White Giants. The winters used to be long and hard, providing little to no food source. They relied on trade with other more southern villages, but the long and endless snows made it nearly impossible for anyone to bring in food and wares. People were dying rapidly, sickness spread like wildfire, and the ground stayed frozen for long months, making the window for planting and harvesting exceedingly small. If Oriana had not come when she did, Sardorf would have perished and none of these people would even be here. Their ancestors would be long dead.”
“But hasn’t her…demon…” The word felt tainted on his lips when talking about Oriana. It wasn’t right. “Hasn’t it massacred just as many people? Would it really have been any different?”
“If Oriana had not created the Phantom Wood, locking herself away, and had left this town to face another harsh winter, they would have been long dead before she could have devoured them. What she gave them was time. She not only enchanted the forest, but the town itself. Oriana made it so that they could survive and flourish. The people know what will happen on the blood moon, they prepare for it, and each blood moon fewer and fewer of them die.”
Garren didn’t know what to say. His harsh words to Oriana rang loud in his ears. “Is there nothing that can be done about the curse? Some way to free her from it?”
“She tried for centuries, analyzing each word carefully–tried everything she could think of to break free–but nothing has worked. She always turns back into her bloodlust each full moon.”
“There must be a way, something other than her returning to Anthes.” The god of war and trickery, he thought. He was speaking of the Gods as if they were living and breathing beings as opposed to fantastical creatures written about in story-books. He still hadn’t fully wrapped his head around it; maybe he never would.
Garren’s head pounded as he stared into the blazing embers in the hearth. Was the curse really all that bad if Oriana had helped this town and these people survive? But then he remembered what she had said, that on the tenth blood moon, the bloodlust would be all that was left of her, and what would happen to the people then?
Garren’s mind was suddenly sparked as he thought about the people of Sardorf. “How is the town and the townsfolk after last night when…”
“They are fine. A little shaken, but no casualties. Only a few bigger injuries and many minor ones. It was good of you to send the boy for me and lead that creature into the forest so quickly.”
“That was Oriana,” he said quietly, still hovering over what he had said to her. He had been so cruel.
Haldis only smiled at him. “Oriana protects all that she loves, asking nothing in return. She is a true goddess, our goddess.”
“I said some unforgivable things to her, Haldis. I–I was so angry, and I didn’t give her the chance to explain.”
“In due time, child. Allow her time alone after her change and all she has revealed to you.”
Garren sagged into his chair, letting his head fall back against it with a heavy sigh. No. He wouldn’t allow it. He would break the curse. He had to. Garren sat up straighter and scowled at the flames flickering in the hearth.
“I will find a way, Haldis. I will break Oriana free of her curse if it's the last thing I do.” Garren could have sworn he saw a spark of hope ignite behind the old woman’s eyes.
2nd Day of the Twelfth Month, 1774
A large crash of shattering glass from downstairs tore Garren from his slumber. He was instantly on his feet, racing out the door and down the stairs.
Haldis was pushed up against the far wall in the kitchen, Oriana slowly walking toward her. The look in Haldis’s eyes had him grabbing Oriana’s arm.
Oriana snatched his wrist and twisted. Garren grunted in pain and released his grip.
“Haldis,” a chilling voice hissed from Oriana. “I’ve long awaited this moment.”
