The Lonely Ones

Chapter Three: Where It All Begins

Warning: Brief mention of suicide

Ima's guest sits at the table once more, speaking of his father's trip northeast through the Brimalto mountains. Unlike most of the folk in Eidenswill, Artemis' father Kalen, is not a farmer, but one of the finest artisans north of the Grim Woods. Perhaps their family would be rich if they lived south, where most of the aristocrats reside. Instead, Kalen makes a modest living, traveling with exquisitely crafted furniture to sell at busy market squares, mostly to foreigners that visit Valsinya by sea. Artemis' mother, Camellia, tends to an herb garden that she uses to make tonics for travelers about to set off on the Jolly Road. Artemis isn't sure what he will do when he's older, neither interested in crafts or tonics, and not very skilled with either.

"On the other side of the Brimalto mountains is the Tarminian sea. Have you ever been there?!" Artemis asks with a high pitch to his voice.

"I have," Ima answers. "Though it did not fascinate me as much as it does you."

"You're just hard to impress."

"Suppose so." Ima pinches red flakes and pink sand between her fingers, dropping them into a bubbling pot of pearl white liquid.

"Papa said this is his biggest sale yet. It will help get the materials for the very special gift he promised to bring me," he says, tapping his feet against the ground. "I asked him what it was, but he wouldn't tell."

"Would the gift be as special if he had told?"

"I don't know, but I hate waiting. He won't be home for at least two months!"

"Two months is hardly any time at all."

"To you, it isn't. You live forever."

"Perhaps. So long as none relieve me of my head." Ima smirks.

"Ima," he whispers. "Will you miss me when I'm gone?"

"I imagine not. I've watched many come and go. It's all the same. Time goes on. Before long I'll forget your voice and your face and the conversations we've had," she answers, as honestly as ever. Another child may cry or whimper, but Artemis likes Ima's honesty.

"I'd miss you," he declares. "But maybe that's because I wouldn't have as much time to forget you."

Ima hums, reaching for his two coppers. She slips them between the pages of a notebook Artemis purchased weeks ago from a merchant. The pages are filled with scribbled letters she has been teaching him. When he spelled his name the other day, he was nearly in tears. Ima couldn't fathom why, and she has never been interested to ask for an explanation.

"Hurry along before it gets dark," she instructs, handing the notebook to Artemis. He shares a smile before darting out the door.

But the threat of the Grim Woods soon becomes the least of Artemis' worries. Days later, a strange storm made of ice and snow hits in the middle of summer. Crops wither and die. Travelers freeze in the night. Citizens fight over food, wood for their fire, and blankets to keep their loved ones warm.

The king of Valsinya calls a state of emergency in less than a month. He empties the warehouses of rations. Soldiers distribute them from town to town. The children of Eidenswill watch the soldiers march from carriages, arms overflowing with rations. They tell tales to each other, stories explaining a soldier's missing finger or scarred face. When one overhears them, he sneers, sending the children squealing in all directions. The laughter and smiles are brief for Artemis. Although he sits warm in his house with a full belly, his mind is stressed with worry. There has been no news from his father--not until many weeks later.