Triora's Trial

VI

«Olivia! Has your brother left for school already?!»

Olivia is still twisted in her sheets, with her mouth open and her cheeks reddish, her left arm and leg are leaning out of bed, she resembles a character from one of those chaotic Renaissance pantinings. She mumbles something to her mum, but she can't comprehend what her daughter is trying to say.

«I don't know what to do, Florian. My parents won't listen to me. Mum says I should not worry, that it's normal to feel frightened and that it will soon get better, that she passed through this phase too, when she was our age, so I should not be scared. But that shadow on my skylight window... it just looks too real to be a dream, and as soon as I wake up, it's gone! It's as if I feel observed while I'm sleeping, so I open up my eyes, and the very first thing I notice is the movement of this shadow that gets sucked in the darkness, like in a black hole. It happens all so fast that I can only distinguish its limbs, which appear to be human-like.»

Tobia holds his breath for a second, while a gentle breeze makes the leaves of the old olive tree jiggle in synchrony as in a magical dance.

«And it's not only that shadow... it's that I feel completely left out from the world right now. My mum thinks I'm being a lunatic, my dad is just being very absent lately, and he is not getting along well with mum... ever since we arrived in Triora they have been fighting over and over. Dad has become quite ungovernable, he is dull and everybody can tell that he is not happy to be here. He keeps bringing up how irresponsible we had been that afternoon in the fields... - If you hadn't helped that old lady, none of this would have happened - he must have repeated that more than fifty times since we moved here. And, trust me, it is not nice to hear that from your dad, you feel like a traitor, a back-stabber. But then when I think about it deeper, and I leave my guilt aside, I am convinced that that was the right thing to do, it's the community that has become too strict and blind. The magic community in Maleventum is old, rotten and dirty... and if it hadn't been for that old lady, it would have been for something else, but we wouldn't have lasted for long anyway, not under those circumstances.»

A leaf falls down from the tree, and Tobia stares at it while it graciously sways back and forth toward the ground. In the magic world, it is common belief that when a person dies, their soul reincarnates in the natural element that they felt more deeply connected with, during their life.

Tobia's friend Florian had been resting in peace for four years now, but Tobia never stopped talking to him through trees and leaves, and the older the tree, the better chance you have to make a connection with the dead. That's why Tobia decided to go into the forest near town that morning. There are no proofs that this method actually works, but do you really need a logical explanation for something that makes you feel good? In the magic world they think not.

Florian was a dear friend of Tobia's, who passed away at the age of 13 because of a bad infection that his body was not able to fight. He was Tobia's childhood first best friend and Tobia would always feel connected to Florian, even in the years to come. Florian was a calm child, an easy one, one that never caused any problems apart from minor troubles that derived from his cheerful spirit. He used to hide things from his grandma, or sip from a glass of wine that his dad left on the counter, he used to make himself sandwiches and leave the kitchen in a complete mess, and he liked to play tricks to his cat. He was naturally a carefree child. Maybe he was never supposed to grow old, maybe his only possible destiny was to remain a child forever.

«What would you do in my situation? I guess you would not even worry about it to start with... maybe mum is right and I am overreacting, maybe I should just man up.»

Tobia is staring at the olive tree as if he were waiting for something to happen, a branch moving, a leaf falling, or the voice of his old friend cheering him up a bit, but the wind has calmed down and everything remains still. Tobia also remains still, wondering what Florian would have looked like now, and if they would have remained friends through the years, but then he realizes that they probably wouldn't have, becuase he has moved to Triora, while Florian's family is still living in Maleventum, and a sense of guilt comes back to haunt his thoughts. Tobia starts hearing his father's voice in his head, complaining about how stupid he and his mum behaved that day in the fields. His dad still doesn't seem to be able to forgive them and it is all because of him... if only he hadn't found that old lady lying on the grass...

Tobia tries to free his mind from his intrusive thoughts, so he picks up his schoolbag from the ground and makes his way out of the forest. He is late for school now: he delved into the thick forest when it was still dark, and now the sun is starting to warm the bare branches of the pines and the delicate leaves of the olive trees. Time passes by so quickly when he talks to Florian.

The Silver Forest is an ancient wood that embraces Triora all around, and gives home to one of the major sabbaths in the world: the Silver Cerberus Sabbath. This legendary event takes place each year on the night of June 24th, when the forest is invaded by a huge amount of witches and wizards. They set up magical tents or build enchanted tree-houses, that remain invisibile to the eyes of the Ordinary, as on that night the forest is protected by a magic bubble that prevents any entrance from non-magic creatures.

The Silver Forest is a magical place, quite literally. It was called like that because of its brilliant colours and beautiful, bucolic landscape. It extends all along the Silver Valley and it is crossed by the Silver River. The crystal clear water of the river and the shiny leaves of the ancient olive trees, larches and pines riverberate throughout the entire valley, gifting humans and animals with an other-worldly light. Not for nothing, the forest is where Tobia has learnt to retreat to, when life feels too big.

As Tobia's feet step on the dry leaves that are lying on the ground, it occurs to him that, at this time in the morning, robins are usually chirping, but now the only thing that Tobia can hear is the sound of the leaves creaking under his shoes. This realization triggers something in his body that makes him feel uneasy, as if his instinct was trying to warn him about something.

He starts to walk faster, his ears are on alert and his eyes examine the environment around him. A wizard's instinct can never be wrong, so Tobia begins to run, and the more he runs, the more he feels this strange sensation lingering on his arms and legs, which causes him to feel goosebumps all over his body. Silence can often be so loud.

He has been running for just a couple minutes in the direction of town, when his attentive sight notices something black and brown hanging from a tree. Tobia stops immediately, pondering what he'd better do now, and he quickly comes to the conclusion that he should ignore that floating dark spot, and run out of the forest as fast as he can instead. But since theory is very different from practice, and his curiosity is extremely dynamic, he decides to go and check with his own eyes.

He approaches the tree slowly, with his feet ready to flee at the slightest noise, but everything is still, everything is... dead. It is a dead wild boar hanging in an unnatural position from a branch, and underneath a big pond of fresh red blood is forming.

Tobia is not moving a finger, his brain is trying to process the painful scene that is displayed so causally in front of him, and he's trying to do the math as to how a wild boar could reach such a high branch, which he knows is impossible as boars can't climb. He decides to take a picture with his phone, so he can look into that with his parents later, Tobia could sense that there was something off about all that.

As soon as the flash starts, he hears a horrific grumpy noise coming from a couple of trees beyond, and the creature that has been staring at him in his sleep, for God knows how long, takes a big jump down the tree and reveals itself in all its abomination, before quickly disappearing in the dark dense vegetation of the Silver Forest. Tobia remains paralyzed.

It resembled a human, but Tobia would not be able to tell if it was a male or a female. It had dark long hair covering half its face, it was skinny and its flesh tended to grey. Its mouth drooled like that of a beast and its eyes were reddish, its body was covered in old rags and Tobia was able to distinguish a drawing on the textile: it was a wild boar carrying a cloth on its back.

It was Maleventum's coat of arms.