Verita's Chronicles, The Dreamer

Chapter 7

- A cultist, are you sure of what you're telling me?

- Since I'm starting to be affected by everything I've been drinking since this morning, I'd say seventy percent.

-Are you kidding me?

- Yes, a little, but joking aside, I confirm that this man was what one could compare to a
cultist.

- Well, explain to me.

Rycaon sighed, after resting a little there, he went back up and found Joacks in his
forge, the two men then sat in his office. The room wasn't very big, just
enough room for a table that resembles a desk and three chairs for meetings. We
saw that the room also served as a storage room for the inhabitants of the house, boxes and tools were arranged quickly and disorderly all around them.

- Explain why ?

- What happened, who this man really was and what you did to free him. Give me a way to explain to the family what happened to their children, to reassure them knowing
that they found comfort in Paradise.

- Well, I see that I have no choice, but please don't cut me.

- alright !

Rycaon leaned forward in his chair and took a deep breath, he just wanted to leave to get his
paid, but he understood the blacksmith's insistence only too well to leave him with nothing. Joacks for his part seemed tense, he suspected that what he was going to hear wasn't all pretty, but he considered it his duty to seek the truth in order to share it.

- Let's start with the events, the children must have been kidnapped by our man during one of their outings in the forest to go play, he then chained them to his wall to prevent them from escaping while he took everything in place.

- In place for what?

- ... I'll tell you if you don't cut me off. Well as I said to set up your
ritual. He must have tried to do a blood ritual, probably to receive a blood curse.

- A what ?

- You have a really hard time letting people talk. A blood curse is a kind of
fate imposed on someone either at birth or following a blood ritual, these curses confer
a power but often with a counterpart, such as being able to transform into a beast but being constantly hungry. Each curse is unique and it is impossible to predict it, but it can be influenced by varying the ritual. Our friend was stupid enough to believe that sacrificing his children and using their blood could grant him a more powerful curse.

- And it worked, and why children?

- Well, that's okay with the questions, do you want me to explain or not?

- Yes, please excuse me.

- he chose children because the soul of a child is more powerful, it did not have time to develop
corrupted by suffering, cruelty and all the other shitty things in our world. He seemed to know that, but what he forgot was that in a ritual, the cursed person must also use his own blood, but he didn't shed a drop, so that was of no use. However, what he re-
The only thing to do is to kill the children, one of them, the little blonde.

- Miriana.

- Pardon ?

- Her name, to the little blonde, was Miriane.

- If you want, so little Miriane died with so much hatred, resentment and sadness that her soul refused to leave, she remained as a poltergeist, and she forced the four
other children to stay with her. Then she cursed the man, and not a blood curse
as he wanted, but a real curse, visions, pain, loss of senses, madness, inability to
die, she kept him alive to torture him and by doing that, she kept a reason to stay her
and others in this world. I was content to find this man, to burn all forms of impurity in him, therefore causing his death, and thus removing all ties in this world for the children
allowing them to leave to join the kingdom of heaven.

- So now they are resting in peace?

- Yes, and he is probably in the depths of hell.

- I thought you don't believe in all these concepts like heaven and hell.

- No, I know they exist, I've seen enough proof of them, I just decided not to base this life on the hope of ending up in either of these places. But coming back to our dear friend, you will find his corpse as well as that of the children in the cellar of his house.

- Wait, wait, there's one last thing I don't understand

- Who is ?

- Why didn't the ghosts attack you, but attacked one of their parents.

- Ah that, well, it's a bit complicated. To make an easy summary, let's say that once dead, our
soul evolves, it reaches a stage which then allows it to pass into the other worlds. However, in this stage of evolution, we lose a large part of our capacity for reflection, our memories. Ghosts are beings who find themselves guided by their emotions as well as those of those around them, the man who came in was aggressive and was scared when he saw them, so they reacted accordingly. I put down my weapons before entering, I remained calm and peaceful all this time and since they had no negative memories of me, they left me alone.

- I understand, although I don't think I have anything else to add, so I'm going to go and announce the good news to the residents.

- Please wait until I have left for this.

- I want to, but why?

Rycaon stood up and grabbed his coat.

- Because I'm going to face two reactions, thanks and criticism, in both cases I don't want them, so I'm leaving and then telling you.

Opening the door Rycaon walked outside, leaving the house, crossing the village and climbing onto the cart where Mika was waiting for him.

- Oh and I almost forgot, just to thank you for helping me earlier, I'm lowering my price by fifteen percent.

- That's very generous of you, Rycaon.

- With pleasure.

He signaled Mika to start and, once far enough from the village, the young man turned his head.
- But, Mr. Rycaon, it's not Mr. B who will receive their money?

Rycaon chuckled and sat in the back of the cart, taking one last sip and preparing to sleep.

- Yes, now let me sleep.