A Forest of Secrets

Chapter 22

Koldo didn't look very surprised; Jo watched as he put the fire out with a flick of his wand, making the pod look dark. She felt a drop of cold sweat traveling all the way down her back.

"Tell me it was just a nightmare," she murmured. Koldo pursed his lips. "After everything I ate last night, it could've been the product of a bad case of indigestion. Wouldn't be the first time," she joked nervously.

"I am afraid it was a memory, Jocasta. I am sure you know that too, you are a smart girl," he said. He was looking intently at her, piercing into her soul.

"I know," she sighed. "I knew there was something I couldn't remember," she stroke her scar, softly. "Every time I tried to remember her, what she was like-- what they were like, my parents. I got these headaches. With time, I learned not to think about them," Jo closed her eyes, briefly. "You know something. Tell me," she demanded.

"This is not the first time you sit in this hut," he said. "And I am not speaking of yesterday," Jo looked at him with a stark expression on her face. "After the... incident, your grandmother brought you here. She begged me to remove your memories, so you could live a normal and happy life; she told me she'd left the village, all her things, and was planning to start over where none knew who you were," was that a tiny smile she saw on his face? Maybe it had been a shadow. It was gone now. "I told her I would not. Erasing memories... well, I told you what happens when memories are removed. I offered her to conceal them, instead. They would be there, dormant, in a corner of your brain. It was the best I could do without turning you into a drooling husk."

"I see," Jocasta answered bluntly. She was stroking her scar, absentmindedly.

"I think the wisps sensed your wish to know more about your mother, maybe it was subconscious? Hmm..." he accommodated his snake-like locks. "Growing up without your parents, not remembering them... maybe you always wondered," Jo nodded.

Only the thought hadn't been subconscious at all, at least not since she learned her mother had been a mage: it chewed the back of her mind, creating little holes of doubt and fear, causing her sporadic headaches. She wondered before, on occasion, but the pain stopped her every single time. She noticed it was gone now: she could think about her freely.

"They probably used their spirit magic to undo the concealer spell... one wisp would have not been enough, I..." he sighed heavily. "I used more than one of them to be able to cast it. I felt like I owed your grandmother. And you."

"For planning on, possibly, kill us," she joked halfheartedly.

"Indeed," Koldo nodded.

"Do you know what happened to my father? He... went back to life, didn't he? Is he still out there? Why hasn't he contacted me? Does my grandmother know?"

"It is... complicated. Have you ever heard of revenants?" he inquired.

"I can't say that I have. I'm not going to like this, will I? More bad news, on top of bad news," she was masking her pain with humor. "I guess there's no other kind these days. Just bad all over, sometimes with a sprinkle of outrageous."

"I cannot say, it depends on what you consider bad news," he smirked, raising an eyebrow. Was that an attempt at joking? Jo smirked back. He was trying to make her feel at ease. "When... a mage brings someone back to life," he started, "their soul does not come back the same: it gets... corrupted. Then, they turn into revenants: the returned. But unlike corpses possessed by wandering souls, revenants are well aware of who they are... they remain human, they are still themselves: they keep their memories, their wishes, their feelings." He rested his hands on his lap. "They feel, think and need nourishment like any of us; alas, that nourishment is blood, more specifically: the life essence present in blood. Raw magic, which you do not possess," Jo wrinkled her nose. At least she would be safe from becoming revenant food. " They are made with blood magic... and they need more blood magic to continue to exist. If a mage cannot provide them with the magical energy they need to survive... they must get it directly from the source."