Incarnation | Wandering Stars Volume One

Chapter 10

BAHYITH

They kept the cursed man on the western outskirts of the village, in a small valley in the foothills of Ehrevhar. The one responsible for feeding him was the man's wife, whose emotions were unreadable to Sariel. She walked at a brisk pace, while Sariel wondered what she had endured over the past two years. He imagined himself in her place and what it would feel like to have your husband return from a gathering expedition with a sickness. He is then forced to live outside of the village, which meant that you would also have to accompany him. With your status among the Chatsiyram dependent on your husband, your life would also have changed in an instant.

"Where are the wives of the other men?" Sariel asked, as soon as the thought came to him.

"They are dead," she replied flatly.

"Oh," Sariel mumbled. "I'm sorry. Did they become sick also?"

The woman stopped walking for a moment and turned around. Her eyes looked to be on the verge of tears, but the rest of her face remained expressionless. "They got too close and the men killed them."

"The sick men?" Sariel clarified.

"Yes. They killed their own wives," she answered, then turned and began to walk again.

"You saw this happen?" Sariel asked, not wanting to be disrespectful, but needing to understand the nature of the sickness.

"Yes," she replied, picking up her pace.

"And now that the other men are dead, it's just you and your husband. And you haven't touched each other in all this time?"

"He's not my husband anymore," she said softly without turning around. Her voice cracked a little with these last words.

Sariel stopped asking questions after this and they continued in silence for half an hour before descending a hill into a wide meadow. Sariel scanned the terrain, looking for a tent or structure of some sort.

"Where does he live?" he asked, finally breaking the silence.

"This way," she replied simply without breaking her stride. Following a worn path through the knee-high grass, she walked with the confidence of someone who had made this trip many times before.

Gradually, the peacefulness of the valley became disturbed by an odd screeching and moaning sound that grew louder as they crossed the meadow. It sounded like a wounded animal.

"Is that your husband?"

"He's not my husband anymore," she repeated.

"Of course. I'm sorry."

"He is always like this," she offered, speaking the first words of their trip that were not in response to one of Sariel's questions. "I believe that the sickness is angry to be trapped in his body."