Nightshade.” Zenia’s whisper is barely distinguishable with all of the night noises. The name sends shivers down my back, and I can see the same reaction in Zenia. How had the device gotten into my house?

“What is it?”, I ask for the second time. There was a slight tremor in my voice, but I was prepared to face anything, now that the fear of the moment was gone. Master’s face seems to be locked in a combination of fear and anger.

“I am sorry to say this, Osgood. It pains me to even think of it, but I must tell you.” Dread floods through me as Master pauses. What could be so bad that Master couldn’t tell me straight out? It wasn’t like him to use a roundabout way to speak to me.

“I am afraid that…” Master pauses to clear his throat. And suddenly I know.

“Mother is…“ I suddenly can’t get the words to come out of my mouth. The silence is deafening.

“She’s dead, Osgood. There is nothing you can do for her.” Zenia sounds so emotionless that it takes me a while to understand what she had said. The words hit me harder than she had probably thought. Though with Zenia anything is possible, as confusing as her thoughts and emotions are.

“No... No, no, no. It can’t be… there has to be something I can do! Master! There has to be something I can do! We can’t just give up!” I can feel myself panicking. Master just stares at me blankly, looking more lost than I have ever seen him.

“I can’t believe it…”, Master turns around, not looking at either me or Zenia. The despair in his voice breaks any hope that I had had of finding my mother. He starts moving toward the center of the city. “I’ve failed Farad… How? How is it possible?”

“No…”, That seems to be the only word that I can say, as the reality of the sentence seems to hit me again. “NO! We can’t just give up! There has to be something we can do!” Master just continues toward his destination. Every step he takes seems to weigh him down even more.

“Zenia!”, I turn to her, desperation cracking my voice, “There has to be something we can do! We can’t just give up!” Tears fall from my eyes, my heart sinking deeper and deeper into fear of what will happen without my mother.

“Osgood… What you want is impossible. Nightshade…“, Her voice cracks and I feel her emotional barrier break, showing me her emotions. Pity…Anger…Sadness. Reality knocks me down for the third time, just as “Nightshade doesn’t take prisoners… ever” leaves Zenia’s mouth. An indescribable feeling fills my heart. A pain, so deep that I see no end to it, stretches far into the future. Any hope that I had of ever showing my mother what I have become disappears in the darkness that floods through my mind.

“No…”, I choke out, crumpling to the ground. “She can’t be… N-no…” The tears start and I can’t stop them before the cascade down my face. Zenia stands next to me, unsure of herself and of what to do in this situation.

“Osgood…” For the first time since I had met her, Zenia’s voice does not carry the hatred that I had felt before. Though I knew that this was the greatest amount of sympathy that she could muster, after living with Master for so long, I did not want any of it. Even if it was tremendously difficult to earn, sympathy was not something I wanted. There were too many of these “sympathizers” at my father’s funeral. I did not want, nor need, a repetition of this.

Standing up on unsteady legs, wiping tears off of my face, I turn toward Zenia. I can see the struggle that she is going through, trying to suppress the memories of her father that she had. Her face is just as expressionless as it ever was, but her eyes betray her. Despite the shield that she has put around her emotions to prevent me from catching them, I can see in her eyes that the feelings between us had changed, though slightly, but a ways from hatred. I could only hope that I could deserve those feelings, for there was nothing that I had done yet that would have supported this change.

                                                          …

The cold wind from the mountains and the scenery surrounding the realm feels refreshing after the hot stuffiness and drab walls of my dwelling. Three years have passed since Mother was taken from me, but the sadness still burns inside me, with no sign of stopping or lessening. Mother would have found something to love in the scene spread out before me, even if it were a barren wasteland. Turning away from the green meadow, I search for Master. Despite the hard hit he took when my mother was killed, he had agreed to remain my teacher. Spotting his figure halfway down the hill, I hide my presence and run toward him. Ever since the incident, I have trained harder than I have ever before. Although the funeral had already passed, I had still not given up hope that I would find my mother. The others seem to have long forgotten that she had ever been in the realm at all, and despite the mourning that was still going, it was dimmed down with the festivities of life. I was the only one, it seemed, that still believed that my mother was still alive.

Reaching Master, I notice that there was tension in his shoulders. Now that I was closer, I notice that his whole body was tense, as if he was fighting something. Looking around, I could not see what was making him so tense.

“Osgood.”, The voice that comes out of Master’s mouth sounds nothing like him and scares me enough that I jump back.

“Do not be afraid, young swordsman.” The voice continued, “Know that you are correct in thinking that your mother is alive.”

“How can I trust you, without knowing who you are?”, I ask shakily. The words had touched a still-smarting bruise.

“Trust is relative. Even knowing who I am, I wouldn’t trust myself… Take your choice seriously. Know that your Mother’s fate rests in your hands.” Master seems to relax, tension leaving his shoulders. His eyes open, looking years older than they had that morning.

“Don’t listen to what I just said”, Master’s voice sounds as though he hadn’t used it in a long time.

“The one who spoke was not me, but one of the Unknown. I advise you to not listen to their advice. Listening to them comes at a terrible cost. You are too important for the realm to pay that cost.”

“But… He said that Mother is alive… Shouldn’t we at least try to rescue her?”

“That’s how they work. Capturing innocents by using their emotions.” Master is angry at himself for allowing himself to be taken over in that way, that much I know, but if my mother was alive…

“Master… we have to at least try-”

“Osgood. We can not leave the realm unprotected. No matter what.” The anger in his eyes is what breaks the resolve that I had. It was better to listen to him. Or at the least, pretend. The hope that was given to me was a precious gem that I would not shatter until I knew that it was not the truth.

“Very well, Master. I will try to not think about this offer.” Part of me felt guilty for lying to him in such a manner, but it seemed to be the only way to stop him from questioning me even further.

“See that you don’t. The Unknown are not to be trusted. I’ve lost too many friends to them to give the benefit of the doubt.” Master seems to relax, but the glint of suspicion does not leave his gaze. I doubt that he believed my lie, since I have been living with him for the past years. I could only hope that he understood that there was no way that I could not think about my mother living. I just hoped that I was not too late to save her.