Chapter 15, Lesis

She prayed every day to the higher powers. But she never got an answer. ‘They’ had come and helped them before, and now they needed help again.

It was true that it has been subtle, not many people know, but it needed to be stopped. If not, many people would face the consequences and die.

“Lesis?” Her older sister called. “Time to eat!”

“Coming!”

Lesis knew what she had heard, she knew it hadn’t been a dream. She had even gone and checked by the river to see if it was true. And it had been. Almost all signs she had been told were there: the yellow grass, the bad smell, there had even been some dead fish in the water. When she and her sister had gone to the market, people had been talking about the river. They had no idea though. Yes, they thought it was black magic, even though some had said it wasn’t, but they had no idea about the scale of it all.

That’s why she prayed, but not to the gods. She had prayed to them for too long without getting an answer. Now all she had left was the higher powers, the People in White. She prayed for the people in the village and in the country and in the world. Prayed that they would realize what was about to happen. She also prayed the People in White would come and help, again.

“Lesis?” She hadn’t noticed her sister had come in. “I told you it’s time to eat.”

The kitchen smelled of sengri, her favorite dish. In one of the corners Grandmother lay on a bed, and Grandfather sat on a stool next to it, feeding mashed sengri to her. Lesis sat down at the table and her sister came with the wood plates.

“We’re soon out of rice.” Her sister said as they began to eat. “We’ll have to go and buy more soon.”

Lesis didn’t answer. ‘Soon’ could mean a few days or a few weeks, it depended on how much money they had.

“We’ll see if we can afford more after we’ve sold the eggs and chickens.” She continued.

They had hens and chickens. They had had more a few years ago, but they had been forced to sell some to get money and some were dying by ‘unknown’ causes. Lesis knew what they were dying of, though. The water from the river wasn’t good anymore. It was good that they had the cow.

“By the way, you should stop praying. They won’t listen, we went back to the Nature for a reason.”

“Ber,” Grandfather said. “Let the girl believe what she wants to believe.” But the girl didn’t believe in the gods.

“I’m just saying that the Nature has helped us more than those gods have.” Her sister looked at Lesis. “Don’t believe the wizard and all his…his people.” She said the last word with disgust.

Lesis didn’t believe the wizard, just because she was young didn’t mean she wasn't gullible and didn’t understand.  Besides, she knew more about the situation than anyone. The wind had told her.

“I didn’t pray to the gods.” Lesis said with food in her mouth.

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth!” Her sister snapped. “How many times do you need to be told? I can’t hear what you’re saying and it’s disgusting.”

Lesis swallowed the sengri.

“I prayed to the People in White.” She mumled.

Silence.

Her sister looked at her with wide eyes for a second, sighed, finished one of the leaf rolls and swallowed before she answered.

“You can’t pray to them.” Her sister said her that’s-the-way-it-is voice. “You can only pray to gods.”

“I can pray to whoever I want!” She pouted.

“No! That’s the thing with prayers, only the gods care about them!” She began to eat her second sengri. “And they hardly do that.” She added quietly with food in her mouth.

“Let her pray if she want to.” Grandfather said in his calm voice. “It doesn’t hurt anyone, does it?”

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence.

She had brought a stool outside, to the backyard, and was listening to the wind. Usually it was calming, but this time wasn’t. The wind was strong, and Lesis knew it tried to tell her something, but she couldn’t understand. The thing she did understand was that it was something urgent. When she thought about it, this was the first time she couldn’t understand the wind. Not even when she tried her hardest. It made her worry. She heard someone come and turned around, it was Grandfather.

“Have I ever told you about when my grandfather saw the People in White?”

“Yes.” He had many times, but she liked the story. Her great-great-grandfather had been abroad, fighting in the Sun War, when the People in White had come and stopped the war. It had already taken many lives and destroyed many more, and more had been lost until the peace finally came. Even though her great-great-grandfather had just seen them once from a long distance he felt their power. Afterwards he had told anyone who would listen what a fantastic moment it had been. He described it like seeing the Nature itself. “I used to say I wanted to meet them.”

He laughed.

“Yes, yes, you did.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at his eyes. “Do you remember how the Sun War ended?”

“We and the wizards decided to share the power.” Even children younger than her knew that.

“And do you know how it began?” Why was he asking this? She eyed his face, but didn’t see anything different.

“The wizards wanted power, but it was first when one of them locked in or killed those she considered a threat that anyone…”

“No, no, no.” He interrupted. “Before that. Do you know the signs?”

His grip on her shoulder tightened.

“Granfather, you’re hurting me!” She looked into his eyes, she didn’t understand why she saw fear.

“Do you know the signs?” He had begun to talk faster; the calm, familiar voice was gone.

 “What signs?” She heard a voice that didn’t sound like her own.

“The signs of black magic. Some of the first are yellow grass and bad water.” A cold hand gripped her heart. “You’ve seen them down by the river, haven’t you? That’s why you have been so quiet, am I right?”

“Lesis.” Her sister’s voice trembled.

They turned around. Behind her stood two men. Grandfather’s tight grip on Lesis’ shoulder loosened.

“There are wizards here to see you.”

…locked in or killed those she considered a threat…