Sannhetssøker (Truth Seeker) Trilogy

Chapter One

It was a dark and stormy night, bullets of rain battered down on the village rooftops as families huddled inside for warmth. Each member prayed to Sahar in hopes of light breaking through their dark, storm clouds. The great bear goddess could always bring light to the darkest of times, even in the most meaneal of situations, a terrible rain storm being one of them. Throughout the entire village only one family did not pray or call out to the goddess, and it was the family that knew she would not listen to them. The Blackleach family had been ignored by the gods for many a generation, their ancestor, King Aric Blackleach, having angered the Gods in search for immortality. He sought this through any means necessary, and eventually struck a bargain with Mazikeen, Dragon God of the Spirit World, and he sacrificed his eldest child, Rohana Blackleach, to offer him payment. This angered the Gods, for she had been born with the mark of rebirth,and was destined to be chosen by and serve one of the Deities in her afterlife, to allow past reborn generations a chance at ascending to Peace. In fear, Magnus Blackleach fled the castles of the Northern Mountains, and hid in the lower valleys where his father would not pay him any attention. It was there that he raised his son, even after the death of his wife, and helped instill honor, respect, and hard work into them all until his late death. Rohana Blackleach was not only the last in the family line to be born with the mark of rebirth, but was also the last female born into the bloodline. It seemed that their family was cursed to always raise boys into men, continuing the bloodline, and continuing the curse their ancestor placed upon them when he betrayed his daughter.

Today, dealing with the storm at hand, the three living generations of Blackleach men sat close together amongst a fire. Years of social recluse had not only made them proficient in surviving whatever the world threw at them, but instilled an importance of seeking emotional and mental support in each other. In fact, the Blackleach line was quite possibly better at communicating problems and then working towards a solution than any other family line the world had seen. Months prior, Destin Blackleach, youngest generation living, had married Tyra Spearfish, much to the disapproval and disappointment of her family. She was curled up beside him, cuddled into his side along their home furniture, trying desperately to ignore the loud banging that the sky threw out. Ever since she was a child, she had been afraid of the thunder that came along with storms. She only hoped that she would not pass along the same fear to the life growing inside of her womb. Shortly after the marriage ritual, Tyra had become pregnant with Destin’s child, and they anxiously awaited the arrival of the next generation.

Childbirth and labor had never been kind to the women that married into the Blackleach family. It seemed each wife was destined to succumb to the pain and trials that giving birth held. There was much debate between the different generations on if this was due to the Gods forsaking them all or due to the village healers and doctors ignoring them as well for fear of angering the gods as well. Due to this, early generations would go on journeys to find the Blind Healer, a seasoned woman of medicine, that was known throughout the world as being accepting of any and all social status. The married couple would begin travelling on the eve of the final full moon of the pregnancy, with hopes that they would find her in time to actually allow the mother to survive the childbirth and live to see her son grow into a man. After more than five generations of the mother giving birth alongside some road and then immediately dying, the family made the decision to cease doing so. Each son attempted to avoid falling in love as best he knew how, but it seemed that each generation was destined to fall in love and then lose her when their son was born. Better for her to face this fate in the comfort of the family home than the road side, where no one would come to their aide. If they could have found the Blind Healer, they did believe that she would have helped them, despite their social standing.

The Blind Healer was known by all as kind spirited, wise beyond any could know, and had an inspiring nature. She had a magic about her, an innate ability, where she could always find the right way to heal someone, just by putting her hands onto them. This became the center point of her practice due to her disability, but it was beyond successful. Nothing else was known about her, not even her name, besides her magical ability to heal those who have sought help from her. A tower of a woman, she was tall and broad in the shoulders, often casting her shadow over even the tallest of families if they were in need of being intimidated into actually following the advice that she gave to them. Should a family call upon her to assist with an emergency, she would arrive on the back of her jet black Clydesdale mare, who would not only ensure that the Blind Healer was safe, but provided her with guidance wherever she went that she could bring the mare along as well. For the areas that were inaccessible for the horse, the Blind Healer brought with her a wooden staff. The staff itself was made of a steady oak, tipped at the bottom end with a metal tip, and the grips were of a softened leather, worn after years of use. At the top of the staff sat an ornament, an open mouthed serpent that was made of the blackest obsidian, with red dipped teeth that were exposed to threat and eyes made of the same blackest obsidian. Legend says that, should you look too deeply into them, you would be forced to confront your worst fears.

All of the youth had been taught from a young age that they were to respect the Blind Healer or face the consequences. There were stories, whispers along the wind, that stated families had allowed their children to play cruel pranks on the old healer woman. This had angered the gods, and they sent storms raging across the families crops and made the ground unstable for any future crop. That family had been forced to sell, and then be hired to work the land they had once owned for generations. This was the only way that the gods allowed crops to be grown on the land again, and word spread faster than wildfire. If there were citizens of the world that didn’t respect her and her importance to the world balance, this event instilled what respect and fear was lacking. The Blind Healer went about her business, travelling across the country sides and over the water, to wherever she was needed the most. Though never staying for much longer than that. It had been quite some time since she had been to the village where the Blackleach family resided, a good generation or two, and it was this very night that she decided that it was high time she made her way back to the valley below the Northern Mountains.

It would be another three full moons before she would make it back, two moons after the birth of Destin and Tyra’s son, and Tyra’s death through childbirth. The Blind Healer would hear whispers of the birth as she walked through the village, local gossips idly wondering when the accursed bloodline would finally end so they could no longer anger the gods with their existence. Other whispers spoke of a tyrant king taking up residence in the long emptied halls of the Northern Mountains. It was being said that he was putting together an army that this world had never seen, though that was all idle gossip at this point in time.

The Blind Healer surprised the town, and had made the decision to take up residency in this little village. The inhabitants were unsure and a tad bit wary when she decided to live next door to the Blackleach home, personally going to the men and offering her condolences over their shared generational grief.

“I heard through the shadows what your family has had to weather,” she had said to them. “Please allow me to help wherever that I can, I sense this little one is going to need a strong, maternal figure as the years continue on.”

Not wanting to disrespect the esteemed woman, the men wholeheartedly agreed and from that moment forward, she took the family under her wing and taught them medicine. Her Little One was taught from home throughout childhood, and became a second shadow for the Blind Healer. It was said, where she went, the Little One would follow, calling out for “ealde” as pronouncing “ealdemodor” was not yet feasible. You could not have the one without the other, and so the respect that the villagers had for the Blind Healer rubbed off just a little bit onto the Blackleach family, in the sense that doctors and healers would work with them again, helping aile sickness and injuries when the Blind Healer was otherwise incapable due to other duties. While still ignored by the Deities, the family began to hope for a better future for their newest generation.