Curiosity

Mercy looked up at the bookshelves in her parents’ library and pulled down a book with a purple spine and golden writing that almost seemed to glow. The wick-wyrm could not fully read yet but she was picking up the meaning of the symbols in the Faian common language rather quickly, or at least that is what her teacher told her parents. However, Mercy did not care what the words said in a book. To her, the pictures were the best part! And this book she chose had the best pictures in it because they showed images of Faia. Faia was vast and varied and Mercy wanted to explore it all when she grew up. For now she was stuck in her town and was not allowed to go far without an adult… so she looked at the pictures in the book instead.

Flipping through the pages, Mercy came across a section she had not yet looked at before. The picture on the page was a black and white ink illustration of an island. The island was small, or maybe whoever made the picture drew the island from a far distance. It was not very well detailed because of this, making it look like a jagged rock surrounded by water. Mercy looked at the title on the page and slowly sounded out the syllables she recognized, like her teacher had taught her. Mercy was happy to be able to read the title all by herself. It said

RAYDES

She turned the page, hoping to see more pictures of this mysterious island, but to her surprise the chapter about Raydes was only one page long. The illustration took up most of it, too! This bothered Mercy.

“Mom!” Mercy exclaimed as she entered her mother’s study. It took her a while to search her family’s large manor for the older candle noodle, and here she was working on something for her work.

“Mercy, darling, hello. Have you been in mommy and daddy’s library today? I recognize that book you have,” her mother told her, putting down her quill and parchment.

“I have, and I have a question!” Mercy put the book on the floor and opened it to the section about Raydes. “What is this place here?”

Mercy’s mother looked at the page, and her eyes widened. “Well, darling,” she started. “That’s Raydes. It’s an island in the ocean.”

“I know that from the picture!” Mercy said, a bit annoyed at her mother for stating the obvious. “Why is there only one picture of Raydes?”

Mercy’s mother frowned and replied to her daughter. “There’s only one picture because we don’t know much about it. No one is allowed to go there.”

Now it was Mercy’s turn to frown. “Why is no one allowed to go there?” she asked.

“Well…” Mercy’s mother was unsure how to answer that. She did not want to scare her daughter. “The island got sick, long ago, and never got better.”

“What did it get sick from?”

Mercy’s mother paused. She was used to the many questions her daughter had about any topic. This topic, however, was one that she dreaded questions about from her. As a mother, she wanted to protect her children from everything bad that the world had to offer and not fuel any curiosity Mercy may have about the literal and metaphorical darkness that once plagued the realm. The wyck-wyrm was too young to handle this knowledge. She did not have her flames yet.

On the other hand… she would one day have those flames to help protect her. For now, Mercy had her parent’s flames, and the flames of the rest of her family and the community of candle noodles around them. Maybe it was okay for her to know a little bit about the enemy.

“It got sick from the Wither, darling,” the mother answered. To her surprise, Mercy did not follow up with another question. Mercy thanked her mother for her help and left the study with the book. After her daughter left the room, Mercy’s mother made a note to herself to speak with her husband about today.

The Wither.

It sounded familiar to Mercy, though she could swear that she never heard of it before. It brought a chill to her spine when she thought about it. She was back in the library returning the book to its shelf, when at the last minute Mercy decided to open it again to the Raydes section. A whole island, sick? She was determined to see it for herself one day.