641. Rayki and Luf

Rayki was a young man when he fell in love at first sight. The girl he fell in love with was Luf, the Wise. She was no older than him, but her wisdom had already helped their village since she was a child.

Rayki was not as wise as her. Nor was he strong like the warriors of the village, but he had a good head and a pleasant voice. To match Luf he became a scald and learned the songs and sagas of their people.

He courted her and she didn't seem opposed. They got her father's permission and married. However, their life together was not long, as the Village Elder wanted to go on a journey with Luf. She was already wise from a young age, but it was necessary to see the world if she was going to be his successor.

The young couple was separated. As Rayki did his best to become a great scald while longing for his wife, the stories of her deeds in the world kept coming back. Luf used her knowledge and wisdom to help the villages on their way, making a name for herself.

Years went by. While Rayki was now known as a great scald far and wide, the stories of Luf had fallen silent. He had done his best to build a house fit for them and amass a fortune so they would never have to worry about money when she finally returned.

After five years of waiting, Rayki set off on a journey. There had been no news of his wife and the elder for months. No stories, no letters, nothing. He was worried something had happened.

Rayki knew their stories well, he was a great scald. He followed the traces of their journey, based on the stories, news, and songs written. Luf, the Wise had saved villages from famine, drought, and sickness.

In every town and village she helped, he found pictures of her likeness as the savior of the place. Every time she saw a picture or a statue of his wife, his longing grew. He followed the trail of tales until he reached the last village, where he was able to find information on their next destination. His journey had taken almost half a year when he finally reached the last place the Elder and Luf had been seen. The forests he crossed on his way were sick and dying. A rancid smell was poisoning the air and the creeks he came past were murky.

Allegedly a hydra had taken home not far away and the village suffered from the poison. He felt sick, just smelling the air. Worry gripped his heart at the thought that Luf may have died in this place.

However, it broke when he found the truth from the villagers. His wise wife and the Elder had gone to negotiate with the reptile, only to come back heavily wounded. While the Elder died from the wounds and the poison, the villagers told him that Luf and the doctor that nursed her fell in love and fled together.

The great scald Rayki fell into an abyss. The love of his life, he had waited for so long for, had found a lover and ran away. All he wanted was to stay in the tavern all day long and drink to forget, but the time wasn't given to him. Mere days after his arrival, the beast attacked the village. Bitter and hopeless, he saw no reason not to jump into battle. He was still a great scald, this was no empty title. Where no quick wit and strong arm succeeded, the scald managed to lull the beast into a deep sleep before stabbing his dagger into its heart, ending its life.

The scald had slain the dragon, but the price was high as he suffered the concentrated poison of the beast. His life was in peril and his body just mirrored the state of his mind, mostly broken.

It was almost comical how one suffering could help cope with another. His bodily pains only made him realize how much he wanted to live, even with a broken heart. With the little time, he had left he started searching for a cure.

Rayki managed to find one. The world was vast and his life short, but in the end someone approached him with a way to survive.

"The heart elixir will guarantee you six months. At this time it will judge you. If your heart is pure you will survive, if it isn't you had six months to find your peace," the mysterious figure had explained.

The great scald exchanged all the fortune he had collected for the elixir, leaving him with nothing to his name, except his reputation and skills. Upon drinking the elixir he could feel its power coursing through his body and cleansing away the poison.

In exchange, a small heart-shaped mark appeared on his chest. Three-quarters were dark, while one-quarter was pale. Rayki didn't expect to have a pure heart. It was filled with bitterness, nurtured by the weeks of suffering. He had blamed Luf for every painful breath and every stinging movement.

Six months. He could have looked for his unfaithful wife, but he didn't. Six months were just enough to make it back home and maybe say his farewells to the people that were there for him. When he decided not to chase her, the mark on his chest became a little lighter.

Freed from the poison's pain, he followed his footsteps back home. With every month that passed and every village, he came through his bitterness melted away a little. Seeing the pictures and stature of Luf stung at first, but he also came to a realization.

Looking at her face carved from stone, he realized that all this time, he had been chasing a literal ghost. Luf meant wind in their language, but also ghost. He had tried to grasp something that was not there, to begin with.

What loving wife would go on such a long journey right after she married a man she loved? He had sacrificed years in longing for unrequited love. Something cleared in his heart when he realized that love also meant being able to let go and wishing the other the best. He would no longer chase after Luf, the ghost of a happy future. He had found peace with himself and let go of his grudge. At that moment, the mark on his chest also cleared. The great scald Rayki returned home, with a clear heart and a clear mind.

While there were no new stories of Luf, the Wise that had once set off from their village, Rayki made sure that she was remembered as a hero of their people in his songs and stories. In the peaceful years after his return, the scald never took a wife but he raised many disciples like a family.

But his peaceful life found an end in tragedy when their village was razed to the ground by a calamity.

Now a young man, the spitting image of Rayki, tread through the ruins of this village once again. After seeing his disciple, his family, and his people die, the hydra slayer had returned. The old familiar roads and buildings had crumbled to dust. The whole region was dead, covered in a curse of decay.

Nobody had settled here or rebuilt his hometown. It was impossible for people to survive in such a place. The land was cursed and the power of death filled the air. The faer did not fear the curse of decay. The flesh may sicken and rot, but the <Ithildin> within was not bothered by it.

Rayki had been given a chance by a mystic blacksmith and regained a body and was even given a choice. The old scald decided to serve the man, after a visit to his old home. Walking through the cursed streets, he couldn't help but wonder how the demon had recovered his soul from such a place.

In the eerie silence, he could quietly hear a woeful whining in the distance. In the place, he had once built a house and waited for his wife. In the place he had spent most of his life alone, he found a dark figure weeping.

She was covered in shadows, looking like a woman wearing a black mourning dress with lots of lace. Hearing the steps on the crumbling earth, she suddenly looked up. A pale face like porcelain, with black tears running down her cheeks.

A familiar face. Familiar eyes.

"R-Rayki? Bu-But you are dead... you died because of me...everyone..."

Another burst of tears and sobbing shook her frail body. The tears that fell dissolved the ground below like acid. Rayki stared at her in shock, unsure what to do. Luf had returned and he was unsure whether he was happy, sad, or angry about it. She had been the calamity, but it was obvious that she had never wished for this to happen.

He stepped closer to her. She panicked but didn't move. The scald knelt beside her and lifted his hand to her cheek. The faer wiped away her tears with his thump, which immediately started corroding and regenerating.

"Just what happened to the wise woman I fell in love with so long ago?"

"Rayki!" she cried out and embraced him tightly like someone drowning and looking for a hold. His clothes blackened and her tears burned into his flesh, but he didn't mind. This time he had a body that could withstand her embrace.