Natalia stood by him. She frowned at the old lady's words. "Key?" she asked. "Key for what?"
The only lock she had seen in her life was at the village chief's house; the rest of the houses in the village had nothing to steal, and they all knew it. Sometimes, when she ran away from home and when her legs took her across his house, she had seen the man unlocking and entering inside; a stout man with a round belly and a shiny grey head. He was the only man she had seen with a round belly.
Pacificia walked to them, with her legs shaking and her walking stick wavering. When she came to them, her lips turned to dark red, and thin stripes of red came over her robe. "The key that will bring back the seven shards," she chanted; as if it was a prayer.
Natalia didn't why she called him a key or what the seven shards were, but she didn't like getting answered with cryptic codes. "Can you tell me what he is, or do I need to find someone else?"
The old woman's eyes were wide when her head turned towards Natalia. "You really don't know?" she was concerned.
"Know what?" she frowned.
"Oh, you poor, poor thing," Pacificia shook her head in pity. "You really think what you see is how the world was?"
Natalia didn't like her overbearing tone. "If you can't help me, I am going to find someone else," she turned and started to storm off.
"I didn't say that I can't help you," Pacificia's voice was filled with wisdom. "What I worry is, will you be able to handle it?"
Pacificia turned and walked. "Don't just stand there," she shouted. "Come inside."
Natalia followed her into the house, and the shadow – or the key, as Pacificia called it, followed them silently. The place was a mess, with unwashed dishes and torn sacks lying all around. "What am I even doing here?" Natalia wondered. "Why should I care what that thing is? What is in for me?"
And yet, she was still there. Perhaps she wanted to escape from her menial life. Perhaps she wanted to go someplace where she won't see her groaning mother. Perhaps, she believed in fate and destiny.
She walked past a broken chair, and suddenly, a rat the size of a hare ran between her legs. "Crap," she stumbled back. "What?" Pacificia turned around. "Oh, it's just a rat," she sighed. "If you are going to get shocked at every little thing, you won't have time for anything else."
The rat ran away to the corner of the room, and Natalia hoped that it won't come back. From the looks of the room, she felt that it wasn't cleaned in a long time. Pacificia led them into another room and it was not better.
Rolls of paper and ink tumbled down over the shabby hay bed in the center of the room. The room smelled like old damp clothes, and Natalia saw rows of bottles filled with strange liquids on one side. "Over here, over here," the old lady led them on.
She scrambled through the messy piles of paper. "Not this," she took one and threw it away. "Not this either," she kept on searching. Natalia moved around, trying not to step over something important.
"Where did I put it?" Pacificia was angry at her age and her memory. Then she tapped her forehead in realization. "That's where," she said and walked to the shelf near the headrest of her bed. Rolls of parchment came tumbling down when she pulled on one, and from the pile, she took out what she was searching for.
"Oh, I have been preaching about this for these years, and no one cared," she mumbled as she unrolled the sheet. "And now, one comes," she sounded excited, "and she brings the key with her."
Natalia peaked to see the scroll that was unfolded over the bed and saw nothing special. In the center of it, she saw a circle divided into seven, and each division was filled with a shade of grey. And beside each division, there were strange symbols and pictures. "What the hell is this?" she wanted to shout. She had come here for answers, and the only thing she can see was the same thing she sees always; shades of grey.
"You don't see it? Of course, you don't," Pacificia sounded disappointed. "Please," she pointed to the shadow. "Come over here."
The shadow, or the key, or what the hell was his name, he didn't know his purpose. All he could do now was move, and hope the answers will reveal themselves in time. He walked to the side of the bed, and the red snakes on his body glimmered for a moment, and then, one of the divisions on the circle started to shiver. Slowly, from one corner, the grey turned and dyed itself red.
She was just a girl of twelve, or was it thirteen? She didn't remember and she didn't care. When bellies are growling and mothers cry for a piece of peach, age is the last thing on anyone's mind. But one thing she did know – in all her years of existence, she had never seen something like that. She had already seen the colors change, but the awe of it was something that would never go away.
"What just happened?" she pointed, with her red hair shivering.
Pacificia smiled. "What happened is that – you just realized that you know nothing of the world. When the seven shards of color broke, and when the blight men came, that was the end of all things good in this world – that was when the dark lands were born."
Natalia didn't know what she was talking about: the Dark lands were always there, and what are these Shards of color? They seemed like the same things she had been preaching around the village, but she didn't care then. But now, when magic was happening right in front of her eyes, she had no other choice but to listen.
But what use was there for to listen? She was just a small girl, at the edge of nowhere. "Will . . . knowing this . . .help my mom?" That was the only thing of matter to her.
Pacificia placed her hand over the girl's shoulder. "Those people will come for him," she pointed at the shadow. "And when they do, that will be the last thing on your mind."