I don’t remember all that happened that day. There was so much smoke, so much anger and so much fear. The air was so thick I thought I might choke. The imps, they fed well I am certain. But it seems fitting, a last meal as it were. I remember the sight of my mother, limp in the arms of Drust, the man who would be my second father. I flew to her, wanting to touch her, to reassure myself that the center of my world was whole. It is funny how you never appreciate a thing until it is nearly taken from you. I am certain such a revelation was well beyond my young mind, but now looking back on it I see it clearly, like I see little else. Her golden hair was soot-streaked and her face battered and bruised but somehow more beautiful for it. As if her very mortality, her fragility was writing in the bruising. Always so hale, always so sturdy it was a pain to see her so. But she opened her eyes long enough to call my name and I knew then, that all would be all right. It was just as well. 

The family gathered, I recall that. I saw the little woman who smelled of baking and herbs throw herself at my consort and I saw her tiny arms tighten around his neck like she would never let go. I saw the tears that filled her eyes but I also saw the indomitable strength in her eyes. I understood then that for all that she was small, I would never meet anyone with a greater gravity, a stronger core than this tiny little woman. I heard the weeping of Floure and watched as she found comfort in a small kitten and just as my magician started to approach her I saw that there was a new problem. 

Hard on the heels of the others were the shadows, and at the heart of the shadows was Mino. He hadn’t made an impression on me, I will admit. He was but one more scrap of colored fabric in on a motley’s raiment. There were so many bright burning flames about the caravan that a slender youth who did nothing to make himself stand out held no interest for me. I wish I had known him. Not for who he became, but for the loss and sadness that my family showed in the wake of his death. Their grief more than anything I witnessed spoke volumes about him as a person. 

He strode at the heart of the darkness with a gait that was not that of a young man and he howled and cursed. Some of his words seemed to lance right through Drust and I watched as even in sleep, my mother’s arms tighten around his neck. I moved to step in front of her, between them and this lanky-shadow ridden creature. A hand stopped me and I turned to look and saw it was Luca, fear but stubborn determination in his eyes. He took his job as my protector very seriously, even then. Sweet boy. He held me back and I was lost in the volley of words that came next. Accusations, from Mino, from the thing inside him, explanations and gloating. This had been planned, Mino had been born for this. Born and then lost. 

His mother had been possessed it turned out, possessed while carrying him. And the Imp who had been in his birth-father at the time of conception had been looking to recreate him since Abe had come and taken the mother, and Mino away. Abe knew some of this, though he would not speak of it and no one would press the big man who never fully recovered from his spell that day. It seemed Traveler blood was necessary to make a Vessel that would hold a spirit. Not be possessed, this was deeper, this was an un-fixable joining. That was the tragedy. 

But none of this sank in that day. I only knew I was afraid and angry and I wanted to spit and kick and Luca was stopping me. I struggled and fought and something in my actions sparked the conflagration that nearly consumed us all, much to my shame. 

The Imps, already keyed up from their feast slipped from Mino’s control and surged forward. They were strong, well fed and able to manifest enough to be a threat. Tethered to their master, the unnatural Mino they had even more power. But it wasn’t enough. They could not reach us and slammed into something like a wall around the tight cluster of Travelers. I like to think it was Love that stopped them. The love of the couples, the love of the family, of the animals. But it might have been runes written by my Magician, or the spells and potions of the exhausted looking Navid. I don’t know, I don’t suppose it mattered, they were repelled. 

All of them, except for Mino. He went right through. Furious, maddened and beyond control he charged. Straight towards Drust, straight towards my Mama. 
 
That’s when things got fuzzy for me. I don’t know what happened, I just saw red, lots of red and when I woke up we were very far down the road and I had bandages on my hands and wrist. The clothing I wore was nowhere to be found and I was in a nightgown of Chavi’s, wrapped up in a small cot in Drust’s wagon. 

For a long time, People would smile at me, but there was something wary in their eyes. They wouldn’t speak of that day, and if pressed they would say that darkness was destroyed by love, pure and simple. I didn’t buy it, not really. Not even Luca would tell me and I tormented the poor boy for a long, long time about it. It was finally Myra who gave me the answers, though not in words. It was a bit deplorable really, but I was curious and more than a little nosy. When she visited once, years later, I found her book and though I was not looking for answers in it, I found them. It was full of color and light, beautiful things. But seeded among the light were a few portraits of darkness. You see, Myra was never free, she lived with the dark for the rest of her life and sometimes she had to let it out on the page to keep herself safe, in control. 

It was in one page of darkness that I found the answer. A small little Rabbit crowned with barberries standing up before a wolf made of darkness with a stolen knife in her paw. The red on that page matched all the red in my darkest dreams. I understood and ancestors forgive me, it makes me smile.