At the tram post, Sarah found the huge portrait that she remembered of Crone on the wall. The post was busier than she remembered and she felt people pushing her around as they rushed to the gates for the next available tram that would zip them away to the water. She felt insignificant, like everyone was right to be rough with her for taking up space on the floor of the post where most everyone had places to be and she was just in the way. There were mostly men and the place smelled of the fish many were hauling back from the water. Sarah fought hopelessness in the sea of men, she wondered if she was wasting her time, and she thought that she could just get on a tram and start a new life in the water where the Golem was not an issue, though other nefarious things creeped the darkness there. It could be different, Sarah thought, and she would not have to sleep with the memory of the things she had lost every night, and maybe she could make new memories in her future that would allow her to enjoy the sunlight the way she used to; there was much more of it at the water because the leaves of the ancient trees allowed more light through, even the moonlight at night. Sarah stared at the line of anxious people waiting to board the tram, and she knew that she would have a hard time anywhere she went because she had been robbed of tranquility more than once and she would never be able to trust that it had actually ever existed in the first place. Her memories of happiness were real, her family lived forever in her memories smiling and happy, but that was only a part of the picture and that happiness only existed so brightly in her memory because of the darkness that had consumed it. It would do it again, she knew, the darkness would come and smother her light. Unless she learned to master the darkness.
When she turned back to the portrait on the wall, Sarah saw a small woman standing under it. A crowd of people surrounded her and they all looked at her with smiles on their faces. It was Crone, taller than Sarah had expected her to be, though she still hunched over on a cane, and everyone was happy to see her and talk with her. Crone made eye contact with Sarah, and Sarah watched as she said goodbye to everyone and slowly made her way across the post floor. When Crone was standing in front of her, Sarah felt tall for the first time in a long time; Crone stared up into her eyes and smiled like a proud mother.
“I am so happy to finally meet you, my Sarah. You look just like your father, but you’re so beautiful.” Crone touched Sarah’s face. Tears wet Crone’s cheeks and Sarah wondered if she knew that her father was dead.
“I heard you lost everyone, I am so sorry, sweet girl. But your father was a good man and he made me your family. So that means everyone here is your family.”
Sarah was touched and soon both women were crying and hugging. Crone led Sarah to the lift that took them down to Crone’s home that was underneath the post, but still very high up in the trees. Sarah marveled at the home where multiple generations of Crone’s family lived; it was beautifully furnished with hand crafted furniture and the view through the windows was breath taking – Sarah felt like she was inside of a green cloud. They sat in Crone’s library while Sarah told her why she’d come to the post that day.
“Did you ever find your husband?” Sarah asked.
Crone laughed in her seat behind her desk. “I searched and searched, every dark patch in these damn woods, but he was a sweet man, the Golem ate him up for sure. That damned Golem, you know as well as I do, there’s nothing worse in this world than that giant pile of rotting shit.” Crone spat on the floor. “He’s lucky I didn’t find him, I would’ve burnt him to ash.”
Sarah smiled. “We still can.”
“I’m too old to go sallying around the darkness, sweet girl. It’s rough in there. It’s hard to breathe, the smell of decay and rot chokes you. The air is thick with it, and it weighs you down, you feel like you’re in water. And you can’t see nothing, nothing at all. It’s blacker than the backs of your eyes.” Crone was smiling as she described it, like she had fond memories of thrilling adventures. “In that, your ears have to be sharp as briars, sweet girl. Your nose has to be like a net to catch subtle hints in that sea of rot. You have to have instincts to trust. And then eventually, over a long time inside, your eyes just start to see. At first it’s your mind making a picture, but eventually you get the eyes to see, if you spend enough time in the dark.”
“How long were you in the dark?” Sarah asked.
“Years. I said I wouldn’t leave until I found my husband and it took me seven years to realize he was already in the Golem’s belly.”
“But what about his servants, what about the bugs and the spiders?”
“It’s not the bugs you have to worry about,” Crone said. “Maybe the spiders, but the biggest ones are high up and don’t come down unless you give them a reason, and they’re easy to kill with a long spear. Just don’t get caught in a web, you’ll be alright. They look scary, but they don’t have poison. You have to look out for the bats, if they get you, they’ll bleed you dry. They don’t serve the Golem, just themselves. The owls serve the Golem, if you see an owl, then you know the Golem can see you.”
Sarah shook her head. “But I don’t get it, how did you survive it?”
“I wasn’t afraid. Everything in the darkness can taste fear. They know you’re out of place because you reek of something other than rot. I just moved through like they did. And I had some help. There are people in the darkness too. But if you deal with them, you better be prepared to pay a high price.”
“Do they serve the Golem?” Sarah asked.
“They do what it takes to get what they need. If the Golem has what they need, then they work for him. But they don’t have a reason to. The people in the darkness could end the Golem in their sleep. But they don’t have a reason to, he’s probably one of their creations.”
Crone put her elbows on her desk and tented her fingers in front of her mouth. “You’re going in there, right?”
Sarah nodded. “I have to. I’m gonna burn him to ash, godmother.”
They both smiled at one another.
“I won’t let you go alone,” Crone said, “and you do understand that you might die the minute you put a foot into the darkness?”
“I don’t want to die, but we shouldn’t have to live afraid. I don’t want to anymore.”
“There’s a lot in this world that haunts us, Sarah. You get rid of one, there’s fifty others to move into its place.”
Sarah nodded, “I like the idea of one less.”
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