The Seed Thief

Lulu kept her eyes closed, counting. When the number grew too large, she would pretend to have made a mistake and start again from the beginning.

Eventually, darkness seeped in beyond her closed eyelids. The cold evening wind wormed its way through her clothes. The stone golem, worried about Lulu’s stillness, paced anxiously nearby.

Finally, she opened her eyes. Above her, the stars twinkled—a familiar sight she had rarely glimpsed since Ervandas had entered her life.

She had counted almost to 100, but Er was nowhere to be seen.

Lulu wiped the tear tracks on her face with the back of her hand. Fresh tears welled up, replacing the old streaks. As she fought to swallow the lump in her throat, she felt a tug on her clothes.

Turning, she found the bone crow, gripping her dress in its beak. Lulu scooped up the crow and held it close. The crow gently nudged her chin with its beak, a gesture that had always comforted her during her lonely, fearful childhood.

Even though the crow offered no warmth, Lulu felt a fleeting sense of comfort, a feeling of emptiness being filled.

Looking up, she noticed the scarecrow, who rarely returned home, silently standing before her. Beside him stood the stone golem.

Lulu smiled weakly at the companions who had been with her for so long. She then went inside, changed into her nightgown, and climbed into bed.

‘30 nights.’

He promised to return before 30 nights had passed. She had to sleep. She had to force herself to wake up because every new day brought her one step closer to his return.

Lulu curled up beneath the covers, pulling them tightly around her. But without Ervandas’s warmth, the night felt unbearably cold, seeping into her very bones despite the layers of blankets.

She closed her eyes, feeling the shift in seasons more keenly than ever before.

* * *

Life without Ervandas fell into a predictable rhythm.

She slept in late and went to bed early. Part of it was the exhaustion that seemed to accompany her growing belly, but in truth, she simply couldn’t bear the emptiness of the days.

She would rise at a leisurely hour, prepare a simple meal from the stores Er had meticulously prepared, and then… well, there was nothing to do.

At first, she thought about cleaning and organizing the house as he did. But she had never been one for chores, and he had been so thorough in his cleaning that there was nothing left to do.

‘What should I do?’

Before, even wandering in the forest would have been enjoyable. But now, her heavier body made moving around difficult, and she didn’t feel like going anywhere.

Bored, Lulu spotted the stack of parchment Ervandas had left on the desk, neatly arranged beside a pot of ink and a quill. She picked up the quill and her hand moved, filling the page with 30 circles.

It had been three days since he’d left.

‘He would have been back by now if this were like before.’

Thinking about the past, Lulu drew a face inside one of the circles.

‘What did he look like when we first met?’

She remembered their first encounter in the forest, the way he’d attacked her, believing her to be a threat. Smiling wryly, she sketched his face in the first circle—sharp eyes, a determined frown.

Chuckling at the grumpy face, Lulu moved on to the next circle. This time, she sketched a face contorted with fury, mouth open as if he were unleashing a torrent of righteous anger.

How could he not feel bothered when she persistently poked and prodded him below?

After their marriage, Ervandas taught Lulu about common sense and social norms. Thanks to him, she now understood that some of her actions were considered inappropriate, even shameful, in the eyes of others. Although she didn’t always grasp the nuances of human interaction, Er’s numerous examples gradually filled the gaps in her understanding.

Lulu drew his face in the third circle. This time, it displayed a troubled expression she had frequently witnessed during their initial days together.

Bathing together in the stream or nestling into his arms at night—he always wore this expression. Lulu poured all her focus into the drawing. She wasn’t particularly skilled at drawing, but at least she could recall his appearance through the drawings.

Once all these circles were filled, he would return. Then, she wouldn’t need these drawings to remember him; she would see the real him.

* * *

Time passed, and the circles were filled with various expressions of Ervandas. Aside from that, Lulu waited for him all day without any other particular interests.

Still, there were some tasks required her attention. The chickens diligently laid their eggs and needed to be fed and their coop cleaned. She also had to deal with the accumulating laundry.

While contemplating whether to use magic to make laundry easier, Lulu returned with a basket of eggs and found the stone golem standing in front of the house.

“What’s wrong?”

Lulu asked with a worried voice, noticing that the golem was fidgeting, unlike its usual relaxed self. As if waiting for her question, the golem extended a hand.

“What happened to your hand?”

Lulu’s eyes widened in alarm. She hastily set the basket of eggs down and rushed towards the golem. 

The pebbles that had served as its fingers were gone.

“But I fixed them properly!”

A few months ago, those fingers had crumbled at her touch. Now, they were gone again. Lulu reached out to examine the golem’s hand more closely. Suddenly, a cracking sound split the air, and the golem’s hand broke off completely, crashing onto the ground.

“Ack!”

Lulu managed to quickly move away, but her toe grazed against the fallen stone. A sharp pain shot up her leg, bringing tears to her eyes. She slumped down on the porch steps, startling the golem.

“It’s…it’s fine.”

She tried to stand, but her swollen belly pressed down on her, making it impossible to get up. Then, she felt it.

‘It moved.’

She felt movement from inside her belly. Lulu stared down at her stomach, fascinated by the movement, but it was gone as quickly as it arrived.

Catching her breath, Lulu removed her shoes as pain pulsed from her toe. She found a bruise was forming.

“It hurts…”

Gripping the railing for support, she slowly pulled herself up. Closing her eyes, Lulu concentrated on the healing spell, carefully constructing the magical formula in her mind.

A shimmering magic symbol appeared in the air.

“……?”

However, nothing appeared in the spot where Lulu’s hand brushed past.

“What’s wrong?”

Confused, Lulu momentarily forgot about her injured toe.

Magic had always come so easily to her, so natural like breathing. Now, it was as if she had suddenly forgotten how to draw air into her lungs.

Shocked, she slowly drew the magic formula again. This time, to her relief, the formula appeared, glowing faintly in the air. But her relief was short-lived.

Although it was the magic formula she had intended, it was different from what she was used to. The shape was the same, but the magic formed was faint, instead of the vibrant glow she was accustomed to.

She tried drawing a few different spells but the results were the same. The magic was weak, the light emanated faint, flickering. And each time she tried, the light seemed to weaken even further.

With a sinking feeling in her gut, Lulu cast the healing spell she had first drawn on her injured foot. The glow settled over her injury and disappeared. She examined her foot. The pain and swelling were gone, but the dark bruise remained.

“…….”

A sudden wave of fear washed over her.

Injuries of this degree would usually heal completely with restorative magic. But now, only the pain was gone, the mark remained.

‘Something is wrong.’

Lulu tried her best to calm down as she retraced the past events. The magic she had used on the golem a few months ago had disappeared. Just now, when she touched it again, a larger portion of the magic had vanished. And all the magic spells she had tried to cast afterward were emitted in a faint light.

Then, it hit her.

“My magic has weakened.”

The forest witch who had taught her magic had once explained that everyone possessed a finite amount of mana. Even a skilled mage with a deep understanding of spells and inscriptions couldn’t wield strong magic if having limited mana.

‘But she said the amount of mana one possessed doesn’t change.’

Why was it weakening now?

Unable to make sense of the situation, Lulu pushed herself to her feet. At that moment, as if sensing her distress, the bone crow came hopping out from inside the house. Seeing its worried demeanor, she stretched out a hand to comfort it.

Instantly, the bone beneath her touch crumbled. 

“….!”

Just like the golem, the magic holding the crow’s bones together had vanished the instant she touched it.

Lulu scrambled back, shouting.

“Don’t come any closer!”

The golem and the crow shrank back at Lulu’s refusal.

“It’s not that I don’t want you near! But why…”

Why was magic disappearing when she touched them? Until she figured out the reason, she couldn’t risk touching the golem or the crow again. What if the remaining magic holding them together disappeared? What if she was too weak to restore them?

Lulu hugged herself, feeling a shiver run down her spine. She had never, not even once, imagined a life without magic.

Magic was her eyes, her ears, her limbs—her everything. It was the sole reason she had been able to survive alone in the forest.

The overwhelming sense of unease gripped her heart. Taking a shaky breath, Lulu clutched her arms tighter, murmuring reassurances to herself. 

“It’s going to be alright.”

It was just a temporary setback. Given time, just as a wounded body would heal, just as bare trees sprouted new leaves in the spring, everything would return to normal. No, her magic would return much faster than that. Perhaps a good night’s sleep was all she needed.

“I-I’ll take care of you both tomorrow. Please, just…bear with me for one more day. Okay?”

Whether it was her words or the tremor in her voice, the golem and the crow, who usually pestered Lulu, nodded and stepped back.

Without even picking up the eggs, Lulu entered the house and immediately went to bed. She burrowed under the covers and closed her eyes, her body trembling with fear.

‘I need to sleep.’

Everything would be fine when she woke up.

‘How many days are left?’

She tried to recall how many days were left until Er’s return. Five circles remained on the parchment. Five more nights. He would be back, laden with gifts from the city—aromatic spices, strange and delicious foods, beautiful fabrics, and wondrous trinkets she’d never seen before. And he would apologize profusely for being late.

Five nights was nothing. Hadn’t she endured countless nights alone before he came into her life?