The Heartwood the dark half

mama.

the voice shook her, the word trailing through her fractured awareness, and vuk blinked. raas -- or the voice she believed to be raas -- whispered insistently behind her ears that it was a trap. her skepticism intensified, and she stared coldly at the child, though at once her vision cleared and she warmed to the small presence. "seff." that had been his name, after all. but he had died, had he not? "did you ... come for me?" vuk ventured in a tiny voice, fearing the pain of death. but her boy -- if this was him -- surely he had not suffered? and here he was, come to bring her over to whatever plane upon which he existed.