I woke up to the sun’s morning light shining through my open window. I turned so my stomach was down against the mattress and my head faced away from the light. I rested there while letting my thoughts wake up by themselves. I had my eyes closed. I could feel the morning breeze on my neck, the sun’s rays warming my back, the rhythmic sound of my breathing and the low slow hammering in my ear and chest from… my heart… beat. I bounced up. Confusion and fear washed over me as I tried to figure out what happened yesterday. I immediately calmed down when the memories of yesterday came back, but was now painfully aware that there was no increase or decrease in my heartrate. I grabbed my clothes and got dressed while cursing my own foolishness.

“Silly me! So obvious you just couldn’t see one big huge damn problem with your flawless plan! Okay, it was far from flawless, but anyway!” I threw myself down on a chair leaning my head backwards, frantically trying to think which ones in the village who could sense the absence of my heartbeat. He hagravens could without a doubt, and no matter how much I thought about it I couldn’t think of anyone else.

“No hagravens for the foreseeable future. Haah, one of my greatest assets.” Luckily, I knew there would be no hagravens at the common house. With nothing else to do I headed over there, ready to start the day’s business of counting spoils. My job was nothing more than to oversee the process as others evaluated each and every thing, objects that the village required was logged and sent away. The better cloth, clothes, skins, armor, metal, meat, vegetables and seeds were sent to places where they would be the most useful. Leftover things or that which was not needed at the moment, jewelry and miscellanea, was put on display for the road members to choose from. Currency could be split equally between all road members, including me and one share to the village, for them to spend on the next outing. Currency could be traded for the goods in the common house. While we didn’t have much use for currency within our village, we regularly had outings to shop supplies for the village’s common use.

The common house was a storehouse, a shop and a common room smashed into one with all the uses. For me it was a boring process, watching everyone do their job they had done several times before. It was rarely I was asked for final judgement. But nonetheless, I sat there on the edge of the room watching everything happen. I occasionally glanced over to the common room section out of boredom. The sorting was over when the sun was at the highest in the sky. Before afternoon every road member had received their pay, bought what they wanted, and walked away. Having no reason to stay, I walked to the door but when I passed the last disk I saw Penny. Our beloved common house keeper looked over the shelf with our artifacts for purchase. An idea hit me so I did a pirouette and changed my direction. I called out to her.

“Mrs. Penny, I distinctly remember that you are well versed in the origin and use of artifacts. Do you have a minute?” She raised one of her eyebrows and said with a cheery voice.

“Sure, what would you like to know?” I leaned against the side of the shelf.

“How long does it take for an artifact to adapt to its surroundings?”

“Growing artifacts is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process, Baba. I do not recommend acquiring it as a hobby. Nevertheless, it can take from minimum a month up to a few years, perhaps even decades. It all depends on how good the mold and the artifact match. To optimize it you want to put the biggest artifact you can put in the mold to have it start growing faster. Is there to much space in the mold an artifact will not grow at all. The material has little to no effect on the duration.”

“But, theoretically, if you put could put a bigger artifact into a mold smaller than it is. How long would it take for it to shrink?” I clutched my hands.

“That, it is practically impossible, or improbable, unless you can find a mold that adapts to the artifact. Theoretically, it would only take a few days for it to finish shrinking.”

“Baba,” she called after me, “if you ever find such a mold I would love to have a look at it.”

“If I ever find such a mold on my travels I will bring it back to you, Penny.” I smiled to her and left. The physician said that the orb was bigger than my heart. I guessed the pressure of my own body would make it shrink, but I would probably need a miracle to make a heart. I had never heard of an artifact being placed within a body, much less a living body and replacing their organs. I felt depressed. My biggest concern was my hagravens. In many situations they have been extremely useful, even their fierce reputation is of use. However, they certainly didn’t like the undead. Out of everyone in the village, I did not want to cross them. Not much of the village would stay standing of they ran rampant. Still, they were the most knowledgeable about strange things in the world, and I needed all the help I could get. I turned my steps towards their lodging on the far end of the valley. I meet many when passing house after house. I greeted everyone but never stayed to talk. Something must have been wrong with my reasoning to head straight to death like that. I blamed my unbeating heart.

“So much for ‘no hagravens’.” I muttered when I saw the outline of their house. It was a longhouse surrounded by a dozen smaller ones. These houses were designed to house any witch apprentices, if they deigned themselves to get any. So far the only apprentice was a single witch that was more servant than apprentice. But the witch was happy so I would not bother pointing out the difference. I hesitated at the door. I could imagine them looking like me like some stranger. I could really visualize them run a purging crusade through the valley. I held hopes that my secrets was worth more than their affection for the undead. I knocked on the door and opened it slowly.

“Hello?” I said carefully, only poking my head through the entrance. All five of the ones who joined the road sat in the middle around the fire pit, the rest were somewhere else. They all looked up at me. In my spinning head I couldn’t tell them apart from each other. One of them shifted, though.

“Baba Yaga,” the closest said with a raspy voice, “what a surprise. We do not get a lot of visitors. Come in, come in.” I smiled nervously but stayed where I was. It hit me that I had no idea how I would start. I reasoned that lying wouldn’t be a good idea since they could figure out my condition if they cared to. In the end I did not need to start. One hagraven was extremely keen this day. She trembled and shook greatly; several of her feathers visibly loosened and fell. This drew the attention towards her but she merely croaked in a low chilling voice.

“Our Baba has a problem, a problem she needs to be solved. So she comes to us even though she has all the answers in the world at her beck and call. She comes asks us knowledgeable hagravens for advice against the unliving.” The air chilled with these words, ice particles formed everywhere and hovered in the air. I suppressed my urge of saying “fancy trick”. Instead I cleared my throat, took a step inside the room, and closed the door.

“I am very much alive, hagraven.” I looked her over. As far as I could read the body language of hagravens, she seemed anxious and intimidated, not disgusted or hating. The others were in equal mental distress. I hadn’t thought I would be viewed as an undead powerful enough for them to hide from. I fist-pumped in my mind.

“It is only as you see, my heart is not working properly.” I waited for them to say something but all were quiet. I couldn’t imagine myself ever scaring them into silence. I went and sat down on the pelts which surrounded the fire. They followed me with their eyes but did not say anything, so I continued.

“Ahem, well, it’s not only that it is not working. You see, I took it out.”

“That is why you are so cold inside.” The smaller spoke, her voice lean and soft.

“I confess, I have been feeling a little strange since I did that. My sense of touch is also somewhat numb.”

“Because your cold. Slow creek, flow bad, no fall, lingering souls, earth is hollow.“ The other hagravens nodded to this statement made by the first who greeted me. I rubbed my forehead. I did not get a word she said. I had no chance to speak before they entered a heated discussion with words I couldn’t put together. I waited until they spoke to me.

“You must have put something in its place. We place a heat source in ours, thus they are not dead.”

“A crystal. A crystal artifact, or glass, I do not know.” I answered and nodded. The smallest spoke again.

“That is why you are cold, you have no heat source.” It seemed like in their talk they had decided I was not an undead but a colder version of their own enhanced followers, of which they currently had none. The chill in the air was gone. They did not speak anymore but sat there and looked into the fire thinking. I, too, looked in the fire and tried to think of something useful. I was hungry so most my thoughts went that way.

“Baba, you can move mountains. I have seen a wind storm with lightning and dark clouds turn to the kindest breeze with no clouds to be seen. Why can’t you simply change your own heart? You have said that you do not whisper to flesh. But now your heart is no longer of flesh.” My chin dropped and I slapped my own face.

“You earned yourself a secret, hagraven! Ask your question.” And she asked with glee. After I had whispered her answer I looked at the rest of my hagraven audience. They looked at me like hungry wolves. I raised my hands and shrugged.

“What? Next time, be faster at satisfying me. There are no secrets for you to know today. You already got your share for the trip on the road.” Laughing I exited the house but stopped as soon as I saw a familiar face. A forever-happy looking boy, no older than ten, was leaning against the corner of a house. He waved and stepped away from the house, he made no indication to get closer to the longhouse. He was our messenger, our gossip on legs, and too fast to catch. I approached him.

“To come all the way out here, is there trouble? I should have no work more today.”

“Haha! That is too funny, aunt. You are our Baba Yaga, how can you not have work?” He smiled at me, moving his weight from one foot to the other, ready to sprint at any time. I mock glared at him but I couldn’t resist his contagious happy mood and failed at concealing a smile. I urged him to tell me his message.

“The major has a crew to go fix the road. He asks for you to come open the door.” I raised an eyebrow.

“That was quick. Go tell him I’m on my way.”

“Will do!” He took off before I could say anything else, though I didn’t have anything else to say. I left the hagravens’ nest with a lighter step than when I arrived there. Now I had an easy way to heal myself, I only hoped that I wouldn’t die during the transformation of the orb. I had been lucky so far, there was no hurt in getting a bit more luck.

I walked by the tavern and ordered a basket with food before I continued to the entrance. The crew tasked with fixing the road was already there waiting. Without delaying I opened the entrance and we headed out. At the exit of the tunnel I stayed and sat down with my basket to eat dinner while the other continued into the forest. It was a peaceful and quiet dinner. I could not see nor hear them from where I sat. I knew it would take some hours for them to finish so I decided a nap was in order. The floor of the tunnel wasn’t the best but I would make do. At least it was a lot safer when. As I was falling asleep, I vaguely noted Herald arriving and helping himself to my leftovers from dinner. For whatever reason, he sat there until the tasked crew came back and we reentered the village. I felt he wanted to say something, but stayed quiet. And so that day ended.