Petra prays silently. She has heard many stories about the steward. For years people have told these stories. Around campfires, by the river, outside the wood chapel a morning’s walk away. Vedomec, they call him, after the demon from the old stories who roamed the earth robbing honest people of their crops. Vedomec iz Ptuja, from Pettau.

Vedomec visits three times a year on black horseback. He has their blood in his veins and uses it to do evil against them. He has no soul. He exchanged his soul for powerful abilities. It is said all vedomci have the gift of insight. That they can see beyond seeing. This is why the steward can take in a field of wheat and in one glance know how many stalks tremble in the wind. It is why some say he remembers everything that has ever happened under the sun. All this is true. Now Petra has seen these powers for herself.

Only vedomci have such abilities. They are clever beings. They make favorable deals with men, which is why, instead of burning the demon at the stake, the lord up in the castle uses him to do his selfish bidding. Hell awaits them both. The answer to such evil lies not in the old stories, only in God. God will vindicate us, her brother Juraj used to say with conviction before he became ill from drink. And even after, he murmured it into his hands, repetitively like a song.

But despite their prayers, Vedomec iz Ptuja kept coming, a big voice at the door behind which Petra cowered, hid herself as best she could from sight, for should he look into her eyes, his spirit would possess her and render her lost forever from salvation.