Vasily's eyes widened for just a moment, a quick, surprised intake of breath as the younger man wrapped his arms about him tightly, weeping disconsolately against his chest. His arms hovered in the air, outstretched for a heartbeat or two. He gaped, impossibly confused, nothing in his experience preparing him for the impossibility of Oskar's words. 

The witch? Something had happened to [i]the witch?[/i] Never in all Vasily's life, had he imagined anything at all could happen to the witch - well, certainly nothing bad. She - or rather, they - were eternal, [i]immoveable[/i], as permanent a fixture in the lives of everyone in Adishi as the mountain where their village rested. But to his knowledge, after all the tales of the storytellers and the history keepers among the venerable elders, there was nothing ever spoken of, no dire warning for Adishi, that even remotely resembled the supernatural carnage that had just torn their town apart. 

[i]Had[/i] something happened to the witch? Before this moment, Vasily might have laughed, considering such a question as idiotic as whether something had happened to the sun or the moon - but he was [i]certainly[/i] not laughing now.

Vasily's sighed, yet another worry added to the long list of worry that already lay on his soul. He could bear it. He always had. For so long as Antonina walked this world, Vasily knew he always would. 

He let his arms fall to wrap about Oskar, pulling the young man to him as tightly as he had his little brother only minutes ago. "We will Oskar, we will," Vasily said softly into the young man's dark hair, his voice low and as reassuring as he could possibly manage. "We [i]will[/i] find her." Slowly he stood to his feet, easily lifting Oskar to his own with him in his arms. Vasily had not the least idea where the witch might be, or even whether she was truly gone as Oskar maintained - though the young man's despair was as genuine as he had ever seen, and Oskar had never been known as a liar.

"But what has happened to the witch? Why is she gone? Why did she leave us to... To [i]this?"[/i] he asked, shaking his head slowly as if to clear his thoughts, overwhelmed by the enormity of all that Adishi had lost this night.

Vasily pulled away, but only far enough to wrap his arm about the young man's shoulder as he turned them both about, to return to the main room of the tavern. There was nothing left to be done for Stanislav, but Chiudka had her hands full in the great hall for those they might yet save, and he did not doubt for a moment she could use at [i]least[/i] another dozen or so hands as well.

"We will care for the fallen first Oskar, for those we can - and then we will see to the witch, wherever she's gone to... " His azure eyes fell over the growing crowd, resting on the injured, the bleeding and the fallen - and then realized who, of [i]all [/i]these citizens of Adishi, should be here now and yet, was not.

"Oskar," Vasily asked, his head turning swiftly to the young man at his side, "Where is Oksana?"