Remedies for the Heavy-Hearted and the Hollow

Artifact

The Weight of a Long-Held Secret Ingredients: Three rusted nails, a length of gray twine, a river stone weighing no less than two pounds. Instructions: Bind the nails to the stone using the twine. Walk to the nearest running stream. Drop the bundle into the current. Do not look back until you have reached your front door. The Itch of a Missed Opportunity Ingredients: A slice of charcoal-burnt toast, coarse salt, a strip of raw linen. Instructions: Press the salt into the burnt toast. Rub the toast firmly against the palms of the hands. Wrap the hands in linen for the duration of one sunset. Burn the linen afterward in a hearth or a metal bin. The Hollow Left by a Departed Friend Ingredients: Rainwater collected from a copper gutter, a dried seed pod, a pinch of cinnamon. Instructions: Boil the seed pod in the rainwater until the liquid thickens. Stir in the cinnamon. Drink the brew while sitting in a chair that once belonged to someone else. The Echo of a Word Spoken in Anger Ingredients: A handful of cold potato peels, a copper coin, a sewing needle. Instructions: Prick the surface of the coin with the needle. Bury it beneath the potato peels in a pot of garden soil. Water the soil once a day for a week. When the peels rot and vanish, the word is gone. The Static of an Unfinished Life Ingredients: A button from a dead man's coat, a handful of dry sand, a piece of red string. Instructions: Tie the button to the string. Suspend it over a bowl of sand. Leave the bowl in a drafty window for three nights. Sweep the sand into the wind on the fourth morning. The Tremor of Future Dread Ingredients: A rusted iron key, a bowl of vinegar, a piece of wool cloth. Instructions: Soak the key in vinegar for twenty four hours. Wrap the wet key in the wool cloth. Hold the bundle against the center of the chest until the metal grows cold. Discard the cloth in a place where nothing grows.