"The Grief of Mr. Gro" by Max Fry, summary

This book is a novella published in 2007. It is structured as a story within a story. The main action takes place in a magical institution on the border of worlds. The most terrifying detail of the work concerns the materialization of human suffering. The author describes the mechanism of internal pain, which takes on a physical form and begins to exist independently.

This book is part of the "Chronicles of Echo" series, occupying the fifth position. The series also includes the volumes "The Forelock of the Earth," "The Lord of Mormora," "The Elusive Habba Hehn," "The Crow on the Bridge," "The Gluttonous Laugher," "The Gift of Shavanakhola," and "The Tubur Game."

Conversation on the Border of Worlds

A girl named Trisha is hiding in the attic of the Coffee Grounds establishment. She quietly listens to Max and Shurf Lonli-Lokli, who are sitting in the garden. Max explains to his old friend the true reason for his spectacular disappearance from Echo. During a recent attempt to return home, he felt a powerful physical resistance to reality. The world rejected his presence. Max simulated a magical rage, collapsed the tower ceiling, and disappeared. The feeling of alienation was so frightening that he decided to abandon all thoughts of returning. Max preferred to sit in the Between Worlds, enjoying the peace.

Frank tells Shurf about the City’s structure. The local buildings offer visitors a cozy, fictional past. A traveler can enter an empty house, smell the scent of hot bread, and rekindle memories of a happy childhood. Shurf finds these possibilities quite tempting, but declines for now. Soon, Kofa Yoh joins the party. He reveals his true form, thin and sharp, without his usual magical disguise. The guest has come here at Max’s behest. He agrees to tell his story in exchange for a slice of Trisha’s fresh gray apple pie.

News from Echo

Before the main story begins, the guests exchange capital gossip. Kofa tells Max about the new order in the Order of the Seven-Leaf. Shurf Lonli-Lokli has assumed the post of Grand Master, despite angry letters from the late Nuflin of Harumba. These letters unexpectedly brought Shurf national love and immense popularity.

The new leader relaxed the harsh Hrember Code. Everyday magic up to the twentieth degree is now permitted to all citizens. Special commissions have been created for the use of more powerful spells. Experts conduct interviews and issue personal licenses. The most capable and prudent sorcerers have been granted the right to practice magic without restrictions. Kofa laughingly mentions a mad youth who pretended to be the returned Sir Max. The impostor was carefully arrested and sent to Kholomi Prison for treatment.

The intervention of the late father

In his youth, Kofa suffered from his father’s wayward behavior. The powerful sorcerer Humha Yoh demanded absolute obedience from his son. Humha fed the young man a special soup to alter his appearance and personality. The son retained his sanity, ran away from home, and hid his true identity forever. Kofa repaid his father’s debts and joined the police. Years of hard work bore fruit. He later became a Master Listener in Secret Investigation.

Two hundred years after Humha’s death, his spirit materializes in Kofa’s bedroom. The ghost declares its firm intention to guard his son’s peace around the clock. Humha follows Kofa everywhere. The apparition constantly criticizes his lifestyle, friends, clothes, and service in the Secret Investigation. The spirit causes noisy scandals in taverns and frightens those around him. Kofa seriously considers escaping to another continent.

Juffin Hally listens to the complaints of his exhausted subordinate and asks to meet the old man. Despite Kofa’s misgivings, Juffin quickly establishes a rapport with Humha. The Chief of Secret Investigation uses a specially crafted ghost deck. The spirit happily engages in the exciting card game "Krak." Nightly games give the detective some free time for his main work.

Strange inmates

Kofa notices groups of gloomy, silent children on the streets of the capital. The little ones sit for hours on the sidewalks, staring at the neighboring houses. Koba, the head of the beggars, reports a similar group under the Dog Bridge. The children never play or speak. The appearance of strange creatures always coincides with sudden deaths in nearby houses.

Shurf Lonley-Lockley studies police archives. A horrifying statistic emerges: twenty-three people died in seventeen days from the loss of Spark. The victims were always in stable marriages or close family relationships. They all led secluded lives. Townspeople didn’t even discuss the sudden deaths of their neighbors, dismissing the illness as mere fatigue.

The husband of former police officer Brina Claivis falls ill. Kofa urgently dispatches Royal Healer Abilath Paras to her. He discovers holes in the Darkside Wind of Echo and quickly stitches them up. The patient recovers rapidly. Healer Gaba Gro, an old friend of Kofa’s, is acting suspiciously. He fumbles when talking about his young granddaughter and flatly refuses his colleagues’ help in treating her.

Reified pain

Juffin and Kofa summon Gaba Gro for questioning. The healer confesses everything. After the death of his wife, Gaba developed a potion based on ancient Chiruhtan recipes. It included earth from Kholomi Island, snake sand, and Morga’s White Mixture. After drinking the potion in the darkness, he emitted a ball of radiance. The ball transformed into a twenty-year-old girl with the demeanor of a child. Gaba bound the creature with traditional farm magic and passed it off as his granddaughter.

The grief-stricken girl lacked companionship with her own kind. She began to seek out people prone to deep grief and kill one of their spouses. The widowed townspeople suffered unbearably. Gaba Gro came to their aid and administered his medicine. The pain surfaced, transforming into new children. The healer settled them in an empty estate.

Fifty-four creatures gathered together, silently directing their destructive power at their next victim. Juffin invites Coffee to listen to the creatures’ Silent Speech. A chorus of unbearable, alien suffering descends upon the detectives. Juffin explains: the victims were unaware of this devastating cry, but their bodies responded by fading.

Juffin Halli, in an experiment, burns a child monster. Gaba Gro immediately falls to the floor, paralyzed by the returning mental anguish. The experiment proves the inextricable bond between creations and their creators.

Elimination of the threat

Juffin understands the danger of using force. Destroying the monsters will bring back the old pain to their former hosts — many elderly people simply won’t survive the second attack. Locking the creatures in Kholomi’s magical prison is also risky. The prison’s ancient spirit will not tolerate such proximity and will revolt. The situation reaches a dead end.

The ghost of Humkhi, overhearing the conversation, offers his assistance. He recounts how his own grandfather drowned his sorrows in the waters of Huron. The liquid instantly soaks the substance, preventing it from floating, and then dissolves it without a trace. The ghost descends to the creatures outside.

Grief desperately needs an attentive audience. The ghost becomes the perfect, tireless listener for the creatures. Humha leads the mesmerized crowd of suffering straight to the embankment. The children obediently descend to the riverbed and dissolve into the dark water. Juffin comments: "Nothing like this nightmare has ever happened before." The threat is eliminated without further casualties.

A deal at the border

The next morning, Kofa receives joyful news. Juffin Hally won his subordinate’s freedom in a card game. The Kettarian convinced Humha to make a high wager: a father’s supervision of his son. Juffin deliberately succumbed to the ghost’s urge, fueling his intense gambling, and then took all his winnings. Humha, inspired by tales of future journeys between worlds, leaves Echo forever.

Having freed himself from the materialized grief, Gaba Gro decides to atone for his guilt. At Juffin’s instigation, the healer travels to the slave markets of the Cuman Caliphate. There, he buys orphaned slave children to give them a normal life in Echo.

Having finished the story, Kofa finishes Trisha’s apple pie. Max explains to his guest the true possibilities of the City. Crossing the boundary of realities grants the traveler unprecedented abilities. Max persuades Kofa to journey to the Dark Side of Echo. This act is sure to stun the overconfident Juffin Halli. The guest, with an ironic grin, promises to consider the offer.