And then I seeher.The Great Pale Mother, in her milky fullness, curved into a crescent.She’s even more majestic than the fables promised.Wetness winds its way down my cheeks, carving clean paths through the dust.
Voices sound nearby.They yank me out of the trance, every word as clear as if I were standing amongst them—the sensation is disorientating.My mind struggles to calculate their distance, desperate to gauge our chances.
“We have to go,” I croak, dashing over to Kael and hauling him up by the elbow.
“How do you expect us to hide with the entourage we’ve collected?”He gestures to the staff, then down at Eira, who stares right back at him.“We aren’t exactly blending in.”
He’s right.Even under the cover of night, we are ink-blots against a white canvas.
Think, Seren.Think.
Nyx’s words wrap around my skull, caressing the inner reaches of my brain.Use the shadows, child.
I look at the staff in my hand, its metal warming at my touch.“Of course,” I mutter.“Eira, get close.Shadows—keep watch.”
I grab Kael’s wrist.He flinches as a strange warmth spreads from my palms into his skin.“What are you?—”
I don’t give him time to finish.I reach for the energy humming inside the staff.The velvet eye glows softly, its rhythm matching the life coursing through my veins.I close my eyes, feeling for the thread between us.The words slip off my tongue with a terrifying ease:Shadows, blend us with the night.
A tingle spreads through my marrow, ripples of power shivering out into my limbs.Kael stares at me, his eyes glowing silver as the space around him begins to dissolve.
Blackness swirls around us, as we become at one with the night.
I release his wrist as the sensation coating my skin stills.
It is done.
“What did you do?”he breathes, staring at his own hands as they fade into the murk.
“Saving us,” I bite back.“Now, move.”
We move as a single entity, a pocket of living night drifting through the streets.I look to the Great Pale Mother again, relishing her rays as they absorb into my pores.She is lower in the sky now, the deep indigo of night beginning to bleed toward the grey of dawn.Time feels distorted, a blurred sequence of hours.How many days were we trapped beneath the stone?
We move seamlessly through the alleyways, hoarding the darkness while we still can.Tucking tight against the corner, I stop.The jingle of a bell has me sucking in a breath, my arm barring Kael’s chest, forcing him hard against the wall.
Glass clinks.Slurred cheers of delight spill out as a door swings open and shut.A soft, golden warmth radiates through the tavern window panes.
The smell of stale beer escapes through the doorway as someone disappears into the press of bodies.Nausea rises in my throat, and I force it back down.Inside, servers weave through the crowd; the hum of conversation rises and falls with laughter, punctuated by the rhythmic clinking of a celebration.
What a privilege it is—to be afforded the luxury of eating, drinking and socialising as if the world held no cares.
The tavern laughter sours in my stomach.It drags up memories of home and the only gathering we allowed ourselves; the Night of the Great Pale Mother.An annual event where the nights seemed longer, darker.Where her resonance was at its strongest.If we had been able to step above ground, we would have seen her pale face looking down, casting us in her milky rays.
Instead, we resorted to feeling her presence within us, our bodies humming with a borrowed light.We threw parties, celebrating all that is Her.
It was the only time of year we shared our provisions—cooking and eating to our hearts’ content.We would dance into the night, imagining the feel of her light radiating down.
Then, it would end.
We would return to normal: avoiding gazes, spitting curses, fighting over scraps.Back to the hunger.The savagery.
I spit on the ground, forcing the taste of their laughter from my mouth.
“Seren?”Kael whispers.
“Move,” I mutter.
We slip through the alleyways, our bodies pressed so tightly we melt into the shadows as a single mass.We reach the market square.It looks so much larger from the ground.I peer up at the windows of the Guild Hall, finding the ones just beneath the gold-tipped spires.Somewhere in that stone is the room where I was held captive—the room now stained with the resonance of my soul.
