Somewhere in the little room on the third story of the boarding house that I had holed away in after my escape to the mortal plane, the place I had never called home but was where most of my most significant memories were made, was a notebook.
Mostly from boredom, I had taken rough notes of most of the memories I had viewed while I was away from Zenithcidel in its pages. Standing in front of the folding mirror and watching the red glow in my eyes dim and give way to my natural green, I wished I could look over what I had written once more.
There had been at least two memories I could remember where someone had found the color of their soul. Maybe it was the pounding of my heart in my chest after what had happened in Anna’s room, but for the life of me, I could not remember their names.
Had their eyes emanated light like mine did? Nami and the rest of The Mothers had thrown around their power in that bedroom and none of their eyes had shone. Ola Gresha and. . . I could not remember her name. . .The Mother in Purple had been together before Nami had arrived and the fight had broken out.
My heart thumped in my chest at the thought and the red glow in my eyes brightened in my reflection. I shut it out of my mind and bit the inside of my cheek, holding my breath until my green eyes had returned in full. The pounding in my chest that filled my ears settled enough that I could hear a small sound coming from within the canopy around my bed.
Creeping up to the bed and gently slipping my fingers through the gap in the fabric at the post, the bed was perfectly made, not a wrinkle or crease to be found.
The small sound came again, rhythmic and rough, like stones being ground against one another in quick bursts
I looked up. A dark shape sagged in the middle of the canopy. Slowly, I raised my hand and gently pushed the tip of my finger into the shadowy mass.
The small sound momentarily got bigger and I realized what had invaded my room.
Using the sturdy post to pull myself up and balancing my feet on the narrow footboard, I peered over and laid my eyes on my familiar. Sam, curled into a not so little blue ball with his face tucked against his body, was doing something between a purr and a snore.
My familiar was snurring.
I had only seen him sleep a handful of times and all of them had been in the boarding house after he had hunted. When I was moved to the manor, the amount of space Sam had to roam increased dramatically and he had never been in my room after dark for long.
Which made it all the more strange why he had chosen to fall asleep where he had.
Ask him when he wakes up. I thought, lingering for just a moment. He really was cute when he slept. Of course, all of the very not cute and terribly intimidating things about him were suppressed when he slumbered. If I tried really really hard, I could almost make myself believe he was just a strangely furred cat, a pet even. Instead of being a thorn in my side at every opportunity, I imagined he spent his days sleeping and meowing for his next meal.
What had he said? It is within my nature to dislike you.
My poke had not woken him. Could I scratch behind his ears without being mauled? Slowly reaching my hand out and risking my flesh for a compulsion I was powerless to ignore, a voice broke the tense silence.
“That dress isn't very long, you know.”
“Fuck!” I shouted, every part of me jerking violently from the sudden voice. My feet slipped off the footboard and I fell straight back off the bed. My aura flared within me, rushing to my navel before being stopped dead by the Seal of the Nine Mothers. Driven by nothing but fear and instinct, it turned and streamed out of my right palm, almost quick enough to catch me before I hit the floor.
Almost.
My elbows hit the unfortunately thin rug first. Then, the back of my head, my ass, and my legs. Bolts of pain shot up my arms and curled fingers. I kept my eyes closed and let the rest of me fall to the pattern of roses and thorns, more embarrassed than hurt. “Did he wake up?”
Anna answered me. “Did who wake up?”
I pointed in the direction I thought my bed was in. “Sam.”
I heard her bare feet step over me and the wood of the bed frame creak as she climbed it, just as I had. Creaks and rustling sounded as she shook the bed and then I heard her drop back to the floor.
“It’s strange how easy that is when someone isn’t sneaking up on you. Do I need to teach you how to knock?” I said, opening my eyes.
“We moved past knocking a long time ago, dummy,” Anna stood over me with one foot on each side of my legs. She held her hands down to me and I took them, letting her pull me up. “Besides, the door was open.”
Anna’s raven hair was pulled up into a higher bun than she had tied mine and not a single strand of her straight hair was out of place. The neck of her crimson dress met her jawline and the rest of it clung to her slim body before seamlessly flaring out at her waste. The hem falling just above the floor and her thumbs hooked through little holes in the sleeves, nearly all of her was covered.
“Don’t look at me too long, you just calmed down.” She said with a smirk.
“You should wear this everyday.” I said, running my hand down the silky surface of her sleeve. I did not like that texture on my own skin, but my opinion was all together different when it was on hers.
“We have to work on your banter. If you say what you are really thinking from the jump, it ruins the tension.” Anna said, one hand on her hip.
“Why would I want tension between us?” I asked. I did not think I could handle her being mad at me.
She sagged her shoulders and dropped her head, sighing. “Samsara is dead asleep, I shook the bed and pulled his tail, nothing. Why is he sleeping up there?”
“That is the bravest and the most dangerous thing I’ve ever heard of anyone doing,” I thought about the no longer little claws and fangs of my familiar tearing through the thin sleeve over Anna’s arm. I thought about Anna’s hands running through my hair, her finger running up my jaw. “About what happened earlier, in your room.”
All at once, hurried footsteps pounded up the stairs and down the hall towards my room, heavy and quick. Arthur slid into the doorway on the heels of his boots. He wore a simple white shirt with a high collar and a brown leather vest over it. His hair had been combed and there was no dirt on his pants. “Autumn,” he panted, hands on his knees. “Your mom said,'' He stood up and slicked his hair back with his hands. “To come out back, right now.”
“The Mother in Brown, she has come for me.” I blurted. Between the urgency in Arthur’s arrival and the poor timing, there was no other explanation. I had seen her, in a memory before Anna had met me outside of the well house. I couldn’t remember her name and my notebook of a cat was dead asleep, but she had not seemed unkind. She had restrained the other Mothers by manifesting roots that twisted and turned around her sisters. The Mother in Brown had not been punishing them. The wood would have thorns for me. She would trap me in it and send it coiling around my body, a constant flaying that would only end when she decided my pain was sufficient.
“Nope, that’s not it,” Arthur said, looking at me with an eyebrow raised. “It’s time to start the feast.”
“Oh.” I whispered, the panic that had risen within me refusing to settle down.
Anna placed her hand in the small of my back. “Why didn’t you lead with that instead of scaring the shit out of both of us?”
“In hindsight, I can see how that would have been better. Sorry, Autumn.” Arthur said.
“Get out of here, we will be down in a minute,” Anna said and then turned to me. “ Are you okay? Do you want to sit down?”
Arthur walked into the room and passed by where Anna and I stood on the rug. “I can’t do that. Autumn’s mom made me promise that I wouldn’t come back down without you,” He walked behind us and pushed. “I’ll carry you if I have to.”
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“If you touch me again I will do to you what Autumn did to that guard down by the river.” Anna spat, raising her fist towards her brother.
“I heard about that, poor guy,” Arthur sighed and then pushed us again. “Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
I caught Anna’s arm midswing, my panic having calmed enough I could be a person again. “I am fine. We will go peacefully. I am hungry too.”
Anna glared at her brother. “If she hadn’t stopped me, you’re lucky,” Anna said, turning away from Arthur and leading me out of my room and towards the stairs. “You look stupid in those clothes, like some big dumb thing that lives in a swamp.”
“And the only reason you can wear a dress that tight is because you’re flat.” Arthur snapped back.
We took the stairs down in complete silence, Arthur at our backs, and Anna practically radiating a furious heat. The back and forth between the siblings had brought me out of my self induced panic and by the time we turned down the hall to the back door, I had cracked a smile. It was strange and amusing how the brother and sister pretended to dislike each other despite the love I had seen between them.
Just outside the back door, Amoranora had reached the manor on the hill. Everywhere I looked, the werelights that had been cast down over Erosette from the firework I had seen through Anna’s window hung in the air like they had been placed individually. The color of a dark red wine, they cast a flickering light over everything that gave the back of the manor a relaxed feeling from their light alone.
“Whoa.” Anna said.
“Whoa, indeed,” My mother smiled, standing just before the mouth of the garden path. She met us halfway and plucked one of the wine lights out of the air with her thumb and forefinger before placing it in front of our faces. She wore a dress the same color as the lights and her red hair was tied back in a complex overlay of perfect braids. Green eyes shimmering with the same mischief that had filled them when the feast had been nothing but an idea, she spoke. “Anna and Arthur Lao, you both have done well by me in completing the task I assigned you. I owe each of you a favor for your efforts.”
My mother and I shared so many features and so much of our faces looked the same, but my earlier feelings that had made me refuse the green dress were confirmed when I noticed the difference in how Arthur looked at my mother compared to when he looked at me.
“I did not realize the firework cast these all the way up here,” I said, reaching up to touch the wine light. “What are they?”
“They didn’t. The people of Erosette will not miss what I have borrowed,” She turned to me, untwisting one of the straps of my dress that I hadn’t realized had been twisted. “I am surprised to see you in blue. Green seems much more like your color.”
“I tried. She wouldn’t go for it.” Anna said, smoothing a wrinkle out of the front of my dress.
I swatted their hands away. “Why is everyone so interested in what I am wearing all of a sudden?”
“I like what you normally wear.” Arthur chimed in, not fussing over my dress
A sudden flash of him looking up at me when I had been on the roof came to the front of my mind. He could have not told me that he had a straight line of sight up my dress but he had looked away and told me immediately. “That is why we are friends, Arthur.”
“I thought it was because of the hot chocolate.” Arthur said.
I could not tell if he was being earnest or not.
“Look at the three of you,” My mother beamed. “Autumn is wearing a color, Anna is dressed for a ball, and I finally found Arthur nice clothes that fit him properly,” She turned to Anna and I. “That was no easy task, I assure you both.”
Another repetition of Delpha and The Dragon or one of her other stories would be in all of our futures if my mother got much happier. She could not help it, it was in her nature.
“First, I must share a story with you,” My mother said, dropping her voice to a pitch that she only used when beginning a long tale. “It is later than I wished it to be, so I must be brief for the sake of the evening.”
I knew it.
“Not very long ago, far from here in a place within Chaos known as the Subseas, a young sailor found himself marooned on one of the thousands of islands scattered throughout the subterranean ocean. The island was haunted by a demon, Othilie, that had taken the lady of the isles light and scattered it across the island in a fit of rage when she refused his offer of marriage.” My mother took the werelight out of the air before us, making sure we understood the obvious symbolism.
“What does this have to do with food?” Arthur asked.
My mother held her finger to her lips to silence him and continued. “The lady of the isle visited the young sailor, Morrow, on the shore and told him that if he could steal her lights away from the demon and bring them to her ruined tower atop the island that she would cast the demon off and help Morrow off the island.”
I thought I understood what was happening. “Were we not going to just have a feast?”
“Yes, but I wanted you all to experience Amoranora in earnest. Now, let me finish. You know how I hate to have a story interrupted,” My mother insisted. Seemingly from nowhere, she flicked her wrist out to her side and three bags with long straps dropped from her hand. “On this Morrow’s night, all throughout Erosette, everyone who feels the passion of The Mother in Red has taken to the streets with bags just like this slung over their shoulders.”
“So, the island lady was the demon, right?” Arthur asked.
“No, the lady was the Red Mother,” My mother huffed. “I will tell the story properly over dinner.”
My mother stepped in front of Arthur and raised herself to the tips of her toes to hang the bag over the tall man’s shoulder. Without needing to stretch, she did the same for Anna and I before retaking her place in front of us. “Whichever of you collects the most werelights before I can catch you will win The Red Mothers heart as Morrow did.”
She reached behind her back and pulled out a small chest adorned with polished brass and glimmering rubies.
I did not care about the chest or what was in it. My entire concern was that my mother continued to stay in high spirits. I would play her game, despite my desire to participate in the genuine tradition taking place in the city below, and do whatever else I had to do for my impending question to be received as well as I could ensure.
“Is her heart really in there?” Arthur exclaimed.
My mother laughed and covered her mouth with her hand. “No, dear boy. It’s a metaphor.”
“I’m sorry, Idensyn,” Anna said. Since when did she call my mother by her first name? “He fell down a lot as a child and I’m afraid it’s made him a little slow.”
“Shut up, I’m not slow,” Arthur snapped. “We live with witches and a talking cat in a mansion outside of an underground city that has its own sky. A heart in a box seems pretty normal all things considered.”
“A fair point!” My mother agreed.
“It is a fair point, Anna.” I said, pushing my elbow into her ribs playfully.
She glared at me so fiercely that I felt it would have burned my eyes if I had looked back at her.
“Oh no! Somebody does not like to be wrong.” I ribbed her with my elbow again.
Sharp pain stabbed into my ribs and I clutched my arms around them. “I was joking.”
“I told you she can get violent.” Arthur said, patting me on my back.
“Each of you are ready?” My mother asked, bringing our attention back to her and ignoring the death blow Anna had just delivered onto my ribs.
Through pained inhales, I asked. “Did you say before you catch us?”
My mother nodded. “Someone has to play Othillie, of course.”
“I want to play.” Ms. Lao said from behind us
I had not heard her come out of the manor.
In such a big house, days would pass with me only seeing Ms. Lao at dinner. Of late, she had taken her meals in her room more often than not and in that time, the mortal sickness that she refused to have healed had made her less. From where I stood, the wine red light cast its warm glow over her and it was difficult for me to tell just how much weight she had lost, but the shawl and robes she wore hung loosely off her shoulders.
“No, Ma. You need to rest.” Arthur said, "I'll take you to the table.”
Ms. Lao slapped her son’s hand away. “Hush. All I have done since we got here is rest. There is nothing to do but rest. I will play.” She said quickly.
“Wonderful Mai!” My mother smiled, flicking her wrist out and making another bag appear. She placed it over Ms. Lao like she had the rest of us.
“Arthur,” Anna whispered. “She can’t.”
Arthur cleared his throat. “Ma, I don’t know if,”
Ms. Lao cut him off. “You are scared that I will beat you.”
Arthur opened his mouth to respond and then closed it.
“The time has come,” My Mother announced, passing the gold and glittering box in front of each of us one last time before concealing it behind her back and bringing her hands out in front of her, empty. “Un, Deux, Trois, begin!”
Stillness
Arthur broke first, sprinting towards the garden path.
Anna stuck out her leg and tripped him, sending the tall man stumbling to the ground
Holding her long dress up with one hand to keep herself from tripping, she disappeared into the garden with Arthur at her heels.
If they were taking it that seriously, I at least needed to try.
My mother grabbed my arm as I ran past her, spinning me around in a circle. “Isn’t this fun, my little Delpha?”
I caught sight of Arthur pulling a werelight from the air and pushing it into his bag at the mouth of the garden before running deeper into the path. “Yes,” I laughed. Feeling something I had never felt before. “Let me go. I don’t want to lose.”
My mother had done all of it for me, Arthur and Anna were throwing themselves into a tradition of a people they hadn’t known existed before a few months ago, and instead of running into a garden decorated with lights the color of wine with a smile on my face, I could have been being shredded to pieces by The Mother in Brown.
The night was new, a feast was still to come, and I was truly having fun.
Stepping onto the stone of the garden path and plucking my first werelight from the air, all I could think was. Why is this not enough?