Chapter 25
Rumor
“You—you can speak,” I said. Any other possible sentences I could have uttered wrapped around my middle, squeezing, threatening to suffocate me.
The creature before me could talk. His voice low, measured, and ancient.
I’d always thought the beings that plagued the woods and stole maidens more akin to crocmares.
Just big predators with teeth, their minds only focused on their next feeding.
However, the red wither, and this wither… and the ones from the red wither’s mind… they spoke, they felt, they were nothing like the scary campfire tales of old.
My sister’s captor, the monster from the wedding rite, the wither I killed—stood gazing at me through the scrying stone. He looked as if at any moment he could reach his long arm through and strangle me for what I’d done.
I wouldn’t have blamed him if he did.
The twinge was back, swirling uncomfortably in my chest and telling me I deserved it. I deserved this being’s wrath as much as… as much as I deserved my sister’s fury.
“Why,” the wither said lowly, “have you called to me, Rumor?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Twenty, who’d gone three shades paler than I felt, as he watched the scene play out. My attention turned back to my sister’s captor. “I’m looking for my sister… and I suspect she is searching for you. Though, I didn’t intend to call upon you. I meant to find her.”
“We are the same, Prism and I. Our souls coexist as two parts of the same whole. Where any magic seeks my mate, it shall also discover me.”
The monster’s tone was not haughty or proud; he didn’t taunt me with his declaration. Something about it seemed… true. How could that be? Could it be possible my sister and a wither were… I shook off the lingering questions. “Do you know how I can get to her?”
The wither considered in silence before answering. “I’ve felt her here, in this place, though I hoped it was not true. The darkness that sought her has found her now.”
“What darkness? What does that mean?”
“I will use every measure of ether and strength within my soul to claw my way through the Underworld to her. However…” The wither’s shoulders sagged and he looked off to the side. “Should we reunite, should Prism find me here, I will not be about to return with her.”
“Prism must come back home. She can’t stay in the Underworld with you.”
“I agree.”
My head jerked back slightly. “You agree?”
“My only steadfast desire is for my chosen’s highest good. Prism should live a beautiful life. A life worthy of her. It is not her soul’s time to surrender to the dark.”
“Well, I suppose we do agree then.” I averted my gaze then. My arms were heavy as I fidgeted with a patch of moss on the side of the scrying stone. The twinge in my chest burned like a coal. “I killed you.”
“You did,” the wither’s answer sounded in my ear, though I couldn’t pull myself to face him.
This was absurd. This was nothing like what I thought it would be… so much of what I thought I knew was turning out to be so wrong… Shades of gray, as Twenty had said. I wrapped my arms around my body and rocked on my heels. “I’m…” I shook my head as my voice cracked. “I’m sorry, Vore.”
The words hung in the air, stretching out between stones and runes, from witch to wither.
Forcing myself to face him, Vore tilted his chin in a slow nod.
“Many years ago, when Granite, the elder before me, moved from this realm, the burden of leading Nisse fell to me.
Somehow, despite our wards of protection, a threat entered our community.
A pinebear, nearly the same size as me, began picking off our livestock each night.
I ordered my brothers to find the animal, but despite their efforts, they could not. It confounded me how it made it past the wards. It made me feel as if my merit as a new leader were under question—because why would the wards weaken under my newfound leadership?
One evening, a maiden was refilling her bucket at the water well, and the pinebear turned a corner.
Startled, it lunged for her… Thankfully, she escaped with only a few barbs, but it could have been far worse.
” Vore let out a heavy exhale and rubbed the back of his neck.
Such a human movement juxtaposed with the wisdom in his tone.
I listened, examining him as he continued.
“When I learned of this, I went into a full rage. In my mind, I believed I’d failed my people.
I thought it made me look weak and unskilled to have allowed such a thing to happen.
The humiliation of a wither bested by a pinebear and the looks of fear and horror on the women’s faces when they beheld their sister’s wounds… I went into a rage.
For nights, I tore apart the forest, stalking, watching, waiting.
On the third evening, the giant pinebear appeared again, making its way to the livestock once more.
Without hesitation, I challenged the creature.
We fought, and in short order, I won. Victorious, I brought the slain creature to the square and celebrations were had.
” Vore’s mouth cut into a thin line, memories dancing behind his pale, cloudy gaze.
“It wasn’t until a week later, the other pinebears came… cubs.”
My heart twisted. “A mother pinebear,” I whispered. Matri had taught me as a child to never anger a mother pinebear. They were some of the fiercest protectors of their young in all the realms. Even simply stumbling into one’s territory on a hunt would render most hunters mauled on sight.
Vore inclined his head in a nod. “A pack of human hunters had slain a grouping of her kind, leaving behind a dozen of their young. The mother pinebear had been looking after a group of cubs all on her own, taking them as her young. The wards had let her into Nisse because she wasn’t a threat.
In my pride and in my ignorance, I’d killed a being that did not deserve to die.
That lesson still haunts me, in that life and in this one. ”
“I’m beginning to know the feeling,” I whispered softly, ignoring the tears pricking the sides of my eyes. “How did you… how did you move on from that? What did you do?”
Vore lifted a shoulder in another all-too-human gesture. “I learned to measure my rage… and how to care for pinebear cubs.”
“I have to fix this,” I said. “For Prism and for you… I have to reverse what I’ve done.”
“There is no way to undo what has been set in motion.”
“There has to be a way,” I argued. “The red wither, Wraith, he said that your mortal body still fights for your soul. You haven’t let go, and neither has Prism.”
“If there is a way to be with my claimed, back in Nisse, our home, then that is what my body and soul crave. Though, if such a magic exists that would render that possible, I do not know of it. Such would sure be forbidden by larger governing forces, as well.”
“I’ve evaded Asunder for this long, I may as well keep breaking the rules. What if I—”
Suddenly, the water filtered over my view of the wither, swirling and bubbling as the runes lit up and danced.
The colors faded and changed. What once was red and black and symbols I didn’t recognize, shifted into gold and pink.
The water coned again, swirling under the waning moonlight. Another image began to take shape.
A woman with a long, blonde wet braid swam closer. Her brows furrowed. She stopped, seeming to tread water as she looked at me.
“Sister?” I asked hoarsely.
Prism shook her head. “You’re no sister of mine.”