7. Alira #2
“You’re the wisp, aren’t you?” I mutter the words on an exhale and feel content with the answering slow blink from the stag.
The creature walks toward the water in long strides.
It must be low tide because there are more rocks and jagged stones than there were earlier.
Bits of seaweed and barnacles stick to their surfaces.
This isn’t like the other vision. The one that Mercury had sent was grounded. I wasn’t physically meeting the wisp or interacting with it this long. The scenery wasn’t as ominous as this… This is different, and I’m not sure I like it. Chills raise the hair on the back of my neck.
My attention is stolen once more as I hear Kalel calling out to me from above. I hate that I’m doing this to them. The guilt is heavy, but my desperation to know the truth is stronger.
I study how the clouds cling to the black rocks of the cliffside and how grim and glum it truly is down here. The only light emanates from the beautiful stag. It casts a blue-toned luminance that refracts on every wet black stone and the water’s edge.
A terrible feeling coils in my stomach as the stag stops at the water and looks back at me, expecting me to follow.
I fist my hands and force my legs to carry me closer.
As I do, more lights appear. They are dim.
At first, they just look like blobs, but then I realize they are shaped like people.
I can’t tell if they are human or demigods, or even demons, for that matter.
But there are many of them, so many that they fill the area and stretch out past the low-tide rocks and farther than I can see in both directions.
My back tenses, and I have to steady myself as I come to a stop beside the stag.
“Who are they?” I ask, somber because the air has weight to it. As if I stand with the dead. As if I’m already in Mortem and do not yet know it.
The stag watches me for a few moments before it lowers its head to the rippling dark water below.
I don’t like this. I hold my breath as I kneel beside the water and gaze into the reflection.
My heart all but stops as skeletal hands reach out and grab me by my shoulders, pulling me into the icy water before I can even gasp. The moment my body is in the water, I’m standing in Devicit.
It takes me a second to orient myself because it’s not the kingdom I’m familiar with. It’s darker. Not bright and alive like I know it is now. I look to my side and find a young woman standing there. She offers no welcome, only acknowledging me with one gloomy look.
She’s a few inches shorter than I am, with raven-toned hair twice as long as mine.
It’s intricately braided, keeping it just barely off the ground.
She wears cream robes wrapped around her chest and her waist, complementing her dark skin and making the gold bands around her neck and wrists pop in contrast.
I follow her gaze as she watches two men pull a burlap bag of something up to a garden bed. I observe with her in silence, studying the shorter, younger man. His hair is dark and his skin a warm olive. The golden cuff earrings on his ears and bands on his arms shine like a hundred suns.
Kalel?
I step closer so I can hear what the two men are talking about.
When I see the younger one’s face, I’m certain it’s Kalel.
His neck isn’t as thick as it is now, and his arms are lean.
He’s older than he was when I met him in Florum Forest. Only by a few years, based on his height and features.
But his eyes… They’ve aged considerably.
Pain shifts through my veins like lead because I know why he looks so miserable.
It’s my fault. If only I hadn’t told the house mother that he needed help that night so long ago.
His uncles would still be alive and he never would’ve been slain himself either.
Thank gods Pluto heard my prayer to bring him back, but why did the god grant my wish?
Why not ignore me like they all have for centuries?
The older demon with Kalel is burying the contents from the bag and telling Kalel something… I move uncomfortably close, so much so that I can almost reach out and touch them.
“It’s always been in their bones. Our forefathers figured it out hundreds of years ago.
You’re old enough to know now, Kalel. In a few days, this entire flower bed will be fully grown.
The flowers will never wither, and they will provide more energy to the veil.
Everything in Devicit benefits from this, Kalel.
Without the bones, the veil will fall, our crops will die, our lives will become very difficult because the earth here is fruitless.
We will be magicless. Defenseless to the gods that want the demons dead. Do you understand?”
My eyes widen. Whose bones?
The woman beside me with raven hair grabs my hand and speaks.
Her voice is like silk. Ethereal. “I am granting you the remainder of the vision…for when you’re ready.
” She places something cold in my hands, but before I can look down to see what it is, she speaks again.
“Tell it you’re ready, and you will see what has been in front of you all along. ”
She shuts her eyes, and the vision goes dark. I’m back in the shallows of the low tide, drenched and freezing.
Rocks shift under the weight of someone approaching.
“Alira, are you okay?” Kalel’s voice is worried, and he’s out of breath from climbing down the cliffside.
I don’t turn to face him.
My attention is solely on the golden olive leaf of a laurel that rests in my hand. Which goddess was that? And the veil… What bones are the demons using to make the beautiful peonies grow?