26. Hope
26
Hope
I t had been over twenty hours of the creature circling the vessels relentlessly. The sea beast hadn't lingered to feed, and it seemed extremely content to continue around them. Hope doubted it knew where they were because of the light in the cellholt, especially because there had been none in way too many hours.
Even though the courtrades didn’t seem to mind the darkness at all, Hope was fed up with not being able to see what she was eating, what or who she was stepping on, and if she had any weapons pointed at her neck.
She didn’t trust the courtrades at all. Unlike Nina, who knew everyone's names and kept talking with them and helping whenever she could, Hope preferred to mind her own business. Her own business being her assortment of weapons that had never been polished so much, planning the next steps of her journey which differed from Marcus’ plans, and right now, the long-lasting darkness no one seemed too concerned about and, in case they hadn’t realized, was not keeping the sea beast away.
An exasperated exhale next to her showed she was not the only one done with darkness.
“I agree,” Hope said, earning a chuckle from Nina.
“I just can't believe they don't even care,” Hope felt Nina shake her head next to her. “Do you reckon they can see in the dark?”
They sat on top of some crates around the front of the cellholt. Because at least there they had the faint light of the living map.
“It's not that we can see ,” Aridian clarified from nearby. “More like we perceive what the shadows know. Seeing without actually seeing.”
“Don't forget their whispers,” Marcus added.
“Of course, the whispers of shadows. How ordinary of us to have forgotten about them, Nina,” Hope rolled her eyes. Probably only the courtrades perceived that.
“Whispers of night, we call them. Which, by the way,” Marcus' voice moved as if he was now facing Aridian, “Should have reached the courtrades in Thyria a few days ago. Reason why we must not alter our course or we won't get there when they will be waiting for us.”
“They make us normal beings not blessed by any god or goddess look abhorrently ordinary,” Nina told Hope, and as if she remembered her friend was indeed blessed by the Cardinals and their magic, Nina added, “Extremely boring being is not applicable to you, either.”
Hope tried to elbow her, hitting Nina at her first attempt at finding her side. “Not that it matters much. And not that there is anything wrong with being ordinary.”
“When will you decide to stop resting importance to the fact that you have the potential of becoming the most potent panom in this world, Hope Nevada?” Marcus said, and maybe it was his shadows, or maybe his message, but her skin tensed uncontrollably.
Hope struggled to talk past the uncomfortable knot in her throat. “That is a lie,” she managed to say.
“Aren’t you the daughter of the Organ Mandor?” Marcus asked. Hope could swear her mother’s eyes closed at the truth spoken so brashly. He continued, “Won’t you become the first female blood panom in the Organ bloodline in centuries?”
“What do you mean?” Hope asked, trying her best for her voice not to break.
She could have sworn Marcus was avoiding to give Aurora a questioning look as Nina explained, “The five Cardinals are goddesses and firm believers of female blood ruling over male blood. Of female blood ruling in this world and any others.” She continued, “Because of this, the female panoms of any bloodline will always to be the most powerful and the truthful heirs to their Houses. And also because of this, male panoms have killed females of their own Houses for centuries. Because many will never accept female blood ruling over them.”
The silence that followed didn’t help Hope’s mind feeling less on edge. And it surely helped her world feel like tilting upside down, vessel and beast included.
“Shame that I am not interested,” she simply said. And she knew that her mother’s eyes showed an immense relief, even if she still could not see them.
“The shadows have whispered, Hope Nevada,” Marcus insisted. “And they never lie.”
Hope cleared her throat. “I am not interested. I don’t want to rule anything. All I want is to find my peace by killing that man.”
Because she would not call him “my father” in front of Aurora. He wasn’t her father. He wasn’t her anything. Not in any way that mattered. Only the man who had sired her by mistake. Hope added, “But I am very interested in getting this creature out of our way so I can see something again before some of us end up hallucinating.” Because not seeing anything other than wings and night in her dreams was going to end her sanity. And her patience.
“The darkness has not made the beast stop chasing us,” Aurora added, clearly grateful for the change in subject. She was also very eager for this pitch black nonsense to stop.
Marcus hummed in agreement. “You three might want to close your eyes,” he said, and they all did just that precisely when he took the shadows of the cellholt away.
“Thank you and each Cardinal for the light. And the warning,” Nina said, hands covering her eyes even though that was excitement already in her voice. She couldn’t wait for them to adjust until she could look around again.
“Something as ordinary as seeing. Nothing ordinary should ever be taken for granted,” Hope said, already removing the cover from her eyes as she started opening them. Hope grinned at the sight of Nina’s hands still covering her pale face, the white strands of her usually smooth hair quite a mess that hadn’t been fixed in all those hours. Her mother, already pushing her dark eyes open despite the discomfort, just as she had done herself. Her dark, short hair shaping her face, the scar on her neck in its usual place.
Courtrades hadn’t even flinched at the change of brightness, and they carried on doing their usual duties as they had been doing before. Rearranging the crates, sorting out food rations and water, playing games with pieces of broken glass, chatting in small groups. Except they still seemed tense, not being able to stop the frequent glances at the massive scales of the sea creature surrounding them playfully.
“Time to scare the beast away,” Hope said as she walked towards the orb that kept the cellholt together. Its engine and core in one. The redness at the bottom of the orb proof that her blood was still fuel for a while. But Hope didn’t want a simple refuel. She wanted an outburst of power that shook the vessel enough to scare or electrocute the creature.
With one hand holding her sharpest dagger, Hope opened her other palm and held in a painful gasp as she cut through the scab, letting the panom blood pour in freely into the center of the orb.