Chapter 16 #3
It waved its hand and the woven images changed.
I watched the scene from my dream of the frozen lake begin to play out in front of me as I tried to wrap my mind around this new information.
“Aloisa was indeed real. She is the girl you’ve been dreaming of.
” I watched Callum begin to saw at the ice.
The Tapestry murmured, “Best to show you the ending, we think.”
This time, when Callum fell into the water and Aloisa dove in after him, I didn’t wake.
I stepped closer to the Tapestry’s threads, twisting into the scene.
Aloisa materialized in the same space I now occupied.
Her expression was one I understood—wariness and confusion.
I stretched my fingers out to brush against the threads making up her image.
They were warm and featherlight, almost the same texture as powdered snow.
In the vision, the Tapestry appeared before Aloisa. After she asked many of the same questions I had upon arriving, she crossed her arms and held her chin high. “What will happen when I wake? Will Callum be all right?”
The Tapestry—the version of it from the memory—seemed regretful. “Your friend has passed on, I’m afraid. You may not survive this experience either.”
The girl was silent for a few moments before she said, a hint of sharpness in her voice, “You could save us both.”
The Tapestry nodded. “We could, but we will not.”
Her hands curled into fists. “That’s ridiculous. You’re a god—save him!”
“We will not save him,” the Tapestry repeated. “But you can. If you are willing to accept the cost.”
Aloisa’s face changed, relief warring with uncertainty. “Should I assume you will not tell me what the cost will be?”
“That is correct. But be warned: it is great.”
She didn’t hesitate. She held her head high when she answered. “I accept.”
The weaving in front of me transformed once more, and I watched her emerge from the lake, gasping and hacking for air.
A long cut stretched over one eyebrow, and I wondered what she’d hit her face on.
A jagged edge of the ice, perhaps. She pulled Callum to shore behind her, dragging his deadweight.
His eyes stared unseeing into the distance.
Someone else, someone I couldn’t see, screamed.
The Tapestry standing next to me murmured, “I am afraid this part only makes sense if you see it through Aloisa’s eyes.”
Color flooded my world again. My fingers, wrapped around Callum’s frozen wrist, were nearly numb. But with every blink, threads began to appear in the air around me.
I dropped my friend’s hand. The threads now formed a tapestry, woven in front of me and stretching out in either direction. I knew, intrinsically, that no one else could see it. Including my sister, who sobbed loudly behind me.
Threads, I thought, and noted one different from the others—it was bright but loose, the end not yet tied off. Tentatively, I reached out for it.
There was a corresponding tug in my gut as I moved my fingers with the intent to manipulate the thread.
My own thoughts broke through the haze of Aloisa’s. She has a Lurae.
She treated the thread as gingerly as one would a fallen baby bird. It was slow, painstaking work, but eventually, the entire thread unraveled from the tapestry until she held it in her hands. Then, she guided the light into Callum’s unbreathing body.
I held my breath. Counted three, four, five heartbeats of stillness.
Callum’s chest moved as he inhaled, then turned onto his side to vomit up water.
I sank to my knees. Tears of relief fell from my eyes. My sister’s small hand grasped mine. “What happened?” she asked, wonderous. “How did he come back?”
I couldn’t look at her, not when I was so busy staring at Callum. But when I glanced down at our intertwined fingers, I noted the glow of threads living beneath her skin, now visible to me as well.
Shaking my head, I wondered when I would find out the cost of what I’d done. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.”
The room of nothing materialized in front of me once more. I rubbed my forehead. An ache was beginning to form there. The deity claimed to be answering my questions, but I now had more than when I’d started. “Aloisa was a real person. How did she come to be worshiped as a goddess?”
For a long moment, the Tapestry studied me. “You have many questions,” it said finally. “Such is to be expected. There is not enough time to answer them all now, however.”
My heart sank. Whether the Tapestry was a god or not, it had information I needed. I hadn’t even asked what it meant when it said my Lurae had been dormant for most of my life. Did it know what the queen had planned?
“But we reside elsewhere, too,” it continued. “Your Lurae is more complex than you realize, child. And between yourself and the Hellbringer, as you called him, there is much ahead of you. Work together, and you will be able to speak to us outside of our physical realm in the lake.”
“What do you mean?” A note of desperation slipped into my voice. “I don’t understand.”
“The threads of your future hold endless possibilities,” it said, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. I was surprised to find the touch comforting. “You have been chosen for a vital task—one influenced greatly by those who came before you.
“Study the prophecy,” the Tapestry said.
“It will reveal more than you expect. Trust your companion. He has gained new responsibilities as well, and they will grow even more vital in the coming weeks. The more you use your Lurae, the easier it will become to connect with us. You will learn to see the threads of the past and recognize them.”
More training with S?ren, then.
“Even now, he paces on the ice,” the Tapestry continued. “Watching your soul threads with the keenest eye, ready to pull you from the depths.”
“He needs me alive.”
“Is that the only reason he cares for your well-being?” The Tapestry stepped closer to me once more.
I ignored the question and replied with my own. “How do I speak to you outside of this place? There is more I need to know.”
Especially about my Lurae.
“We will come to you in dreams when we are able. Otherwise, continue to practice using your Lurae. In tandem with your Hellbringer’s abilities, you can connect with us. Your magic will guide you when the time calls for it.”
Before I had the chance to say anything else, the Tapestry disappeared. And when I opened my mouth to call out for it, water flooded in.