4. The Girl
Chapter 4
The Girl
T he stone door closed with a thunk behind the girl, sealing her in the Seeing Room and effectively cutting off all sound. The silence was so oppressive that there was almost a sound to it. The room was small—when the girl sat in the middle of the space, she could touch the walls on either side of her—and circular, with stone walls and a ceiling that seemed to stretch up into oblivion. Altogether it seemed too small and yet too vast for the girl. She took a few tentative steps until her feet reached the small sitting rug that dominated the floor space. It was pitch black with thousands of runes stitched in a haphazard pattern around the perimeter. The girl could identify a few of the runes, but not many. There was one for foresight, one for memory, one for projection, one for protection. Beyond that, the strokes and dots that created the ancient script were lost on the girl. While every Mage was taught the basics of Blood Magic, its intricacies belonged to the Bondsmith, who, along with the deepest knowledge of runes, was lost in the Sundering.
The rug, like the room, was generational and sacred. Each Keeper, once they accessed Solace from this particular room, added their own runes to the rug based on what was shown to them in Solace. There was a small stone bowl built into one of the circular walls which contained a needle and thread. Before stitching her own runes, however, the girl would need to bathe the thread in her blood. Her blood was simultaneously an offering to the goddess for her visions and wisdom, and acted as a bonding agent for the potent magic that was conjured just by creating a rune. The girl gazed at the rug, noting that some of the runes were darker than others, indicating that they were bathed in the blood of her far ancestors, whereas a few runes stood out in a lighter red hue, indicating that her mother or grandmother had added those to the Seeing rug.
The girl sank to her knees on top of the rug and let her fingers trace over the runes. Each time she touched a rune she felt a tingle in her fingers and a small flash in her mind’s eye—sometimes she saw the face of an ancestor when they had come here, sometimes she saw the meaning of the rune. It was a heady feeling, this connection with her ancestors. The more she touched, the heavier the air around her felt. The air was thick, almost as if the souls of her ancestors existed in this specific place and were coming to greet her as she took her place amongst them as a Keeper, a Matriarch. The veil between Solace and the waking world was much thinner here, making it not only easier to access Solace, but also easier to see both into the past and the future.
Once the girl’s hands had touched all the runes in the circle, she brought them back to rest lightly in her lap. She was surprised to see that the skin on her fingers was unchanged, even though they still tingled as if magic was constantly running through them. The girl took deep calming breaths, attempting to find her center after the chaos of the day.
Was it really just this morning that she had found her great-grandmother in Solace?
The thought seemed preposterous to the girl. The day simultaneously felt like it had lasted a lifetime and an hour. She continued to center herself, attempting to forget the horrors that awaited her when she inevitably left the safety of the Seeing Room. Gradually, the girl’s eyes closed and her breathing evened.
All at once, she felt her mind catapult her into Solace. But this time, instead of walking through the long white hallway, the girl was unceremoniously deposited outside of a door. Gone was the serenity that existed when she accessed Solace earlier this morning. In its place was a deep foreboding feeling that seemed to permeate and vibrate the very air. It was like the world was on the brink of something and Solace could feel it happening. The doors around the girl rattled with an unseen force and the ground beneath her rumbled.
Solace was angry .
The girl didn’t know how she could understand the goddess’ emotions, but she inherently knew, deep in her bones, that the place had a feeling.
The girl felt her body inadvertently pull toward the door directly in front of her, as if Solace was moving her to where she needed to be. Her hand reached out and grasped the shaking knob of the door. The knob continued to vibrate under her palm as if anticipating what would happen when she finally turned it and entered the room.
Stealing another quick breath, the girl turned the knob and walked through the door.