Chapter 5 #3
She knew the moment she escaped the Quiet, and not because the gentle tug against her fingers ceased. Or because Ky stopped running. Or even because the eerie, heavy, held silence no longer swirled around her, searching and seeking for empty vessels to pour into.
It was because her vision was full of light. Sudden and blinding—and just as quickly fading. She couldn’t actually make out anything. Just blurry forms, a few sloppy colours, and the fading brightness.
I can see, she whispered into her mind, but it’s all … wrong.
What do you mean? the monster asked, sounding confused. And then, before she could reply, he seemed to answer his own question. It’s my second sight.
Why is everything so blurry? she asked despairingly, completely overwhelmed, the effort to try and bring the world into focus making her head ache.
Stop trying to form the colours. My second sight isn’t like the first sight of humans. My colours tell the truth. You can’t force them to say anything but the truth.
Her heart was beating a frantic, unbearable rhythm, hope threatening to poison her with a happiness she might never recover from.
She could see.
Sort of.
Maybe?
She stopped trying to make sense of the colours and shapes and stood still, clutching Ky’s arm, as his face slowly came into focus. Ky. Her Ky. He was no longer ten years old.
He was … tall and gangly. The buttery fabric of his lordly clothes had been torn, the sleeves covered in blood and dirt, a scratch across his chest still open and weeping, parting the velvety material of his shirt.
His eyes were a smouldering coal, wide and confused, flicking between hers.
His skin was a light clay, his lashes sooty, his lips like the gems they mined.
He was every colour of the mountain that had rejected him.
He would carry it on his skin, in his countenance, every day of his life.
“You’re looking right at me,” he whispered, his eyes widening.
This wasn’t how she remembered the world. There were colours that came out of his mouth. A wisp of lilting yellow, soft and full of wonder, but tinged with the shivering orange of fear and shock.
The truth, her little monster whispered. He sounded tired. We can’t use this power for long.
The truth. She wasn’t just seeing her friend. She was seeing his feelings.
“Light above,” she spluttered, as the world began to dim again.
It wasn’t until the vision began to fade that she realised she had been seeing far too many details all at once. As the colours, textures, and nuances began to soften, she began to recognise what the world looked like. It wasn’t quite so bright, quite so coloured, quite so textured and sharp.
She would have loved it to settle there, but it didn’t. It continued to fade. It faded back into blurry shapes and haloes of light, and then into complete darkness again.
We’ll do better next time, the little monster promised mournfully, the words ending on a yawn.
“Eiko?” Ky’s hands gripped her shoulders, concern in his voice. “What the hell just happened?”
Don’t tell anyone, the monster warned.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I … this is a lot to take in.”
“It’s not trying to tear you apart? It’s really just a baby?”
“I think so. I … I need to go back in there. For Rion and Kaito.”
“No need,” Kaito panted, from a few feet away.
She was so shocked that she accidentally activated her monster’s ability again, sharpening the world into painful, colourful focus.
Kaito looked just like the portrait of her father.
Tall and broad-shouldered, with messy black hair, a squared, stubble-covered jaw, and eyes crinkled at the edges by laugh lines.
He was carrying Rion, who curled against his chest, her long, auburn hair flowing over his arm, so long it almost tickled the ground.
Eiko had known the details of her friend’s appearance, but nothing could have prepared her for the vision that Rion was, with skin a shade paler than was common for the stoneborn, and eyes like the sunrise all of Stonesigh worshipped each morning.
It was such a brief flash of an image, snatched away so quickly that it felt like a hallucination, before Eiko’s vision faded again.
She was blind again.
“Are you okay?” she asked, as Kaito joined them.
“We’re fine.” Kaito’s voice was tight. “But …”
“They Silenced.” The voice belonged to Kira, whom Eiko had not had time to notice trailing Kaito.
She didn’t stop with their group but stomped right past, her footfalls uneven, like she was limping.
“We were stuck inside a crush of people on the train, and suddenly this idiot makes a deal that if we’re protected and led out of the Quiet, she’ll agree to a Silencing. ”
Since there was only one other she, Eiko had to assume that Rion was the idiot.
“Let’s not discuss it here,” Kaito clipped out quietly. “That’s a fucking prince walking towards us.”
Little monster? Eiko called out inside her mind, worried at how quiet he had been. Are you there?
I’m here.
Do you have a name?
Hymndrake, but you can call me Hymn. He sounded happy but weak, before a tremble of fear sank into his intonation. He’s coming.
“Which prince?” she asked aloud, worrying over the fear she could feel from Hymn.
“Prince Chasin,” Ky whispered. “And he looks pissed. Why does he look pissed?”