Shadow Whispers

The wind whipped around her face, taking the loose strand from her braid and plastering it to her cheek. The cold nipped at her uncovered face while the hood of her fur-lined cloak kept her ears warm. Her face was wet from the damp mist that constantly covered this city, and tears dripped down her cheeks. Orange, brown, and yellow leaves scattered the walkways rustling under her feet.

She left the temple library before they knew she was missing. She knew why the temple parish had called her to the main hall that day. Her discovery threatened their influence and she would be punished for it. But it seemed everyone in the city already knew what she had uncovered. Strangers eyes bored into her as she raced down the street at an ungodly pace. They gave her a wide berth as she passed as though her discoveries were a contagious virus. Was she being paranoid or were these feelings legitimate?

Somehow Emry needed to leave the city, to pass on the information she held to the guardians. Was it wise to pass that information to them? She didn’t know. They could be a part of this whole scheme. A way to help them stay in power.

The mist was getting thicker as she ventured further into the city. The worship temple she passed looked ominous through the gray. Its black spires pierced the fragile clouds that swarmed around its peaks. Gargoyles and glorified souls' eyes peered down from the walls and followed her hurried steps. The city's architecture seemed to come alive and haunt her path. The cloak billowed around her legs as she rushed down the stairs picking up her pace. The wind whipped around her once more, but this time it whispered in her ear, “Follow the black cat with green eyes.” She paused in the middle of the staircase removing her hood. She looked around and gazed into the worship temple. Emry saw no one. Not one person graced the stairs next to the temple she was on. No one worshipped. It’s as if they all had heard the whisper too and ran back to the safety of their homes.

Goosebumps trailed all over her body. She put her hood back on and continued down the steps. Near the last step she saw it, the black cat with green eyes. The voice had been real. Did the whisperer know what she was hiding? Did they know the truth she found?

The cat sat at the entrance to an old bookshop she had frequented many times. As she approached it, the cat stood up and walked down the alley next to the store. She was too curious not to follow the cat to heed the warning in her bones. There was something mystical about this alley. It felt as though it was breathing. She could hear it inhale and exhale with her breaths. Even the tangling vines with their red leaves that snaked up the walls of the black stone pulsed with her breath. There was power here. A lot of it. Emery shivered through her core.

She saw the black cat up ahead. It stopped peering over its shoulder as if asking her if she still wanted to follow him. Ahead the alley narrowed and became darker. Faintly within that darkness, she could hear whispers. She looked back at the cat. The cat was still looking at her not moving, waiting. In her head she said, yes I’m coming. They both moved forward together toward the darkness.

As she walked deeper into the alley the darkness brightened as if she were a lighthouse beacon across the ocean. More of the vines with red leaves covered the walls here, brushing against her skin as she passed. The vegetation was so thick she could no longer make out the walls of the buildings. Occasionally there was a window glowing through the vines, but she could not see inside because of the moisture on the panes. The cat had slowed in front of her allowing her to catch up. Then it sat down. There was nothing but walls of vines surrounding them. No windows, no doors, nowhere else to go, except back the way she came. 

The cat got up and rubbed the length of its body against her cloak at her ankles. Then it leaped through the vines, disappearing. She hesitated to follow. She should just go back and execute the plan to tell the guardians what she had learned. But like a cat, her curiosity always got the best of her. It’s why she joined with temple sisters. Her curiosity as a child sunk its talons in until she was old enough to join the sisters and know what it was like to live at the temple. No matter how much she fought against that curiosity it always pushed her forward. She couldn’t deny its pull.

Emery poked her hand between the vines, where the cat had disappeared. She was surprised to find a wood and iron door. Feeling the door she traced its frame until she found the door handle. She pushed down on it and the door slowly creaked open. She ducked under the vines. Her eyes adjusted to the dim candle-lit chandelier and a small fire in the hearth. The cat was curled up in front of it acting as though it had been sleeping there for hours. 

A dark shadow moved toward her from the left. She moved a step back. In an instant, she drew a small blade from her hip, pointing it at the shadows in front of her. “I’m not here to hurt you, Emery. I’m here to help you,” a singsong delicate voice told her. It was a baritone voice but from a woman. The voice didn’t sound threatening, but she kept her blade pointed. “How do you know my name? How do you know that I need help?”

“We have been watching you for a while. Wondering if you’d answer to the curiosity that pulls at you or ignore it and live out your life in the gray mist like the rest of the people in this city,” she said. Emery stilled. It was too dark to make out what the figure looked like lurking in that corner. However, she saw movement. A tiny sliver of light reached down from a small window above the figure. It dripped a few spots of light onto the stone wall behind the unknown woman and the light touched a part of the blackness that moved there.

She could hear movement like the figure stood up from where she was sitting. Soft steps came toward her. She stood her ground. As the figure came into the light her hair shined in the chandelier, so gray it was silver, like hers. It was rare in this city to have that colored hair, everyone else was a deep chestnut brown or onyx black. The woman stared at her a second, then turned her face toward the fire. Her skin was pale and her eyes were glacial blue, again like herself. Other than her mother and a friend as a child she hadn’t seen anyone else with her complexion in the city for years and she knew why. Emery felt that this woman knew the reason as well. Emery lowered her blade and she sheathed it back into her belt underneath her cloak.

”Do you know what’s happening? In the temple?” She asked the woman.

”Not all of it, but I know some of my friends disappeared after entering that place. You are smart for leaving when you did. I fear you would have been executed today. Is there anything else you discovered in the library books of the temple?” She said in a sad, slow cadence.

“I read diaries of people with magic. The temple parish was tasked with wiping out those people. Their blood fuels the magic of the temple parish, its sisters, and its brothers. They keep their souls beneath the hall forever. I was on my way to tell the guardians until you whispered in my ear to follow the cat.”

“That was not my whisper you heard. You heard the whisper of our ancient ancestors trapped beneath the worship temple.” She slowly turned her head back toward me. “Is there anything else you learned in the temple?” The unknown woman was so calm it was unnerving and spoke with such intention. Emery on the other hand was still breathing rapidly. She did not know if she could trust this woman, but her instinct told her that she was a safe place to confide in.

“There is a mark on my shoulder that looked like the glyph in many of the diaries I paged through. Am I a part of your people? Do I have magic?”

The unknown woman gazed at her with a soft smile. She nodded yes. “What do you think that makes you? Why they wanted to kill you?” She asked grabbing Emery’s hand as if to soothe her.

Emery trembled a little but took a deep breath. Again the walls breathed with her. The inhale snuffed out the candles in the chandelier and the hearth. It was dark except for the tiny light that cascaded in that small corner of the room. Then she said, “A witch.” A glow filled the small space as she realized the light she kept seeing was coming from her. 

The unknown woman replied, “Not just a witch, but a sorceress who is willing to face the truth no matter what the results are, which is the most dangerous magic of all.” Emery just stared at her taking all the information she had in her mind and piecing it together.

“Come we have work to do!” The unknown woman was excited now. She took Emery by the hand. They opened the door, but the alley that was there before had vanished. In its place was a large hall flanked with long tables, where candelabras were lit in the middle of them. Tall gothic arched windows lined the walls letting in a faint gray light. At the end of the hall, the largest window stood casting a cool, diffused light that reflected against the gray and black stone floor. Dark figures milled about eating or chatting at the tables. In the buttresses of the ceiling tiny stars and constellations sparkled. Emery smiled and thought to herself, this is going to be the most glorious adventure.