CHAPTER THREE
1368 Words
Aria fell between consciousness and silence, with gasping breath, slowly a warmth creeping up her chest.
She was not longer at the cold forest floor.
What struck her at once was the scents, not the metallic tang of blood or the wet rottenness of moss, but herbs. Dried sage, sweet lavender. The dim odious scent of some antique thing like an incense burned in some long-forgotten temple.
She opened her eyes and breathed heavily.
The ceiling that she could stare at was animate.
It was wreathed with thick vines that had glowing leaves and they clung to beams carved of blackwood like hanging stars, of grayish blue crystal, shone in the air. Silver runes would be marked into stone walls and changed like water in their forms all the time. there was a fire inside the space, playing here and there, and throwing the interior of soft, gleaming gold--which was not built of bricks and logs, but had been hewn out of the trunk of that huge, hollowed tree.
An antique tree.
This was not a cabin,
It was like the shrine of something.
A voice murmured beside her, and said, drink this.
Aria turned around, startled. A woman knelt by her side, clad, but not hooded. In her long locks, of silver-white, hung great plaits of moonstones and bone beads. Her skin was warm brown and weatherbeaten with time and her sharp cheekbones throwing shadows in the flickering firelight. Her eyes kept Aria frozen, however.
Violet, Not lavender
A spare cup carven was offered by the woman.
‘’Take this, It will soothe the burn from the vision.
Aria blinked. “Vision?”
The woman smiled a little. You do not remember yet. That’s expected.”
At length Aria reluctantly took the cup and sipped. The drink was like hot stuff, sweet as honey, but with anise to it, and something she couldn’t name. The pain in her muscles subsided pretty much immediately. The band of sorrow around her breast-bone was contracted a little more to breathe.
Where am I? Aria rasped.
“You’re safe. For now.”
And you…. You’re the who saved me?
She nodded, I am called Maelis.
Her voice was low, but it rung, both in the room, and in the bone of Aria. It was the name of a kind that carried weight, that it would have been uttered by history itself.
He said, You are a witch! said Aria.
“Correct.”
You used magic. And claws.”
I am not bound to one form.
Aria frowned. That’s not real. You can either be a wolf or witch, she retorted!
At least everybody knows that.
Maelis turned her head then said….
‘’you have been lied to by everyone, maybe.’’
She sat up, with a little shudder down her back.
Maelis rose and turned to the centre of the room. You have believed what they said you were and I want you to know that you’re not that. You are something old,some hidden thing,” She picked a long twisted staff which lay before the wall, and approached the fire.
The flame didn’t flicker as she passed, that was surreal to the sight of Aria..
Her heartbeat was getting quickened. She asked her ‘’why did you help me?
Maelis went and put more fire with her staff. Showers of sparks flew up in the air, then Aria caught a glimpse of something in the fire a light crowned figure that was flanked by a pack of wolves, whose eyes were silver.
Maelis grumbled, I knew that blood would rise again. Now here you stand.
Aria stared. “What blood?”
The witch turned to her and her violet doe eyes shone.
“Selene’s.”
The name struck her like a lightning.
Selene. The exiled queen. The half wolf-witch who almost wiped the high council to extinction centuries ago. She was myth.
A ghost tale which was told to pups around bonfires.
Naturally, Aria thought, she was not real.
Maelis gazed at her a long unreadable time. Then she raised the staff and directed it to the wall in her background.
It came to life.
Runes flared. Bark drew back. and an unseen mural gradually unfolded itself.
Selene.
Not in portrait, but in movement.
The mural moved as a flowing ink, a woman who was long-haired, with silver hair, a crown of bone and starlight, that same woman standing over a battlefield. Sparks chain-smoked out of her fists. Wolves were kneeling around her, and others in snarling forms, sprang at her on all sides.
Betrayal, fire, death.
Banishment was the next thing.
Maelis moved closer to her patting her back, she is real. She came out of witch blood and wolf heritage.
Aria gulped. It can not be possible.
It is not even impossible. It is the truth.”
Maelis advanced and held up his hand to the chest of Aria.
You experienced the shift. But the bond did not quiet down like it would have done. So it wasn’t about only Kael rejection, but the warning of the forest. Your blood Is not of his kind.”
Aria pulled away. I am not a weapon.
No, said Maelis. You are a choice.
She was puzzled by that.
Maelis laid both hands on the shoulders of Aria and pushed her back on the bedding.
And now it is time to take a look yourself.
Aria wanted to object, but as soon as the witch touched her fingers to Aria temples, the world fell apart.
A tidal wave occurred as the vision.
She stood in a clearing under twin moons. There was absolutely no coloring as beautiful as everything was like in that dream, it was magical. A tall kindling Selene stood before her. Her company was fearful and awful, her magic frowned about her like a second skin.
‘’you carry my blood Aria, and together with it, you shall share my burden. You cannot betray the blood which pullulates your vein’’. Her voice went ting ting through the heavens.
I can not do that.
“You will. In time.”
Aria turned,--and the scene changed.
She was within the Land of the Moonfire terrrority. Her younger self watches the action of Kael amid the trees. She felt the soulbond to be warm against her skin. And then the picture flashed and Kael was different. He looked in terror. Then with an air of resignation. And than with something darker.
He was conversing with a person.
A man, cloaked, familiar.
The man hissed, saying, with a cruel meaning, that should she awake the curse would come back.
Asked what he meant not to hurt her, Kael said: I don want to hurt her.
Well, then do what should be done.
The vision was broken.
Aria screamed.
She woke up shivering and sweating in cold.
Maelis dropped on his knees before her and mumbled in a language Aria did not know but anyway knew.
She sat up reluctantly. What, what was that?”
Maelis said, “the memory of a bloodline.” And a sneak peak of the trap you were born in.”
Yes, Kael knew, Aria told herself. There was something he knew. Somebody had said this earlier but she can’t remember who
Maelis said, yes. The elders have long known for genrations. They were afraid Selene lineage would return. They have been looking out for it, waiting to kill it.”
This is what Aria experienced as she could not breathe. I don’t want to be her. I was never asked to have this.”
Nobody requests a choice, Maelis said, to be selected. And here you are, the chosen one
The fire throbbed in her behind, and the shadow of her fell on the mural of Selene.
Now you have a choice as to two ways: Maelis went on. you may choose to allow the pain to engulf you. Or you can be whom you are. Master it. And pass the curse.”
Aria glanced at her hands as insidious silver lines beat under the skin.
I want to fight, she replied. Well I don’t even know who I am fighting yet.”
Ready yourself, we begin tomorrow.
- Writer
