Keepers of the Moon

Nova 2020 C.E. (3)

‘You lied to us!’ Her loud and clear voice echoed through the brick walls and ricocheted back towards the central hall.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Ilse was exasperated and put both her hands on her hips. Her long blonde hair was whipped from her shoulder. She was really mad.

‘How dare you…’

‘You lied to us! You know everything! EVERYTHING!’ In an effort to calm Mere down I put both my hands on her shoulders and gently squeezed. She tried to throw me off, but I was persistent.

‘Meredith, calm down, please. You are right, just tell her what you have found out.’ She took a deep breath and somehow my words calmed her down enough to be able to talk in a normal volume.

‘You know where we come from. You know exactly what we are and who took us. Ilse, we are the Missing, we know what you’ve been hiding from us.’ There was still anger in her voice and I felt it too. However now that Ilse heard what we had found out, she went pale.

There were no words coming from her, it was almost like her world had been shattered into a thousand pieces which had scattered in the wind. There was so much fear in her eyes that my insides turned into ice. There was still more to this story than either of us knew. Isle rubbed her shaking hands into her eyes and steadied herself against the cold, smooth brick wall.

‘I…’

‘Why would you lie to us? Why would you hide this from all of us? We are entitled to the truth!’ Mere’s voice was softer now, she also saw the way Ilse reacted. She looked back at me, her dark brown eyes almost black in the faint candle light in the corridor. There was a calmness into them that I had only seen once before.

The truth was out, the tension waned.

‘It was safer that way.’ Her voice came from far away, tears streaming down her face. Yet I could sense another feeling now slowly making its way to the surface.

Relief.

Relief that the secret was out. That she didn’t have to carry it alone anymore.

‘Shouldn’t we decide what we want?’ Ilse’s eyes shot towards me then looked right through me.

‘I’ve known for a while now… I was afraid that the truth would mean war between Caledonia and Nordlys. I didn’t want to carry around that guilt on my shoulders for the rest of my life. Knowing that Nordlys took us from our homes, would create a permanent breach between the two countries. We would be the cause of so much pain and suffering. I… I didn’t want that.’ She slid down on the floor and buried her head between her knees. Her straight blond hair now falling in curtains around her shoulders. She looked so young.

Just a child.

We were all just children.

‘But isn’t that upon Nordlys? I mean, they took us to begin with.’ Mere also sat down, opposite of Ilse, with her back against the wall. Unable to decide between both girls I sat down in the middle of the corridor, where a cool breeze played with my hair. My hands were still shaking, my heart was still hammering inside my chest, fear still coursed through my body. The secret was out, the danger was still there.

‘I guess. But if we decide to come out… it would mean the end. That would be on us.’

I saw what she was getting at. Ilse was right. It would mean war. Was that something we wanted? Could we live with ourselves if we were the cause for such destruction? I remembered stories about the Fearful Nine, about how that war almost destroyed the world. We would be the direct cause for this.

‘How certain are we that this was done by Nordlys? I mean could it be some lone figure who is coincidentally from Nordlys?’

Both Ilse and Mere shook their heads, there was a sadness in Ilse’s eyes that I could feel even from afar. Both girls shared a meaningful look, they both knew who was behind it, yet doubted whether I should know it too. My curiosity spiked, though I also wasn’t sure if I wanted the pressure of knowing who was behind all our misery. If I didn’t know, I couldn’t tell anyone.

‘It was King Einar.’ Mere was the one who spoke with soft words and sorrow in her voice. It took a while before the words truly hit me. It was as if the world stopped turning and the floor underneath my body had disappeared.

‘What do you mean, ‘King Einar’? As in the King of Nordlys? Why would he take babies from another country? It doesn’t make any sense.’

‘That’s the point, is it? It doesn’t.’ Ilse looked at me, she looked as lost as I felt.

Why?

Why would he do that? What was he looking for? Why not take girls from his own people? Why did he dump us here? Why didn’t he kill us before? Why wanted he us dead now?

Questions spun inside my head, but no answers would come. No answers would ever come, because no one could’ve thought of such a crime. Except Einar. That bloody bastard who decided to take us away. To use us for something. To dump us into the hell-hole called Nova.