Malevolent

Sisters Of The Sword

After eating her first meal in days (and truly, Cassiopeia was a very good cook) Maddie had a bath, though she had no change of clothes. After this, Ethan came in to her room.

"Hello" He said "I was asked to fetch you. The Sword Sisters are ready to see you"

"Okay" Maddie said and got out of bed. She walked out of her room with Ethan into a corridor of sorts, lined with similar looking doors.

"This way," Ethan said and led her to the left.

As they continued walking, Maddie noticed that the house had a queer sort of outlook, the way the house of a wealthy kleptomaniac would look, so to speak. Rows and rows of shelves were filled with oriental objects gathered from all over the world, from Chinese porcelain dolls to African traditional masks and figureheads.

The walls were also filled with portraits of varying people, all wearing the same black turtlenecked gear she'd come to associate with Hunters, all with their names scribbled at the bottom of the portrait. Maddie whispered them as she walked: "Quincy James Ravenwood, Dorothea Viola Ravenwood, Imogen Olivia Ravenwood, Arthur Dursley Ravenwood..." And a picture of Jason, Ethan and Cassie's parents: Celia and George Ravenwood.

Ethan was quiet throughout their short journey. Maddie felt it weird but oddly comforting to be in the company of someone who didn't feel the need to fill every little moment with chatter: Olive her friend was not the type to keep her mouth shut, Cassie would have insisted on Maddie talking about her childhood, and Jason would probably be giving her a proud lecture about the objects on the shelves. Ethan, however, didn't bug her with small talk and casually hummed a tune under his breath.

"Ethan?" She called him.

"Yeah?"

"Is there any particular reason why I'm being examined?" Maddie asked. Saying the word "examine" made her feel like a very large specimen in a laboratory.

"Well, the way Jason cannot read your mind makes you very peculiar and the exception to a norm. I mean, Jason can read everybody's mind, even the mind of animals, however bizarre that may seem. If he cannot read yours, it either means his power is defective—which it's not—or you're unusual. We want to find out of it has any connection to your mom being Aosoth"

Maddie considered this, then asked again "Who exactly are the Sword Sisters?"

"Well, they're quite difficult to explain. They're like, doctors for Hunters. They're very queer, that's for certain" He replied as they reached a double mahogany door and paused, his hand on the doorknob "And whatever you do, do not look directly at their faces"

"Why?" Maddie asked but Ethan had reached a pair of wide, double mahogany doors. He opened the doors and ushered her into the biggest study she had ever seen. Shelves were filled with rows and mounting rows of books. More books than Maddie could ever dream of reading. Involuntarily she gasped. Ethan glanced at her and smiled.

"You like books?"

"Like is a very weak word" Maddie said in awe as she stared around.

"... and Zadok believes that kindjals are better than my throwing knives. Psssh, can you believe that?"

Maddie zoned in on the voice. It came from a figure sitting before a desk, her feet propped up on the desk among a pile of papers and books strewn about. She put it down and stood up to walk toward them. This girl was copper-skinned, with a headful of long dreadlocks interlaced with cowries. Her face was decorated with various piercings, and she was chewing a gum enthusiastically. She looked from Ethan to Maddie.

"Hey. Is this the girl?" She nodded at Maddie.

"Yes, Ayesha. And get rid of that gum. You know my mum hates gum"

"That's why I chew it, Ethan. I live to annoy your mother"

Ethan sighed in exasperation "Maddie, this is Ayesha. Ayesha, Maddie"

"'Sup, Maddie" Maddie exchanged awkward fist bumps with the girl.

"Bring the girl over" A voice spoke from the desk. A disembodied voice, because Maddie couldn't see anyone there.

"Who..." She started asking and Ethan shushed her

"Look closely, Maddie. Relax your eyes"

Maddie squinted at the direction of the desk, standing before a sunny window. She had the sensation of rubbing a pencil drawing clean with an eraser, and watched with awe as the figures of two people came into view, standing at both ends of the desk. Maddie, Ethan and Ayesha moved forward to the figures.

The first impression Maddie had of the Sword Sisters was imperial. She slowly scrutinized them from their Victorian-style gowns complete with corsets, to their wrists decorated with twin bracelets of gold, to their neck which, weirdly was not framed by any hair, to their face, and she yelped in surprise.

Why? Their head was lacking any sort of hair, no head hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. Their eyeballs were missing. The sockets were empty, black indentations. In other words, their heads were literally skulls. Only their mouth showed any form of anchor to humanity. The lips were contrasting to the rest of their face, as they were oddly feminine, rounded and even had on lipstick.

"I told you not to look at their faces" Ethan mumbled.

Ayesha snorted "Do Mortals ever listen?"

Maddie was about to correct Ayesha that she was not a Mortal, but then she wondered if she really knew who she was anymore.

"Pay no attention to our physical appearances, Madeleine Shay." The Sword Sister on the left said.

Wondering how they knew her full name and trying to steady her breath, Maddie focused her eyes on a point above their heads.

"Come here, Madeleine Shay" the Sister on the right said.

She moved forward with shaky legs. Standing on two sides of the desk, the Sword Sisters put out their hands.

"Put your hands in ours, Madeleine Shay" The right Sword Sister said. Maddie obliged. Their hands were callused and papery like parchment.

"You may excuse us now." The left Sword Sister said to Ayesha and Ethan.

"Alright, Maddie?"

Maddie glanced back at Ethan's comforting face "Yeah, I'm good"

When the two left the room and the study was plunged into silence, the Sword Sisters urged Maddie to close her eyes.

Maddie obeyed. The Sword Sisters began a soft humming, like the drone of bees. It was low and the Sisters didn't even stop to catch their breaths. Soon Maddie was entranced. All background noise, like the chirping of birds at the oak tree by the window and the creak of the desk faded. Only the humming of the Sisters persisted.

The humming became louder. Soon the Sword Sisters replaced the humming with a string of Latin words. Maddie felt herself shaking with involuntary convulsions, and her insides were sizzling with an indescribable fire. She wasn't a religious person, but the feeling she felt was almost spiritual-like.

Her mind seemed to snap in on itself, like a rubber band, and she reeled soundlessly into a whirlwind of images cast against the insides of her closed eyelids.

A black church with towering spires

A five-pointed glowing star

Warriors in black, brandishing weapons

A pile of human bones

Ashes to ashes.

Soon her hair and clothes were damp with rivulets of sweat. She gripped the Sword Sisters' hands tightly as the chanting became louder.

A high, guttural scream involuntarily escaped her lungs as she felt herself being plunged into a pit of darkness.