Heir of the unseen

CHAPTER SIX

ESTELLE

The air smells fresh as always, I am in the floral dress my father gave me when I turned nine. My hands are grafting through the cherry blossoms. It is truly sad how short their life span is. Running through the field and basking in the sun.

The field looks limitless, the sky is so blue, looking as beautiful as the ocean.

“Estelle, come over here” i look back, but I cannot see the face of the person who called me. His voice, so familiar. I see a hand, it is my father’s. I reach out to grab his hand, before I am able to, I hear a loud sound

“Brrrrammmmm!”

The advisors horn wakes me up abruptly. I reach out to the night stand to take a sip of water.

“Everyone is to gather in the grey area, the first task of the day starts at the hour of the rooster”

I quickly freshen up and get dressed. I am prepared to take on whatever task the day has in stored for me. Vega looks at me with wide eyes, then back to herself in the mirror. She has been awfully quiet since Koran passed. I get up and start finger brushing her hair.

“You know you look prettier when you smile”

She looks at me through the mirror, I pretend like I don’t see her and I continue brushing her hair, trying different styles to see which one fits her best.

I later settle on a low bun, highlighting her small face and jawline. We walk out of our room and head towards the grey area, as I go down the stairs i try to imagine what could await us in there.

When we get to the grey area, I finally take a good look at all the tribes, the shadowlocks, Verdants, Yuls and Ignis. I never thought I’d see the day we would be gathered under the same roof, in the same room.

“Brrraaaammmm!”

The sound of the advisors horn roared in the grey room as we were teleported to across the valley, right at the edge of the forest of shadows. Koran had told me about this place, warned me about the place even. All of us felt silent. I saw the Yul boy hold his brother’s hand tight. Little does he know, the sentinels do not care how tight your grip is.

This forest was a place where your memories came alive, it messed with your mind. Polluted your memories, twisting scenes engraved in your bones and playing with your inhibitions. It was at the edge of the forest I came to the conclusion.

The unseen wanted to break us, break us so he could remake us.

“This is the first task” announced the voice, its gender could not be placed. It came from everywhere and nowhere.

“You will cross the forest before the sun reaches its peak, Be seen by sentinels and you will be marked, be marked thrice and you are removed”

We looked at one another in despair, where do we go if we are ‘removed’

We stepped forward as a group, everyone holding thier partner tight. As we crossed the forest line, the world changed. Shifting continuously and scattering us all over. The air grew heavier, the lights dimmed and my hand unlinked with Vega’s.

I was all alone.

The trees shifted and the roots crawled like snakes beneath the soil, somewhere inside of me it clicked, the sentinels had awakened.

Their eyes glowed in the dark, they were not creatures of flesh but of shadow and bone, their forms melting in and out of the trees. The only thing that could make you know they were near was the sound of the bones.

I walked farther into the forest, relying solely on my navigation skills. I took out the pin in my hair and marked the trees. I heard a sharp scream. Someone had been marked. I kept moving, till

I approached a clearing. I stopped, panting heavily.

It was faint a glow, someone in the distance, picking berries from a shrub and singing softly.

“Mother?”

It couldn’t be, I hoped I was not dreaming, I begged the heavens i wasn’t.

She looked at me with a mix of fear and amazement, she dropped her basket of berries and approached me with calculated caution.

Her hand was soft and her nails were kept clean.

“Estelle, is that you?”

She hugged me tight and I cried, I cried so hard. I was a bubbling mess, explaining all these years to her.

Pain shot through my right arm as she began to grow bigger and frailer, till I could feel nothing. It was a sentinel

I had just been marked.