Chapter 9: Whispers Beneath the Light
809 Words
The moment we arrived in Ishvalen Hollow, everything felt wrong.
The skies were muted lavender, suspended in a constant twilight. Trees bent in impossible directions, their bark veined with crimson and gold. Buildings, long abandoned, stood with jagged silhouettes like broken teeth. No birds. No wind. Just silence.
It was our second day in this accursed place their assigned mission zone.We were tasked to investigate the string of child disappearances in this realm, each victim left with their mouths sealed shut, as if cursed into silence. I couldn’t help but feel haunted, not just by the place, but by the odd sense that someone something was always watching me.
Yesterday, we had discovered an ancient mural inside a shattered chapel: a goddess with rainbow eyes, surrounded by whispering shadows. Vince’s gaze lingered on it longer than he admitted. Nero stood far in the back, eyes fixed on me. Always me. He was never officially part of the mission. He had just... shown up. Like a shadow.
Today, we’d return to the chapel this time, to find answers.
“Split into pairs,” Vince commanded. His voice echoed strangely in the air. “Zeina, Zach, sweep the outer perimeter. Tasha, Ammara, check the north ruins. Yves and I will inspect the chapel. Lara will come with me.”
I followed him down the spiral staircase carved into obsidian stone, our only light a floating orb he conjured. The deeper we descended, the more it felt like something was breathing around us.
We found the first body not long after.
A boy, maybe eight. Eyes wide open, hollow. No visible wounds except the sigil carved into his tongue: Xïaleth.
Vince crouched down. “This symbol... It’s not from our world.”
No. It was older.
And I had seen it before.
In my dreams.
I kneeled beside the boy, placing a hand over his forehead. The moment my fingers brushed his skin, a vision exploded behind my eyes.
A room of children screaming without voices. A shadowed figure conducting a song only I could hear. Blood on the floor. A glowing symbol drawn in reverse. And the voice of a man laughing, saying, ‘She has returned.’
I gasped, pulling back.
“You saw something,” Vince said quietly.
I nodded.
But before I could answer, a scream echoed from above. Ammara.
We ran.
Bursting into the upper floor, we found Ammara trembling beside a cracked fountain. “The statue Tasha it moved ”
Vince glanced at me. We both knew something deeper was unraveling
They were on me.
“What did you see?” Vince asked again.
I couldn’t answer in words, but I reached into my coat and pulled out a shard of the mural we had found yesterday. The goddess. Her eyes glowing. Her lips parted in a scream. Beneath her, children with mouths sewn shut.
The others stared.
And then... the ground shook.
From the chapel’s altar, a hidden passage burst open with a hiss. Purple mist slithered out, and a voice like glass cracking echoed:
"She mustn’t sing. Not again."
We descended.
Inside was a chamber lined with crystal coffins—dozens of them. Each held a child, frozen in a silent scream.
At the center: Orin.
The man who had greeted us when we arrived. The scholar who claimed he was here to help.
He turned, smiling.
“I had hoped you wouldn’t dig this deep.”
Vince stepped forward. “What is this?”
“The truth,” Orin said. “This realm is not cursed. It is protected. These children they are vessels. And she” he pointed at me “is the key.”
Before anyone could react, shadows burst from his feet, swallowing the chamber.
I fell.
Screams. Crystals shattering. Vince shouting my name. A whisper like wind behind me. Nero, watching. Silent.
The moment I hit the ground, I sang.
One pure note.
The shadows recoiled.
I rose, eyes glowing. Rainbow.
But the shadows returned stronger. Formless. Ancient. Not Orin. Something older.
Xïaleth.
My voice faltered.
Nero stepped beside me, hand glowing with a strange, muted light. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said softly. “But I won’t let it touch you.”
Vince pulled me back. “Don’t let her sing again. Not here.”
Too late.
My song broke the silence.
Cracks formed in the air like glass shattering. The crystal coffins exploded. Children gasped awake. Orin screamed as light and shadow tore through him.
And then silence returned.
All eyes turned to me.
The Royals my mission companions stood frozen.
“You solved it,” Vince whispered. “You solved the curse.”
But I wasn’t celebrating.
Because I saw Nero.
Standing in the shadows, watching me.
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
But there was something in his eyes.
Not malice.
Just quiet, aching longing.
- Writer
