“Aspara!”
It was like waking from a dream I wasn’t ready to leave. When I turned at the sound of my name, a bright pain speared through my head. I felt as though the walls leaned into me, and the threads of the carpet reached for me like roses to the sun. Don’t look, the castle whispered to me, don’t turn away- but I did both. I had never appreciated being told what to do.
It was Aunty Morr, flustered in a way I’d never quite seen her before. Concerned. I wanted to scream at her to go away, she didn’t belong here. The idea had planted itself in my mind that the island was for me. Its secrets, its dangers, its dark heart were waiting for me, me alone. Why else had it brought me back so often, each time slowly revealing more of itself, slyly unwrapping the layers?
Perhaps it was a spell I was under, a sick compulsion, for at the name “Maeve” I felt like a pane of glass struck by a hammer; not shattered, but cracked a hundred sprawling directions. “Oh,” I exhaled. “Maybe... she’s with Furfur? I can’t find him either. He went ahead of me into the keep.” I did not realize I was concerned until I heard it in my own voice. I had always felt myself part of a whole- half of sister, a quarter of my small and tightly-knit family. But I could always be divided further, cleaved once more in two: myself and my wolf. The fear of that loss caused my voice to waver as though I was on the verge of tears.
But I did not cry. I was done with crying.
I turned back to the heart of the castle, and again was struck by the feeling it reached for me with warm and greedy hands. The pain in my skull receded, mollified by the intention clear on my brow: we would go deeper. “We’ll find them,” I said to Morrighan, feeling older than I ever had. Like I was the wise older aunt, reassuring the younger. I reached for one of the torches that lined the vast hallway, forgetting how easily Morrighan could summon fire and light if needed- I think some part of me still felt like I was alone in this, not that it bothered me. I felt poised and serene as a mantis folded neatly, braced to spring into violence.
Side by side we quickly stepped further into the castle, where I knew my wolf was- and I hoped Maeve as well.
@Morrighan <3
