Veil of Shadow and Rain ✓ [TSC #1]

Chapter 1: Sinister As It Already Is

February 17, 1996

There was a knock at the door and it opened slightly.

'Still up?' said her uncle from the door, watching Wren as she shone a torchlight on a page of a book she was reading. 'Well, don't stay up too late - you have school tomorrow, kid.'

'Mm.'

'At least turn on the damn lights,' said Uncle Hunter, reaching for the switch.

'No, I like reading in the dark,' said Wren, looking up. 'It has a more ...vibey feel. It feels good. I've got this torchlight.' She held up her torch. 'Leave the lights as they are, please.'

Her uncle grimaced. 'I don't remember puberty being like this when I was fourteen.'

'Because this isn't puberty. This is liking.' Wren settled back into her pillows. 'Like the fact you enjoy watching fish struggle in your fishing net.'

'Point. Well all I'm trying to say is lights out in ten, and put the book away.'

'Have you heard of who Eana is?' said Wren, clearly ignoring her uncle.

Her uncle leaned on the door. 'Who?'

'Eana. She's a famous legend.'

He shifted slightly. 'What book you got there, kid?'

'I don't know, some library book. It just says that Eana's a famous legend in the early nineteenth century. Just wondering if you knew her.'

'Like ... literally?'

Wren looked at him oddly/ 'She's a goddamn legend, Uncle.'

'Still doesn't prove the fact that she doesn't exist.' shrugged her uncle.

Wren opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, sitting up straight. 'She's real?'

'Who?'

'Eana. You knew her? Literally?'

'I - no!' protested her uncle. 'I was just saying. I don't know who Eana is. Heard of her as a legend ... but didn't know her literally. If she even is real.' He scratched the back of his ear.

Wren shut the book. 'I guess.'

'Going to sleep?' asked her uncle hopefully.

'Yes.'

'Night, Wren.'

                                                                            ⋆‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙⋆

A bell rang, jerking Wren up from her daydream. Students shifted in and out of view as they left literature class in groups, talking and laughing loudly. Wren groaned and stuffed her book into her bag.

'Miss Wren!'

She slung the bag over her shoulder and looked up at the teacher's table. 'Yes, Miss Lora?'

If she wasn't mistaken, she caught a hint of a smile in her literature teacher's face. 'Good work on the test yesterady, Wren. You did a great job. Full marks.'

'Oh.' Wren hitched her bag higher over her shoulder. 'Well. Thanks.'

'Keep it up.' Her teacher gave her an encouraging smile. 'Don't forget about the reading assignment. Pick a book from the library and read a chapter from it then you're required to write a summary of it.'

'Got it. Thanks,' Wren smiled back at her teacher before leaving the room. 

Swarms of students roved around in the corridor, making their way to lunch. Wren always had lunch when she went home after school. She tried to focus on making her way to the library, ignoring the many stares she received from people and whispers they exchanged behind their hands about her eyes. She knew they were talking about her eyes. Everything was about her eyes. About her.

To Drimton Prep School, she was not labelled as ordinary.

Because no one had glowing red and green eyes, and no one had ever stopped a tap in the girls' bathroom from leaking by shouting at it to 'Stop!'.

Until this day, Wren had no idea why and how she did it. She figured she could stop tears from flowing down a third-grade kid's face when she'd caught him crying in the corridor one afternoon. She'd figured she could refill a dry pond by merely wanting to do so, so that the nearby dying toad could hydrate itself.

She tried keeping all those weird, abnormal things she did out of her mind as long as she could.

'Hey, Wren!' called a familiar voice from behind her. Wren groaned. She turned around. 'Not now, Ethan,' she said, hunching her bag over her shoulder. 'I'm busy.'

'You don't look like you're busy,' Ethan said, catching up with her. Wren rolled her eyes. Ethan was talkative - he was kind of like a walkie-talkie but in the human form. He was very people-oriented, and he loved making friends. He was probably the only person Wren could consider a friend of.

'I'm going to the library,' Wren said, walking alongside Ethan.

'You know you're weird? It's lunch.'

'One: I'm gonna take "weird" as a compliment, and two: I always go to the library during lunch.'

'Aren't you hungry?'

'No.' Wren entered the library, Ethan still tagging behind her. 'Why are you here?'

'Oh, I had to pick up a literature book for English. Ms Lora told us to. Did you pick yours already?'

'Yup.' Wren pulled out To Kill a Mockingbird out of her bag and showed it to Ethan. 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' he read. 'Wow. A classic.'

'Exactly. What have you got in mind?' Wren asked, setting her bag down beside a red beanbag.

'Well, I've considered The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but I thought that was a tad too dramatic, so -'

'So?' Wren said, browsing for books.

'So I'm here, finding for a good literature book. And a short one, if possible. Got any ideas?'

'Define "short".'

'Like, short short,' Ethan said, browsing the literature bookshelf. 'Is Lord of the Rings considered literature? It sounds interesting.'

'It is interesting,' Wren said matter-of-factly, tucking a lock of wavy auburn red hair  behind her ear as she pulled out a book entitled Myths and Legends of Elryzian, plopped on her beanbag and started reading.

'You know, I never understood why we had to choose literature,' Ethan's voice floated in the air. 'Might as well be children's fiction or something.'

'We're in ninth grade, Ethan,' Wren reminded him. 'I know you're jealous of those little sixth-grade midgets who colour in their colouring books, but does it look like we've got a choice? Nope. Now shut up and let me read.'

She began reading the first chapter. Ethan was tutting to himself, clicking his tongue and making a huge amount of noises, but Wren blocked him out of her mind as she read. She was absorbed in the book until she came across the word 'Eana'. 

The very name she'd read last night, and somehow, she felt like she'd heard of the name before. She whispered it to herself, 'Eana, Eana, Eana,' hoping it would trigger a memory -

'So what you're gonna do is ignore them. Everytime they make a comment on your parents. Eana wouldn't - her uncle had cut himself off.

Wren let out a slight gasp. Five years ago.

'Everything alright?' Ethan's voice said from behind her. She didn't reply. She was frozen - a million thoughts racing.' Ethan waved a hand in front of her. 'Hello? Earth-to-Wren?'

Wren took no notice. All that she could think about was that her uncle had mentioned Eana five years ago.

Did he know who Eana was, then?