Whispers of darkness: Secrets

12. I can't keep you in the dark

"You still haven't explained who 'they' are," Mirya reminded.

"I know," Whispers licked his paw slowly. "It's 'cause I didn't know if you were ready yet."

"I am!" She exclaimed.

"Are you though?"

"And now you're just stalling," she curled a strand of hair around her finger until it turned purple.

"I know," he shook his head. "And I guess I can't keep you in the dark forever."

"No, you can't," Lorelei agreed. "I say you tell her now, or I will."

"Fine," he agreed. "But only if we go inside so you can sit down while I speak."

"Okay."

"So, you may start," Mirya said as she sat in the blue chair that was inside a small room on the bottom floor.

"How to start though..." he trailed off.

"Don't stall," she waned.

"Fine," Whispers lashed his tail. "There's a group of people that call themselves the 'Ember', or the 'Dark Ember', and they have plans that we have yet to figure out. But we know that you're connected to them, that's why we brought you here.

What we know, is that someone played with your DNA and changed it a bit, making it how they wanted it. Something went wrong, and you didn't turn out to be how they wanted you, so they left you.

But then they saw how powerful you could be, and they knew you'd never be on their side, so they tried to kill you. And they won't stop until they succeed, or get you to join them."

"That's... a lot to take in at once," Mirya curled her arms around her knees, hugging herself. "So... There's a group of traitors trying to kill me? And how am I supposed to be normal if they could be anywhere?"

"You don't have to be normal. I trust that once you learn how to use your element properly, you will be able to take care of yourself. But," he added quickly. "The Dark Ember will ty to stop you from learning to protect yourself. So you must train often."

"And you might want to have a weapon just in case," a different voice added- Kaj. He walked over to them, handing Miya a small dagger.  "Just in case," he repeated, and Mirya took the knife.

"Aim a bit higher," Signy instructed. She was Mirya's teacher for... the weapon stuff that Mirya didn't understand much.

"I'm trying," Mirya grabbed another dagger, lining her arm up with the target on the other side of the small field. But, as usual, when she threw it, it hit the dummy's arm instead of the chest. "Ugh!"

"Don't get angry," Signy picked up a dagger. "See? Hold your hand a bit more even, then throw it with a steady swipe- not with a shaky hand." She threw the dagger, and it slashed right into the dummy's chest. "Try again."

"Okay," Mirya took a deep breath, grabbing another curved knife, then doing as her teacher had said. Much to he surprise, the dagger flew out of her hand, striking the dummy in the throat. "Wow," she breathed in shock. She had not expected it to work. She hadn't hit the chest, but the throat would probably kill quicker anyway.

"See? Told you. Now practice. You've got a lot of time until you need to go get ready to see your adoptive family."

Mirya nodded, and the rest of the afternoon she spent throwing daggers at the dummy, and by the end of the day, the dummy was practically just a few rags held together by some string.

"Mirya!" Lorelei called from the house. "Time to go!"

"What? Already?" She scrambled to get ready when she entered the house, but all she managed to do was change into a plain light blue dress, and pull her hair into a ponytail- a rather messy one at that.

Before Mirya followed Lorelei into the swirling tunnel, she glanced back at the house. It had been starting to feel like home by then, but it was already time to leave it.

She reassured herself that she would visit a lot, because there were still things that she needed to understand.

She took a deep breath, then stepped into the portal, and was on her way to see her new family.

This chapter was a bit boring- I'll admit that. But there had to be a few boring chapters in the book.