(Please make sure you have read the full trigger warnings list on the Story Details page.)
(It has been too long since we've had a proper song for a chapter, here's hoping you may enjoy this one I had on repeat while writing this chapter. Perhaps start it after the first page break for the best effect: Boadicea by Enya)
Anne's whispers to Ominis, detailing the doorway ahead tingled through the dark. Absent of candlelight, only the illuminated pillar lit our faces, casting odd shadows and shapes.
Sebastian caught my eye, tilting his head to the side and quirking a brow, hand outstretched to the new doorway. "After you, my cabbage."
Anne sniffed a laugh, fingers threaded through Ominis' at some point in the dark. "Atley, how you ever fell for my hopeless brother will always be a mystery."
Sebastian dropped his hand and stuck out his tongue.
Anne returned the sentiment.
"Can we get back to it now please? Spooky old lady trial waiting for us, remember?"
"I thought Isidora and the Keepers didn't see eye to eye." Ominis wet his bottom lip, pulling it between his teeth in thought, clearly having ignored the twins entirely. "Why would she want a trial of her own if she was so insistent on using and sharing her ancient magic. Seems counter-productive."
"Maybe it's to ensure we have the same mindset-"
"Do we?"
The room fell silent again, words lost among the fading candle smoke.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to-" Sebastian eyed his friend carefully.
Anne turned her head, lips parted to speak but he continued quickly.
"...but I- we have to do this. The Keepers aren't helping. Isidora can. I'm sure of it. It might be the only way to sa-" A moment, a deep swallow, a purposefully avoided gaze. "-the only way to get answers."
"No. I should most definitely be coming with. I just- I want us to be cautious is all."
Sebastian smiled. "We know mate."
He held a hand out, brushing his fingers against Ominis' before taking his hand. Anne squeezed Ominis' other while Sebastian held his left out to me.
"Together."
----
The moment the four of us stepped over the threshold, hand and hand, the door behind us pulled tightly shut. A simple click locking our souls to whatever lay ahead.
I blinked repeatedly, willing my eyes to adjust to the dark with no luck.
Stiff
pure
black.
A silent pull tugged suddenly against my chest and if Sebastian's tightened grip was any indication, he felt it too.
We were suddenly tossed forward, a feeling not unlike the whirl of the Floo system or the pull of Niamh's book at the beginning of her trial.
My stomach looped within.
My first glimpse of the space, a single flickering candle amidst an ever expanding room of nothing.
My second, Sebastian, Ominis and Anne still tethered to each other through locked finger bones and tightened friendships.
"Pain."
Isidora's whispers flooded the room.
Anne flinched at the sound.
Sebastian pulled me closer.
A dark hooded figure sprouted from the darkness. Its form wilted gently behind the floating candle. Billowing black fabric crested around its face and draped in curling waves down its body, pooling on the floor.
"Isidora?" My voice felt not my own, hoarse and cold in my throat.
"Everyone feels some sort of pain."
Her voice once more bristled around us, echoing from all angles except from the figure ahead.
"We deserve a reprieve."
The figure held a hand out so suddenly I wasn't sure it had entirely moved at all but instead instantly transformed to its new position.
"All of us."
As if on cue, the fabric wrapped frame dipped a pale finger to the flame, allowing the golds and oranges to lap around it in silent regularity.
Anne took a step forward, hand outstretched when the world around us twisted once more. A pale smoke whispering in like quickened fog, filling the space and clouding our vision for only a moment before it melted away and instead of the dark,
we were in Feldcroft.
Darkened skies loomed over a tired hamlet. Stone stacked houses lay silently, bright green trees and thick leafed vines caressed each one.
My eyes flicked to Sebastian's. His brows creased forward and lips hung slack.
"What's going on-" Ominis began, violently interrupted by a blood curdling scream.
A man's
from inside one of the hamlet houses to our left.
Anne sprinted ahead, dropping Ominis' hand despite his protests. The cloaked figure watched in silence.
Sebastian's eyes wide, he dove forward, throwing his arms over his sister fiercely just as she pressed open the door. His hands shook, clutching her tightly as if one less finger and she would slip away.
The man screamed again.
A girl's voice. "Father?"
Isidora?
"He's gone." The man wailed, deep and gutted.
Ominis and I forced our way forward to where the twins stood frozen in the doorway.
Young Isidora, just as I had seen her in the Keeper's memories, stood behind her father. His body crumpled aside a small bed, hands thrown over the body of a young boy, pale and stiff beneath tattered blankets. Tears poured down the mans cheeks, his fingers clutching the fabric, releasing and then clutching it again.
His voice a fragment of a whisper, dying along with the boy. "He's gone."
The figures ahead of us seemed entirely unaware of our presence.
His voice echoed through our blood as the pale smoke returned, filling our lungs and obscuring the heartbreak from our eyes.
"He's gone."
Whiplash. Thick and full against my spine.
We were back in the space of black, the cloaked figure hunched over the candle flame, burned finger tucked to its chest. Though now the fabric had fallen to its shoulders, face of the man in the vision curled in pain.
Isidora's father.
"Sebastian, let go." Anne's hoarse voice coaxed from the shadows and I turned around to find the two just as they had been before the smoke. Ominis stood stiff and wide eyed behind them, frozen in darkened isolation.
Gently, Anne pulled Sebastian's body from hers. "I'm alright."
His voice wavered slightly as he shook his head. "I'm sorry. I just- Last time you ran to-"
She eyed me and I pulled his shaking hand into mine.
Anne touched Ominis' arm and he flinched a moment before pressing himself to her side. Isolated no more. Anne recounted it all for him gently.
"Each of us harbors a suffering somewhere within us." Isidora's voice pressed forward, unaffected by our qualms. "Prove to yourself what we all share.
Show me your deepest pain."
The candle flickered violently and the man behind it whispered away within the breeze.
"Each of you must press your finger to the flame, allow your pain to be shed. Fear it no more."
There would be no stone knights or arched puzzle-ways here. No, Isidora's trial chilled my blood far more than any of the Keepers' had.
Sharing our pain.
As if we haven't shared enough.
"Prove to yourself." She repeated and I was reminded of the glowing words in the Undercroft. "The flame is true. You cannot hide the truth."
"I'll go first."
"Anne-" Sebastian shook his head.
"She said we each have to." Her lips tugged up into a half smile and I was thankful for that Sallow lack of seriousness. "There'll be plenty of heart wrenching agony to go around, I'm sure."
Gently pulling Ominis along with her, the slender girl rolled her shoulders back and lifted a finger to the flame. She winced as it parted, oranges marrying her pink skin and the fog whirled back to us.
Nothing.
And then something.
Feldcroft again.
Only this time it appeared far more as I remembered it, the tattered ruins of Isidora's estate peeking over the cliffside in the distance.
The four of us stood together, watching the scene ahead as if ghosts to the world. The hamlet blissfully unaware as we watched through Anne's memory. We stood amidst the town center, the hustle and bustle far busier than I had seen it on any of my visits. Ornate striped tents and small booths lined the edges of the circle, a long, thin sign hung from the nearest wall, crooked and tilted towards the dirt.
TALBOT TEMPEST'S TRAVELING TROUPE
Sebastian's brow twisted up. "Uh... Anne? These loonies?"
Anne was gritting her teeth, eyes locked to a particular booth directly across from us. It couldn't have been wider than a doorframe, but the red peak of its tent sprung up far higher than the rest. I watched in awe as a large silver needle worked quickly, stitching words into the small arch over the entrance in bright purple thread.
MADAME MABEL - SENSATIONAL SEER
Swift movement caught my eye and pulled my attention back. A sweet little girl with straight cut bangs and brown braided hair walked leisurely along the path, eyes bright as she watched the magic flicker around her.
Anne.
She couldn't be much younger than she was now but the deep sunk eyes and thin bones were all too indicative of a particular curse. Her pace slowed, fingers fumbling with the strap of a small bag uneasily as she stopped in front of the red topped tent.
Our Anne had pressed her eyes closed and I wondered if perhaps we could all wait out here, never having to experience whatever was truly to cause her so much pain.
It was not to be though, the fog rose and fell quicker than I could blink and we were transported inside the tent as the young girl pressed inside.
Sebastian's own teeth were now clenched, eyes flicking around the room no doubt in search of any threat as if he could do anything to stop what was to come.
The room was entirely sideways, floor at an angle while windows remained straight. Chairs and furniture around the space were nailed to the floor, books and mugs enchanted and floating just over each surface.
Tiny bells jingled from behind a rather large bookshelf and a character of a woman stepped out. Dark skin glistening under streaks of glitter and white curly hair pulled into three large buns atop her head like a snowman. Bright gold teeth glistened as she smiled.
"Welcome sweet girl. I was wondering when you'd show up."
Sebastian huffed. "She can't be serious. Anne, you know these witches aren't actually seers right?"
Our Anne only nodded back to the scene ahead.
"Please, take a seat." The beautiful odd woman gestured to a large purple upholstered chair with a tall back, grinning like a cat as Anne did as she was told.
The chair, being far too large, nearly swallowed the poor girl up. She tucked her knees to her chest, fumbling for something in her bag and watching the woman curiously.
"You wish to see a glimpse of your future I imagine?"
"No-"
The woman, Madame Mabel, tilted her head inquisitively.
"My brother..."
Sebastian stilled.
"I'm hoping you can show me my brother's future." Anne pushed a few coins forward, watching them slide nearly off the table before the woman held out her hand and let them topple in.
"I suppose we could take a look."
With a flick of her wrist, a large murky orb sprung from its tilted spot among a shelf, knocking over a few books in its path before settling into the air between the two witches. The woman righted her shoulders and tipped her chin down, closing her eyes and exaggerating her breathing.
Little Anne watched eagerly.
I could feel my body inching closer, gazing into the murk of the ball. The smoke inside almost as pale as the one that curled us through these memories.
Ever so faintly, the vapor begin to twirl.
Round and around
until it formed to the shape of a young boy with dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and a face filled with freckles.
Sebastian.
The momentary excitement at seeing him so small was all at once slammed down as his face distorted. Thick, heavy tears streaked his cheeks, his mouth open in a crushing sob. His hands clutched something thin and dark in his lap and the smoke whisked further away to reveal him holding a small girl - stiff and pale and limp.
Anne.
I felt the nausea welling up within my stomach, recognizing the exact moment in the catacombs we had all thought Anne dead. Though we could see no scenery around them, I was sure it to be the place.
Our Anne had tucked her face to Ominis' neck, his arms wrapped protectively around her as he listened. Sebastian stood frozen, eyes locked to the orb with little emotion trickling through his features.
Madame Mabel's hands twitched. Her brows locked in the center and lip quivering.
The smoke shifted again.
A round table,
three chairs,
two filled,
one empty.
Sebastian sat in one, staring blankly into an untouched plate of potatoes and corn. The chair next to him all but covered in dust and the final chair filled with a grumbling, exhausted man.
Solomon.
"Eat your food boy." He spoke between bites, eating quickly and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Sebastian didn't respond. Dark sunken circles weighing down his eyes, his face looking far more slender and pointed. His hair unkept and crooked.
Solomon's plate now picked clean, he stood up abruptly, shaking the glasses and silverware on the table as he did. Two thundering steps and he was beside Sebastian, glaring and crooked.
"Don't ignore me boy!" His large hand tipped under Sebastian's chin, forcing his eyes up. The usual warm browns now framed in bright, tired reds. "I said EAT!"
Ominis flinched as the man brought his hand sharply across Sebastian's cheek, knocking him from his seat.
The smoke flicked away again just as the bright red outline of a handprint spread over Sebastian's face.
My heart constricted, chest feeling heavier than metal and I had to pull Sebastian's body to mine. A reminder that this wasn't real. He was here. This wasn't happening. His hand pulled up to the back of my head, tucking me to him. His eyes however, had drifted from the orb and were now planted to the image of his sister, shrinking within the oversized chair, silent tears pouring down her cheeks.
Madame Mabel pulled back bluntly, knocking the ball to the table beneath her and letting it roll to the floor with a thud.
"My girl- I'm so sorry..."
Smoke once more flitted us back to reality.
Back to the empty black room.
The candle flickered loudly as if settling back in after a gust of air.
"Anne-" Sebastian tapped my shoulder gently, peeling himself from me and turning to his sister who nearly tumbled into his arms.
An embrace awaited far too long.
He kissed the top of her head, laying his cheek atop it and whispering something over and over I couldn't quite make out.
All I could do was apologize.
"I'm so sorry- I didn't- I didn't know this was how this trial would be- I thought-"
Anne pulled gently back from her brother, eyes somehow still warm. Sebastian nodded slowly and she padded away from him, arms outstretched to me.
Before I could fully understand, she wrapped herself around my body and lifted up onto her tiptoes to kiss the top of my head just as Sebastian had done to her moments before.
"Thank you." Echoed sentiments from a letter long ago recieved. "That... that would have been a reality, a future for the both of us if it weren't for you."
Guilt dipped words dropped from my tongue.
"No- I- I almost killed you. I- Solomon-"
Anne shook her head.
"You saved me. You saved Sebastian. Sol- I can't- I don't..."
I pulled away just far enough to look in her eyes, brimming with something similar to frustration as she searched for the right thing to say.
"He never dealt with his emotions as he should. Never allowed himself to grieve... He didn't deserve to die-" Her voice clipped, my heart sunk. "-but Atley, it was an accident. I never for a second believed you intended it."
She pulled her thumb across my cheek, wiping away a tear.
"Never."
----
Time was strange in this place. It wrapped its tired hands over our eyes and pulled our wearied minds around little else but each other.
It didn't feel right to continue, to delve into painful personal memories, but we were trapped. Locked to a destiny of anguish.
Sebastian volunteered to go next, a glaze over his eyes as he spoke.
"I don't know what we will see. There's been- I'm not sure which-"
Ominis nodded. "We know."
With one final squeeze of my hand, Sebastian stepped toward the flame, dipping his pointer finger deep within the heat. His nose twitched but somehow he remained otherwise neutral.
The smoke rose and we were once again tossed into the thick of it.
Only this time, we didn't settle right away. The world ahead of us flashed, bright oranges, cool blues, thick greens and pure whites.
Again and again and again.
There was a brief image of Anne, sprinting from their Feldcroft home, the sound of her screams as Sebastian ran after her, towards Isidora's estate but too far away to make a difference.
The smoke flashed again and we were tumbled to Sebastian's figure clutching my lulling body, begging me not to go over and over and over.
A blinding flicker and we were pulled back again. The feeling entirely nauseating as we tumbled through memory after memory.
"So much pain." Isidora murmured within our ears. "Perhaps one arbitrarily chosen then."
At last the spinning finally stopped. Ominis leaned against his knees, hunched and quivering as our surroundings settled in.
Once more, we found ourselves among the warmth of the Sallow home. Feldcroft seemed to harbor the worst for everyone.
Summer crickets chirped just outside, cool moonlight filtering in through sheer curtains and dancing with warm air. The light tumbled over the kitchen table, tipping over freshly washed dishes and a basket of fruit. Further into the room still, a pile of books stacked neatly aside the living room couch, a hand peacefully outstretched aside them from the body of a young sleeping Sebastian.
His youthful features entirely peaceful as he slept, thick brown hair longer than I'd ever known it to be, freckles somehow darker and deeper over his skin. They traced over his curved cheeks, kissed his nose in peppered constellations, trailed up the shell of his ears and disappeared beneath the waves of brown. A single book open and resting atop his chest rose and fell gently with his breaths.
I knew only terror could come next but couldn't help the bristle within my heart. Seeing the boy I loved so young and pure and drowned in books just as I imagined his youth to be. I tried to catch my Sebastian's eye but instead found him staring away from the scene ahead, nose towards Ominis, breaths uneven.
RAP RAP RAP
The boy startled awake and I bid adieu to the peace of it all.
Squinting through the dark of the room, blinking sleep from his eyes, young Sebastian rubbed his fingers against the corners of his eyes.
RAP RAP RAP
Louder this time.
Sebastian sprung upright, book nearly toppling to the floor but somehow caught instinctually and set carefully aside.
RAP RAP
RAP RAP RAP
RAP RAP RAP
Heart surely racing and chest heaving, the young boy frantically darted about the room, tossing up pillows and flipping through book covers until he found the familiar carved shape of his wand nestled between the pages of one near his feet. He tugged it out quickly, wrist shaking as he stepped toward the door.
RAP RAP
Where was Solomon?
RAP RAP RAP
What about Anne?
RAP RAP RAP RAP RAP
Perhaps he was alone tonight.
With one final pause and a shuttered breath in, Sebastian grabbed the handle of the front door and thrust it open so quickly it nearly collided with the nose of the figure just outside.
Familiar red light washed through the dark though it held unsteady - flickering, unbalanced, suffocated.
Ominis.
The young boy stumbled forward, body shaking feverishly and only saved from a collision with the floor as Sebastian darted forward, dropping his wand to catch Ominis' bones, cradling him in his arms instinctually.
Sebastian's wand rolled somewhere within the room, Ominis' followed suit - undividedly discarded together.
"Omi." Breathless words.
Ominis sobbed noiselessly, mouth open, tears staining his cheeks and fingers fisted in Sebastian's shirt.
It was only here, wrapped in Sebastian's embrace that the moonlight finally touched the boy's pale skin. Now red and gashed across his right cheek, droplets of blood dripping over the perfect white fabric of Sebastian's shirt. Raw and withered, the boy melted to Sebastian's chest, flinching as a hand pressed against his back.
"Omi-" Sebastian tried again, voice strained. "What happened?"
Another flinch.
"Sebastian." The only word slipped from quivering lips.
Sebastian tugged at the collar of his friends shirt, straining to see the pain, cautious to the response of his body.
Another moonlit sob.
A scar, tender and abraded deep against his shoulder, slithering further still down beneath the fabric.
Sebastian followed, pulling the ripped fabric further back, other hand cradling Ominis' head to his chest.
Lower and lower until the shirt pooled to the floor and the extent of the pain draped openly to the moon.
Porcelain skin now marred thick with the unmistakable scars of the dark arts - curses left upon his body between dark moles and droplets of blood.
A crooked sort of constellation.
"Fuck Omi. Who-"
Ominis shook his head beneath Sebastian's hand, fingers never letting go.
A boy vulnerable and bare, tortured by a world cruel and exposed. Tethered only to the heart and hands of a boy absolute.
"I'll fucking kill them." Sebastian's voice dipped dark, tracing his free hand gently over the unmarred skin surrounding the scars. "I'll fucking kill them for you Omi."
Ominis squirmed, voice ragged. "No. I deserve it."
Sebastian stilled, brows pulled tight, eyes rimmed red. Carefully he pulled the boy back from his chest, tilting his chin up and brows growing soft.
"You could never deserve this." His bottom lip quivered as he spoke. "Never."
Sebastian stared into Ominis' bloodshot pale eyes.
A moment theirs.
A moment strung up in moonlight and pulled into two hearts.
"I promise-" Sebastian swallowed, eyes darting down his face. "I promise to protect you Ominis. From anyone who hurts you."
Ominis' chest fell as his face contorted, another tear curling across his cheek. Sebastians finger brushed it away quickly, frozen over porcelain skin, heart searching.
"I will always protect you."
Pale fog our only pardon from a moment never meant for more than two souls.