Finding Shadows

by Lindsay Nall

“Much, much more than Karter or Bartholomew would ever tell you.”

  “How much of it can you tell us?” Alto seemed to weigh his options as Nyght pushed Mari into one of the chairs then took the chair next to her across from Alto.

  “I’m not sure but I will do my best. It will not be easy information to hear but I will answer every question the best I can as a Shadow, not a Deus.” That surprised the two as they exchanged looks that conveyed their worry about what was going to be said.

  “You all knew the words we found in Alfred’s journal were a prophecy yet no one told us, why?” Mari’s voice was quiet, calculating as she picked her words carefully.

  “I did not know it was a prophecy until later when Karter came down here to rip me up one side and down the other.” Fair enough.

  “Why did he say the prophecy was about me…” She reached out and took Nyght’s hand in hers. “…and Nyght.” Nyght’s eyes went wide.

  “I do not know how it pertains to you both but from what Karter said it is mostly about you my dear.” Alto reached out and patted the twos joined hands. “And your joining with Nyght appears to be another part of it.”

  “Joining?” Alto let out a cough refusing to meet her gaze as she thought about it. Nyght leaned close to her ear and whispered so only she could hear when she realized what they meant she turned bright red. “Oh… moving on. What did Karter mean when he talked about a cleansing?”

  “To understand that you must learn the true story of The Fourteen.” There was a different story than what they had been told? “But I am not sure I should be the one to tell it to you.” Mari’s heart sank, she was tired of all the lies and all of the mystery’s she just wanted answers.

  “Alto, please.” The look on her face told Alto how much strain she was under and he agreed. It wasn’t going to be a pretty story, not many of God’s stories were.

  “You know the story of the original Fourteen.”

  “Tell it again.” Nyght had turned his full attention to his grandfather, it made Alto reminisce of the times he would tell Nyght stories when he was a child but this was no bedtime story.

  “The original Fourteen were normal humans that Lucifer infected with his power by coming to them in their sleep and marking their bodies with one of his Fourteen constellations. The Fourteen constellations you all were born with that mark you as his warriors. It was in the town of Whittiker that this all took place but once the pastor of the town church heard wind of the stories that were being told, of people dreaming the devil had kissed their skin, he ordered them all to be taken into custody. They waited in a makeshift prison for three weeks while the town rallied to build a gibbet large enough to hang them all at once.

  Once it was complete the Fourteen were shackled together and marched through town as a display of what the devil could do, being led by the pastor that had ostracized them as he yelled to the crowds about how this is what happened when God was doubted and to reaffirm their faith in the church with donations.”

  “The March. I remember reading about it but it said nothing about the pastor using the Fourteen to gain monetary encouragement for the church.” Mari whispered thinking back to her studies as Alto nodded.

  “He used them to bolster his standing in the community.” Nyght whispered.

  “Yes. When the Fourteen were lined up on the gibbet and fitted with their nooses the town was allowed to beat them throwing whatever they chose at them to make them pay for bringing this curse upon their town.” Mari shook her head and leaned closer to Nyght. “Two of the Fourteen, the two youngest were stoned to death in the beating.” Alto shook his head thinking about how horrible it must have been to witness all of this, let alone to die of it. “The dead bodies were hung with the others but as the last member of the Fourteen passed Lucifer let out a scream that shook the world. The quake itself destroyed half of the town and the church but was also the beginning of the tears. They opened everywhere except Whittiker. Those townspeople followed that pastor blindly as he instructed them on how to bury the bodies and then to build the new church over their graves to keep their evil at bay. That’s how the town stayed, following the teachings of a long-dead pastor until the tear was opened.”

  “How was it that the town had gone so long without a tear until then?”

  “We’re still not sure of that.” Alto’s gaze flicked to Nyght for a split second. He had an idea of how it happened but he hadn’t dared to put any thought into it, whether he just didn’t want to or was afraid to he wasn’t sure.

  “So what was the cleansing?”

  “God’s first attempt to clean up Lucifer’s mess. When the demons first appeared they produced a toxin, they still do though now we’re all immune to it.”

  “Demon smoke?” Nyght asked it was the only thing he could think of that people still came in contact with. It would make you puke if you breathed in too much of it but other than that it was just a nuisance.

  “Yes. So many became ill from it that the illness began to spread quickly. They say there was a flash of bright white light throughout the world and everyone who was infected, weak or sick in any way vanished. Almost forty percent of the world’s population disappeared in the blink of an eye.” Neither said a word so Alto continued. “After that man became arrogant, domineering and stupid. Those that claimed themselves invincible in the eyes of God for surviving were among the first to meet him themselves. It wasn’t long before God made another attempt by sending down angels.”

  “Angels?” Now that had never been in any of her history books. There was not one documented case of God sending down an angel to help in the war, well other than Paranus. “But if he sent down angels why didn’t that take care of everything? Angels are indestructible aren’t they?”

  “Man was still sensitive to the toxin and the angels he sent could not fight by themselves, it was man that drew the demons out but with man’s weaknesses the battlefields became mass unmarked graves.”

  “Who knew God messed up so much.” Alto threw a nearby journal at Nyght’s head.

  “Do not mock him.” Nyght glared at the old man as he rubbed the spot on the side of his head the journal had made contact with. “As I was saying. At seeing that no matter what he did to help mankind it tipped no scale he reached into purgatory where the original Fourteen’s souls still resided and placed them on earth. With their help, the demon numbers began to drop and the Silhouette was created.”

  “But what about Paranus? What about the other Shadows?”

  “Mari, the Silhouette has not always had the most pristine reputation.”

  “The experiments?” Alto nodded surprised she knew about them.

  “Experiments on what?” Where he was surprised with Mari, Alto felt ashamed of Nyght. If he did his research like he was supposed to he would know all of this.

  “Before God gave us Paranus, the Silhouette did awful experiments on human beings trying to duplicate their power and I’m assuming the immunity the original Fourteen had.” Alto nodded. “The Silhouette was around for one hundred years before Paranus… how do I know this and you don’t?!” She turned a scowl on the man next to her who shrank back into his chair.

  “I never said I was good at being a Deus.” She rolled her eyes at him.

  “Enough.” The tone of Alto’s voice made them both go quiet. “You are correct that the Silhouette was around for so long without other Shadows and without Paranus. Once the fractures fell to earth it took a while for the Silhouette to realize what they meant but once they did it turned into the organization we are a part of today.” There was a long silence as everyone thought about what had happened within the walls of the building they sat in.

  “You told Karter you had done his dirty work before…he was the reason you came to me in the courtyard that day wasn’t he?” He was surprised by her question but nodded. At the affirmation of her thoughts, Mari gave Nyght’s hand a squeeze trying to convey without words that he needed to forgive him. “What is it that I don’t know abou
t my parents?”

  “That I cannot tell you. Karter has stayed very tight-lipped about it.” She sighed, would she ever get all the answers she wanted?

  “Well, then I guess the biggest thing right now is to figure out how to get another copy of the prophecy.” Nyght mused. With his journal gone and now Alfred’s there was no other copy of the prophecy to be found unless somehow they could pull it out of thin air. “Your dream man.”

  “Huh?”

  “You said your dream man was the one who gave Alfred the prophecy right?” She nodded. “Then maybe he could give it to you too.”

  “We’ve kind of been on a track of me finding my own answers lately.” She pulled her hand from his so she could pick at her nails. Would Saran give her the prophecy or would it turn into another annoying game of cat and mouse? “But I can try and call on him as long as you’re with me when I wake up so we can get it all written down.” Nyght nodded promising to be by her side the whole night.

  “Do you think Karter will give me back the rest of my journal if I ask him for it?” Mari glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as they made their way back to his room from the dining hall later that night. He was so upset that the whole journal was gone and she wished more than anything there was something she could do to get it back for him.

  “I doubt it, if you ask him for it and he gives it to you it would be an omission of guilt that he stole it in the first place.” Nyght sighed as they turned the corner to the hall their rooms were in. “Or it could just magically show back up.”

  “Yeah like that would ever happen.”

  “Nyght look.” He looked then spotting his journal sitting propped up against his door.

  “What in the…” Running the last few steps he scooped up the journal flipping through it to make sure it was his. Stopping on the last page where the prophecy had been written he ran his finger along the jagged pieces of paper that were all that was left of the page. “Someone ripped out the prophecy.” Of course they had.

  “At least you got it back.” He nodded as he opened the door for her to enter but she froze at the mess they had left earlier in the day. “Forgot about this.” Nyght rubbed his eyes like he had a headache but she knew he was just frustrated with the whole day. “You want to sleep in my room?” Shutting the door without a word he turned on his heel and started down the hall for her room. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Twenty-two

  Mari had been up and down for the last four hours but for the life of her could not sleep long enough or deep enough to call Saran to her. She wondered if it was because he didn’t want to be called on or if maybe she couldn’t call on him with Nyght so close to her. She shook her head at that thought. The first time she had purposely called on him she had been sleeping no more than ten feet from Tadum and his team. Rolling over she tried to get more comfortable hoping this time as she fell asleep she would achieve her goal but in the back of her head she had a lot of fear she wouldn’t and Nyght’s snoring didn’t help.

  “Hello, child.” The familiar voice of Saran made her breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, she had reached him though as she looked around the room she was confused. It was the same, exactly the same, Nyght was snoring next to her, nothing was out of place. “This is not a dream, please wake your comrade.” She couldn’t see him but she could hear him. What was going on? When she woke Nyght would he be able to hear him too?

  “Nyght.” He snored at her. “Nyght!” Another snore. “Oh for the love…” Leaning down she whispered something not appropriate to say out loud when they weren’t alone.

  “What? Really?” He sat up quicker than she thought possible.

  “No, not really,” He whimpered as he adjusted himself under the covers. “You need to wake up for this.” She looked around the room examining every single shadow but she still couldn’t see Saran anywhere.

  “You will not see me, I am not here.” Nyght froze from where he was rubbing his eyes. Letting his eyes sweep the room for an intruder he looked to Mari when he found no one. “Hello, Nyght.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I am whom you refer to as Mari’s dream man.” He sat up a little straighter at that.

  “How can you not be here? I mean we hear you so you have to be here… don’t you?” Mari mused. A quiet laugh around them was the only answer she got.

  “I do not have time to explain. Nyght do you have your journal?” He nodded but felt strange nodding to someone he wasn’t sure could see him. “I will give you the prophecy.” Nyght scrambled to grab his journal from the nightstand next to him and something to write with.

  Flesh of my flesh

  Bone of my bone

  Shimmering light

  Will guide thee home

  Bathed in blood

  Of the highest father

  Return thy seasons

  Only loving daughter

  At days final rest

  In its darkest hour

  A very first joining

  Half light half power

  Bring power forth

  Of balance of light

  Of darkness of demon

  Of sacrifice this night

  In your mind as in your power

  Memories of father and mother

  Strength through knowledge

  Shall bring us closer

  Banishments key

  Of black and gold palace

  Daughter’s own treasure

  Shall restore our balance

  “I must go now, I will not be able to come back.” Mari jumped from the bed spinning in circles to try and see Saran.

  “Why not? What is going on? Why can I hear you while I’m awake?! Why can Nyght hear you? Why can’t you come back?!” There was a soft sigh from the corner as the shadows seemed to meld into each other folding in on themselves until Saran stepped forward into the room.

  “I cannot answer all of those questions but you will be fine without me child. Have faith in your abilities and the abilities of your comrades.” She had come to look forward to seeing him, to talking to him and now he was just going to leave her like everyone else. “I am sorry child.”

  “But what if I have more questions? What if I need someone to point out my stupid selfish ways?” She was crying, hot tears falling down her face that she couldn’t control. Her heart was breaking at the thought of losing her secret friend.

  “I am sorry. Nyght you must promise me you will protect her no matter what, she is the most important person to end this war. I must go now.” He seemed to fade becoming almost transparent.

  “No.” Mari threw herself at him surprised to find him solid beneath her hands. “Please don’t leave me too Saran.” He placed his hands on either side of her face and brought her gaze to his.

  “You are being selfish again. I am always with you child.” He kissed her forehead and finished disappearing causing her to have to catch herself on the wall.

  “Mari…” Nyght whispered. The name she had said struck a memory in the back of his brain. As he approached her she straightened and shook her head.

  “It’s fine, I’m fine. We have the prophecy and we will figure this all out.” She turned with resolve in her eyes but Nyght still had to ask his question.

  “What was his name?”

  “Saran. Sorry I never told you I just… I don’t know I guess I just wanted to keep some things to myself.” Nyght shook his head as he sat down on the bed with his journal still in his hands.

  “Mari… Saran was Paranus’ mortal name before he became an angel.” He couldn’t be serious but she knew he wouldn’t joke about something like this.

  “So all this time he wasn’t just some figment? He was… I mean he’s the reason we all…I am so sick of this! I’m tired of the lies! I’m tired of the facades! I just want one person to tell me the truth for once in my damned life!” She kicked the bed twice then began hopping up and down swearing about possibly breaking her toe. Nyght coughed to cover his laugh then stood to approach he
r. Grabbing her face as Saran had with one hand on either cheek he looked deep into her eyes for a moment before speaking.

  “I love you and that is the truth.” She smiled then kissed his palm and sat down on the bed. “Do you want to look over this tonight?” He held up the journal but she shook her head with a blush. “What are you thinking?”

  “I was thinking about trying what I whispered to wake you up.”

  “Trying to distract yourself from everything?”

  “Nope just feeling frisky.” She had lied. After the tirade she had just gone on complaining that she wanted people to tell her the truth she had lied to Nyght. She did want to forget about the world for a while and focus on the only person who had yet to lie to her the entire time she had known him.

  The next morning Mari called a meeting for the entire team including Vander and Reagan who both complained about getting up early. Marinique who had barely spoken two words to her since he had been grounded and Ella who asked to see the prophecy again when she arrived. Her and Nyght filled everyone in on what had happened the night before including the true history of The Fourteen and the discovery that Mari had been communicating with God’s elite warrior that they all carried a piece of.

  “You guys never take a day off do you?” Vander asked from where he was trying to fall back asleep on the floor of Mari’s room. She threw a pillow at him which he just curled up with.

  “And we’re not going to anytime soon. We’re breaking out.” Everyone seemed to become laser-focused on her at that statement. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her Uncles communicator lapel pin.

  “Do I even want to know how you got this?” Marinique asked pocketing it.

  “I had Marclay run a little recon action.” Marclay stood from where she had been sitting on the foot of the bed and gave a few chatters.

  “I’d say high five but…yeah.” Reagan whispered looking to the Wigget as it seemed to strut back and forth along the edge of the bed.

  “Oh stop showing off.” Marclay turned a look on Mari but curled back up on the foot of the bed to watch everyone. “We’re grounded because I brought up going to Whittiker…”