Korax 18 – Inselaciune 2, 1308

  The storeroom was suffocating. Its narrow walls, damp and filthy, closed in on me like a predator toying with its prey. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t even shake off the sweat rolling down my face. My hair was soaked in fear and my heart was clawing its way out of my chest. It hurt. It fucking hurt.

  The masked bloke wouldn’t let me leave even though the ones outside were long since gone. I’d tried to get him off me but he was larger than me, and he’d used his body to pin me against the wall. Mercifully, he’d removed his hand from my mouth so I could breathe, but the tears were still stuck in my throat. I wanted to scream and push him off me, but my arms failed me and so did my voice.

  Gods why? Please… I just wanted to—

  The door swung open with a loud thud. I fell to my knees, gasping for air. The sun trickled down through the windows – had someone removed the rags that covered them? – but the shapeless spots of colour still filled my vision. Blinded as I was by the sudden surge of light, I noticed Curiosity was nowhere to be seen. There were only a few spirits of Concern in the warehouse, probably brought about by the men’s sudden appearance, and poor little Sorrow crying in a corner by the hatch.

  The masked man reached out to me, trying to grab me by the shoulder, but I instinctively slapped his hand, flinching away from him.

  ‘You don’t look well, ‘older,’ he said. ‘Need a minute?’

  ‘Who are you?’ I asked, my eyes fixed on the white, featureless mask he wore.

  ‘You must leave,’ he ignored my question. ‘They’ll be back soon.’

  ‘Who are they? I… Look, I can’t leave just yet. There’s something I must find. Someone I must find.’

  The man strode towards me in just two steps, breathing heavily from behind the safety of his mask. The mask covered his entire face, with only two almond-shaped sockets interrupting its smooth whiteness. The dim light coming from the windows showed a pair of green eyes staring right through me.

  ‘You must leave,’ he repeated.

  The dim light… Something was wrong. The rags over the windows weren’t the only things missing. The bottles, the bed and the mirror were gone too. Only the barrels and the dust remained. Whoever those men were, they’d taken it upon themselves to get rid of everything that belonged to Elian. Dammit it all.

  I began searching frantically for anything that could have been left behind. The knife was out of the question. That probably was the first thing they took if they knew about it. Maybe they had missed a shard from the mirror or a bottle that could point me towards—

  ‘Didn’t you ‘ear me? Those men will kill you if they catch you ‘ere.’

  ‘You just don’t get it,’ I snapped. ‘An innocent man – no, an innocent holder is missing, and if he turns Rotten, he’ll be more lethal than any of your masked “friends”. The transformation should take years, decades even, yet Elian’s spiralling down in mere days, if his daughter’s telling the truth.’

  ‘I know. I just think—’

  ‘No. No, you don’t. You don’t know what we’re facing here. Have you any idea how dangerous a lone Rotten can be or have you seen with your own eyes what they’re really capable of?. Entire settlements can be wiped off the map by a single one gone mad. Families torn apart by the monster’s madness. Lives destroyed in mere heartbeats.

  ‘Tell me,’ I continued, my face brimming with anger, ‘have you tasted the ash of a burning village? Held the hand of a dying child as she cries out for her parents? Have you ever witnessed the aftermath of a rampaging abomination?’

  ‘No,’ he conceded sheepishly.

  ‘Then kindly, piss off. I must find Elian.’

  The man stood by the storeroom’s doorway, his hands inside the pockets of his black trousers. He didn’t say a word, probably didn’t have the guts to. Prick. Even in silence, I could practically smell the judgement radiating from him.

  It didn’t matter. Nothing did. All crates had been moved, leaving only traces on the dust where they’d been dragged. Some of the barrels had been knocked over and the catch inside had spilt on the floor, leaving nothing but the stench of dead fish to keep us company. Even the old rags had been taken by the masked men, torn off the windows.

  Those two-bit goons had thoroughly emptied the warehouse of anything that could be remotely useful to me.

  Feeling utterly beaten, I collapsed next to the hatch, my eyes sweeping the warehouse one more time. To think I’d come so far only to be sent back to square one.

  I stared out the window. Judging by how bright it was outside, I guessed it’d be close to midday or shortly past it. As the minutes passed, the clouds came and went as they pleased, as if mocking me by hiding the sun. One moment they’d shroud me in comforting darkness, only to then be blinded by bursts of annoying brightness.

  The man remained perfectly still. Had I been too hard on him? Stupid mask aside, he’d proven to be a good person. I wanted to apologise but the words failed me, to the surprise of nobody.

  You’d have known what to say.

  No point in dwelling on that now. There’d be time to drown myself in regret after I’d solved this case. Elian was somewhere out there and, masked thugs or not, I’d have to find him. If not for the lass, then maybe for the poor spirit trapped inside of him.

  I scanned the warehouse yet again, I’d made a mistake and missed a crucial detail here.

  The hatch hadn’t been touched, it didn’t seem, so they probably didn’t go back that way. Still, if the tunnels had brought me here, it was fair to assume other people knew about them. Perhaps Elian used them to move through the Quay unnoticed. Was that how he escaped after he attacked me?

  ‘You there,’ I called out to the masked bloke sulking in the corner, ‘did you follow me through the aqueducts?’

  ‘The tunnels? Aye.’

  ‘Does any of those tunnels pass by the shed under the whaling station?’

  ‘I dunno,’ he said, stepping closer, out of the shadows. ‘I really don’t. ‘It was the first time I explored them tunnels’.

  ‘If you’re lying…’

  ‘Nay, Master ‘older. I was ordered to follow you shortly after you entered through the tube.’

  ‘Ordered? By whom?’

  Silence stretched between us as the man refused to answer my questions. He flinched, his gaze drifting away as he raised a hand to block the light from his eyes, though the rest of his face and body remained covered in shadows—

  Something about that scene felt off. He’d taken a step closer, aye, but he still stood within the shadow cast by the staircase and the walkways up above. Why was he squinting? That wasn’t right. Something was flashing but a glint right into his dark green eyes.

  A jolt of hope, ironic, rushed through me. I leapt at once and scrambled to my feet. Could it be that they’d missed a shard from the broken mirror? Please, gods, let it be so.

  ‘You alright?’ the bloke asked me, his head tilting sideways.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  ‘Don’t move. Stay. Right. There.’

  He froze, his hands lifting slowly, palms open in a gesture of surrender. He didn’t argue, letting the silence linger in the air. His eyes had narrowed in confusion. Perhaps this was my shot at a proper apology, or at least a proper explanation to calm him. He deserved that at least.

  ‘That glint in your face,’ I began, ‘it might be a shard from the mirror. If I’m right, I could use it to lead us to Elian.’

  ‘Like the shard you ‘eld before when them visions came… Was that magic?’

  ‘Aye. If the masked thugs missed a shard—’

  ‘Let me ‘elp.’

  The man’s sudden interruption caught me by surprise. He’d never interrupted me so far. Yet, this interruption felt different. Most people, especially strangers, grew impatient or frustrated by my stammer. But the bloke’s felt eager and somewhat genuine.

  I stared at him, my eyes narrowed. If it was a trap I’d rather know now before I started respecting him or, heavens forbid, even liking him. If only he didn’t have that stupid mask on I could perhaps try to read his face. Not that I was any good at reading those who were not invisible.

  With a nod, I accepted his offer.

  The masked bloke didn’t wait for a verbal answer, dropping to all fours and turning his back to me to begin his own search. Despite his large body, he moved with surprising finesse as he searched by the windows and the knocked-over barrels. It was quite an amusing sight.

  For my part, I began my search closer to the hatch and underneath the stairs. My palms swept through the floor as I looked for the metaphorical needle lost in this house of dust and fishbones. It wouldn’t matter how small the shard was or if it splintered into my skin, as long as it was part of the same mirror, I could use it to follow the Threads back to Elian.

  ‘Oi ‘older,’ the man called out from the opposite side of the room, ‘check this out.’

  I winced as I ducked to avoid hitting my head with the staircase. It took me a second or two before I was standing next to him. While I couldn’t quite see it behind that stupid mask of his, something told me he was grinning, all while pointing at something on the floor. Or I should say, the lack of something.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked cautiously. ‘I don’t see anything.’

  ‘It’s a shadow!’

  ‘What a thrilling revelation. Should we hold the phones? Stop the presses, perhaps? You have discovered the lack of light, o’ Shadow Lord.’

  My day was complete now. This bloke who had manhandled me earlier, and not in a fun way, was excited about a bloody shadow. What had I done to deserve this?

  ‘Since you’re such a shadow connoisseur,’ he said, chuckling under the mask, ‘maybe you can explain what’s causing the shadow.’

  My eyes followed his finger as it zoomed back and forth. First to the window, where the sunlight streamed in, unimpeded. Then back to the floor, where the shadow lay, a stark, impossible patch of blackness. He was right. There was nothing there to cast it. No clouds, no masts rising from the water right outside the warehouse, no grilles or cracks in the windows. A prickle of unease – and excitement – ran down my spine. A spirit?

  ‘And perhaps,’ he continued, ‘you can tell me why my “thrilling discovery” is reflecting light as if it were a mirror or a silver coin. Here in Kefnfor, our shadows are normal. Are they different on your island, Master ‘older?’

  He once again pointed at the shadow but now his finger darted towards the staircase where he’d stood earlier. The glint shone upon the wall at a perfect angle. As if to prove his hypothesis, the bloke placed his hand between the shadow and the wall, where the light quickly disappeared into his hand.

  Of course. It all made sense now. It wasn’t a broken shard but the ‘bloody shadow’ that reflected the sunlight.

  Scholars believed that spirits were manifestations of one particular emotion or its direct opposite. Elation or Sorrow. Pride or Humility. Truth or Deceit. In truth, they were like coins or like the Twin Gods. They were as two faces etched in one, an eldritch personification of not one aspect but a complete duality. If a shadow, darkness, was the absence of light, Sorrow was the absence of Elation. And so it was with all the others.

  And if my dear mate was the essence of Curiosity, it could also represent the opposite: a thirst to keep knowledge away from prying eyes. Hidden. Obscured from inquisitive minds.

  ‘Curiosity, mate,’ I called out, ‘is that you?’

  With a flash of light, the tiny spirit sprung from the ground, dissipating the ‘shadow’ it’d used as its hiding spot. Its wings flapped rapidly as it took flight right in front of my eyes, filling the warehouse with tiny rays of light, reflecting the sun that touched its silvery scales. It was happy to see me, and I it.

  Surprisingly, the bloke backed away and almost tripped on his feet. He reacted to Curiosity. My mate must have been quite impressed by the masked fella. I could only remember three times when it’d allowed someone else to see it, and none had been non-holders.

  ‘What’s that thing, ‘older?’ the man asked warily, pointing at the spirit.

  ‘This is Curiosity,’ I said, ‘It’s a spirit of… well, curiosity. We’re good mates, it and I.’

  ‘WHY do you wear that mask? WHY does it look like an owl?’ it asked him, skipping all social formalities. Even I wasn't that rude.

  ‘I… I d-don’t… It’s not an o-owl…’

  ‘Leave the poor man alone.’

  The masked bloke gave me a knowing nod, probably thankful for the intervention. His hands were trembling but his eyes betrayed a sense of wonder I hadn’t seen in years. Spirits seldom showed themselves, but this was the usual reaction the few times they did. Pure wonder. Well, either that or abject terror.

  ‘Why were you hiding, mate?’ I asked. ‘You are aware that the masked men can’t see you, right?’

  ‘The doll,’ it said. ‘They wanted to take it away. It is not theirs to take. The child will want it back.’

  Curiosity uncoiled its silvery tail, revealing the doll it had guarded so fiercely from the thugs. It was the same yarn doll I’d seen earlier by the bed, the one Elian had been holding onto. With a flick of its tail, Curiosity deposited the toy in the masked bloke’s hand. He flinched, nearly dropping it, but quickly steadied himself.

  It trusted him. Should I?

  ‘Thanks, M-master Curiosity,’ he said, his voice still a bit shaky. ‘We can bring it back to Arianwen.’

  Right, her name was Arianwen. Elian’s daughter.

  The doll’s green dress reminded me of the one the lass wore when I first saw her on the last day of the Coral Festival.

  The air had been thick with the smell of fish and fried dough. Countless stalls lined the streets selling all kinds of fish-related foods. Sea Bass and Dill Tostadas, Cod and Chips with Paprika, Aperwyn Crab Biscuits, and of course, Kefnforian Cakes which, for a mercy, were only shaped like fish. I’d been trying to find a quiet corner, somewhere that sold some veggies I could chow down when the lass approached me. She’d been standing by the side of the road between the Quay and the Octant, handing out daffodils to all who passed.

  An old Kefnforian tradition, if I recall correctly. Something about children waiting for their folks after the war with Clei?os. But while the other girls twirled and giggled, their faces bright with genuine smiles, Arianwen just stared. Her eyes, red-rimmed and puffy, seemed fixed on something beyond the festive crowds or even the docks. Something beyond the sea. Even when she’d forced herself to smile, her lips trembled and they were followed by a shaky, gasping breath, like she’d just finished a bout of uncontrollable sobbing.

  I’d sat with her and let her pour her heart out to this weird stranger. Didn’t even need to use magic. The poor thing had been holding onto so much pain. She told me about Elian and the ‘haunting’. She told me about the fear she felt when he drank and the joy when he called her ‘his shooting star’.

  That was the fabled saudade, wasn’t it? The thing that drew me in.

  Still, the bloke had the right of it. We had to bring the doll back. For her… and for Elian too.

  I was mildly amused when I looked back at the pair in front of me. Curiosity had coiled itself around the masked bloke’s shoulders, resting on him as it’d done with me before. The man, in turn, looked miffed but not in a rude way. He had the look of someone who was holding a babe for the first time. That strange space between amusement and worry.

  ‘Aye,’ I finally said. ‘Let’s find the girl. Surely she misses her little yarn mate.’

  No sooner had those words left my lips when an ethereal voice echoed from across the room.

  ‘No!’ Sorrow screamed, darting towards me before jumping right into my arms. Its eyes were brimming with tears, and its sobs had filled my mind. ‘No. No. No. No.’

  ‘Woah there, mate,’ I said, trying to console the little spirit. ‘What’s got into you?’

  ‘Everything alright?’ the masked bloke asked me. He couldn’t hear Sorrow’s incessant wailing.

  ‘Dunno. Another spirit seems distressed—’

  ‘The girl is missing,’ Sorrow interrupted. ‘Abducted. Seized. Taken. You cannot find her. You will not find her.’

  ‘Lad? What happened? You went white as a sheet.’

  My blood froze and the words failed to come out of my mouth. Curiosity answered on my behalf:

  ‘The one you called Arianwen has been taken. She’s gone.’