by Lindsay Nall
“Vander and Reagan are staying at the Inn in town, why don’t we go meet up with them and grab something to eat? Train food is always so unfulfilling.” She nodded following Nyght through the throng of people streaming in and out of the station. “If you’re worried about weird looks don’t be.” She stared at Nyght as he looked at her over his shoulder. “If you want to turn your eye on.” She did, she had wanted to turn it on ever since Nyght expressed himself on the train.
“You know you’re lucky.”
“What? How?”
“Your eye, the rest of us just have to assume everyone is a demon but you… man, I envy you.”
Mari closed her eyes for a minute to engage her eye and when she opened them she let out a sigh of relief, not a single demon was in the station. Her step gained a little spring as they made their way through the town streets towards the Inn until an explosion caught their attention.
“Demon?”
“Definite possibility.”
“Let’s go.” Nyght nodded as the two headed towards the explosion finding Vander and Reagan already there fighting a hoard of demons. Bodies littered the ground slowly dissolving to leave nothing but oily black smears on the earth. Of the four that remained, three were middle class, not too tough more meddlesome than anything. These were the demons that would play tricks on humans as opposed to attacking at the first chance they got; they only attacked when they were led by a stronger demon such as the one they were with. This fourth demon had been human once; it was always easy to tell these demons apart from the others. It almost looked human in appearance walking on two legs with a human form but the eyes were colorless, stark white against the blackened skin it wore. The skin sagged here and there almost as if it were melting from the demons’ form, it drooled acid, the saliva burning the ground where it landed giving off smoke and a rancid smell.
Mari froze gasping when she saw the soul trapped in the demons’ body. Beneath the ugly exterior, Mari could see the soul of the woman the demon had once been. She had probably been beautiful when she was alive but her soul showed none of that now. Instead, Mari saw the sallow opalescent skin, dark circles around her eyes and the silent open-mouthed scream. It was like seeing someone trapped inside another body, the soul moved with the demon body raising its arms and legs but with no control of its own. There was no way to tell how some people became demons as there were so many ways it could happen. A death bed wish, a bargain, a weak heart, the craving of power…the list went on.
“The soul… it’s in so much torment…are they all…?” While Mari tried to ask questions of her comrades a demon took the opportunity to attack.
“Mari!” Nyght shot one of his arrows dispersing the ball of black fire that had been hurdling towards where she stood. “Snap out of it would you!?” She looked to the arrow stuck in the ground not three feet away from her, to Nyght then to Vander when he came up next to her.
“The soul will be released if we defeat the demon.” He whispered.
She stared at the demon for a second. “When it’s…right, snap out of it Mari and do your damn job.” Vander smiled at the determination on her face but blanched at her next statement. “Nyght! Fire arrow!”
“Eh? Oh! On it!” Nyght lined up the shot with Mari’s outstretched hand as she ran when it hit her she was like a shooting star surrounded by fire and using the wind to speed her travel. Quickly she smashed through the three middle-class demons and turned what was left of the fire on the last demon. Everyone covered their faces when the demon exploded splattering black blood and demon bits everywhere but when they all looked back Mari looked like she was standing there talking to herself.
“What is she doing?” Nyght asked Vander, his sensitivity to the otherworld made him susceptible to spirits that wanted to be seen though he couldn’t see any soul while it was bound to a demon. Those souls weren’t technically of this realm until they were released from the demon they were bound to. A few times before he had glimpsed the souls as they headed to their final destination after being released but other than that he mostly just saw the earthbound spirits that wanted to be seen.
“I believe she’s talking to the spirit but I can’t see it, even if she is it’s odd.” Vander whispered.
“Why is it odd?” Reagan asked joining the two as he picked a few pieces of demon flesh off his sleeve.
“Usually spirits that are bound to demons move straight on to the next world but it seems this one decided to stick around and have a few words with Mari.” Nyght nodded but still didn’t quite understand. Why would she want to have a chat with a spirit? Was it because this was the first one she had ever set free? Did she have questions she didn’t think he or the others could answer? As he made his way over to her he caught the end of their conversation.
“Thank you, goodbye.” Mari gave a weak smile as the spirit disappeared. Turning she noticed Nyght’s look of worry but looked past him to Vander. Walking over to him she asked something that made everyone curious about her actions. “Are all spirits that tormented? In that much pain?”
Vander thought about it for a second then nodded. “Usually yes, I’ve never heard of a spirit that wasn’t tormented.” Mari’s face fell as she nodded.
“I see… so she’s…” She trailed off starting down the road ahead of everyone lost in her thoughts. Nyght wanted to ask her who she was talking about but he could tell she was too distracted to even hold a conversation.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Vander asked falling in step next to him. Nyght shook his head. “You don’t think she’s looking for someone do you?” He shrugged, honestly he had no idea.
The four walked to the Inn Vander and Reagan had been staying at stopping long enough for them to collect their few belongings before moving on. They walked until early evening when they came to the next small town. Mari had been quiet the entire walk lost in her thoughts. After they had received their room assignments she refused dinner and headed out to walk through the town. She had survived her first battle, it wasn’t difficult, at least the battle wasn’t. It was her eye, being able to see the soul, how much pain it was in, it crushed her heart. After two hours of wandering aimlessly through the town, she locked her thoughts up in the back of her mind and went back to the inn.
“Nyght?” He was sitting on the front steps staring at the stars. “Were you waiting for me?” He stood with a nod looking her over from head to foot to make sure she was okay. He didn’t want her to think he thought she couldn’t handle herself but with how distracted she had been the whole way here he feared the idea of her running into trouble.
“Yeah I was worried, are you…” His speech faltered when he saw the look in her eyes. “…ok?”
“No, but yes.”
“Mari… you did amazing today, beyond amazing.” She nodded and he knew that wasn’t what was bothering her. “That’s not it is it?” She shook her head. “Is it what the spirit said to you?” She shuffled her feet back and forth picking her nails. She didn’t want to have this conversation right now.
“Sort of…”
“Mari?”
“I asked her what it was like to be bound to a demon.” Nyght’s eyes about fell out of his head. Why would she want to ask a spirit something like that?
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know.”
“Mari if there’s something you’re not telling us…” Nyght stopped talking when he noticed a tear fall from her cheek and land on the ground. Slowly he moved forward and pulled her into his arms; she stiffened but after a moment wrapped her arms around his waist. “When you’re ready.”
“Thank you Nyght.” She turned her head against the crook of his neck smiling at how sweet he was being to her until he was yanked backward out of her reach. Looking up Mari looked from Nyght to the man that was holding him up by the back of his collar.
“Get your hands off of her.” The man growled causing Nyght to flail.
“Hey man it’s ok I know her!” Nyght continued
to struggle to try and get free but it was useless, the man had an iron grip. Mari couldn’t help the irritation that flashed through her eyes when she saw who was holding Nyght back.
“Uncle what are you doing here?!” She yelled.
“Uncle…?” Nyght tried to look over his shoulder but the man shook him, she had never mentioned anything about having an uncle.
“Nyght… I should have known it was you.” He gave Nyght’s collar another shake.
Mari stomped her foot in irritation, she knew it was childish but sometimes she had to bring herself down to that level to get her point across. “Uncle would you put him down!” Nyght finally got a look over his shoulder and realized who had a hold of him.
“Marinique Rayne!?” One of the elite warriors of the Shadows, one of the first members of the 14 was holding him up by his collar and she had called him… “Wait…” Nyght whipped his head around and stared at Mari. “Uncle?!”
“You know since your father passed it is my job to protect you.” Mari crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the man.
“All you’re doing right now is irritating me.” Marinique sighed and dropped Nyght on the steps, he landed with a thud rubbing his neck.
“Better?” Marinique asked. Mari nodded and ran into his open arms with a smile.
“Uncle…?” Nyght whispered. Mari crouched in front of him and cocked her head before poking him in the forehead.
“Uncle I think you knocked a screw loose.”
“If there was one.” Smacking Marinique on the leg she held out a hand and helped Nyght to his feet.
“He’s your Uncle.”
“Let’s go inside, I hear my idiot student is with you.” The three went into the Inn easily acquiring a long table in the corner where they could sit and talk. Well, Mari and Marinique talked. Vander had gone into a guarded silence seeing his former instructor again while Reagan, who had never met Marinique before, sat in the same stunned silence as Nyght at finding out about Mari’s familial link.
“Marinique… how come you never told me you had a niece?” Vander asked interrupting the two’s conversation after a long while. Mari and Marinique had been in the middle of discussing how her training with Nyght had gone and what she had learned.
“Because I didn’t want you going after her like this hound dog over here did.” Marinique pointed to Nyght who turned bright red.
“It was just a hug! I bet you don’t treat Tadum like that.”
“What did he do now?” Marinique turned a look on Mari but she was glaring at Nyght. “If he hurt you again I will…”
“Do nothing. Leaf and I are just…” She wanted to say, friends, she should have said friends but the memory of that afternoon in the storeroom made her freeze. Everyone around her was waiting for her to finish her statement but she felt like they were all judging her. “Friends.”
“That’s not what we saw.” Vander whispered. She turned her glare on him.
“What exactly did you see?” Vander went wide-eyed at the look on Marinique’s face. “Out with it.”
“They’re friends just like she said, right?” Nyght interjected but the look on his face seemed accusatory, jealous even.
“Yeah.” Mari cleared her throat to sound more convincing. “Right, we’re just friends.” Marinique gave a huff of disbelief but dropped the subject. “Uncle, why are you here?” She asked giving everyone an apologetic look, her Uncle had always been overprotective of her but it was for the right reasons. Well at least what he thought were the right reasons.
Marinique bowed his head slightly to hide his eyes from his niece under his hat. “I heard you were in the area.”
“Liar.” She could always tell when he was lying.
“I wanted to make sure I hadn’t pushed you too far, your father had a right to worry but no need to.” Marinique gave her a once over then nodded.
“You saw me fight.” She leaned back in her chair with a sigh, she should have known he would do something like this although she had to admit that she was surprised he hadn’t jumped into the fight when she had faltered.
“Yes but I had no reason to worry, my lazy student could take some lessons from you.”
“Uncle!” Marinique laughed quietly for a minute, it was always his way to poke fun at everyone around him, Mari just hoped everyone knew him well enough to know not to take anything he said too seriously.
“I’m sorry to interrupt but how are you two…” Reagan trailed off when Marinique looked at him. As much as Mari saw Marinique as a giant bumbling idiot, sometimes his reputation as a strict instructor and lethal warrior preceded him.
“Uncle Rayne is my mothers’ brother.” Mari explained trying to give her uncle a warning glare to ease up.
“I didn’t know you had a sister either….” Vander whispered wondering how after spending ten years with this man he knew nothing about him.
“How else would he have a niece?” Nyght muttered. Vander threw a roll at him. “So that’s why he came to you after your father died.” Nyght took a bite out of the roll and stuck his tongue out at Vander.
“Yeah, he didn’t tell me for a while who he was, just appeared out of nowhere. He and my father hated each other, I think they only ever agreed on one thing.” Marinique sat up straight at her statement turning a pointed look on her.
“I never agreed with that man on anything.” She giggled which just made Marinique’s look more heated.
“You loved my mother.” He opened his mouth to say something snarky but quickly closed it.
“Well if you put it that way we agreed on two things.” Mari blinked at him several times before he poked her in the forehead. “Stop looking at me like that, the second thing is you Maris…Mari.”
“Still can’t say my full name huh?” He crossed his arms over his chest and ducked his head but she could feel his eyes on her from under his hat. Turning Mari looked at the three men and was met with three identical looks of confusion. “I was named after both my father and my uncle, Mari for Marinique and Sol for Solom.”
“He hated that my name came first.” Mari punched Marinique in the arm with a glare.
“Stop gloating.”
“So Marinique Rayne has a soft side…” Nyght whispered with a slight smile. The next thing anyone knew Marinique was on his feet leaning over the table in front of the three men.
“Listen to me right now, if any of you so much as think of touching her I will do things to you that are anatomically impossible to describe.” The three men turned ghost white as Mari pulled on the back of her uncles’ shirt.
“Uncle sit down, you’re scaring them.” Marinique sat down but the three remained backed against the wall afraid to look anywhere but at Marinique. In the silence the barmaid came over and noticed an extra person was sitting with them.
“I’m sorry but if you’ll be needing an extra room I’m afraid we’re all booked.” Marinique held up a hand to stop the woman from saying anything else.
“I won’t be staying but I would like a word with you.” He looked to Mari and she nodded. “May we use that room?” He pointed to a closed door nestled in the corner out of the way. The barmaid nodded then walked off. Marinique gave Mari one last look and went into the room.
“Well, that’s never good…” She sighed standing. If he had been here for her first fight then he saw her falter and that meant he also saw her talking to the spirit. This wasn’t going to go well. “I’ll be back in a bit, sorry he’s so…him…” At the fail for words to describe her uncles’ behavior, she went to join him in the small sitting room. Marinique was leaning against the wall next to an open window that looked out over the street in front of the Inn when she entered.
“I saw you talking to the spirit.” Mari faltered as she closed the door behind her but kept her composure. There was no gentleness in the way he said it, just an accusation in his tone that made her bite her lip.
“I’m curious, you know that.” She tried to play it off like it was nothing
but should have known better, Marinique saw right through her.
“And I know you know I can tell when you’re lying.” Mari picked at one of her nails impishly.
“I know…”
“Tell me the truth now, did you ask about her?” She turned and gave her Uncle a level look.
“No.” He raised an eyebrow waiting for her to continue. “I asked what it was like to be bound to a demon.”
“You can’t look for her.” Marinique shook his head with a sigh. This was the only problem he saw with her becoming a Shadow, a problem he had hoped she would never find out about. Someday soon he would kill Bart for leaving that file laying around.
“No I can’t but I could still find her.” It was a fact, though she may not be looking for that demon, in particular, there was nothing that said their paths may never cross.
“I forbid it.” The volume of his voice never changed but the tone did telling Mari she was treading on thin ice.
“You can’t forbid it. I’m a Shadow now, this is what you wanted.” She kept her voice even but firm, yelling never got her anywhere with him.
“No this is what you were born to do.”
“So you’d rather be like Bart and lock me away?” Her voice raised on its own now, she didn’t want to fight with him especially about this.
“If I could I would. If it meant you would be safe I would do whatever was necessary.” Mari walked over to the window next to him and leaned on the edge watching the few townspeople who were still out and about walk past them without a glance.
“You’re not my father.” It was a whisper but it carried more anger than any yelling she could have done. He knew she was angry but he couldn’t let her wander down this path, if she did, the damage it could do to her would be irreversible.
“You cannot look for her Mari. Those men out there, your team, they could die tomorrow.” This was not going to end well.
“I know that! We could all die!” She couldn’t help herself. Did he think she didn’t know the risks involved?
“And if your distraction because you found her is what kills them? What then?”