by AA Lee
Datu Goni followed a few meters behind them, as if wary even though he knew that the torch wouldn’t hurt him when held by Tala.
“Now, we need it to stay upright to prevent a fire in this house,” Kisig said.
“Let’s remove one stone so we can dig into the soil underneath,” Datu Goni suggested.
Kisig nodded, and Datu Goni disappeared. Kisig tried to remove one stone, but they were so close together that the gap wasn’t big enough for his fingers.
Datu Goni returned and handed him a knife. “Here.”
Kisig accepted it and put the tip between the stones. He finally managed to get a stone to move up. He then gestured for her to plant the torch as he moved back. When she finally let go, she fell to the floor, and her last thoughts were how weak she had become and how long she would take to fully recover.
When Tala woke up, the first thing she felt was the coldness of the floor and the light of the torch. No light was coming from outside, so she concluded the time must have been night or early morning.
The door to her room was open, and plates lay on the floor next to the door. As her eyes moved upward, she saw the living room was full of bodies in different sleeping positions. She got up, thankful that her legs weren’t so weak anymore. Her last meal had been around noon, and her stomach growled in hunger. Roasted fish had been carefully placed on top of some rice, and she almost cried at the smell of it. Next to it was a bowl covered with a flat dish. Careful not to make a sound, she lifted the cover and gasped at a chicken stew. Her hand shook as she grabbed the spoon and tasted the soup. It was so delicious that she wanted to eat everything at once, but she also wanted to eat slowly to relish the taste a little longer.
“Let me just heat them up for you real quick.”
Her spoon halfway to her mouth, Tala stopped. Pilly had slept in the corner of the living room just outside her room.
“Oh no, it’s fine. Thanks for putting them here.” Tala tried to keep her voice down, not wanting to wake anyone.
“Soup should be warm when it enters your belly. Give it to me. I thought you would wake up early, so I covered it and hoped you would eat it before it got cold, but it seems that you were beyond exhausted. Follow me to the kitchen.” Pilly grabbed her bowl of chicken soup, closing any argument, and headed to the kitchen.
Tala picked up her plate of rice and roast fish and followed the woman.
“This is going to be real quick, so sit down. Once you have warm soup, cold rice won’t seem so cold anymore.”
In the corner of the kitchen was a table a few inches from the floor. Vegetable scraps had been left on top, so she assumed it was used to prepare food.
“Yeah, you can eat there. I use that all the time when I get hungry and it’s not time for a proper meal yet,” Pilly said, looking back at her. “There’s a pillow underneath. Grab it to warm your bottom.”
“If you don’t mind me asking...” Tala hadn’t expected such kindness from Kenda’s aunt after she learned that Tala was the reason the high priestess was in the torch in her place.
“Pilly. Or Aunt Pilly.”
Pilly started a fire using a small rectangular device that Tala thought was magic at first, but Pilly had no magic, so she concluded it must have been a new device invented after she hid in the torch. Some kind of liquid was inside the transparent device.
“Aunt Pilly, had Kenda been living with you since she was a child?”
“She lived with her grandparents, my parents.” Pilly faced Tala with sadness in her eyes though she was trying hard to hide it. “But the previous high priestess, my mother, passed away recently, and she moved in here. It was only expected because the girl had been so close to me and Datu Goni.”
“Where are her parents?”
Pilly stopped moving for a while. The room was completely silent as she added more firewood into the fire.
“Sorry, I completely understand if you don’t want to talk about it. I don’t mean to be so nosy.”
“Oh, you’re not. It’s normal to ask questions because you’re trying to help her. It’s just that people ask that same question over and over again, and I feel like my words come out automatically.” Pilly sighed deeply and turned to make sure the fire was burning well. “Talking about Kenda’s parents isn’t allowed. I mean, nobody would punish us if we did, but it would only bring back painful memories.”
“I understand. Thank you, Aunt Pilly, for being kind to me even though…”
Pilly shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t completely understand what’s going on, but based on what I’ve heard, Kenda chose to offer her life, and you saved her. That’s enough for me. Kenda might be young, but she’s stubborn, kind, and powerful. I know that she was clever enough to do something before risking her life. And you… Despite the corruption of the torch, I know you’re a good girl.”
Chapter 16
Kisig
Kisig awoke disoriented. The sound of crashing and banging made him think they were under attack, but when he finally sat up and looked around, the sound was just coming from the kitchen. The magicians were drinking their morning coffee and had not bothered to wake him up even though he’d been sleeping in the middle of the living room.
“Here’s your cup. I don’t know how strong you want your coffee.” Datu Goni handed him an empty cup and pushed the coffee and sugar containers right next to Kisig on the floor.
Kisig mouthed thanks, bowed, and moved to the table in the corner of the room. Just yesterday, the man had been almost hysterical about Kenda’s disappearance. Kisig couldn’t believe he was so calm and even had the time to enjoy his morning coffee.
“Drink coffee to clear your head. It’ll get you started with your day. Then we can think of solutions.” Idja handed him sugar and coffee jars.
“Honestly, there’s not much that we can work with,” said one magician, whose name Kisig couldn’t remember because so many were there. “We’re not familiar with that kind of magic. It’s ancient. If there’s anyone who could solve this, it’s the girl and this boy. Asking for our help is useless. We didn’t even knew it existed.”
“Some people knew, but…” Idja eyed Datu Goni. “As a matter of fact, I’ve seen that torch before. I didn’t know that same torch was cursed, and that’s the one High Priestess Kenda was looking for.”
“My family knew about the curse, but the torch was never mentioned. When and how?” Datu Goni asked.
“Well, this has something to do with the high priestess’s parents.”
As soon as Idja mentioned them, Datu Goni nodded as if putting a close to the conversation.
“What happened to High Priestess Kenda’s parents?” Kisig couldn’t help but ask.
Idja looked at Datu Goni again. Datu Goni sighed. Taking that as permission, Idja began a story the village refused to talk about.
“Kenda’s mother—”
“Celia. My sister’s name is Celia.” All heads turned to Pilly. She was holding a kettle that she put in front of Kisig, then she took a seat herself to hear what Idja had to say.
“So when Celia was forced into marriage…” Idja continued. “As all of you already know, most girls are forced into marriage.” He glanced at Kisig. “Perhaps you’re not aware, but that’s the norm now that the girls’ number is dwindling. Well, Celia is just like Kenda, fiery and determined. I only met her twice, first when she was betrothed to Nayon’s official’s son and then the day she died, but there was no mistaking her determination. Unlike Kenda, though… she failed to escape her marriage.”
Datu Goni’s house was dead silent. “Then how come villages don’t talk about her?” Excitement bubbled in Kisig’s chest. If there was a way, he would have ripped the story out of Idja’s head.
“Well, Celia got pregnant. During the last week of her eight month of pregnancy, a healer announced that she would give birth to a girl. I guess that sparked her determination again. I guess she didn’t want her daughter to have the same fate as her, so she escaped. I guess i
t took a while for Daa villagers to notice she was gone because they never thought she would flee. She was officially married and was about to give birth, after all.” Idja looked at Datu Goni.
“I never meddled with the village’s affairs before,” Datu Goni said. “My only goal was to find the Bringer of Equality, so I spent my time at the farm, practicing my spells in the hope that they would be enough once I found her.” He nodded slowly, as if oblivious he was doing so. “But yes, we only found out Celia was gone just before dinner, when her husband came home from the farm.”
“Men with hunting dogs came looking for her,” Idja continued. “Nayon warriors helped because her husband is from Nayon. I happened to be at the river at that time, collecting shells to be used as spell powders, when I saw Nora running toward the shrine. The oddest thing was that Celia went into the shrine but never came out. Dogs sniffed, but the last place they came back to was the shrine. It’s as if she disappeared.”
“She swam down the well.” Tala was standing by the bedroom door.
Spectators sighed at the interruption, but Idja was quick to continue.
“No. We had the well checked. She would have died. She never came out of the well. When she came back, she held a torch brighter than the sun.”
Kisig eyed Tala, who seemed eager to correct Idja, but Kisig knew that what stopped her from talking were the evil souls trapped under the shrine. If the villagers knew about the underground, they would start poking around, and that could lead to death. Kisig shook his head and banished the thoughts, wanting to concentrate on Idja’s story.
Idja’s eyes widened in excitement, his hands wild with gestures accompanying his words. “Nayon villagers didn’t want to intervene, so only those related to Celia’s husband chased her. And I… I was drawn to the torch like a moth to a flame. Just before we reached The Great Fall, the warriors caught up to her, and she… she burned them all. All of them turned to ashes. But the gifted… They didn’t burn. They were sucked into the torch. High Priestess Nora was slow, and I tried to help her, making sure she didn’t accidentally drown herself, and that was the only thing that saved us—our distance. Had we been closer, I think we would have been dead.”
After a moment of silence, Kisig thought that was the end, but in a low voice, Idja continued the tale, surprising him.
“When Celia gave birth, she let go of the torch. And I don’t know if it was the baby’s instinct, but the newborn Kenda gripped the torch, and Celia disappeared, gone, just like all the magicians who got sucked in by the torch. I think High Priestess Nora refused to talk about her daughter’s death to protect Kenda and also so Kenda wouldn’t feel guilty about her mother’s death.”
Kisig nodded, aware that others were also bobbing their heads up and down.
“But who returned the torch to its hiding place?” Tala asked.
“Not who, but what. It snatched the torch away from Kenda’s hand and disappeared,” Idja answered.
“The Kapre?” Tala’s voice was so high with excitement that she sounded like she was shouting.
“How did you know that?”
Instead of answering, Tala held her hand against her mouth in shock. “So it was alive after all these years.”
“No one would’ve believed me if I told others. Kapres were creatures of myths and legends. High Priestess Nora begged me to keep it a secret, but now that she’s passed away and Kenda is all grown up, I don’t think it matters if villagers know what really happened. Since Celia also passed away, we simply said she and the magicians fought. If she hadn’t died, Nayon would have retaliated, and a war could’ve broken out.”
Kisig stirred his cold coffee. “So basically, you knew of the existence of the torch but weren’t aware that Tala was imprisoned there.”
“No clue. I know High Priestess Nora had no clue about it either. I didn’t even know it was ancient. If there’s anyone who understands it, it’s you and Tala.”
Ancient. Idja was wrong.
Kisig took a sip of coffee. “No, we’re not the only ones. You already know that.”
“What do you mean?” asked the magician to his right.
“Kenda made the high priestesses cross over from the afterlife. Maybe they could help us this time.”
“Clever boy! Why didn’t we think of that before? By the way, I’m Tiago.”
Kisig nodded in acknowledgment.
“But souls do not interfere with the lives of the living,” Tala protested.
Instead of convincing her, Kisig stood and grabbed his white shirt from a pile of laundry Pilly was about to wash that morning.
“I don’t know what it is.” Tala squinted at the letters written on the shirt. “It doesn’t look like the way people wrote in our time, and if it were the same, it wouldn’t help me because I couldn’t read or write.”
“Boboy! Come here!” Datu Goni called. When Boboy didn’t answer, Datu Goni shouted, “I said come here!”
“What? The boy is helping me with the breakfast,” Pilly answered in an angry voice.
Kisig hadn’t noticed her go back into the kitchen.
“I just need the boy to read something.”
The boy was suddenly in the living room, his shirt wet and moringa leaves sticking to his hands. “Yes! I’m here! I can read.” He grinned like he was about to do something fun.
Kisig held the shirt in front of the boy, lowering it to the seven-year-old boy’s height. The boy read it slowly in a dramatic tone, as though he was in a play.
“That’s it?” Boboy asked. “I’m sure Kenda wrote more.”
“Come back here, or breakfast will be late!” Pilly shouted back from the kitchen.
Boboy, who was enjoying his brief praise from the adults, pouted, but he went anyway.
“Well, this is a big risk that they are taking… but if Kenda already called them here once, I think it wouldn’t hurt.” Tala looked around and walked toward the high priestess staff, leaning against the wall. “But… how do I know which one is Priestess Mutya’s hair?”
“I believe that Kenda touched the hair on the lowest part. If I’m not mistaken, the newer high priestesses inserted their locks of hair on top, leaving the older ones on the lower part.” Kisig explained. “But I could be wrong. It was dark when Kenda summoned Priestess Mutya.”
Tala grasped a lock of hair and closed her eyes. When Kisig blinked again, a glowing Priestess Mutya was in the center of the living room.
“High Priestess!” Tala stepped closer to the soul and tried to hug Priestess Mutya, but her hand went through the air.
“So Kenda is still in the torch. I would have known what had happened if we weren’t too busy keeping Romu in here. That evil soul got sympathy from souls who are jealous of the living. Now, we have to fight more of them. I really wanted to talk to you, child, and to all of you here, but it would be best if we can make this short for now.”
“The thing is, I need information. No, I need help. Kenda offered herself to the torch to free me. I need to free her before I undo the curse. If I don’t, both Kenda and I will no longer exist in this world.”
“So she traded with the torch, just like you did a long time ago.”
“Yes.”
“The two of you are the most powerful priestesses in the land of the living. I don’t know what you could offer to the torch. And if you let the torch swallow both of your powers, whoever will touch the torch later will be very dangerous. At this rate, it would be best to destroy the torch before you undo the curse.”
“No! We can’t let Kenda be trapped in there forever!” Datu Goni shouted. “We must find a way to free her.”
“All of us will disappear and will be eventually forgotten. Look at me. I was the High Priestess before, yet nobody remembers me.”
“But Kenda is still young.”
“Datu, we should find a way to free her, but if we can’t, it would be best to prevent this from happening in the future. I have to go now. The afterlife is in turmoil.”
“How about a… a prophecy? My mother told me what to do before.”
“This is a time of turmoil. A slight movement could alter the future like a ripple. Prophecies are shown once all things align. In this trying time, even the underworld is in grave danger. However… there is one thing that I can see in the ripples of time. The only way to defeat it is to know it.”
“I already looked into the torch’s past. But unlike any other object, I can’t force it to open up. I can only accept what it’s willing to show. I don’t know what else I can do.” Tala dug a finger into her arm, perhaps unaware of doing it.
This wasn’t what Kisig had expected. He thought that when they asked for help, they would have progress. If Kenda was here, she would surely find a way. She would not surrender. But he didn’t know how to proceed.
“Can you try summoning High Priestess Nora?” Datu Goni asked Tala.
“But she had no idea about the power of the torch.”
“But she knew Kenda the most. She can probably help.”
“I am in no way trying to be difficult, but I think we should do other things to see how to proceed. Summoning High Priestess Nora will only weaken their power in the underworld.”
“Just for a short time, please.” Datu Goni bowed.
“Okay. Which one is her hair?”
Datu Goni pointed at the curly hair at the top of the locks. Tala touched it and closed her eyes.
“Why did you let my Kenda imprison herself? You should have stopped her, Goni!”
Datu Goni stepped back, surprised at the speed of High Priestess Nora’s appearance.
“I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t know that that was her plan. High Priestess Mutya said that we should destroy—”
“No way! That child had not lived her life yet. She loved life, and I know that she had not surrendered even when she locked herself away. I know she had a plan. You know she’s clever. What are the things she did before she locked herself in the torch?”