by Fey Truet
The next I looked at the bottle it was gone after I desperately tried to get every last droplet of the precious sweet liquid into my mouth. Some had dribbled out the corners of my mouth, and I constantly found myself wiping my face and licking my hand.
Now I was starving.
I ripped apart all the cheesecloth to the delightful wedge of gold cake that sat in my hands.
Before I could even think to eat it my nose caught a whiff of its luscious smell, giving me a hint of its delectable taste. Once more, I reduced to gobbling down the cake like the primitive.
Even after it was gone I couldn’t stop. I licked my fingers and sniffed out every crumb I couldn’t find with my eyes. It was only when every crumb was gone that I came back to myself breathing hard and uncontrollably.
No longer hungry, I was terrified at myself.
My father was adamant in that I always kept my conduct. Even when I was by myself. I was mortified to think that I had lost the better part of me for this long to desperately search for crumbs on a carpet after eating like a starved dog. I crossed my arms.
I didn’t like this.
Is this some form of outrageous mind games? Am I being observed this very moment?
I looked around, but I was distracted by the jingling around my neck.
I grabbed the pendant, and it grew warm. Next I knew, the floor under my feet disappeared and I fell.
Screaming, I was sucked into a black vacuum.
~~~
Before I could accept my untimely demise, I glimpsed a warm light.
I landed on a particularly stiff chaise, short of breath, with a “Wagh!”
“Oh! You’re up! Good. I was wondering how you were fairing. You were in pretty bad shape when you arrived, but that wasn’t any fault of your own. I can’t believe Cross would let you suffer in that state for as long as he did? You must be such a strong girl?” a concerned, pleasant voice commended me.
I looked up and saw a room with several other people.
A very young girl with shiny white hair and blue eyes was the closest. She watched me with disinterest for a moment before she turned back to brushing the hair of an even smaller little girl with dark spirals for hair and red rosy cheeks. The smaller girl’s blue eyes turned to me and blinked.
The bigger girl narrowed her eyes. “Are you stupid,” she said coldly and quietly. “It’s a glass doll, dummy, not a girl. Her name is Lee-lee and she doesn’t like you.”
“Huh?” I gasped, gawking at the bigger girl. I looked back down at the doll.
I’ve seen porcelain dolls and they couldn’t measure up to “Lee-lee.” Nothing about her looked forged and she was just looking at me. I wasn’t entirely convinced that she was ersatz, but I noticed how rigid the doll sat in the girl’s lap.
That aside, I was quite appalled by the tone the young girl took with me. Especially considering she herself looked as darling as a doll dressed up in frills. I was elder. Although, I might’ve found myself in offense seeing that I was staring rather rudely. But still…
“Uhm, uh, sorry?” was forced from my lips without consent.
Why did I--What?!
Now the girl’s look was cold. She was actually quite intimidating.
“That’s apologizing? You really are pathetic. Leave me alone,” she snapped, and I got a strong feeling of dislike.
“Vidale. Leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s struggling? You’re being so mean.”
I followed the calmer voice to a woman sitting behind us.
Her face struck me in that it was perfectly balanced. Her eyes were symmetric almonds with thin, arching brows above each, and her nose was the right length and width, the perfect distance away from her full pink lips. And how her yellow hair curled around and framed her heart-shaped face, she was beautiful.
A cherub.
I stared at her, considering how Lave’ah would love getting her hands on her. She was always looking for the perfect “specimens” to test her beautifying skills. She’d yell at me if she knew I sat here gawking at her greatest appeal.
But this young lady’s voice was so sweet, and she seemed so nice, and—
Her eyes narrowed at me, and a pillow resting next to her launched itself in my direction, missing me but unsettling my hair. By itself.
“What are you staring at, you monster!” she shouted at me.
I immediately put my head down, realizing that I was being rude by staring. Even so, she was frightening and had lost all her beauty in that moment.
“Uh, sorry!” I said, on purpose this time, once again in the offense.
She got up with crossed arms and stomped across the room in what I could only call a purple wedding gown, and stopped in a doorway. “Ungh. Seriously. Gluttons are all so wicked. You can’t give them the benefit of the doubt at all.”
“Mnnn,” the little girl stuck her tongue out at the lady. “Stupid, Faline! That’s why you’re not supposed to be nice to them. Now it’s going to eat you!” the girl teased the older woman.
The girl got up and ran through the door in front of her. “You better ask Cross to be rid of it before it happens again. You’re too weak to dispatch it yourself,” I heard the little girl sing from some other room. The young lady, Faline, just stood there pale in the face.
Faline turned back to me with a pallid expression, and then she ran out of the room.
“She’s afraid of you,” an older boy who seemed to pop out of nowhere told me.
“Ah!” I screamed because he really seemed to come out of nowhere.
I stared at him as if he were a ghost holding my popping heart.
He was indeed an older boy, but he was frail in stature with an ashen face as if he was a shut-in. He had black eyes behind the huge glasses that desperately hung onto his nose, and his black hair was long and unkempt.
“Ch. And it’s no wonder. It’s rude to scream in people’s faces. What kind of Glutton are you? They normally aren’t prone to fear. Whatever,” he waved his hand.
“I’m betting if Faline would’ve heard that she wouldn’t be frightened of you. However, she’s worse than mediocre at stretches and sleights. You see, our last Glutton tried to eat her and she wasn’t powerful enough to stop it. Cross disposed of it, of course. But she’s really a joke for a pix. I’m Sere by the way,” he said, exiting down a door he seemed to pull up out of nowhere.
He was now gone, and I confused. I was so lost.
I mean, what was a glutton? And why would I be such a thing to frighten that gorgeous young lady? Is that why they were so cruel to me just now? And, for the love of my brother, how did I end up in this room? No. How did I end up in this strange place? And why couldn’t I keep pace with this situation? It was all happening at the impossible speed of a truck.
I knew I wasn’t the keenest mind anywhere, but it made no sense how much this situation had lost me.
I looked around the now empty room.
The room blazed a rose gold from candles rather than regular light. It was also ridiculous how many furnishings this room had. I counted at least fourteen couches arranged askew, perhaps three dozen chairs place haphazardly anywhere, eight tables, a nightstand, about five bookshelves, ten desks, and who knows how many rugs of different patterns just thrown about on the floor.
I looked from lamp to lamp, and, when I looked up, there were three very different chandeliers.
“Oh, brother.”
I’m in a nuthouse.
I blinked when a door opened and a smaller, stout woman with bright red hair smiled dazzlingly at me as she headed my way.
“How’re you doing?” she asked.
“Uh,” I replied.
I recognized her voice as the first woman who spoke to me.
“Good,” she said. “Six years with seals. Most mortals can’t survive half a month with one. Gracious, what was Cross thinking? But to do that to a human child of all things without warning any of us? I’ll have his ears when he gets back?” the lady fussed.
�
��Uh,” I replied again. Then I shook my head, a little sense returning to me. “Um, I believe there has been some mistake? I was supposed to meet an old man and—”
“No, no! Your Book of Life has informed me of your coming and I let you into Cross’ Manor. What a strong girl you are,” she trailed off, but then caught herself. “Now. Did you follow the instructions Vidale drew for you? Weren’t they cute? When I told her you couldn’t read she volunteered to draw them up for you.”
“Vidale?” I asked.
That little girl? She drew those instructions. My brows creased together as I became ever more confused.
“Ah, yes. Wasn’t she here a moment ago with Faline? I wonder where they went without introducing themselves?” The woman sighed. “Hmm, well, I suppose a time for introductions will come at a later time.
“Now as for the tonic and tree marrow? It’s very important that you ate at least a little of those before the ambrosia? Otherwise, the seal will come back and you’ll forever lose your human form. You did, didn’t you?”
I swallowed hard. I had no idea what she meant by “forever losing my human form.”
It was my only form.
“Seal?” I asked. “What seal?”
I didn’t have a seal.
She lifted a finger and a mirror appeared.
My confounded face with the vine running through it appeared as I was used to. Then the marks faded away and were gone, showing me a face I was unfamiliar with.
Vineless.
The mirror disappeared and my hand touched my face.
Such a small thing makes such a big difference?
I traced my fingers down my face. My new face.
Mm.
The woman sighed again, putting a hand to her forehead.
“I see once again that Cross explained nothing. The mark of Greeves, The Tree of Life, was used to create the seal that made you a Remnant. I’m sure you’re familiar with that considering it was etched from your face to your navel.”
I’ve never heard of that. The mark of Greeves? The tree of life?
I thought Greeves was just the name of our country. Our homeland.
“That was a seal?” the shock clear in my voice. “I thought it was a magical bandage? Kind of like a scar.”
“Yes and no. Healing magic leaves no scars. However it comes at a price, and Cross’ magic is very expensive. A seal mark entails the price, which was your soul, and was placed on you to keep your spirit and body at peace with each other. Without it, you would’ve become a walking corpse, killing all that is familiar until nothing existed. Only the seal is usually meant to be used for a few days. Any longer than that and usually the magic unravels and completely obliterates the body.”
I felt all the warmth drain from my body.
I remembered sweat-soaked, sleepless nights because the pain was just too much.
That old man knew that I could die when he told me six years, and he still had done it anyway. I held no malice towards him, though I’d be justified in doing so. I just found the notion of being “obliterated” very unpleasant.
“I didn’t—No one told me that.”
“Lucky for you, your soul-self took the brunt of the damage. Minerva removed the seal, but the harm was severe enough that the seal carved itself in your soul. The tonic and marrow will render the magic that comes back obsolete, but not if you consumed the ambrosia first. If you did, I’m sorry to tell you that form you wear now will be sealed away.”
“I-I?” I tried to make sense of what she was saying. Tonic, I understood, but marrow and ambrosia. I hadn’t a clue.
“I don’t know,” I said miserably. “I think I followed the instructions. I drank the clear liquid and ate the fudge, then the orange stuff. Was that right?”
The woman blew out a relieved breath and I somehow took comfort in that.
“Yes, Emare. You did very well,” she praised me. My brows creased again and I frowned.
I’m sure I never told her my name. Now that I thought about it, how did she know I couldn’t read?
“How—” I began, but she cut me off.
“Oh, I know you must have many questions. I’ll begin by introducing myself.”
She grabbed my hand and held it to her.
“My name is Wren. Just Wren. A former warlock of Old Eden, I am now a proud witch of Cross Manor. I am Master Cross’ first retainer, his shield, but that is mostly because of my leprekhanian heritage.”
I couldn’t help but stare blankly at her. She could be speaking a different language for all I gleaned from her introduction.
I understood warlock though. They were vile, hideous demons, but this kind lady was far too appealing to fit that description. I had no idea where Old Eden or Leprekhanian Heritage were. They sounded made up.
Even so, I nodded.
“Mm-hm. And your Book of Life, the charm suspended on your tether, told me all about you, Tails Tales. Your mother was clever in naming you, Emare, and who’dve known it’d suit you so well.”
She let go of my hand and flicked the book pendant with her finger, earning a sharp, high-pitched jingle. I gasped when the book jumped to life and appeared before her as a thick diary.
“Sorry if I gave you a start, but listen as what I’m about to tell you pertains to your life.”
She was right when she said I must have so many questions. I did.
Like why I had this collar on me? And why I was here? But she seemed patient, and I could be too. So I nodded and she continued.
“This is your Book-of-Life. It has recorded everything regarding you even before the events that led up to your conception and will continue to record everything that will ever pertain to you after you die. Your thoughts, feelings, life, and all you are involved with lies within.
“This, in form, can be called your soul, or for the most part, a huge part of it, and it is what you bartered to Cross in exchange for… time. Now that your debt is being paid, it was returned. If you lose this to circumstance, it will always return to you. But be warned, Cross no longer holds it. If you ever give it away or it is stolen by a being of formidable magic, your fate is no longer yours.
“Now, I’m betting you have questions about your tether?” she asked.
I think she was referring to the collar, so I nodded.
“I’m sorry if you see it as a form of bondage, but the magic searches out an optimal position where you are least likely to lose it. So. To explain your tether, I must explain the deal you made with Cross.”
She opened my book, and words began to scribble themselves to her, but at the same time over them, pictures drew themselves out for me.
“I see. Cross,” she groaned. “In exchange for time that would be otherwise lost, you gave Cross your Book Of Life as a form of collateral until you could provide a more ‘suitable’ form of payment. That time has come, and in exchange for your Book Of Life, you will serve as the Remnant, the Magician’s familiar, until your debt is paid in full.
“This duty is to be performed in the form of your soul-self, which is why you need a tether. It acts like a switch that controls your transformation between your two selves. It also keeps you in direct contact with Cross so that he may summon you if needed. You must be very careful not to lose your tether.”
“How come?” I asked, already knowing I wouldn’t like the answer.
“Well, because it is like an exchange. If you lose your tether then you will not be able to switch forms without Cross’ help (and he’s a real pain). If you are your soul-self, you will be stuck as so. If you are your human-self, you won’t be able to turn back into your soul-self. If you run out of time, well, put simply, you will die a painful death if Cross doesn’t intervene.
“Ah. That is another reason why you shouldn’t lose it. With it, Cross should be able to find you anywhere. Without it, you are on your own and must seek him out yourself, if possible.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at her, but at the book, which seemed to explain all of this
in pictures. It revealed to me the answer to my question, “What is a soul-self?” by displaying pictures of men transforming into huge beasts.
Then it showed a picture of me crawling into a ball because I didn’t want to become a monster.
“Another urgent matter I must explain is time and how you repay your debt,” Wren began, but she must’ve read something that unsettled her because both her mouth and her eyes frowned.
She sighed again.
“A Remnant typically is the lure. Remnants exist to tempt the opposition in any form or way in order to expose or reveal them. From there, another familiar, more suited to the job, of course, destroys or drives them away, as ordered by Cross hisself.
“Cross also has a strict policy regarding all of his familiars’ true-selves—yours being human—and demands that they all earn back their right to become their true-selves. This is done by not losing yourself to your soul-self. For every time you overcome temptation you earn time to be your true-self. As I mentioned before, you do not want to be in your true-selves form when you run out of time. And your Book Of Life will keep track of how much time you have, so be sure to check it before alternating between forms.
“While earning back time, you also have to pay back your debt, and you can only do so by accurately doing your job as a lure. You will earn, well, your life accordingly based on how well you do your job. Naturally, if you shirk your duties you won’t earn as much life as if you were to actively carry out your responsibilities. Unfortunately, it can take more than one lifetime to earn enough life to pay back your debt.”
The picture the book showed me next made me look up at Wren.
Her sympathetic face gave no hint of the sorrow inside her heart the book reflected.
I smiled at her.
“This sounds like a briefing for an extensive job, but I’m sure I can do it. If it weren’t for that old man I wouldn’t have been able to keep the promise I made to my mother. I’ll work hard for him since this is the case.”
I was glad when her heart returned my smile.
She closed her eyes and said, “Don’t work too hard. The Cross, at present, appreciates nothing of the hard work and self-sacrifice of any of those he employs. I must also tell you that being the Remnant is a perilous life that none have survived for long.”