Beneath Shadows and Secrets

♔ 𝕱𝔦𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔢𝔫 ♔

♔ 𝔑𝔦𝔯𝔞 ♔

Calix was truthful in wasting no time.

I wake the next morning, Inet waiting at my door with a fold of clean clothes and the instruction to hurry, so she can lead me to the main drawing room.

She makes herself scarce while I have the fruit offered for breakfast, allowing me a privacy to wash and change too, and then she is back. She nods once when she sees me ready, and then begins down the corridor, opposite to the direction I explored yesterday.

At a brisk pace, we are quickly out into the main foyer – the throne room – surpassing the stairs to go on down a second corridor. This one is longer, but we pass only two doors before we stop, the third ajar for our arrival. Inet does not accompany me as I enter, and I am left alone to face Calix and another whom I do not recognise.

He is more man than Fae. Rounded ears, and the tell-tale signs of age, but I know he must be something more. He is tall, not quite as tall as Calix who stands beside him, but far broader at the shoulders and hips. Quilted in fabrics, I can hardly make out his physique, but I notice the twisted wooden staff he leans his weight on. He seems reliant on it, so must not be as fit as others I have known.

He is the first – the only – to smile when I enter. It pulls odd at the scar that runs across his cheek, nicking his upper lip. It makes it look like one half of his mouth is unresponsive, unable to commit to such emotion. The smile is more in his eyes, the way they crinkle, deepening wrinkles that sprout from the corners towards his temples. The warmest reception I have received yet.

"This is Ryke." Calix introduces, gesturing to the male at his side. "An Omniscire Warlock."

I frown. "Omniscire?" The word wraps strangely around my tongue. "What is that?"

"We have the ability to funnel power." Ryke explains. His voice is a rasp, damaged throughout his years. "To understand it, learn how to control and utilise it." I feel myself blanch.

Calix strides towards me. "Younglings train with them. New Fae, who are just coming not their power. You may not be a bairn, but you are as new a Fae as one. He will help." With that, he glides past me, leaving the room and closing the door behind me.

I stay stood, rigid. Ryke seems to notice my apprehension, gesturing to the table with invitation to sit. He does too, without much grace, using the staff to support him. "Lord Calix has told me that you do not know what power you possess." He says.

I shake my head. "No. Only that it is here." I press a hand to where I can feel it most.

His return is sympathetic. "A strange sensation for you, I imagine. It must be unfamiliar to you." He picks up his staff from the floor and lays it across the table. He leans towards me after I sit opposite. "It is helpful that you recognise that to be what it is. It makes honing it far easier."

My nod is forced. "It feels heavy. And full." He pulls a face, considering my words, but offers nothing.

"I tell most to imagine it to be something. A well. A box. A ravelled ball of wool." I try to do such a thing, but the pressure of it is so fierce, I cannot imagine it to be anything more than what it is. The torment must show on my face. "It will get easier. So much so, that you will not have to think about it at all. Tell me what it feels like to you."

I look down at my chest as though it is there for me to see. "Like a bottomless pit, but somehow, it is full. Overflowing. It feels like when you are so hungry, but your stomach brims with nausea. It feels like it needs more space inside of me than what I can offer." It sounds so foolish to say it out loud, like I am making it all up. Ryke, however, does not look at me as though I am being ridiculous.