Marvela Mystic | ✔️

Chapter 16 ✨ New Light

Marvela opened her eyes.

But she still saw nothing but darkness.

Where there was once a sky full of stars and a blindingly bright full moon, there was only a black sky. Eventually, her eyes adjusted. The kitten wrapped her tail around herself and shivered as the world she had fallen into gradually came into focus.

Any light in this place didn't come from the sky; it came from the numerous glowing blue mushrooms and floating white embers surrounding her. The weak light barely illuminated the black skeletal trees with branches that stretched like reaching hands up through the pale blue mist that purveyed the area.

Marvela gulped. There was no sign of the portal that she had fallen through. It was gone. Vanished.

She was trapped in the realm of the spirits.

A ghostly blue moth, identical to the ones Slight had exhaled, materialized from the mist. With a shower of glitter raining behind it, it fluttered towards the trembling kitten and alighted on her nose.

And all at once, Marvela's fear left her. She raised a paw to scoop the delicate little moth from her nose. She held the creature in front of her, considering its ghostly appearance. The moth considered her in return, fuzzy antennae quivering.

"The Spirit Realm..." the kitten whispered. She observed her surroundings with new eyes.

She was in a forest. Its darkness and surreal blue hue was a stark contrast to the sunlit golden forest she used to roam, but it still reminded her of her Grudgewood Forest in a strange way.

"It seems we have a most unexpected guest..." whispered a breathy voice from the shadows.

Marvela didn't flinch when another skull-headed creature detached from the shadows and materialized in front of her. It stared down at her, two blue flames blinking in the sockets of its engraved wolf skull. The moth Marvela held left her paw and flittered up to rest on the tall spirit's fanged snout instead.

Behind the wolf-skulled spirit, more spirits peered around tree trunks to regard the tiny black intruder. Each one bore the skull of a different animal. Despite their vast numbers—and it was hard to even tell just how many there were for the darkness—they made no sound when they moved. The only sound in this entire realm seemed to be the beat of her own racing pulse that boomed in Marvela's ears. The kitten swallowed.

"Um. Hello there," Marvela said, her voice little more than a strained squeak. She forced herself to remember what Sable had taught her; that despite their appearances, spirits were not known to be hostile unless they were crossed. "Sorry for barging in. See, I was in the middle of fighting a witch and—"

The wolf-skulled spirit spread her jaws open wide, exhaling a breathy laugh, punctuated by the spontaneous appearance of more moths from her throat. "Ha. You must be talking about Asra. We're very familiar with her. That witch has spent more time communing with us spirits than her own kind."

A ram-skulled spirit stepped forward. "With one spirit in particular, that is," he sighed.

The wolf-skulled spirit shook her head, making the moths that rested on her disperse. "That Slight," she droned. The disapproval in her tone was audible despite the hushed whisper she spoke in. "We've always told him that it's dangerous to meddle with humans so much. They always want more than we can give. We knew his dealings with that snake of a witch would come back to bite him."

Marvela padded closer to the spirit at the front of the group. "Do you know what Asra is planning on doing?" she asked her. "That she's trying to enslave one of your own? And will then try to take control of the Spirit Realm? Of all of magic? You need to go and help him!"