The Shape of Darkness

Noel blinked twice, and the darkness before him unfolded into forms vaguely familiar. A black as vast as the space between stars grew up as the walls of stone around him. A black flowing deep as the gaping underbelly of the ocean at midnight, became the smooth trail of the centuries of Mardraim, leading back to the safety of the Danguin Villages. The black that beckoned him forth with a nightmarish chill- its color otherworldly, unfathomable, indelible- was Moag.

Noel drew in an uncertain, black breath and watched as the well of darkness surrounding him breathed a familiar sigh in return. He took up his rucksack, bowels constricted, hand pulsing at his side, and managed a tentative step forward, feeling the pull of Moag, like an anchor weighing against his soul, dragging him ever downward… claiming ownership of him. It was only a matter of time before he drowned. As prophesied, he thought, taking a few more uneasy steps, swallowing against the urge—not his own—to wander off with reckless abandon, into that eternal shade, to know the blackness, as though it somehow might be known, if only one dwelt deep enough and long enough within.

No matter how often he and Isabella danced this thin line between here and the hereafter, Noel doubted he would ever get used to the effect Moag had on the woman or the effect it had on him, by nature of his increasing obsession with her. She longed for the darkness with a tender, black ache, so a tender, black ache Noel could barely control was cultivated inside him, its abysmal tendrils spreading through him as the roots of woman’s possession grew deeper within.

Edward was distracted, Noel decided, tensing his jaw against his fear of the future, shaking away the shadow he imagined coursing through his veins as he pulled from his pack the roughly-bound leather book the old man had given him the first night he set off in search. Of what, he was not certain, but he was Ohamet, after all, the one who wanders, always searching, so he suspected it was bound to happen. It was still strange to him the idea that the empathic among the Danguin could sense was at the soul of a person, but he knew they were right about him.

He turned open the book, and the buff colored pages gave off what appeared at first as a subtle glow, before fading into the general gloom of its surroundings, remaining just bright enough to see the map he had begun and his rough sketches of the thing that had plagued him since first setting foot in Namcha Barwa. He doubted anyone else would understand what they were looking at, if they happened across his work, considering the line drawings, while giving depth and detail to a degree, hardly conveyed what Moag actually looked like, let alone what it felt like, at least to Noel. He could always feel it, its presence a constant thrumming inside him.

While recounting, for Edward, his first experience with Moag, Noel made point of mentioning that there was a brief moment, as the light of Hestia’s flame dimmed and was all but extinguished by that insidious black, when he was certain he saw Moag breathing. This came as a shock to Edward, and the two of them debated whether or not it was possible Moag might be some sort of living creature, an idea the elder wasn’t too keen on, considering his devotion to Om and adherence to the Mdonyatra and the Ftdonya. Edward was troubled that Moag existed at all, so he struggled to quantify it, in face of the destruction of so many of Om’s prophecies. The elder had described Moag as the reflection of Om, the shadow of Om, even rather pithily as the backside of Om, but he was adamant it could not possibly be a force equal to or greater than Om unless it was in fact Om, itself, and Om could not be seen—Om was not merely some worldly creature. Of course, Noel asked about the water, in the chamber where the Mdrai deciphered Om’s intent. As best he could tell, with their difficulty communicating between three languages, the elder believed Om’s Waters behaved as some sort of amplifier for the Way, which Om set into motion at the dawn of time.

Even though the old man did not want to believe Moag was alive, when it was time for Noel to start searching the tunnels for the exit, Edward gave him the book, an inkwell, and fountain pen to make his map, then suggested Noel allow his eyes to acclimate to the dark, rather than using a torch to see by. After all, he told him, Noel didn’t really need much light in the first place, and it would only get in the way if they really wanted to understand what Moag consisted of. Noel thought the old man had properly cracked, but as Edward explained it, “Everyone knew,” elves had naturally enhanced vision in the dark. Unfortunately, Noel assured the man, this “everyone” did not include the elves themselves, as this was news to him.

The ability wasn’t magic, per se, but rather a biological characteristic, which Noel suspected had mostly been bred out of his people, after the Fall, as elfin bloodlines thinned, which was why most elves used the electric inventions of men, out of convenience, or fire, when necessary, to light their way. It turned out Noel had this enhanced visibility, though the muscle that controlled it was weak at first, but using his sense of Moag, he was able to hone it. These past few evenings, as he worked, his eyes grew stronger, his vision sharper, the darkness clearer. He could, in fact, see Moag, and it was definitely moving, even if it wasn’t a living, breathing being (though Noel still had his suspicions about this).

The old man was using him, Noel thought as he set off down the path he had begun exploring first, doing his best to ignore Isabella Asan’s longing and the song of imminent doom, which thumped a rowing beat in his chest. He followed the edge of Moag, moving quick but cautiously, checking his map and sketches as he went, to make certain nothing much had changed from the previous night. Moag was not actually mobile, as far as he could tell, rather it continuously shifted from one evening to the next, as though it was made up of some sort of fluid that clung to the air, its slight ebb and flow lending Noel the idea that it was something like a cloud and perhaps more like Om’s water than the Mardraim would ever accept. Unlike Moag, Noel could not feel Om, or at least he had not felt it when he went to the chamber to speak with the Mdrai about the Book of Ages. Moag, on the other hand, wanted him. If he had not felt the thing so deeply, he doubted he ever would have noticed it as anything more relevant than a shadow. But Moag was easily the most frightening thing he had ever known, its visceral grip on both him and his possessor only growing stronger with each day that passed.

“We should be testing the wards,” he whispered into the darkness, as though Isabella was listening. And perhaps she was.

Noel was certain Edward knew he wasn’t actually out searching for the exit. Three nights ago, he’d had every intention of finding his escape route as quickly as possible, just as the Mardraim said, but the more he studied the darkness, the more he could see there was definitive substance to it, the more he knew the exit had to wait. It was as though the something stronger than Moag, stronger than Isabella and stronger , even, than any desire he might have to survive had woken up deep in his gut, and his gut told him he needed to go deeper into the mountain, where Moag was more concentrated. There were answers to be found there. So he wandered.

Maybe the old man hadn’t known from the beginning what Noel would do, but Edward was an empath. There was no way he couldn’t feel this intensity that Noel felt, no way he couldn’t tell Noel had not gone back to the entrance to the tunnels near the Danguin village to study some other path, which would have been the sensible thing to do, if he was really looking for the way out. He supposed he understood why Edward had done it, why he continued to lie to Noel and perhaps even to himself about what was really going on in that mountain, but that didn’t mean the elder wasn’t wrong for leaving Isabella vulnerable to Noel’s whims, anymore than he wasn’t wrong for leaving Noel vulnerable to Isabella. Noel wasn’t using his perceptions of Moag to find his way out of the mountain. The map to the exit wasn’t the purpose of any of this, they both knew it, and to act as though it was somehow about getting one over on the Felimi while plotting his eventual escape was manipulative and more than a tad insulting, if truth be told. Sure, he was not being forthright with Edward either, but the Mardraim wasn’t trying to help Noel gain his freedom or even trying to keep him out of the way while he worked to figure out how to right their destinies. He was simply using him, like he was using Isabella for the prophecies, because he knew Noel could see the shape of the darkness.

“I can’t be angry at that, can I?” Noel sighed. “Not considering all these people, totally unaware they’re surrounded by this… What are you, anyway? Are you a god? Some sort of demonic mist?” he asked the dark, knowing it was foolish to tempt the thing to an answer, but he was annoyed and frustrated and plain knackered. “What do we truly know about you?”

They knew, or at least accepted as fact, that years ago, the boy, Eri, had been lost to Moag, he thought, continuing to make his way through the darkness. One of the Felimi, the Mardraim at the time of the boy’s disappearance, and the boy’s father had all been lost as well, drawn out in an instant and through all of eternity, like they were swallowed by some black hole. Given the divine providence of the Children of Danguin and their reverence for Om, one would think every person in that mountain would know all about the mysterious black monster lurking in the tunnels of their home, waiting to devour body and soul of any who wandered too near, erasing not just their lives, but whole destinies promulgated by their deity, Om—and Om was their deity. The Danguin worshiped it. Their entire lives revolved around it. Had the Felimi had covered up the disappearances and Moag’s existence in order to protect their precious water god? Was Moag, in fact, more powerful?

The Felimi, Noel thought, his stomach tightening anxiously as he recalled the words that had come out of his mouth, not half an hour ago, forced out by ideas that didn’t at all belong to him, but rather to his possessor. It was clear Isabella had issue with the blind Mothers. What had they done to her, he wondered, and what did the youngest of the Mothers mean when she said, “Edward suspects?” Noel had been half tempted to ask the Madraim if he knew what she referred to, but at the same time, the fact Isabella’s thoughts came through to him, so clearly he could speak them out loud, against his own will, made his skin crawl. He decided it best not to say anything more about it, out of fear it would give her more control over him. They needed the wards, desperately, but while he hated to admit it to himself, Edward was right that there were more important things to worry about at the moment than Isabella’s possession of him, and they had no idea how the wards would affect her. He just hoped she would have the courtesy to keep her thoughts out of his mouth, until they could right this mess he had created.

As if in defiance, the image of the Middle Mother staring at him with blind eyes, reaching out and grasping at the air that composed him, flashed through his mind, and he was forced to stop and catch his breath, to make sense of the memory. The woman looked scared, angry, and as confused as Isabella had been, to find herself lingering there outside of her body.

“Her soul,” Noel hissed, shivering at the thought. “It was her soul, and that Mother could see her, blind or not.”

The Felimi worried others would find out what Isabella had done. They expected her to die alone, tucked away in a cold, dank room in their cloister, while Noel was taking his time being destroyed by Moag. They expected Noel would die too. Isabella had cried out to him, begging him to hurry. Harvey came and carried her away, to the very edge of Moag, laid her down at the entrance, and stepped into the darkness.

“Enough,” Noel said, shaking his head at the errant thoughts.

At least Isabella seemed to share in his distrust of the Felimi. Did Edward still want to know why they hid the truth of Moag for so long, or had he only been placating him for the sake of attaining the map? Had the old man decided it wasn’t worth the effort to question what really happened to Eri? Noel supposed the Felimi’s part in all of this didn’t really matter much now. Even if they never uncovered why the blind Mothers hid Moag’s existence years ago, the Mardraim had a responsibility to his people today to find out everything he could about the thing, to know exactly where it lingered, and to decide whether he too would bury whatever truth Noel managed to discover about the dark force, Om’s opposite, as he wandered.

That was why Edward was willing to ignore what Noel was doing, Noel thought as he came to the fork in the tunnels where he stopped working the previous night. Maybe he would look for the way out, eventually, but for now, even if Edward was too uncertain of Noel to be honest about his intentions, Noel was doing exactly what Noel needed to do, and this was where his gut had taken him.

The depth of the black that loomed in the tunnels before him made the place Noel was standing seem bright as the night under a full moon.

Which way should he go?

On that matter, his gut was silent. Both branches were far too dark for him to make out anything that might be inside. So far he had passed seven tunnels like these, marking them in his book for later exploration, but always knowing that wasn’t where he was meant to go. Now he was at a loss. Perhaps he could go either way and get to the same place? Or maybe there was supposed to be some answer right there where he stood, but that seemed unlikely.

Isabella simply wanted to dive in.

Noel desperately wished Edward would have agreed to try the wards. The woman made it difficult at times to discern his own sense from hers. At least if they used the wards, she would be protected from Moag, he thought, his mind whirring with anxiety as he looked around, hoping for some clue as to what he was to do next. Why was he here?

The fear crept in. Fear of how she had taken some modicum of control before. Fear of the feeling she was not wandering, like him, but searching for something tangible, an answer she thought Noel possessed. Maybe this was her, leading him by the proverbial nose after all, and he should turn back before she got them both killed?

No… No. One way or another, he expected he would wind up right back here, of his own accord or of hers. They both felt it, he thought. The way was right there in front of them, but neither seemed to know which path was right. So Noel stood there, staring into the black, just as he had done the night before, for the better part of an hour, knowing Moag was waiting, in both paths, but not knowing if both paths were completely blocked, or if it was simply that he had reached the limitations of his night vision and his sense of Moag.

What the hell could Isabella be searching for in there, he wondered? Was she even sane enough to know? For that matter, was Noel himself sane, following a gut feeling through this wretched darkness after everything that had happened? The fact he had to ask himself that question did nothing to quell the nerves that bubbled up inside him.

Noel closed his eyes and waited, hoping for some clarity. He took several calming breaths and relaxed his fist, which he had kept tight at his side the whole time, as though he clung to his possessor’s hand, half hoping she would save him, as she had done before, which was a ridiculous thing to count on, considering Isabella wanted nothing more than to go either way, though he got an unpleasant sense the tunnel on the left was preferable to the one on the right.

“Ah, the tunnel to the left,” he smiled, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that to take that path would be dangerous, perhaps even perilous.

What was he to do? Should he trust this inkling of his obsession, or should he go off the other way, just in case?

Without much more thought than that, he hurried for the left branch, stopping just where the outcropping of rocks disappeared into the deepening blackness. That things just kept getting darker, the further he explored was unsettling, but this was it. This was definitely where he needed to go. He couldn’t exactly make up his mind how he knew this. There was definitely something else there behind the feeling, besides Isabella Asan and separate from Moag. It was as though he was being guided again, he supposed, just as he had been guided when he first came to the summit, to search for the entrance to the mountain, except now he could feel himself being pushed forward, urged on, and the mountain wasn’t trying to break him in order to make him go the right way, which was a positive.

He could feel it now. Was it really just Isabella calling out to him in the darkness again, so he could follow her voice to their ultimate destruction? Was it the lure of Moag hoping to devour him at last?

No, he had seen this before.

This was the black he saw in the Dreaming, hoping to find answers about the Last Hope of the Elves.

Was the push he felt Om guiding him against it’s will, again?

As his pulse increased, so did his breathing, until he was practically panting with nerves, sweat wetting his hair, trickling down the narrow ridge of his spine. He forced himself to slow down inside and find his center again, knowing he would need to focus now more than ever, so he could react in an instant if the pull of Moag took hold of him or he felt Isabella was in danger.

On a dry swallow, he lifted his hand into the darkness before him, half expecting to be drawn into some mad prophecy, wondering how Isabella would react, how Moag would react, what Edward would learn from the woman in the morning, whether she would receive more prophecies, and if any of them would live through any of this to tell the tale.

He waited at least a minute, though it felt what he imagined an eternity felt like, but nothing happened.

Giving a small chuckle at the intensity of his fear, his hand still outstretched before him, Noel stepped over one of the smaller boulders scattered in front of the entrance. His eyes tried to refocus on his hand, but it was so dark, everything was a blur around him, and it seemed the very air was moving, like shadows of monsters stirring, all around him, festering in the depths of that unforgiving black.

“Curious,” Noel whispered, stepping further into the deepening darkness, hoping to see more shades of darkness manifest before him and not to be swallowed up by Moag.

His heart pounded, his ears rang, his very soul stretched out in anticipation.

Isabella longed.

Whatever she was searching for was buried deeper still in this impossible maze, he thought. Did she know which way to go, or was she simply guessing? Were they searching for the same thing?

Noel stopped, dropping his hand to his side. “Actually, that is curious,” he said out loud and waited for the echo, a voice not his own, to return to him. There was no reply.

He took another step, and when his eyes shifted at last, he realized that he had come nose to intangible nose with the greatest absence of light imaginable, the very thing that frightened him to the core of his being, so black it looked like a solid mass of emptiness before him. But this thing was so much different than the Moag he first met, he thought, lifting his fingers to its surface, stopping short of touching it.

His breath came heavy now, and he watched it hit the surface of Moag and swirl like a fog that hung thick on a spring morning. Quickly he tucked the pencil and notebook back in his pack. The absence of the book’s faint glimmer made it possible to see the very edge of Moag, creeping silent before him, moving gently toward him, as though it were caught in a tide, drawn to him by his gravity.

Silent, Noel thought, bringing his fingers closer still to the blackness, so that they were almost touching. Where the tips of his fingers nearly grazed its surface, Moag stretched slowly toward him, ever so slightly, as though to greet him.

But it had been anything but silent the first time Noel encountered it. When he first found himself lost in the darkness, he had the vision of Isabella, a prophecy he guessed, of the woman’s death, the sand pouring out of her mouth and eyes and navel. As he continued in search for the home of the seers who foretold of the Last Hope, the darkness grew so thick around him that even Hestia’s Eternal Flame could not penetrate it and was snuffed out. The deeper he went, the more horrible memories Moag pulled from his mind, replaying them for him in the miserable black, as though frightening Noel was some kind—

“—Of game,” Noel whispered into the dark, his fingers poised.

“Eri?” he added after a long moment, waiting, but there was no reply.

Was Isabella searching for Eri?

Noel swallowed the lump in his throat and realized the woman was like a squall within him, surging against the edges of him, willing him to run.

He actually laughed out loud, “Oh, you want to go the other way now? Should have said so in the first place.”

If she didn’t want to go into Moag, what did she want? What was in there that she needed to know so desperately? What was in there that Noel was wandering to find?

The beat of his heart and his quickening breaths had his mind muddled. “This is madness,” he hissed, shaking his head against Isabella, against himself, against everything. “I’m supposed to go this way!”

But he didn’t want to go through Moag anymore than Isabella did, no matter what his gut or Om told him. He swore loudly against the insanity of it all, trying to clear his mind.

Moag had changed, he thought, bouncing on the balls of his feet several times before stopping, pressing his lips together. He swore, then thrust his hand, into the black, watching in awe as it morphed around him, and his arm, past his elbow, completely disappeared.

This was a terrible mistake.

In the span of a heartbeat, Isabella was writhing in agony inside him. Though he did not hear her, he felt her scream rip through him, her cry vibrating against every cell in his being, and before he knew exactly what he was doing, he found himself running the opposite way, back toward the Mardraim’s hold, back toward the path to the Danguin villages, back to Isabella Asan.

He barely got his light well fully formed around him before he was bursting out into the open, tearing off through the trees, not even bothering to stick to the road in his hurry. He had to get to her. He had to help her. Moag was killing her, killing her again, and it was all his fault, he thought, pushing up from the ground, dodging as many branches as he could, while leaves whipped against his flesh, as he took to the air.

In mere moments he was coming down from the sky, landing so hard in Isabella’s front garden that his knees buckled in pain and he fell to the ground. What had he done? What had he done? Quick as he could, he scrambled to his feet, ignoring the sting of fresh wounds on his knees and hands, already hurrying toward the porch steps before he looked up to find her standing there in the doorway, at once wild as fire and delicate as a moon beam, her face expressionless, as she watched him with eyes, black as Moag.

Mortal gods, she was beautiful.

Dumbstruck, Noel stumbled to a halt before reaching the porch, then in his confusion he took several steps back. Her scream still coursed through him, burning his insides. He felt her terror, as his own. He felt her rage, as his own. He even felt her stare, her eyes fixed upon him, yet somehow not seeing him, even though she was looking right at him. It was almost as though he could see himself through her eyes, standing there looking like a right idiot, because although he felt these things of her, she seemed perfectly fine, absolutely well, not at all as though she was dying.

Of course, she can’t see me, Noel thought, turning around in a circle, checking his light well. Yes, that was intact. But her eyes were transfixed on him anyway, and she was still fierce with madness inside him, yet she stood so still, so silent.

Noel shuddered, and in that moment of panic, he took two long steps to the left.

Isabella’s dark eyes followed him, but otherwise, it was as though she was absent, gone deep within, to a place where no one else could feel her, just as the Mardraim had said. No one else could feel her… except for Noel.

He shuddered again, for good measure. He couldn’t understand. He couldn’t balance the things that he felt of her now, deep within himself, the fury and agony and pure hatred of him, with the way she simply stood there, motionless and devoid of any outward sign of life, save perhaps the fact that she had made a point of meeting him there at the door, like she knew he was coming. How long had she been standing there?

It was only then that the thought occurred to him, Isabella likely couldn’t see him at all, but could feel him through her possession of him, the way he felt her. She may even have brought him there herself, after all, he had been drawn to her before, felt her love of Harvey, felt her despair at the idea of his death in Moag.

Suddenly, he realized she was everywhere inside him. Anger rising in him, he shook his head, to get rid of the eerie sense of watching himself through her eyes, turned and ran down the road to Edward’s hut without stopping. Minutes later, he was trembling, stood over the water basin, scrubbing handfuls of water over his face trying to wash Isabella away, but her presence was pronounced within him, and now she did not just occupy his hand, but rather it was like she was affixed within him, all over him.

“What have I done?” he whispered, the remnant of the woman’s scream like a ringing in his ears that reverberated through every cell of him. “What the bloody hell is happening to me?”

He went and sat on his palette, letting the water drip off his hair and his nose onto the floor, pulling his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself, trying to wrap his head around everything that happened. But there was no understanding any of it.

“We must test the wards,” he hissed after several long minutes, knowing that was the only answer.

He ran his hands roughly through his hair and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes.

Noel lay down, but stared up at the ceiling of the hut for a long while before voicing out loud the truth, “I must test the wards.”

When he finally drifted off, perhaps an hour later, he dreamt he was Isabella Asan. The evening was cool, the village silent, and she had just opened her door to step out onto her porch for some fresh air, when she looked up and found herself, a faint indigo form, like a whisper, standing there in the garden, staring back at herself with a look of marked confusion and venom on her ethereal face. She did not believe what she saw could be real, instead attributing the apparition to her troubled mind, constantly plagued with prophecies she could not piece together and the unending presence of the wanderer. But she was just preparing to shut her self in again, put out the lantern, and get some necessary rest, when the faint whisper took two large steps to the right. She screamed, startling herself awake.

Noel was startled awake as well.

It was the wee hours of the morning, and Edward Frank had not yet returned from his hold.

____________________________________________

Tale of Two Mountains, Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5, Pt. 6, Pt. 7, Pt. 8, Pt. 9, Pt. 10, Pt. 11, Pt. 12, Pt. 13, Pt. 14, Pt. 15, Pt. 16, Pt. 17, Pt. 18, Pt. 19, Pt. 20, Pt. 21, Pt. 22, Pt. 23, Pt . 24, Pt. 25, Pt. 26, Pt. 27, Pt. 28, Pt. 29

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know I redid this chapter because I was extremely unsatisfied with the way it turned out.  In truth, I had been very sick, since December, and was struggling to produce anything, when I posted the original version of Chapter 28 in January, just wanting to get something out there. After months of doctors visits and recovery, I am feeling better now, and more importantly, I think this chapter is so much better after the rewrite.  So enjoy!

Burdens to Bear

“I had hoped to find her condition improved, unfortunately Young Isabella is still much too weak and disturbed,” Edward sighed as Noel tossed himself down on the overstuffed sofa late that evening and pressed his palms into his eyes, rubbing out the exhaustion. The villages of the Danguin had been dark and silent for several hours. Knowing it would be hours more yet before he would get any sleep, Noel pulled a piece of speckled fruit from his sleeve pocket, picked off the lint and popped it in his mouth.

The old man sat at his desk, his shoulders slumped. Their work was beginning to take its toll on the elder. Edward’s eyes, ordinarily bright and smiling, even in the most serious of situations, had the dull look that came from lack of rest and too many hours spent pondering things beyond his control. If the look on his face was any indication, Noel was not going to like what the man had to say about that morning’s meeting with Isabella Asan.

“Disturbed?” Noel jested gruffly, then swallowed, chuckling to himself. He could think of several ways the woman’s possession of him might have been a pleasurable experience, if she weren’t, in fact, quite disturbed. As it was, her irritation had only increased these past few nights, as Noel ventured further into the dark and winding tunnels, mapping out the edges of Moag when he was supposed to be mapping the path of his eventual escape. The endeavor drained him, physically and mentally, and left him with the terrifying feeling that part of him was slowly being siphoned away, though he hoped this was just paranoia. What Isabella felt… well, that was different.

Noel had known Edward’s meeting with the woman would not go well the moment the elder said he must check on her before they could begin testing the wards. That morning, as he continued his lessons with Harvey, he sensed just how poorly their meeting went. As was usually the case during the daylight hours, enervated buzzes coursed through his fingertips as Isabella’s mind raced from one extreme to the next, pausing now and then to let Noel know she was there and she truly blamed him for all of this, but this time, there was something different about her. It was almost as though he could sense her searching for something, digging into Noel as though he held all the answers. Harvey asked him twice what was wrong with his hand as they worked, but all he could offer in his defense was that he must have slept on it funny. He doubted the man believed him. Every day it was getting more difficult to ignore the will of his possessor. This was expected. Her madness was not.

Edward stuffed a wad of tobacco into his skinny pipe carved of bone, answering seriously, “She is not fully aware of what she is doing at all times, Young Noel. I believe it unwise, even cruel, to attempt what might further her injuries or worsen her hysteria. The wards must wait until she is better.” The golden glow of flame flickered momentarily lighting up his face, as clouds of lavender tinged smoke billowed around his head like a flowing mane.

Noel tightened his jaw, inhaled deep and let the breath out slowly through his nose, sitting up to face the old Mardraim properly. What they had to do involved a certain element of risk, of course, but they both knew there was no alternative to the wards, and the fact of the matter was Isabella Asan might never get better. Moag had addled her mind, and while thankfully it appeared not to have had the same effect on Harvey or Noel, the text on possession, locked up in the highest room of the Mardraim’s conservatory, made it clear that Noel was in significant danger, and would have been even if Isabella had not utterly lost her mind. The book made no mention of any cure for possession, but they knew the wards at least alleviated some of Noel’s sense of the woman’s presence. They had to try them eventually. Besides, surely it was a greater risk for him to continue testing the boundaries of Moag without taking any precautions to protect her while she was in such a warped and fragile state.

“I no wish her harm, Edward,” Noel said, leaving off the fact he did not relish the thought of any harm coming to himself, either, though he was certain the empath could sense as much, as the old man raised a skeptical brow in answer. “She feels Moag when I come here. I feel her and know. We know wards work. They help her.”

“We know wards, in some form, work for you,” Edward puffed at his pipe, grimacing as though aware this could not possibly be enough for the Wanderer. “We have no idea what happens to Young Isabella during those times you are warded. Her condition might worsen beyond our control.”

Noel shrugged uneasily. Her condition was already worsening, and they both knew it. The past three nights he had grown increasingly aware that Isabella was desperate to return to Moag, that she would give anything if Noel would just step into the depths, if only for a moment. He had managed to restrain her so far, but he feared what might happen as the bond between them strengthened, as was bound to happen. If Isabella figured out how to take control of Noel’s body, she might force him to do anything she wished, but losing physical control of himself was hardly the worst effect of possession. From what little Edward had shared from the book locked up high in the tower, Noel was aware there were a myriad of reasons this particular Fahmat was forbidden, but the most offensive these is the obsessor’s eventual loss of all faculty as the possessor becomes responsible for her victim’s most basic of functions. If the wards didn’t work, and they found no way to sever the connection between Noel and Isabella, Noel was destined to go mental too, never mind Moag.

“We test wards. We find out,” he implored.

“I am accountable to my people, Young Noel. We will test the wards when I believe Young Isabella is ready.” Edward let out a trying sigh and opened the journal in which he had been taking notes since Noel’s arrival. “Until then, be content to bear this burden.”

Bear this burden, Noel thought, grumbling under his breath. It was not as though he was the only one with a burden to bear in this. Isabella was suffering too, and the Mardraim knew it, but as Noel looked back at the old man, prepared to argue their case once more, he noted the deep shadow of concern that marred the elder’s face. Something more was troubling him. “What happened today, Master Frank?” Noel asked quietly.

This had become a nightly ritual for the two, meeting in the Mardraim’s secret hold, while the rest of the mountain slept, discussing progress, but making little.

The Mdrai had yet to discover anything new regarding the Last Hope prophecy, but it was early days yet, and Edward warned Noel from the beginning this would be a considerable undertaking. The Hall of Records housed millions of books of prophecy, spanning thousands of years. To make matters worse, the books were not organized and cataloged for ease of use, when searching for a specific event, which was why the Mdrai had not managed to find Noel’s book when Harvey Frank first felt him during his flight to the mountain. Though most of the books had at least one name on the spine, many of them contained multiple lifetimes of the same being, allegedly reincarnated over generations, and it was often impossible to tell which version of a person’s self would experience what prophecy when.

As though rebirth wasn’t enough to confuse matters completely, the books were written primarily to improve the study of the Veils, or signs as given by Om to the seers, or Zhe, who saw them. To that end, the books were arranged by prophetic relation to one another, which made sense if one understood that the prophecies were recorded by the Danguin people, not so that they could control or even bear witness to outcomes, but alone in reference and reverence to their water god Om. In a long-forgotten past, the Danguin traded on this wisdom, but they had not done so in thousands of years, certainly not since they began keeping written records of the knowledge Om shared, as their abilities began to wane, around the time of the Fall. For their purposes, they had no need of understanding the vagaries of people’s lives, so the prophecies as written gave no indication of dates or times, places, or even the races of their subjects, unless it happened that information was clearly discernible, from among the Veils. The factual basis of the prophecies as they unfolded out in the real world was relatively moot, which meant all the Mdrai could do was pull random books from any given shelf and pray they would quickly come across something that ruled each subject in or out, with regards to their search. Under the circumstances, it could take them many months to uncover the Prophecy of the Last Hope among their records… if it existed in the first place… if it was not among the lengthening list of things Noel changed in coming to the mountain. And there had been significant changes.

To help them understand just how much of the future Noel had altered, he had given Edward the names of twelve Nobles, which proved mostly useless, except in confirming the fact that he had done more harm than good in coming there. The Mardraim would not share with him any specifics of what was found in the twelve books, but of course, the Danguin were guarded when discussing the knowledge of Om, even with each other, so giving Noel details was simply out of the question. He supposed it was enough to know that, although there had been several changes among his friends’ prophecies, he had not managed to completely erase their futures in coming there, as had been the case with Edward’s, Harvey’s, Isabella’s, and his own. Unfortunately, there was no mention of stones or of long awaited heroines among their texts, though Edward assured him this meant very little, as many prophecies were relatively mundane in nature, and often it was only when an event passed that the augurs recognized a prophecy’s true significance. It would take time, but once the Mardraim had finished with Noel’s and his own books, the old man intended to reconsider all of the unwritten prophecies in the books of Noel’s friends, in an attempt to decipher their potential meanings in relation to the Veils and the countless other prophecies the Mdrai were discovering had been unwritten as they searched the Hall of Records. Only then would they discuss whether Noel should give him more names, though Noel was concerned about giving away too much to begin with, and disconcerting as it was, Edward did not seem at all confident the answers they sought would be found, even if they somehow managed to read every book the abundant collection had to offer.

In his first week’s work with Harvey, Noel’s use of the old Elfish language had improved somewhat, however he had learned nothing about whatever it was the man might be hiding, and in truth, he was beginning to think Edward was simply paranoid. Harvey did not speak of Moag, but if their experiences in the darkness were anything alike, Noel could hardly blame him for being tight-lipped on the matter, and in truth, Noel was not certain how to even broach the subject, so he didn’t (but of course, he secretly hoped the topic would never come up, so the fact it didn’t was rather convenient). The younger Frank did not ask the many questions that Noel expected, considering everything that had happened. He did not ask about Noel’s meeting with the Mdrai, he did not ask about the prophecy in the Book of Ages, and he had not shown the remotest curiosity in what it was the Mdrai were searching for in the Hall of Records, but then Harvey was an empath, and a terribly powerful one according to Edward. Perhaps he already knew everything there was to know or thought Noel couldn’t possibly offer him any useful information, which was likely true, as Noel was relatively clueless, all things considered. However, it seemed more likely that, motivated by the strict laws of his people, Harvey understood it was not his place, even as aspirant, to infringe upon the work of his Masters by demanding answers, even of the Wanderer. As far as Noel was concerned, withholding the truth from one’s grandfather was hardly a criminal offense, and though he had found Harvey could be far too serious at times, Noel was beginning to grow fond of the fellow.

For his part, Harvey had begun teaching Noel the ways of Om and the deeply religious precepts recorded in the Mdonyatra, as well as learning English from Noel, as the Felimi instructed. Through this study Noel was learning more of the language of the Danguin, though not nearly enough to understand conversations between locals, and he had yet to learn anything of their system of writing, which meant he was no closer to discovering which books in the Mardraim’s retreat might contain forgotten Elfin magic, not that he had much spare time to search. Luckily, the books weren’t going anywhere, and neither was Noel— not without answers, which seemed only to prove more elusive as the days passed.

Now Noel listened patiently as Edward told of his visit with Isabella Asan.

When he first arrived at her hut that morning, the elder found the woman staring out the window in a catatonic state, unaware anyone was watching her as she stood lost in whatever cracked world it was Moag left tucked away inside her wounded mind. His second knock on her door brought her around, and for a time she was up and alert, pretending as though everything were normal, or as normal as things might be, under the circumstances.

“There were moments when her demeanor was… frightening,” Edward said, leaving the word to hang on the air for a moment as he began scribbling notes on the day, writing down at least twice as much as he shared. “She lapsed in and out of presence, as though deep within her there is a place she retreats to that no one else can possibly reach, even through empathy.” Here he looked up at Noel, as though he might ask a question, but he must have thought better of it, as instead he shook his head and continued, “At times, in the middle of speaking she simply stopped—her words, her movement, her very breath becoming nearly imperceptible—and she remained trapped in this stillness for anywhere from a few moments to, at longest count, nearly an hour before resuming where she left off, as though no time had passed.”

A grim smile set on Edward’s face, as he hesitated. “She had several wounds, on her face and her neck, that were not there when I last saw her,” the elder said, his voice pained. “Her mother informs me these are self-inflicted, though I could have deduced as much from her behavior during the hours I spent at her side.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably, fixing Noel with a sympathetic gaze. “She clawed at the flesh on her hand, tearing the skin away until she bled. Though this should have been painful to her, if she felt anything at all, she gave no indication. In fact, she seemed completely unaware she was harming herself, except occasionally when she noticed the blood and would wipe it away on the front of her gown, before carrying on as though this action was separate from her, as though the blood had never been there.”

Noel suppressed the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach and came to sit on the arm of the sofa to face the old man properly. Matters were worse than he’d believed. “Which hand?” he asked, squeezing his fingers together into a fist, already certain of the answer.

Edward nodded gravely. “The hand that decayed prior to her death, while you were still deep within Moag.”

Noel swore under his breath, knowing the old man was thinking exactly what he was thinking, as he got up to pace the floor.

In previous days, he shared with Edward everything he remembered about his own experience within Moag, and from the little the woman told them when she first woke from her coma, they knew there were several parallels between Noel’s and Isabella’s encounters with Moag. Both experienced the darkness speaking directly to them, almost in mocking, though Edward was reluctant to say it seemed Moag had a personality. Both experienced visions that seemed to foretell of their deaths—Noel experiencing sand, while Isabella experienced water. In these visions, each brought about the other’s death—Noel by squeezing the life out of the woman, to keep her from struggling, so he could save her from the quicksand, and Isabella by holding Noel under the flood, in order to stop him from calling up the waters from the Wellspring of Om. Both had every intention of saving the other, but at the end of Noel’s vision Isabella became a decaying corpse, her rotting body spilling sand out of every orifice. The sight had been so startling, he shuddered to think of it, even now, because the vision had felt so real at the time.

Now he recalled his sense of dread as he grabbed Isabella’s arm, trying to save her from the shifting sands, her terrified words, “Sim ofit osh,” you are killing us, ringing in his ears. When he finally escaped Moag, he found the woman already dead, her body—that very arm—already black with rot. Even now, he remembered feeling her urgency in his own hand as he hurried to breathe the life back into her. And ever since, he felt her presence stirring there in his fingers, like some addict hallucinating a fragment of her soul crawling beneath his skin. Now she had begun tearing at her own flesh, at that very arm that had been taken by the decay, as if to try and rid herself of their connection. He could hardly blame her, he thought, clenching his fist, knowing she was there with him, knowing she was always there, however quiet she might be.

How long would they allow her to harm herself before the Mardraim would agree to act? “The wards, Edward…” Noel whispered gravely, landing with a huff on the arm of the sofa once more.

“I need more time to understand,” Edward answered plainly. “I must continue to record the prophecies Young Isabella witnessed through Moag. We must make record of all of this, if we ever hope to grasp the things that have happened and set them right.” The old man’s eyes were wild with fear and regret.

“Understand? Edward, records no save her from me,” Noel held his hand out in pleading. As far as he was concerned, they had quite enough prophecy to be getting on with, just dealing with Om. That they might be forced to contend with a separate future ordained by Moag was too much. “I hurt her. I cause this, Edward. I change her. The wards–”

“Moag changed her, Young Noel. You bear no responsibility for that. However, we must attempt to discover what will come next, as you are responsible for this shift in Om’s way.” The elder drew himself up, leaning forward with his elbows on the desk, his sympathetic smile marred by the painful truth in his eyes. He commiserated with their plight, but Isabella’s possession of Noel was the least of his concerns. “If we are to restore our prophecies, we must understand Moag.” It was clear now that Edward believed the prophecies Isabella brought with her from the depths of Moag were the best clues they had as to how they might rewrite the destinies Noel destroyed in coming there, and somehow that should make the nightmarish insanity of their ordeal more bearable—and Noel should bear it contentedly, even knowing the woman might one day walk them both straight into the depths of Moag, ending them both, or that even if she didn’t manage that, Noel could one day expect to find himself a dribbling lunatic, incapable of tending to his own basic needs.

“Edward…” Noel sighed, finding it hard to believe the Mardraim would risk both Isabella’s and Noel’s sanity to right the path of Om.

“I believe there is a great deal more she has yet to tell us. She is simply overwhelmed. I can feel her mind struggling to release itself.”

“You can feel?” Noel barked, losing his patience at last, tears unexpectedly wetting his eyes. Embarrassed and angry, he got to his feet and turned his back to the old man.

“I will tend to her daily from now on,” Edward said quietly. “Hopefully, she will improve soon, at which point we may test the wards, however you must accept it could take years to learn everything she has yet to tell us of Moag.”

“Years?” Noel balked, looking around them in exasperation, imagining himself still there waiting years from now, the arm of the sofa worn from countless nights spent guessing at the meaning of things they would never comprehend, himself an old man smoking from a pipe he had whittled in his restless hours, wondering if Edward was ever going to teach him anything useful, wondering if the Mdrai would ever find the right book among their records, wondering if he would ever escape the hold Moag still seemed to have on him and his possessor, all the while caught in this disastrous flirtation with a mad woman who was, literally, tearing herself apart, knowing it would only be a matter of time before Noel went the same way. And she was a mad woman. If the ramblings of Isabella Asan were in fact prophecies designed by Moag and not delusions, there was little chance of grasping their meaning while she was so lost that she mutilated herself.

Because of me, Noel thought, unable to stop that guilty thought. Because I lived.

“We will find the truth, Young Noel,” Edward answered gently, laying his pipe aside. “We will find your Hope in time, and you will leave here. Have faith.”

Faith.

Noel turned his attention to the roomful of trinkets and oddities, looking for a distraction among the shelves, half-listening as the Mardraim began listing the Moag-born prophecies Isabella shared that day, none of them intelligible, most not even full sentences, all the while wondering if it would not be better for him to find the route to the exit and return with Berfalk and Foote and the rest.

“…born a shelter…”

His lack of faith in the Prophecy of the Last Hope is what had brought him there in the first place and may have been responsible for the undoing of everything, including the undoing of poor Isabella Asan. He could be no more help in the search for the Last Hope prophecy, and while he enjoyed learning during his time with Harvey, he hardly felt like what he was doing was useful. Even his search for the exit felt more like a task the old man had set him to in order to keep him preoccupied and out of the way, after all, couldn’t Edward have just drawn him up a map of the place? That he was just supposed to continue traipsing off into oblivion each night, when he had no idea what it did to Isabella, and somehow have faith everything would simply work out in the end was a bit hard to swallow.

“…she swallowed it whole…”

The Danguin had all of these books of prophecy, pages and pages of Veils shown to them by Om. The Seers saw the veils, but the Augurs, they understood them. They knew the language Om spoke. They had studied their water god for countless years. Of course Edward Frank was not going to understand Moag overnight.

“… pages turned to ash…”

Could faith really be the answer? Could faith that they would soon understand the revelations of Moag, as seen through the mind’s eye of a broken woman, save them from what Noel had done? He sincerely doubted it. The things Isabella said she saw in Moag were little more than white rabbits Edward was wasting time chasing. They needed a translator. They needed someone who understood Moag’s Veils, because Isabella certainly didn’t understand them, otherwise she wouldn’t feel such an intense desire to return to the deep, would she? What did she see in the darkness that would make her want to go back? What was she searching for?

“We never restore Om’s way, Edward,” Noel whispered. “I change everything. Harvey said.”

“Mm, perhaps. Young Isabella has twice mentioned a prophecy concerning the nameless child and myself,” Edward answered, ignoring Noel’s defeatism.

Was she searching for a prophecy, Noel wondered.

“She said, ‘I heard the infant crying for a soul when you put him back in Moag.’ Are you certain you saw and heard nothing of an infant while you were within Moag?”

Noel flexed his fingers. It felt… almost as though… it was something she had… forgotten? Could Noel help her remember?

“Young Noel?”

“Yes, Master Frank?” Noel answered, unable to keep his irritation from his voice.

“You saw no child while you were within Moag? You heard no crying?”

“I tell you everything I know of Moag,” Noel said, tiring of Isabella’s prophecies, tiring of Moag, picking up an ancient dwarfish battle-ax from a shelf and giving it a hearty swing. It rang out with a powerful burst of energy that reverberated through the air, knocking over several items on the shelves in front of Noel and causing him to stumble backwards. Wide-eyed, he put the ax back on its stand. Isabella pulsed in his hand, as though she had felt everything and now her heartbeat skipped out of time with his.

“She told me the child had to die in order for the prophecy to be complete,” Edward offered. “I wonder if all prophecy of Moag concerns death?”

“Bugger me, if that’s not a pleasant thought,” Noel glowered in English, figuring Edward was not actually listening to him anyway. “It’s enough the woman brought back prophecies from Hell, now we have to worry they all portend of death.” He shook his hand violently, trying to get rid of the throbbing pain she left there. “Please, dear God, let her have another for me, and let it come sooner rather than later and not end in salvation,” he added, picking up an electric toothbrush, noting the uneven wear of the bristles, wondering who it had belonged to and why on earth the Mdrai collected it as he used it to scrub his offending hand.

“Language, Young Noel.” Noel looked back to see the old man take up his pipe and give it another spark, leaning back in his chair to consider as he smoked. “I put him back in Moag… I put him back… What is the infant’s role in this? The nameless child must be important somehow.”

“Why nameless, Master Frank?” Noel asked tossing the toothbrush back on its shelf, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why no give him name?”

Edward gave an disturbed grumble, his face constricting sharply against the idea. “To be named by Om is a privilege of the Children of Danguin,” he answered, waggling his pipe as though it were an accusatory finger, as if the very thought of naming someone himself was an affront to his morality. “Om tells of every Danguin birth and death, generations in advance. The child should not have been possible. The child was always without a path.”

Noel had wondered why so many of the Danguin had common, modern names. Naming by Om, by prophecy, explained a lot. It did not explain why someone did not simply offer the nameless child a name of his own. What would they have done with him if the child had lived?

“Other books of prophecy have names,” Noel frowned. His own book bore his name, though it was written in the language of the Danguin, so Noel could not read it. “Om names others, like Danguin?”

“Not like Danguin,” answered the old man. “Om may include the name of anyone within the Veils, but for each of my people the naming comes directly from Om as prophecy itself. Each birth is prophetic. Each lifetime is known and numbered. Om orders their existence. This child… He was…”

Whatever he was or was not, the old Mardraim did not say, but rather turned back to his book and his pipe, looking somber as he contemplated.

He was no one, Noel thought, shivering at the thought of what that child’s life might have been like in a place where he was the only one who was different, the only one whom their water god had ignored from the beginning. Would his mother and father have cared for him? Would he have been cast out from the mountain to be raised by wild yaks? Or might his fate, guided by nothing more than chance and a people who believed firmly in the destinies divulged by Om, have been even worse?

As though she had been listening in and Noel’s thoughts had struck a nerve, Isabella grew anxious inside him.

“The Felimi…” Noel said uncomfortably, knowing the thought was not really his own, and worse still, knowing what he had to say would not be an easy thing for the elder to hear, that the very idea went against everything the Danguin believed, against their Mdonyatra and their Ftdonya and all of the lessons the Felimi had ever thought to teach their children up at their cloister. Noel had spent his life in the real world, where people who believed firmly in the idea of good and right, tended to do an awful lot of evil and wrong for whatever they might convince themselves were good or right reasons. And since Noel’s arrival, even the Felimi seemed to be having difficulty maintaining their tenets. None of these thoughts belonged to Noel though—not one, yet he thought them all the same. “The Felimi took him… The Felimi—”

“No,” Edward gave a bitter frown, shifting in his chair but not looking up.

“They hide truth of Moag,” Noel whispered, feeling the ilk rise in his throat at the idea he was not entirely in control of himself.

The old man shook his head, tapping the ash from his pipe into a rubbish bin. “The child died when you came from Moag, Noel Loveridge. I am sorry.”

“No. I not only one who came from Moag,” Noel said, then shook out his hand, trying to ignore Isabella’s persistence, but unable to stop himself from saying, “You want save Isabella, but Felimi stop you. You left room. Little Mother said, ‘Edward suspects.’”

The old man caught him in his sight, his tired eyes shifting rapidly, as Noel panted “Young Isabella?” Edward asked.

Noel nodded, clenching his fist as the old man studied him for quite some time. It was possession. They knew this was coming.

“Do you know what she means?”

Noel shook his head, fighting back the urge to vomit.

Never mind what Isabella Asan meant. The idea that the Felimi had something to do with the nameless child’s death was not so far-fetched as the Mardraim wished to believe. After all, Edward had propositioned Noel for help in trying to discover what the Felimi were hiding about Moag. Noel had come through the darkness and changed things, yes, but if the Danguin were named by Om generations in advance, then nothing Noel could have done in his mere thirty-four years on this earth could possibly have reached back through the history of these people to erase a naming by Om, could it? And someone had made it a point to remove the records of those Danguin who had fallen to Moag before, hadn’t they? Maybe the child hadn’t died because he came through Moag after all. Maybe the Felimi had something to do with it.

But then he recalled his time in the Dreaming. Or perhaps Isabella recalled it.

Harvey had warned that Noel would change everything. Perhaps it was possible he had changed even the past through his communion with the Wangarr spirit? Perhaps his own prophecies and those of Isabella, Harvey, and Edward had been destined to be unwritten all along? Perhaps Om and Moag had always known Noel would enter the darkness and end up destroying the infant’s life, and that was why Om found no need to give the boy a name? Noel had touched creation, after all. He had no way of knowing what may or may not be possible, where the Dreaming was concerned. If he ever got out of there—at least if he got out of there with his sanity intact—he would find Taree and ask him. Right now he had to get himself under control.

Edward Frank shifted in his seat, leaning forward expectantly. The elder eyed him for a long minute before asking in a delicate whisper, “Do you have something more you need to tell me, Noel Loveridge?”

Had the old man felt the Noel kept?

Isabella had.

“No,” Noel answered, shaking his head. “No.”

Though Edward should have pressed the issue, and if he had Noel might have before forced to tell him everything, the elder nodded and said, “The Felimi hid Moag’s existence from our people for a reason. You are right. We must still find out why.”

“How?” They had missed their opportunity to get fast answers from the blind Mothers at Fkat.

“I wish I knew, my friend,” Edward replied, shaking his head. “I can write of my time with Isabella later. It is early yet. Shall we study more of your broken prophecies, to see what we can make of them? Perhaps answers will come to us.”

Noel couldn’t help feeling the old man only wanted to see what more Isabella might reveal. “Not tonight. I go now, Master Frank,” Noel sighed, turning for the door, not knowing exactly what to do, except to wander the path around Moag, even though he was certain this harmed Isabella.

“Perhaps if we were to examine your Book of Ages more thoroughly,” Edward said as Noel reached the door, “there may be more clues about your Hope to be found in this writing.” He was trying to get Noel to stay, to keep an eye him.

“You have Om and Moag and the Mdrai and Young Isabella,” Noel answered. “You no need old book written by elves who know nothing but wishes. I go now.”

“Young Noel, you carry much guilt with you. If this is all happening, not because of you, but rather through you, because of Moag, Moag is where we must look for answers. If the prophecy in your book is not of Om, but instead of Moag—”

“You think Prophecy of Last Hope from Moag?” Noel interrupted, shocked by the idea, mostly because he had not considered it himself.

“No,” Edward answered quickly, “but the Felimi do not know I do not think this. Perhaps I can get them to speak with you again, if you will take your book—”

“You want give Felimi Book of Ages?” Noel groused.

“No. No,” the elder assured, but Noel was already responding.

“Book of Ages is story of my people.”

“Of course—”

“Felimi want know how I came here, want no one else come.”

“Yes, however—”

“They threat my life. They threat my people. They threat Isabella. No book, Master Frank,” Noel insisted, his jaw pulsing several times as he watched the old man’s eyes shifting back and forth, searching him. They had threatened Isabella. How did he know this?

The middle mother said she saw her—she had seen Isabella’s soul when it left her body, he thought, memories that did not belong to him unfolding in answer. The young one had asked how Isabella did it. And the old woman had said, “We will leave you now to Moag. May you find peace quickly, knowing no one will ever know what you’ve done.” Noel could even hear her voice in his head, very far away, yet clear as though he had been in the room himself.

“No book,” Edward answered with a nod. Then he let out a perilous sigh. “Has young Harvey told you anything at all about what happened to him while he was in Moag?”

“He no speak of Moag, Edward. I no speak of Moag. May be nothing happen to him.” Noel swallowed, knowing how unlikely this was, even as he said it. He could feel Isabella’s concern for Harvey swelling in his belly.

“Still, he guards himself. Something happened. You must give him a reason to tell you the truth, but take care, Noel Loveridge. Remember the promises you have made.” Here the old man paused, looking grave as Noel rested his hand on the door frame, the thin barrier between this shelter of nowhere created of ancient wizarding magic and the cold hardness of the mountain tunnels, where Moag waited for him to wander—waited for Isabella… waited for everyone and everything to come in its time. “We will speak of the Felimi again soon,” Edward added. “For now, you go find the pathway out of this mountain. I do not need you to sit with me while I work on our broken prophecies.”

Noel pressed his lips firmly into a grimace, then nodded, stepping out into the darkness— Edward, the light, the warmth of the fire, the smell of tobacco and books, all disappearing into the crack in the wall of stone.

____________________________________________

Tale of Two Mountains, Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5, Pt. 6, Pt. 7, Pt. 8, Pt. 9, Pt. 10, Pt. 11, Pt. 12, Pt. 13, Pt. 14, Pt. 15, Pt. 16, Pt. 17, Pt. 18, Pt. 19, Pt. 20, Pt. 21, Pt. 22, Pt. 23, Pt . 24, Pt. 25, Pt. 26, Pt. 27, Pt. 28