...THE SANDSTONE MANSION...
~ KIERA ~
I don't know how long I have been asleep, but the starry sky visible through the window told me that it's been a while. I was amazed at their brightness and quantity. Ready to lose myself in their beauty for hours… but I was in an unfamiliar room, in a stranger's bed, and in so much pain that it was hard to even breathe.
Smooth, cream-colored sandstone walls were glowing in the light of a fire I couldn't see. It was crackling somewhere in the room. My ears were ringing, getting louder and louder the more I concentrated on it. So, I didn't. I let it become white noise as I stared at a tall, vaulted ceiling, illuminated by strange floating orbs of light.
They disappeared as soon as I noticed them.
When the noise subsided, I turned my head back towards the window. It wasn't a window, but a large glass sliding door with thick wooden frames. White curtains were only halfway drawn, and the sliding door had been opened to allow fresh air to enter the room.
The bed was quite large. I was resting on the right side of the mattress. The duvet felt heavy. I wasn't used to sleeping under such a thick blanket. Much less a soft bed that threatened to swallow me whole.
Those orange orbs appeared again. They danced around the room and attached themselves to a picture frame on top of a light brown bedside table. I looked at the golden frame and noticed that it reflected their orange light, telling me that I wasn't hallucinating.
They faded away and disappeared again.
The child in the picture had short black hair and vibrant orange eyes. He was sitting on a woman's lap, and though I could not see her face, I could see her thick, milky brown hair. Clinging onto her dearly, the child smiled sweetly at the person who had snapped the photo. The boy didn't look a day over five.
"Adorable, was he not?" a person asked and chuckled softly.
I shot out of bed.
I was already halfway out the sliding door before my legs gave out. I was in too much pain to move and too exhausted to run. So, I slumped down onto my hands and knees and fought the urge to vomit.
I forced myself to relax. Panicking wasn't going to save me. It was only going to get me killed. I didn't know where I was or who I was with. I had to find a place to hide or at least somewhere I would be safe.
My eyes bounced around, taking note of my location. I was on a balcony. The night sky was bright enough to light my surroundings. When I looked up, my entire body tensed up, and my breath caught in my throat. Two moons hung in the sky. The first moon was large, greyish, and crescent.
The second moon was small and white, about the size of the moon back home. The similarities ended there because a thick line dragged across its full face, a crater of some sort, and transformed the object into an eye. Yellow and orange light bent around it, resembling an aurora of beams swimming in the night sky, which had not dimmed the countless blue-, white-, and orange-coloured stars.
My hand snapped to my mouth. I began to cough and choked on the air. It felt like I was dying. My entire body felt like it was a glass sculpture being smashed against a wall.
"You lost a lot of blood," the stranger said behind me.
They placed something over my shoulders and sat down next to me. It was a soft black jacket. I was barely dressed, so I accepted it without much thought and slipped my arms into the sleeves. It was still warm. They must have been wearing it.
I turned my head. I recognized him, although vaguely, as he had been the boy in the white room with Cain...
He didn't sit too close. He had his legs straightened and crossed at his ankles. His hands clasped together in his lap while he was leaning back against the wall next to the sliding door. He could have reached for me if he wanted to, but he chose not to. Instead, he sat calmly and allowed me to take in his every detail.
He had milky brown hair and a wavy fringe that brushed over his thick pair of eyebrows. A thin scar was visible on his right brow. He had milky brown eyes, which matched his hair and long lashes. A straight nose and smooth bottom-heavy lips. His skin was bright, and his face was smooth and showed no hint of a beard.
I stared at him for a long time. But he was looking at me just as blatantly as I was looking at him, and the silence was getting awkward.
"How long was I asleep?" I croaked out, surprised at the sound of my voice. It was dry and scratchy.
"Three hours," he said, glancing at my neck. "Your wound was very deep, so even after it has been mended back together with a healing spell, a scar was left behind."
He spoke with an accent that was hard to place. It rolled off his tongue easily. He softly articulated the vowels, and the diphthongs weren't overly emphasized but spoken clearly. Hard r's and t's but at the same time spoken without emphasis. It was strange, but easy to make out what he was saying.
"Who are you?"
"I apologize for the informal introduction. I am Reed Drae Rhys Carter. Please, call me Reed. I am relieved to see you have recovered enough to be able to move freely. In all honesty, I thought you would be unconscious for at least two more days. Your wound was very taxing to heal, so I believe you are experiencing the side effects of being overexposed to mana."
"I'm Kiera."
He chuckled and uncrossed his legs. My name seemed to have amused him.
Feeling a little calmer, I tried to move my legs too, but the most I could do was get my weight off my legs and sit on my bum. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't get up, so I was stuck on the floor next to a strange boy.
'Well, at least this one isn't licking me like that perverted boy I met in the woods... What was his name again? Raven?'
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kiera. Let us retire indoors. It is quite cold out here, and the last thing you need right now is to fall ill. Do not worry. You are safe here," Reed said.
"I'd love to get up, Reed, but I can't right now. My legs won't move. Where are we anyway? Where is Cain?"
"Then, I will stay with you until you gather your strength. As I said, you are experiencing some side effects…" He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "I am certain that Cain had something important to do. It is quite common for him to disappear after visiting Headmaster Wilka. He will return soon. He did not wish for you to stay in the infirmary, so he had me move you to his bedroom. At present, the other guest rooms are occupied. As for where we are…"
"Do you always sound like a stiff old man when you talk?"
'Crap. Why the heck did I have to go and say that?'
"I apologize. My English is not the best. We mostly speak Drengr'vere here, but I have assumed that you cannot speak it." He paused and looked up at the sky. He stared at the stars and softly smiled. I joined him. "We call this place Ri'elle. It means 86. And currently, we are on Lilah Island."
'Right. Lilah. I've spent a long time trying to figure out who she was, but she's been an island all this time.'
"Where the fuck is that orange idiot?" a girl asked and burst through the bedroom door. Her voice was loud enough to wake the stars, and the floor shook with her every step.
"Funny. I thought his stalker would know exactly where he is," Reed said and got up.
"Why are you out here in the…" She stopped talking when she noticed me. Her accent was identical to the boy's.
She was as tall as Reed and had a curvy figure with large breasts. She was wide at her hips, and her thighs gently curved out before her legs thinned again below her knees. Her long, ash blonde hair hung over her right shoulder. There was not a curl or a single wave in her hair. It was thick, straight, and silky.
She was dressed in tight black jeans and a black T-shirt with three thick green stripes on her left sleeve. Reed was wearing the same, only his shirt had four orange stripes on his left sleeve.
"Hi…" I said awkwardly. Her piercing blue eyes glared at the black jacket I was wearing.
"Is that…" - she looked at Reed - "We already know how he's going to react around this girl, and now you've gone and dressed her in his clothes. Should I kill you now or let Rivian do it later?"
"Would you rather have her inappropriately dressed? The garments she is wearing barely cover her skin, and it is still covered in her blood. I will feel much better if we get her a change of clothes before showing her downstairs. Besides, Rivian no longer wears that jacket, as you have besmirched it with your lip-gloss."
"Then let her wear some of Cain's clothes. He won't care if it gets dirtied."
'Is she insulting me?'
Reed sighed and glanced at me. He gestured to the girl with his hand. "Kiera, this is –"
"I can introduce myself, thank you!" Arena snapped at him and slapped his hand away. She turned towards me with a bitter expression on her face. "I'm Arena."
"Just your name?" Reed asked and frowned.
"Of what use is my full name and title to a commoner?" she asked and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"Forgive my rudeness, Your Highness, I am Kiera White. It is a pleasure to be in your presence," I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes.
For a moment, she was too shocked to say anything and stood there with her lips parted.
"White?" she repeated softly and blinked a few times. Reed looked at me with his eyebrows raised, but other than that, his expression didn't change. "Oh. My. Fucking. God! No wonder Rivian left. Of course, she is Kade's daughter. I should have known. Cain always steps in shit and brings it home."
"Is that why you are here?" I asked, and smiled sweetly.
"How dare you!" Fire exploded out of her palms.
'She can dish out insults but not handle them herself. Seriously?'
"Arena." Reed stepped in between us.
"You're protecting her? When your brother –"
"I think it is best that you leave."
"Right," she said. Her flames retracted back into her body, and she turned to leave. "She's lucky Rivian isn't here right now. Or she'd be dead."
"Ignore her, Kiera. Her threats are empty. Can you stand now?" he asked and offered me his hand.
I slowly moved my legs and stood up on wobbly legs. I didn't take his hand, choosing to get up myself. The pain travelled like a slow-motion electric bolt throughout my body. It moved from my spine, along my nerves, and I imagined new pathways being carved into my flesh.
"What... did you do to me?"
"I apologize, Kiera. It is safer and more effective to use a person's own mana when healing them. But you had nothing, and there was no time to wait for you to accumulate any. So, I had to use mine. That is why you are in pain. Your crystals are not used to containing foreign mana, so they are rejecting it and causing you pain. It will fade with time as you gather your own."
Mana? Well, I suppose magic wasn't any stranger than the Reds. It was easy to convince myself that it was real. My recurring nightmares, on the other hand, weren't as easy to accept, even when thousands of needle-thin scars covered my body where that thing in the lake had sliced into me.
Reed escorted me back inside the bedroom. I sat down on the bed and watched Reed turn to a wardrobe next to the bedroom door and open a few drawers.
I glanced around the room, now that I could see more of it. There was no fireplace, as I had initially thought. Instead, in the corner of the room, carved from sandstone, sat a wolf statue. It appeared tall and proud and was about the height of the door. It was incredibly detailed, and its eyes were trained on me.
At its feet was a small black metallic brazier, and a fire burned within its basin. Small orbs of orange light kept floating around the fire. I didn't notice at first, but nothing was fuelling the flames. No kindling. No wood. No oil. Nothing. And yet, it still flicked and cracked like a real flame every time the orbs passed through it.
Reed turned back to face me. He noticed I was looking at the fire and the little things dancing around it. He came closer and placed the items of clothing on the bed.
"Fire spirits. Ferni. Their light protects us from Daemun. They are a bit mischievous, but they will not harm you. They are low-ranking spirits. The statues placed around the house are called valours. They are earth spirits." – He pointed at the wolf – "They maintain the building and provide extra protection against the Daemun."
"What are Daemun? Are they those things with the masks?"
"Not all of them wear masks, but yes, they are Daemun. Fear not. The valours are too much of a risk for them to approach carelessly. As I have stated earlier. You are safe here. Please get changed. I will wait in the hall."
He said something to the statue I couldn't hear. The thing got up and followed him out of the room. The ferni stayed behind and continued to play around the fire.
I removed the jacket and placed it on the bed next to me. On its left sleeve were four green stripes, and the academy's crest was embroidered in white on the left side of the chest.
I couldn't read the lettering at the bottom of the crest, but I assumed it was the academy's name. The crest was a tower shield with a diagonal split on its face. On the top left of the shield was a raven with its wings spread apart, and on the bottom right was the head of a fearsome wolf showing off its fangs.
I moved my hand over to my injury and felt the bump of a scar beneath my fingers. I traced it from my collarbone to my nape and all the way over to the back of my shoulder.
'How in the heck did I run with a wound this large? That Red ripped a chunk of flesh right out of my neck, and I just got up and ran like I was told to?'
I pulled off my frilly light pink pyjamas. They were covered in blood.
I turned to the pile of clothes and got dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of oversized black shorts that hung just below my knees. I looked ridiculous, but it's not like I had anything better to wear. I put the jacket back on and slowly moved over to the door.
"Finished?" Reed asked when I stepped outside. He stood at the end of the broad hallway, to my right, where he had led the valour to another brazier burning underneath a giant window. He glanced down at the clothes, and his lips awkwardly twitched as if he was trying his best not to laugh.
"Goodness, I will have someone buy you clothes immediately. For now, this will have to suffice. Follow me. I will show you downstairs," he said and approached me.
I glanced to my left and saw the hallway stretch even further down to an identical window with a wolf and a brazier stationed at the end.
Reed was considerate enough to keep pace with me. We walked a short distance to a set of tall white doors on the left. The roof overhead was a four-faced glass pyramid, and to the right of the doors, the smooth sandstone bricks transitioned into a half wall, functioning as a railing of a balcony, overlooking a room below.
In the middle of the room was a small tree with its canopy barely reaching the height of the second floor. It was a small atrium adorned with plants of all sizes in pots. The glass roof, along with large paned windows, let in a lot of natural light to support their growth. However, it was already dark outside, and the stars peered inside the building along with silver moonlight.
"Will you be all right coming down? This is the third floor. There are a lot more stairs."
Reed opened the door for me. Now that we were at the doors, the hallway to the left and right was an equal length, and the balcony overlooking the room below was in the middle.
"I'll be fine," I lied. I just didn't want him to carry me. He was kind enough to show me around, but I didn't know where he was taking me or why we were leaving the bedroom.
"Alright. I will explain as we go down. The third floor has four identical bedrooms. Two in the east wing and two in the west. Between each room is a bathroom that connects to both rooms. You will be sharing a bathroom with my brother, so be mindful when using it," he said as we walked down.
"Your brother?"
'That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Is there no other room available in a house with supposedly three floors?'
"Fret not, Kiera. He prefers sleeping elsewhere. You will hardly run into him. My room is in the west wing, the first door on the left after having ascended the stairs. Feel free to knock if you ever require attention," he said and turned a corner. We descended a second flight of stairs and made our way over to a second set of tall white doors.
"And your room connects to another?"
"Correct. Oh, and there is a fourth floor, though it is more of a greenhouse than anything else. The stairs to go up there are connected to the western balcony. Now, here is the library. Rivian practically lives in this space. If he is not out hiding in the forest, then he is in here," he said and opened the doors.
The tree was in a large square pot in the centre of the room. Against the left side of the pot was a long brown couch and a glass coffee table with a few books, journals, and piles of paper scattered over its surface.
To the left and right, there was an identical hallway as seen on the floor above, with two doors in either hallway.
'More bedrooms?' I wondered.
Two large bookshelves were placed on either side of the tree. There was more space in the room to walk around freely and not a lot of furniture, aside from potted plants and flowers lining the walls.
"I know, it appears empty, but there is a reason for that. This may be what we call the library, but Rivian uses the space to test his magical theories and often sets things on fire by accident, so Cain had most of the furniture removed and spaced the bookshelves far apart. I will show you around more when you have fully recovered. For now, let us get you something to eat. You must be hungry."
'Yes. I'm starving. I've been asleep for five days, and I was running myself to death. I'm surprised I'm still alive...'
He walked to another set of identical doors and opened them. He gestured for me to go down. I slowly made my way over and down yet another flight of stairs.
Reed closed the door behind us and followed me down into a large room with three-story high walls. Like in the library, the roof above was also a glass dome. Ferni were dancing up there and chasing each other in a playful game of tag.
Some were red, others were yellow, but most were orange. They looked like the petals of small flowers being blown away in the wind.
There were two more valours in the room, but they were much larger than the other ones I had seen upstairs. From head to toe, they were as tall as the three-story walls, and both sat tall and proud and overlooked the room below. They were placed on either side of a hallway that led to a gigantic wooden front door that had a detailed howling wolf carved into it.
'Lots of wolves. Guess Cain must be a dog person. Even that Red was wolfish in appearance. Even if it had three red eyes.'
"This is the living room. We call it the reception room. We receive and entertain guests here. To our left is a solid wall, as you can see, but the wall sinks down into the ground and opens to another room with a bar and a swimming pool outside. The same can be said for the wall on the right. It opens to a kitchen and creates a larger space for when we host many guests," he said and walked to the kitchen.
I had no idea why he mentioned it, but maybe they hosted parties often and didn't want me to be startled by walls sinking into the ground, enlarging an already spacious room.
On the left side of the room was a large white coffee table surrounded by two blue leather couches. On the right was another potted tree, only this tree was much larger than the one in the library. Its trunk was thick, and its foliage covered half of the glass dome above.
I followed Reed into the kitchen. He held the door for me and softly smiled when we made eye contact. He was surprisingly friendly to a stranger, and I let my guard down, feeling safe around him.
"Here we are. Earlier, I prepared some Maki. It will help speed up your recovery. Do you prefer to eat soup, stew, or pasta? For reference, Maki is a lot like mushrooms, and I can blend it into any dish of your liking."
"Whatever is easiest for you to make. I'll eat anything."
"Soup then. It will be easier to digest. Have a seat. It will not take long to prepare."
I nodded and walked over to the large dining table, pulled a chair free, and sat down. Reed walked over to the stove and prepared a small pot.
I watched him work for a full minute before my eyes wandered around the kitchen. It was twice the size of my bedroom back in Sage. The dining table was large enough to host twelve guests and was made from thick, dark wooden logs. The tabletop was a thick sheet of glass polished to perfection.
The head of the table started at the door and stretched down to the right wall. I saw a large portrait of Cain and six other boys hanging next to a separate door, which led outside.
Three of the boys had black hair, while the rest of the boys had brown hair. I spotted Reed standing next to one of the black-haired boys. I identified him quickly because he had the lightest shade of hair compared to everyone else.
It was painted a while ago. Reed looked the same age as the boy next to him. Around five or six years old. Cain was hugging them both and had a big smile on his face. His golden eyes were painted with pure gold. Bizarre but accurate.
In front of the two he was hugging, stood two smaller boys with dark brown hair and eyes. They were dressed in identical outfits and looked around the age of two or three. They were twins.
On either side of Cain stood a boy with black hair. On his left, one had orange eyes and short hair, and, on his right, stood a boy with blue eyes and a thick black braid. They looked around the age of twenty, while Cain didn't look a day older than he did this morning.
Next to Reed stood yet another boy, only he looked more like the twins than the other four boys. He had dark chocolate hair and eyes. All of them were wearing the same black clothing. Even Cain. The twins were the only two who wore adorable little suits.
'So cute!'
"My brothers," Reed said and placed a cup of coffee next to me. "Rhys was the eldest. He would have been twenty-six this year, but he… is no longer with us. Now, Ren is the oldest sibling. He is twenty-four. He is the boy with blue eyes."
"Sorry for your loss, Reed."
I stared into the cup. I could only imagine what he must have gone through. Losing a member of his family must have been painful. I could relate to him on some level. I didn't know if my parents were alive, but I allowed myself to hope. If I didn't, then I couldn't live with myself.
Cain had said that my mother had been killed. But I didn't believe him. I didn't want to accept it. I couldn't.
"He died protecting my brother, Rivian. It has been six years since the attack… Oh, Rivian is the feminine boy next to me. The one with orange eyes and black hair like Rhys."
"Is Cain your father?"
"Heavens! He is not. He is Rivian's Raegus. His bond. Cain is just one of many members of his family. There are thousands of them. Though, I suppose out of all of them, Cain has the most intimate relationship with the rest of us."
"Then what is he?" I was shocked at my own words. I didn't intend to ask it out loud, I was simply wondering what his relationship was with the Reds and why that boy in the woods referred to him as their master.
"Cain?" Reed returned to his pot and carried on cooking. "It is hard to define him in terms of race, gender, or species. To put it simply, he is whatever he wants to be. If you are curious, ask him the next time you see him. I am certain that he will tell you his origin story from start to finish. Even the way he plans to die."
"You're joking, right?"
"Perhaps?"
Something touched my back, and I suddenly sprung to my feet. The chair flipped over behind me and smacked onto the floor. My heart jumped into my throat, and I fought the urge to run out the door.
'Calm down. It's just a little kid. Deep breaths.'
It was one of the twins. They startled me. I glanced between the boy and Reed and awkwardly picked up the chair. The kid looked the same age he was in the painting, and he was staring at me with wide eyes and a pale face.
'Three or so years old? Shouldn't he be older now? Gosh, he's cuter in person. Sorry for scaring you, big man...'
"Riki," Reed said and walked over. He picked his brother up and hooked an arm under his butt and held him gently. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you about the twins. This one is Riki. He has a beauty spot under his left eye. He does not talk and communicates through touching. I apologize if he startled you."
"It's alright. I think I startled him more..." I said and moved closer. The cutie hid his face in Reed's neck and wrapped his arms around his brother tightly.
'He's so small. Maybe... magic? Wait. Are these people even human?'
Reed stroked the boy's back and walked to the fridge with him. He pulled the door open and retrieved a yellow lunch box, which he handed to his little brother. When Reed placed him down, the mute boy zoomed out of the kitchen and disappeared.
"Hey, do not tell on me. It is our secret, okay? I gave him nothing," he said and brought a finger to his lips.
I pretended to zip my mouth closed and flicked my hand over my shoulder as if I threw away the key, which earned me a bright smile. Wow. Reed had killer looks. This time, I could see his teeth and noticed two stubby canine fangs in his mouth.
'Vampires then? I want to ask, but somehow, I feel like I shouldn't...'
"Great. Now, I will continue making your food. Maki resembles a variety of mushrooms. When they are consumed, they help a person absorb the mana around them. It is not as effective as a recovery potion, but it is less taxing on the body. However, it will make you feel drowsy and exhaust you. After eating, please return to your bedroom and rest. I am certain that you have a lot of questions. Eat. Rest. Sort your thoughts. And then we will talk more in the morning."