Echoes of Ceotir

Laughter followed the voice, echoing around the space without logic to the surroundings. Each of them turned in search of the source but it was impossible to tell the direction it came from. They remained still, waiting, alert for what might come next but unsure how to proceed. Keira’s grip on his arm tightened and Faye backed up so she was closer to them, but Ronan didn’t change his position, still holding his staff above the central rune of his circle.

“Is it the same voice you heard before?” Faye asked over her shoulder.

“Yes.”

“Your sister?” Keira whispered.

“Yes but…”

It wasn’t obvious to him when he first heard it, when it whispered in the wind or shouted to him to come to it. But hearing it now, in the same way as the others, hearing it as he would a person speaking to him in person, he realised it was different. It was the sound of his sister, her voice but it was different to what he remembered. It was older, and colder, a different tone than he ever heard her use but he knew it was her.

“It's not like I remember,” he said after a moment of pause. “It’s her but it’s not the same as when we were younger.”

Saying the thought out loud made him realise how obvious a sentiment it was. If it was his sister, then it had been a decade since he last saw her and she’d grown up in this place. But he knew it couldn’t be her and the other explanation was as equally obvious; if it were a demon, it wouldn’t be perfect in mimicking her. He was uncertain but he didn’t feel this was the time to examine the differences as they were all on hold, waiting for something else to happen, for whatever called him to show.

And as they wished, as they waited, it appeared. A girl stood in the middle of the pool of water, not swimming or floating but standing on the surface as though there was a hidden platform beneath. Her touch never disturbed the mirror-like surface and there had been no movement or sign of her before—she appeared in the blink of an eye as though she were always there.

She was frail, wearing a single long dress that was once some shade of white but now marked with red and black stains. It was ragged, with tears and rips throughout that showed her skeletal frame and seemed to shift and move in a wind that wasn’t present. Shorter than Keira, she had equally long hair that wasn’t as dark but close. Broken and matted, it straggled over her face to hide most of her features, unruly to the point of wild. Even hidden behind that messy hair and from what little he could see of her face, he knew it was her, it was his sister.

Faye didn’t wait for him to react, didn’t wait for him to shout or tell her to stop, she had struck out with her blade the instant she saw the girl. Nothing happened, the girl didn’t react, and there was no cut from the blade that didn’t need contact with its target—it was as if she waved a normal sword well out of range from its target. She tried again, her movements precise and fast but once again there was no response, no cut like he had seen her perform on the ship.

“Shit, Ronan!”

“Wait!” He yelled, turning to the man. “It’s my sister, she’s alive!”

Ronan ignored him and instead, the golden glow of his aura almost erupted and he slammed the staff into the middle rune of the circle. There was a spark, a flicker of a flame in the orb above his staff and then a blaze engulfed the pool in front of them. It filled the entire ring of water, a fire so intense he recoiled from the heat as it swirled upwards in a vortex of orange and red. The fire roared and crackled through the night air but no spark or fragment of the flame left the blazing tornado. It ripped up to the sky, far above any of the trees around them and spun into a point at the top.

There was a scream from inside, an ear-piercing howl of pain and despair that made him grab his ears and cower from the sound. Keira flinched alongside him, the sound was louder than even the calls of the guardians at the station but Faye and Ronan remained still, holding their position and stance. As the scream fell silent, the blaze lifted, dancing into the air before vanishing as though it were never there. The pool was empty, no sign of his sister remained though the water of the surface was as still as it had been before. Only the blackened earth and burnt grass around the edges signalled anything had happened.

“Why?” He stuttered, looking up at the man.

“That wasn’t her Finlay, you know that as well as us.”

But it was her, he was sure of it. He knew his sister, he knew her face, even after all these years, even with the changes in her, the age she had become, he knew it was her. His emotions whirled, anger, pain, fear—he wanted to hit the man for what he did. She hadn’t attacked them, she hadn’t done anything yet they immediately sought to destroy her.

“Finn, think, you know it couldn’t have been her,” Keira was still clutched to his arm and even though she was trying to soothe him, her eyes betrayed her fear and confusion.

“It’s not over,” Faye said. “Don’t let your guard down.”

He looked back to the woman, she was still tense, as ready as she was when they first came and he realised why. The dense miasma that had struck them lingered on which meant whatever was causing it remained but all that told him was that he was right, that his sister wasn’t the source—but then the laughter came.

The same as before, the childlike joy that didn’t match the surroundings, but it didn’t drift into silence this time, it just kept going. More laughter, the echoes starting at different locations around them and reverberating off each other so that the sound rose with an unpredictable nature. Ronan was placing new runes in a circle, they looked different than before and once again he didn’t recognise them. Faye waited, patient and watchful, expecting her moment to come where she could strike again in hope that it would be effective.

“You’re ruining our reunion, get lost!”

The voice cried out with such force, that he shuddered as though a gale had blown over them. When he looked back up, the world had changed, darkness had covered them, enshrouded them and he couldn’t see Faye in front let alone the pool of water or trees beyond. Only Keira who was still gripped to his arm was still there and she was calling out to Faye and Ronan but neither responded.

The girl appeared again, the same distance and in the same direction as before, standing on the water's surface that he could no longer see. A dark smoke danced between them, the source of the shadow that covered his vision was like the form of the wraiths from his youth. It was so thick that nothing else could be seen but the grass below their feet and yet in that distance, as though lit up from the moonlight above, the girl, his sister, stood in place, looking back at them.

“It’s been so long, why did you wait so long?” The girl spoke, her voice calmer, with a conversational tone and cadence.

“I thought you died.”

“Finn—”

Keira started to whisper but he pressed his finger to her lip to stop her. He wasn’t sure if this was his sister, not any more, not after what happened. He wasn’t sure what was going on or the intention behind it but he was sure that they had to be careful. The miasma was getting worse, a dense layer falling over him and it was clear it came from the girl. Whatever was going on, she, it was powerful beyond anything they had come across before.

“Died? That’s a strange thing to say.”

“You were taken by the wraiths, they killed others.”

“Taken?”

“You don’t remember? The ship—that night we evacuated after being attacked.”

She laughed again, it bubbled up from deep within and then for the first time she moved; her head rolled back, her mouth wide as the laughter became almost maniacal. Keira tugged at his arm again, she wanted to run, to flee but where could they go? He wasn’t even sure if they were still in the woodlands or if they’d been taken to some strange space as he had been before.

Without warning she stopped laughing, though she remained in place, her head still held back. She stood there in that strange, uncomfortable position for moments that lasted too long before finally looking back at him. She started walking towards them, her movements strange as though she wasn’t interacting with the ground and merely floating across it. Her walk, nothing more than a display, a visual sign which wasn’t necessary.

Keira stepped forward, placing herself between him and his sister. He looked at her and tried to pull her back but she shrugged him off. The fiery red aura of her spirit blistered to life and soon radiated outwards against the black smoke of the darkness that held them. The glaive she had trained with grew out from her hand and she lowered it towards that girl that seemed uninterested in her display.

“Don’t come any closer!” She yelled.

“Another one standing in the way of our reunion,” the girl replied, her eyes cold and dark, almost black as she stared at Keira.

“She’s not, we’re reunited, I’m here.”

He needed to placate her, both of them, this was too dangerous. Keira could barely maintain her spiritual form under the miasma, she wasn’t ready for this, let alone the full power of her weapon and fighting against this denser, more potent threat. But she wasn’t willing to stand down, she remained firm in her position and against all the pressure and pain she had to be feeling, her eyes were lit with an unmatchable determination.

When the girl didn’t stop walking towards them, as she got too close against the warnings, Keira struck forward. She was quick, not as fast as Faye but with as much precision as he had ever seen her. The long blade of her glaive swung forward to lash out across the neck and chest of the girl but just as it was about to reach her shoulder, a thick pulse of black smoke appeared and caught the weapon as though it was as hard as steel. It wrapped around the glowing spear and curled its way down the shaft towards Keira. The girl never stopped walking, never broke her pace and with each step, the black smoke engulfed her weapon and aura that surrounded it.

“Keira!” He yelled, reaching forward to pull her away but he was too late.

As he grabbed her shoulders and yanked her into his body, the smoke that had nearly reached her hands coiled into a spike and darted towards her chest. The aura of her spirit broke with the contact and vanished completely as the black spear pierced her body. She fell into his arms and he held her while she dropped to the ground. He cried out and clutched her body that had fallen limp, unresponsive, her eyes closed but she was still breathing. The black spear of smoke had disappeared but it left behind torn clothes and what looked like a burn mark on her chest around the size of his fist.

“This is a special time, no one should be getting in the way of our reunion.”

The girl was standing over them, she had reached his side in the moment of the attack, but he couldn’t look at her. Tears filled his eyes as he held his best friend, his body shaking from anger, fear and adrenaline that was running rampant.

“Get away from me, get away from us!”

“What are you talking about, it’s me, Finn.”

“No, you’re not her, she died years ago, you’re something else. Get away from me, leave me alone!”

“Why are you crying Finn, you should be happy, it’s been so long.”

He didn’t know what to do, he had to save Keira, protect her. But that wasn’t the only emotion, he wanted to hurt this thing, kill this thing that impersonated his sister and attacked his friend. He wanted it gone and he could feel his spirit respond. It was a small thud at first, the heartbeat of the amulet and the gentle glow of his aura that pressed back against the darkness around them. But it grew in size and ferocity until there was a blue blaze that surrounded him and Keira’s still limp body.

He lifted her in his arms, she felt light, more so than she should and he turned to the thing that resembled his sister. There was a new expression on the girl’s face, not the laughter and joy of a child, not the cold anger of a killer that wants rid of people in its way but fear. He remembered the spirit in the sanctuary, the fear that it felt, the trembling despair before it was pushed back and a new confidence filled him.

“What are you doing, stop this,” the girl said.

“No, I want you gone, you don’t exist to me anymore, you’re nothing.”

“It’s because of her, you deny me because of this girl!”

The pulsing light of his aura pushed back, growing in size, a sphere that encompassed him and Keira. His barrier, the protection of spirit in the amulet was coming forward and with it, he felt the warmth and comfort of his supporter. He stepped forward, confident and strong in full belief that the barrier he had created would push back the being that had summoned him, that had attacked him. He was wrong.

Tendrils of smoke erupted from the girl and crashed straight through the shield he had created. They wrapped around him and Keira as the wraiths had done when he was younger and he watched in horror as he was lifted into the air by those same limbs that weren’t entirely there. He held onto Keira, if nothing else to protect her but even the spirit of the amulet had fallen silent, his aura broken as quickly as hers and he was defenceless to the whims of the thing that called itself his sister.

A crack of thunder, a roar that filled the sky he couldn’t see; he looked up in search of the source but there was nothing but black. Another rumble, another roar and then there was light, a golden glow that scattered and danced through the smoke, weaving its way above him and in its trail there were signs of the night sky. There were more cracks and roars until the light dipped and shot down towards him. With its touch, the smoke of the tendrils vanished and he fell to the ground with Keira landing on top of him.

“We’re getting out of here!”

It was Faye, she was shimmering with light and behind her, Ronan was maintaining the golden glow and firing off more of those sparkling strikes that ripped through the air. He was still glowing under that light, as was Keira and he knew it was Ronan’s protection. Faye pulled him up with Keira still in his arms and dragged him back behind the man.

The scream of his sister was back to that same shrill, high-pitched noise that came when the flames engulfed her. She was angry, furious that they had stolen him away and with her fury came more of those smoke-like spikes. But they were no match to the sparking light that Ronan cast which danced and weaved through the air to protect them and destroy the veil of smoking shadow that covered their world.

The trees became clear, the sky hidden by the canopy was shaking in a gentle wind that he couldn’t feel before and they continued to run. Faye was slicing at the underbrush, her blade casting long sweeps in front of them that cut through everything as though it were nothing. Even trees fell to her movements as she cleared the way for them to flee.

They never stopped, never broke pace but ran as fast as they could even while he carried Keira until they broke free of the woods and the river they crossed came into view. The screams of his sister were still filling the air but it sounded far away, she had never left the place they found her and was now long in the distance. The darkness of the smoke she summoned was gone and the night was natural again.

Faye was covered in blood, with open wounds that told of her battle. Ronan hadn’t fared much better and they were both exhausted. But he was more focused on Keira who was still unresponsive.

“Is she alive?” Faye asked, her voice shaken with worry and fear for the girl.

“She’s breathing, we have to save her.”

“Go, as fast as you can, we’ll be right behind you.”

And so he ran, through the river and up the hill, he ran with all his strength until he reached the building and Sara who was standing in the doorway.

"Please—help her."