Suns and Shadows

Lies, Secrets and Murmurs

Zillah wakes me up.

And it is the worst experience I've ever felt.

I lay in my bed, the curtains drawn shut, refusing to let my eyes peel open. Joshua kept me up late last night and the Inferno can wait. But Zillah doesn't wait.

I hear her vaguely, rapping on the door ferociously, yelling at me to get up. I ignore her, until she barges into my room, throws the covers off of me, and sprays harmless Dark in my face, using it as water to wake me up.

So now, still in my nightgown, I am shuffling down the halls to the "Gettup Room," Zillah says and pushes me inside, closing the door behind her. I rub my eyes, letting my vision start to focus and wiping away the drowsiness.

I realize now what she meant by the Getup room. Getup, like makeup. The room is painted a dark red with furniture the color of wine around the room. Two bright lamps stand in each corner of the room, a mirror in the middle of them with a few chairs around it.

A man who speaks with the same thick accent as Karpov says, "You are Ebony Blackwood?" His hair stands upon his head, like a mohawk. He adjusts the black frames on his nose and squints at me. "Disguised as Rose Whittllow?" He flips a bunch of papers on his clipboard, holding a pen in his mouth.

I nod. "Yes, so what are you going to do to me?"

The Shadow's smile is malicious. "I'm going to make you Rose Whittllow."

***

I can't help but stare at myself. My long hair has been cut down to my ears. My pale skin is significantly darker with the paint-like thing that the Shadow man rubbed into my skin. My lashes are longer and whatever powder he put on my eyelids has brought out the green on my irises.

Saiya was always the pretty one. Everyone always thought so. Before, when Saiya was a baby and she hadn't had any trouble with her Dark, we used to have guests. They'd flock over to the baby saying it was the prettiest thing they'd ever seen.

I remember one lady who came. She pointed her withered hands to me and said, "This one you have to look out for. The baby is pretty, but this one, this one is cunning. she'll get you through the dark times." 

And I had. I'd made sure of it.

There is only one thing about me that I despise. 

With powders, paint-like substances, and brushes, my Shadow mark disappeared, replaced with a Sun mark. I want to rub it off, rip it off. Destroy it. I clench my hands onto the chair to stop myself.

"Ah, you look pretty, no?" Shadow man asks, smiling. I find myself nodding. I'd never been ugly, but I hadn't ever been pretty either and strangely it made me feel good about myself. The Shadow man escorts me out where Zillah is waiting for me.

"Have you been out here the whole time?" I ask in awe. 

She looks at me, mystified. "No. We use the Dark to communicate, send messages. Dimitri just sent me a message that he was done and-" She looks me over. "-he did a good job. You look just like a Sun."

I'm not sure whether I should wince or smile. I choose to look away and tuck my now very short strand of hair behind my ears. Eventually, I recognize the statues that adorn the hallways and realize I'm going back to the debriefing room with the odd hologram table.

Everyone is speaking in hushed whispers when we come in. I catch tidbits. "New species."

"More powerful than before."

"-don't even know that-"

"Ebony!" Joshua says quickly, snapping some sort of paper he's looking at shut. "We'll save this for next everyone. In the meantime, Karpov I need you to check on the...the other project. I'll be doing some research as well."

Everyone glares at me as they leave. "What was that about?" I ask Joshua. He blushes like he's been caught doing something wrong. "What are you investigating?"

He clears his throat. "Classified." 

I look at him straight in the eyes. "I deserve to know. You basically said so yourself last night. I'm doing some dangerous thing for you and you won't even tell me what's going on? I can still back out of this you know-"

He puts his hand on my shoulder. "Fine, fine. We're just doing a genetics test on some Shadows. To make them more powerful before. That's all I can tell you, okay?" He's not telling the full truth, I can tell. But he said that he was hiding something himself.

"After I finish this, I want to know everything," I say.

"I fit helps, we were planning to tell you. I think you might be able to help with it." He says, lacing an apology into his tone. I decide to accept it. He did partially heal Saiya after all, I will never be able to repay him for that. 

"Alright." Then as I say that, I realize that we're the only ones in the room and my face turns crimson.

"The Pero family will automatically be suspicious of you. They've known the Ligthbooks since they were royals, second in line if the royals died out. The fact that they've never met you will either make them bitter towards you or they'll investigate your past which we don't want because you have basically appeared out of thin air. To avoid this, I'm going to act like one of them and ask questions to see how if you might just have a chance at this."

"You seem to know an awful lot about the Ligthbooks and the Peros," I say.

Joshua cringes. "Yeah." Then he shifts. His stance grows taller. His gaze becomes condescending and he says in a completely different voice than his own, "Miss Whittllow I presume?" He asks in a mock sun accent.

I bob a small curtsy just as Zillah instructed me to do. "Yes, sir. Might I inquire your title?" I feel ridiculous so I put a friendly smile on my face.

"Councillor Sabien of the Pero family." Joshua bows to me and smirks, not his smirk, but someone else's entire. He's become a different person. "Now as I understand it you are a cousin of the Lightbooks? Pity, we've never met before. You must've married quite young." He eyes me. "If that is why your last name is different."

I shake my head, delicately. "No, Councillor. My mother was a Lightbook but married into the Whittllow family. Not an advantageous marriage, but I suppose that one can not stop true love, however ridiculous it may be."

Joshua looks at me, surprise written all over his face. I can't tell if he's still acting or not. "You're good at this, Ebony." He says, in his normal old voice and I immediately relax. "You're a natural."

"I'm not sure I like that compliment," I say.

He shrugs. "I meant it as one." Then he glances down. "I think you're ready."

It's time.