The Secrets of Ashes (Under Construction)

Chapter 8: Blood and Light

Triss

Triss fluttered her eyes open and stared at the ceiling. The dark sky looked back at her, the stars innocently glittering upon her face. She sat up and looked to her right, she smiled herself. Eve had, apparently, fallen asleep right beside her. Triss gazed over Eve’s snoring body at the clock on the nightstand table. It would be a few more hours until Maximus would abruptly wake Eve from her slumber and begin the brutal first day of training that she remembered all too well. Her muscles felt sore just thinking about it, not to mention the psychological aspect he out right put her through; it nearly drove her crazy. But training was training, it eventually turned her into a dangerous weapon and soon Eve would become the same, probably even better than she. Triss reclined back into her pillows thinking about this. She let out a big sigh, pulling the sheets back over her. The warm smell of clean linen engulfed her as she tried to find a way to drift off again. But something in the back of her mind kept tugging back to the surface, it felt wrong. Like something was hidden in the room that was not suppose to be there.

She dug deeper into the bed, trying to ignore it. But after a few minutes of unrestlessness, she eventually gave up. Triss sat up again and quietly slipped out of the bed, being careful not to wake Eve. She looked toward the fountain; a light blue aura filmed the stone while the water in the basin glowed even more brightly than the rest. It always glowed like that whenever the room was dark, it was just another weird characteristic of the fountain. She moved closer and saw something very peculiar. A vine had started to climb its way along the singular column of the fountain. She blinked a couple of times and looked even closer than before. She was not mistaken, the vine was there and it was still growing. It was barely noticeable, but the vine was inching its way toward the basin.

“Impossible!” Triss whispered widening her eyes. She touched the vine as if it were just a hallucination, half expecting her hand to fall through.

“But this means…” she thought. She put her head over the basin, scanning it as though she expected something to appear out of the glowing turquoise water. Triss narrowed her eyes toward the water then swiftly turned around half-running to the bed. She knelt on the carpet and started to rummage under it. An ancient wooden box embedded with glossy pearls was pulled out from under. Triss muttered an incantation, and the lid clicked open. She took out a metal object about the size and sharpness of a needle. Two rods swirled together, creating a sharp point with a small pearl attached to the top. Triss put the box back under the bed and went back over to the fountain. She put her hand over the basin of the fountain, the water rippling as she spoke under her breath.

“Daughter of the Moon and Ancestors of Me,

I ask that you whisper who has stepped over the threshold to our Sanctuary.

Here is a drop my blood for you to endure.

Please receive it so you see my intentions are pure.”

As Triss finalized these words, she pricked her finger and a drop of blood made a soundless splash onto the surface of the rippling water. The blood that dropped into the water made a ring, expanding out to the edges of the stone basin. Immediately, the water turned into a thick silver syrup; white smoke started to resurrect into a formless wisp and a highly girlish voice protruded from it. This spirit must have been very young because the older ones tend to take this thing much more seriously. The smoke giggled as it gave Triss the reply.

I have endured your blood and it is pure.

You may receive the answer you are looking for.

The threshold has been broken by thine own blood.

But hurry, there is someone who is not welcome and may hurt the one you love.