WEAVERS: A GothamX Story

12

I slept until a blue-dressed Matron brought me dinner. She was fairly quiet but still gave me a little nudge before leaving me with the tray of potato and ham soup, two warm, fluffy dinner rolls with golden tops, and a side of butter. It was filling and delicious enough to warm my soul and rid me of that stubborn chill in my bones. I can finally feel my fingers now.

In the process of returning my dishes to the tray, I knocked over a stack of books. In the pile at my feet was my Atlas. I face it knowing I'm not yet strong enough to read it. My progress has been quite slim these last few days. My father used to say, "Little progress is still progress, kiddo."

He built me a tree house in the giant apple tree in our backyard when I was a kid. But for the longest time, I wouldn't use it because I was afraid to climb it after the first time I fell off the ladder. He said it was okay to be afraid from time to time, it's a perfectly normal human thing to fear things. Every afternoon when I came home from school, I would climb to the top of the ladder and back down until it no longer bothered me. Little progress is still progress.

"Little progress is still progress." I sigh as I reach down to pick up the mess of books.

Soren's Atlas was in the pile. The first time I opened it, I got the bare minimum of her story; a girl born and raised outside the Vale by two loving parents who she lost in a house fire before being brought into the Vale by a Matron friend of her mother's. She struggled to make friends as an outsider and spent most of her free time in the library reading and becoming stronger before being Chosen by the Grand Matron.

I lay it on my bed and pick up the other books- Atlases. There is a reason why these Atlases chose me; Soren Reign and Elias Malakai- they are connected to me somehow. I'll have to figure it out one at a time because I'm not strong enough to handle it all yet. Yet.

I flip open Soren's Atlas and start from the beginning again. Soren Reign is from the West Coast of the Mundane World, a city kid who loved going to the beach on the weekends with her cheerleader and jock friends. She liked to rollerblade and watch the skater guys do their tricks. She thrift-shopped with her mother and went bowling with her father. They were happy.

Soren went on road trips with her high school friends. They liked going to music festivals and parties. She was the good one; she looked out for her friends and made sure they didn't over drink or mix the party drugs. She drove them because she was always the sober, parental friend. But she did make a friend in the Vale; Elias Malakai. He helped her around the library because that was his favorite place to be too.

"Knock knock." Aunt Rose's soft voice comes from the open space in the cracked door, "I brought you some tea."

I close the book and sit it down beside me, "I was just doing a little light reading before bed. I haven't had a lot of progress here lately." I reply as she comes in.

"Who's Atlas?" She asks as she pours a cup.

"Soren's. She was my first Thread and I'm trying to figure out how I'm connected to the other. And yes, I'm not pushing myself too hard, I'm going slow." I answer as a teacup is sat in my empty hands.

"She was found and brought into the Vale by a Matron who was friends with her mother." I add as she sits next to me, "We have a lot alike."

"Soren was a lot like you, dear. She was kind and empathetic. Very open-minded. She pushed herself past her limits multiple times, a very stubborn girl." Aunt Rose sighs, "I kept in touch with her mother through letters and when I heard that her parents had passed, I went looking for her." That hurt more than expected; I buried two empty caskets for my parents alone but Soren had someone.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you too. I haven't given you the attention and support you need here but I'm going to be better." She continues softly reaching over to console me.

"It's okay, she needed a person." I sigh with a nod, "But" I stammer, trying to find the right words for what I want to say.
"You can be honest with me." Aunt Rose assures me with a soft smile.

I think about it; I like honesty but it can easily become brutal honesty and that leads to something I don't like- conflict. But there are only so many vague, half-full, lukewarm answers one can take on and I'm at my limit.

"When I told you that the Grand Matron's Den is plagued with Darkness you shrugged it off like I was a kid. I know what I saw- what I felt in there and you just shrugged it off. Would you have done that to her? Soren?" I tell her, fighting to hold on to the stinging, burning tears just waiting for the dam to crumble from the pressure.

She stares at me with this blank face and I hate it because I know she won't be honest with me. I can't help but wonder if she was ever honest with me from the beginning. If she was ever honest with Soren too.

Aunt Rose stands and pats out the wrinkles in the blue dress and moves towards the door, "You're not ready yet." She says, looking over her shoulder at me before she disappears out the door, leaving me and the dinner tray alone. Alone.
I knock over the stack of books again and grab the Atlas of Elias Malakai.