Storm Sisters

Chapter Nineteen

~1~

The Festival

There was a name, lost like an echo in a dream, drifting on a river of shadows, it kept coming back to her, Lily. She hated the word. It stirred around the white noise in her head, persistent in its assault. We hated it, for we are as one now, and that name of some girl who no longer exists is irrelevant.

Lily's eyes never closed, not even to blink, they just stared vacantly at the cell-door, wide and bright yellow. The guards were too afraid to peer in there, that they might catch a glimpse of those demonic eyes, or worse, that those terrible eyes might catch a glimpse of them.

But the mind behind those eyes sees more then just one place at any given time. They see beyond the veil, through many eyes simultaneously.

And so it was that after weeks of standing motionless in one spot, the girl began to walk forward towards the cell door. They knew without question that it would be unlocked now, and they also knew that the guards on the other side were laying dead at their stations. For a certain Jester had done away with them and taken their keys to unlock the door. The time had come for the awakening.

~~~

A flash filled the stage with smoke. The crowd was hushed to silence. And then from beyond that smoke a funny little man burst forth with a cartwheel, landing on his knees with arms outstretched. The brilliant grin across his face amplified by his makeup in duplicate. The crowd cheers with delight for a fool is always a good show.

"Noble people of Corinth," The fool began in a presenters tone worthy of the stage. "I invite you here on this special occasion to witness a story like no other. This is a story of action! and Adventure!" He stomped his foot with each word emphatically. "This my friends, is a the tale of the three kingdoms."

The Jester bowed away, then upbeat lute music began to play. Actors in costume took to the stage following more cheers from the crowd.

As the show continued out on the stage, Pike withdrew behind the curtain. His smile growing even longer as he peered out over the crowd. Such delight and wonder now brightened the faces of the usually somber villagers. Entire families gathered with their children of all ages. Proud fathers hoisting their youngins high upon their shoulders that they might get a better view of the show.

Such fat, stupid, and slovenly wretches they were. Living their meaningless lives as chattel. Pike despised them all, from the new babe suckling at their mother's breast, to the old and decrepit. Born in the muck they can can all die in the muck for all he cared.

Venturing further behind the curtain, he traced his fingers along a large crate. Its contents unknown to anyone except the jester. What a delightful surprise he had in store for these good people of the town; what a delightful surprise indeed.

~~~

The sound of the the cheering crowd outside awakened Jenilee from a daze. Tied to the bed as she was, made for very slow passage of time from which she regularly drifted off to sleep. Only now the excitement from the festival had attracted her attention.

She struggle to crane her neck enough to peer beyond the balcony. But it was to no avail, she could not see at a downward angle sufficient to view the crowd at all.

She'd recently dreamt that Pike had come her in the night. In the dream, he sat down beside her and placed his palm across her forehead.

This triggered a skip in time and she was transported to some other place entirely. They (her and Pike) were standing outside of a castle wall amongst what appeared to be an attacking army, except that the soldiers around them were frozen still in their various advancing positions, like insects preserved perfectly inside sap hardened to amber.