The journey was far, the planks soft with age, the air reverent. Every now and then a lantern dotted the rope railing with a gentle yellow glow.
As the woman walked, her footsteps thrummed through the silence. Spire drifted level with her shoulders. Haze led, her body growing more transparent as the end of infinity grew closer. Bones shifted through her pelt. Stars winked in her pupils and twined through her fur. She waved her tail.
"Hurry," she said.
"For we have taken much too long
And I hear, from afar, the whisperers' song.
They say we must quicken our pace,
By misty grace!
They want to meet you both so much
And your inside thoughts to touch—
And see your deepest unbroken matter
Things so abstract they seem meaningless, rather.
They say please to hurry to the other end's ridge,
And you should travel quickly as if
The Viper's on the Bridge."
The mere mention of the Viper made the woman begin to shake. Already the nightmares were coming back, coming back. She shut her eyes and walked along the grooved wood. The bird alit on her shoulder, like past times. She felt his familiar warmth and tiny heartbeat merge with hers, a calming bassline.
The planks rippled as the woman quickened her pace, pulled by a deep instinctual string.
Haze walked far behind them.
Wait—oh, ow—she nearly rolled back onto her haunches with pain as she felt something within her unfurl, and in her mind appeared a vision. She saw the whisperers gathered in a circle. Marrow ran white and dusty through their bones. A tongue flicked and scales flashed. The sun broke through the sky of Shrouded Lands, and the Mist evaporated, as if irrelevant.
Haze shook her head and opened her eyes. An ache amassed around her temples, heavy. She got far too many meaningless visions; they were getting old. Still, she felt a stir of discomfort inside her.
"Haze," the woman called back to her, "why will this help us? Us specifically? I understand we'll be 'read' and learn a lesson, but...can't you tell us more?"
The animal whisked her tail, willing the ache to fade. She caught up to the pair and did her best to answer Ravine's question.
"My dear, I cannot tell you this so plainly
Since it's diff'rent for all visitors, mainly.
I did not mean to build this up so much,
For it's simply a drop-in where your thoughts'll be touched.
You'll feel cleaner afterwards, we promise you this
And when you leave we'll give you a parting word and kiss.
With that, you'll board the train to Aeolia, and can
Steam ahead fully to your calm purple land.
Oh—oh—the Bridge halts now, the Mist is brighter.
Oh dears, here we are; open your eyes wider."
The bird tilted its head, and a musical question trickled into the air.
Haze replied to Spire's inquiry:
"No, no, my gentle bird.
Infinity is not infinite.
It's quite a deceitful word!"
YOU ARE READING
Aeolia
Tiểu Thuyết ChungA woman runs from everything. A songbird joins her from nowhere, singing colors and images. A whisperer finds the pair among a field of poplars and graves. A dark and vicious viper stalks them from deep in the earth. They must flee from the Viper...
