My phone made a small beep. I hesitantly placed a bookmark in the pages of my newest read. A text flashed on the screen. It was from my best friend Kerena.
It read: Hey, Ella New ancient roman myth uncovered. Thought you might enjoy. www.shadowshrines.com/oldstories.
I could always count on Kerena to find me new things to read. Those days, she spent all day surfing the internet for new mind consuming stories for us to read from her hospital bed.
We've been friends since kindergarten. We were both five. At recess, all the boys would make fun of her for wanting to read instead of play. One day, I went up to her and told her, "I like to read too."
Instantly we were best friends. Coming and going from each other's houses regularly. We loved scouring the local libraries and the Internet for more stories, books, like the one that brought us together.
That day in kindergarten, she showed me what she was reading. An online story she had printed out. "The shadow shrines", it read. A myth from thousands of years ago that had just been decoded. The myth was of four shrines, one for each of the elementals; earth, water, wind and fire. Legend was that the shrines were to protect the elementals, spheres of pure power over their element.
But, the shrines themselves did not protect the elementals. They were protected by things. Phantoms, shadow slaves, ghosts. In short, the dead.
The most important part of that myth( to us, at least) was that if someone could get past all of the protections, they could master the elemental. They could master something more powerful than they could ever imagine.
And if they did master an elemental, they could do something else too: bring back a ghost.
YOU ARE READING
The Shadow Shrine
FantasyElla and Kerena, two best friends, are separated when Kerena dies of cancer. Ella's heart clouds from the grief and she has almost given up when she finds a note from Kerena.
