Silent As The Moon

Chapter Seven

"I take it that means you are Lyrik?" supposedly-Mykel asked, raising his eyebrow. Lyrik nodded slightly, somehow managing to move her head, even though the rest of her was frozen.

"You're Mykel," she repeated. "Prince of M'Daol." He shrugged.

"Spare me the bravado."

Kael snorted.

Lyrik clenched her fists.

"Do you know anything about a girl called Kera?" the reporter asked, regaining his status and staring at Mykel. "Ruby Thorn's friend?"

"Kera? Yes." His green eyes waved across the room, pausing as he caught Lyrik's gaze. Spill it, she demanded silently. It was almost as if he said it aloud.

"Kera is a waterkeeper." Lyrik's eyes widened. "She did not think she could live her life as one among M'Dall." His jaw clenched, and unclenched. "I do not mean that as an insult. It is just a fact. M'Dallians make their keepers go to the military, and many of you are afraid of them. Even though nearly half of you are them. Her mother had taken her to M'Dall, but she ran away to her M'Doallian father. She had to come to me so that I could find out where he lives. She's with him now."

"Do you know anything about Silver Eyes?" Lyrik inquired sharply.

"Yes. You are one."

"I know that."

"Should I really trust you?"

"Ruby told you to, didn't she?" Lyrik responded, satisfaction at Mykel's glare. I'm right. She did. So he will... Hopefully.

"Fine. But only for her, because she must be dead now and this is the reason I knew her." He took a breath. "You are stuck, between heaven and hell. When you died, your body stopped working like any other corpse, but your spirit, which was supposed to go to heaven or hell, couldn't find a gateway to either."

How did this escalate so quickly? Lyrik wondered. One moment I'm waking up from sleep and the next I'm talking to a Prince, learning things about myself? 

"So how do I have a body, now? Why couldn't I go the a spirit world? How do you know all this, even?" Lyrik challenged.

"I know this from Ruby. The reason to your other questions is because of the Scarlet Council." His face was dark and his tone ominous.

Lyrik and Kael both burst out laughing.

"Scarlet Council?! "

"Who the hell named theirselves the Scarlet Council?!"

Something flashed across Mykel's eyes; an emotion Lyrik had never seen before and couldn't recognize.

"And M'Dallians scorn us. Do you want to know why you're practically undead now or not?" he spat.

Lyrik tried not to giggle as she nodded. Scarlet Council, ha.

"All we know about them is that one of their leaders is called Bronwen. She is the one who came up with the idea of spirits. And then, somehow, she did something to a select amount of people- your grandparents, most likely. My parents. And it passed down to us."

"What did she do?" Kael demanded, forgetting about keeping calm.

"I do not know. I just know that she is the one that's responsible for Silver Eyes, that she's dangerous. She has no empathy. No kindness. Just a brain and strength. As well as an army."

"So how am I supposed to fix this?"

"She would know, but only her. The leader of the Scarlet Council."

This time Lyrik didn't even blink from the name.

"How do I find her?"

"I... Do not know. Definitely not in M'Dall or M'Daol."

"Well, that leaves only one place. The Snowlands," Lyrik recalled, thinking of the globe. M'Dall and M'Doal covered two thirds of it- and the worst people went to the Snowlands to die.

"Mykel," Kael began carefully, "how do you know Ruby?"

"She came a day before Kera, telling me about Bronwen, and Kera, and Silver Eyes and the chances that one of her sisters, or she, would be one. I could tell she was not lying- she was desperate. So I promised her that I would help whoever became a Silver Eyes in whatever way I could, all the while playing my role as the Prince of M'Doal. I am a lot of things... But I keep my promises. And that means that I have to go with you, if you go to the Snowlands."

"Absolutely not," Kael and Lyrik shouted at the same time.

"You're a Prince," 

"And a M'Doallian," Lyrik added. Mykel rolled his eyes.

"I'm a Prince, yes. But all Princes have siblings- we must. Most die, so we need some backups. My younger brother, Dilian, will take over M'Doal."

"You're not fit to go to the Snowlands."

"And you are?"

Mykel held their glares until Kael and Lyrik had to blink.

"Just because I am a Prince does not mean I cannot fight, or go on a journey. I'm also your hope of weapons, because my guards will kill Kael on the spot, and, Lyrik, you would have to watch."

"Can you really fight?" Kael asked skeptically. Mykel snorted.

"What do you expect from a firekeeper?"

Oof, that cliffhanger must hurt- sorry, guys! But how did you like this chapter? I'm trying to update more often... What do you think of all this info from Mykel and all this "keeper" stuff? I love to know what my readers think! :)

- Needle