Capítulo 98: - Whispers and Wonders: The Night Owl
The door opened with a creaking swing, silent against the cool night atmosphere, as Lia made her way out into the hallways, empty and illuminated by the moon.
She had spent nearly three hours combing through memories and thoughts, loose ideas and beliefs, and more than one thing that just made Lia's head hurt. The thoughts and memories were so numerous that she could hardly differentiate between her own and Winslow's.
Cain, who had retreated to his place in her mind, lectured her once again on the penalties of this skill.
'Transferring memories will undoubtedly be a strain on your mind. You either have to have a metal skill that boots your barriers, or a very, very, very large mind.'
"I know that. You've told me three times already."
'Yes, twice before I ever copied Winslow's memories, and yet you still wanted to see them? Pardon my choice of words but, do you have a death wish?'
Lia ignored him, clutching her already aching head with one hand, she made her way down the silent halls. Small candles dotting the hallway on various lamp posts, tables, and candle holders offered little light to improve her vision.
She stumbled over a nearby table, nearly knocking the objects on top of it over, as she silently cursed.
"Cain, can you please -"
'Already on it.'
As he said this, Lia could see her vision changing before her eyes. At once, the darkening sight of the empty hallways became illuminated by a dull gray color.
"Haa…thanks Cain."
'No problem. I know more about stubbing my toes in the dark than you think.'
"You know about almost every problem don't you?"
'Well, when you've lived as long as I do, you would understand.'
"Makes sense."
She motioned to move the items on the end table back into place, careful to make everything seem like it had never been touched. From fixing a small vase, placing the flowers back inside, arranging a candle stick, until finally she moved back the large glass display case that took up most of the room.
After rearranging everything, Lia found herself staring deeply at the case, a small piece of parchment situated inside. Runic symbols of a language Lia had never seen before were written across the entire paper, detailing some oddities that she could not understand.
Suddenly, a spike within her mind caused her to clutch her head, groaning from the aftershock of the sudden burst of pain.
"Ugh…Cain…?"
Cain didn't say anything, but she could feel in her mind that he was there, present as he always was, but his focus was intent on something else. Something much, much different.
"Cain…?"
'Lia…'
His voice came in a sudden and deep tone, filled with worry or shock, surprise or fear. Whichever one it was, she could not tell, but she knew that something was wrong.
"Cain…what-"
"Miss Lia?"
Lia jumped, nearly out of her skin as her feet left the ground, clutching her arms close to her while she spun in the air.
"Great Gods of Hell!"
She reached for the end table to steady herself, as her hand rested on her chest to sooth her struggling breath. Her hands were shaking subtly, but she fought to keep herself calm and steady, turning to confront the owner of the voice that nearly made her jump out of her skin.
"Win…Winslow?"
Winslow stood just outside the candle light, his own candle stuck in his hand, illuminating his face clearly for Lia to see even without her improved vision.
His face showed that he was just as shocked and confused as Lia was, though she guessed it was mostly from her nearly jumping out of her skin at the sudden surprise that he caused.
"Miss Lia…I apologize for scaring you."
"N-No….no that's fine. I….haaa, I shouldn't have been so tense in the first place."
He smiled, a warm smile filled with understanding, one that was thankful for her kind manners and calm attitude.
"May I ask…If you don't mind, what you're doing up at this hour. It is nearly the next day."
"Ah…yes, well…"
Lia cleared her throat looking around the dark hallway, cursing herself for not thinking that someone would be traveling these halls, watching the manor while everyone else slept for the night.
And it just had to be Winslow.
"...I couldn't sleep. Nightmares I'm afraid."
Winslow looked as if a sudden understanding came over him, and just as quickly as suspicion crossed over his face, did it disappear like a shadow passing over his face.
"Ah…well, If you can't sleep then I understand. Though I do suggest that you stay in your room next time. With the past few weeks and the events that have unfolded, everybody in the manor is a little bit tense."
"I understand, and, I truly meant no harm by it…I just needed some fresh air."
"Has the investigation been getting to you?"
A thought crossed Lia's mind as he said this and she secretly wondered if she could gain a bit of information from this encounter. Something that could prove useful if she played her cards right in the coming days.
Considering all other possibilities they had tried had proved fruitless, the idea didn't seem so far fetched as it might have been.
"Yes…yes it has. I try to make sense of the whole thing but…well not everything appears as it seems."
Winslow nodded, understanding what Lia was going though. After all, he had watched dozens of Hunters try and fail in finding Voln, yet none had come anywhere close to a trail they could follow.
"Most people feel that way after the first night. All the information you obtain and no molds to fit them in. It makes for a pretty confusing puzzle, don't you think?"
"I know what you mean. I've dealt with things like this before, and they all seemed so straight forward. Greed, envy, power…most humans lean towards one of those things…"
Lia drifted off causing Winslow to wonder if there was something she wasn't saying, something that she had discovered.
"But this case…it's not like that is it?"
Lia shook her head, gesturing to the empty halls around them.
"Everyone here is so guarded, self kept…missing from the world."
"People tend to act like that when they don't want people to grow close. When they want people to leave them alone."
"I know. I used to be like that so I understand them more than they think I do. But nonetheless, it makes me wonder."
Winslow tilted his head, the candle's flame flickering and bouncing around in the empty air, casting different shadows over his face. Some sinister, some kind.
"Wonder what?"
Strange to think that darkness is the representation of evil. When in fact it was the darkness that stood in the light, covering itself with color and beauty, defining itself and all the others, that made the most evil picture.
As Lia watched the flames cast shadows across Winslow's face, she wondered what grief he was holding back in there. What grief he was hiding. What grief he refused to let out into the world.
Those from the darkness that stay in the darkness are the heroes. They know that to move into the light, would only wrought destruction and pain on others. They knew that well.
"It makes me wonder why there was happiness within these walls to begin with. Why it disappeared and why it vanished from thin air."
The words were out of her mouth before she realized she had said anything, but nonetheless, she didn't fall back on them, nor apologize for saying them.
Looking at Winslow, she realized he was broken inside, the darkness tha hid within its own shell. There was something he regretted, something he loathed within him, hated and beat into submission, but she couldn't tell what.
Darkness that hid from the light, was darkness that did not want to think of what would happen should the light become corrupted.
She saw this in Winslow as he sighed, looked out the nearest window beside them, on the opposite side of the hall, and closed his eyes, speaking with an understanding that just seething from his voice.
"There was once happiness. But those who crawl into the shadows are doomed to stay there. Forever."
Lia thought for a moment, Cain's attention on the glass case forgotten in her conversation.
"Even those who are dragged into it?"
"By will or by choice?"
She remained quiet for a moment, thinking over her past, her family, her life, and her lost love…love. What a funny thing to call it.
"Both."
She shouldn't have been so hard on Cain when he tried to take away the darkness from her. Wear it like a cloak and let it inside him. He was darkness. He had crawled through it all his life.
All he wanted was to take the darkness from her, dawn it like a new cloak, and let her step back into the light. Forget her pain, forget her sorrow.
"Perhaps it is better to forget the things that hurt us."
Winslow looked at Lia with more of an understanding than she would ever think she would get from another human being. Another person who was filled with pain.
The walls crumbled around him, and she could finally see the pain, like a bleeding wound infected, burned, seething with hatred and hurt, sorrow, everything that the darkness within them held.
"Perhaps it is, Miss Lia."
The moment ended and the walls between them both rose once again. It was just for a moment, but the darkness within them saw one another, like a mirror watching a mirror. A shadow, watching a shadow.
But the moment ended just as quickly as it had come, the barriers raised to keep the darkness within once again.
"I do think that those within the dark stay in the dark. But I also believe that we should see the light sometimes."
Winslow said after several seconds of silence, his mind still longing for the answer to the question she had asked before.
"Why?"
"Perhaps it is because, when the darkness sees the light, it is reminded of how black and evil it is. All the bad things crushed into one. That is where it belongs."
Lia shook her head, something about the answer not sitting right with her.
"But what if you could forget? Forget it all and move on. Would that not be better?"
Winslow thought for a moment, his eyes on the candle in his hands, the flame flickering like the shadows dancing across the hall.
"Perhaps."
It wasn't an answer. It wasn't a yes or no, but nonetheless, Lia was grateful for it.
"But…"
He said, turning around, half looking back to her, a glance being shared between them.
"Few of us ever get offered that choice."
With that, he made his way back down the hall, his voice lingering in Lia's ears as his words echoed down to her.
"I wish you a wonderful night Miss Lia."
Left alone with only herself and Cain, Lia's mind still lingered on the thoughts and shared words between her and Winslow. She couldn't quite palace the reasoning, but she suddenly felt pity for the man, as if the demons that haunted him were haunting her too.
'They are.'
Cian's voice, a voice that had remained silent throughout the entire exchange between her hand Winslow, spoke calmly, his attention returning to Lia.
"What do you mean?"
'His demons are of a grief he regrets. Your demons are caught up in regret as well. It's for different reasons, but the result is still the same."
Lia looked back down the hall, the candle Winslow was carrying was nowhere in sight.
'Regret.'
Shaking her head, trying to get the thoughts of her conversation with Winslow out of her mind, she turned back to the display case that Cain was so caught up on. His attention had been turned solely on this and she wanted to know why.
Though, perhaps, she was just looking for something to keep her mind busy. She didn't want to be reminded of her regrets, and certainly not right now.
"What is this thing? Why were you so caught up on it?"
Cain remained silent, though, whether it was from her thoughts lingering in her mind, or his own turning over her question, she didn't know.
Finally, he spoke, silently and calmly, as if the world was listening. As if he didn't want to hear his own words.
'This is a spell scroll. A powerful one at that.'
"A spell scroll. It doesn't look like much though."
'That was the point.'
Lia frowned, his words placing suspicion in her mind about what this piece of old parchment really was.
'I took a look through Winslow's mind. Apparently, the Dorrow's come from a long line of adventurers. People who went out treasure seeking.'
"So?"
'So…and I'm not clear exactly where it was found, but…it's been in their family for generations. They never knew exactly what it was, but they never really had the heart to throw it out.'
Lia looked over the parchment, seeing the old language that she couldn't read written in clear black ink, she too wondered why they kept it.
"If they didn't know what it was, then why keep it?"
'....'
"Cain?"
His voice grew quiet and for a second Lia thought for a moment that he was gone, vanished back into his plane of darkness.
But suddenly, just as quickly as he disappeared, his broken voice, not like anything Lia had heard, came back clear in her ears.
'Because it was made that way…'
"....Cain?"
She had never heard him like this before, his voice so broken it sounded like he was crying, but Lia could tell that this was not the case, but that just made her even more confused.
'Go to bed Lia. Tomorrow will be a new day…'
"Wait…Cain?"
He was gone, his presence disappearing back into his realm of darkness where he was no doubt brooding over something Lia didn't know.
She sought answers. Answers to give reason for Cain's state of mind.
Yet she found none.
Even as she looked over the parchment one last time, she saw nothing but the old runic symbols spread across the uneven paper.
And the images of a man, goblet, and snake.
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