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Out of the Shadows

Lyda did not sleep a wink that night or the following morning. The atmosphere of the cellar did not get any less dark or heavy after her mother took Adea away. Once the cellar door had been closed and the others were out of sight, Matthias snatched Lyda up by the front collar of her silk garment, stretching it as he hoisted her up and threw her onto the bed. Lyda cried out as her head banged against the wall and could only stare up at her father's furious face, unable to hide her intimidation.

Matthias had demanded to know what she was thinking when she threatened her sister's life like that, but Lyda could only lie there in silence, shocked by what she had done, but no matter how hard she searched for the feeling, she felt no shame. Matthias stood over her, continuing to grill her relentlessly over her actions before finally questioning the nature of her marred eye. Unable to control herself, Lyda confessed that she had seen Aunt Mara's old book and had since thoroughly studied its texts regarding the Spirits. Matthias was visibly astonished by such news and demanded to know what else she had done, going as far as to lean over her and scream in her face. His enraged voice was so powerful that she could not help but cower away until she lost all control and confessed that she was responsible for Iris' death.

This news caught Matthias off guard even more than the last. When he asked her to explain, Lyda broke down and told him how Iris had urged her to admit to everything she had been dabbling with. Lyda insisted that she never laid a hand to Iris, but that she had orchestrated her demise nonetheless.

By now, Lyda's entire body was trembling as her father backed off of her. There was a long silence as Matthias stared down at her, unsure of how to handle everything he had just heard. Eventually, he broke the silence by saying with a quiet but stern voice, "Stay right where you are. You are not to leave the cellar until further notice. Do you understand me?" Lyda could only give a shaky nod as her father turned to head out of the cellar, taking Lyda's knife with him.

After revealing to Alyra everything that happened in the cellar, Matthias later returned to board up the door, unwilling to leave the cottage with Lyda able to roam free, at least not until all this was sorted out. The next morning, Alyra wept into his arms, begging him one last time not to go to the Valley. "There must be another way," she had persisted, but Matthias could do nothing but try to assure her that it would all be over soon.

Once he had left, Alyra tried to take her mind off everything but comforting Adea. She made breakfast for the two of them, but neither of them found the appetite to eat much. Adea asked if everything was going to be alright and if the Valley would really sentence Lyda to hang. Alyra could not bear the thought, and just to distract them, she asked her daughter to come out and help her in the garden, if only to make the day feel like any other day.

In the dark confines of the cellar, Lyda had spent the early hours of the morning pacing around with anxiety, wondering what was going to happen when her father returned. Much of her did not want to find out. She had tried several times to force the door open but to no avail. It would not budge thanks to her father's boarding. She felt hopeless as if everyone she knew and loved had abandoned her. As far as she was concerned, there was only one thing she had left to turn to. The only thing that had gotten her this far.

Before he locked her down here, her father had confiscated the sheet she had made for meditating. She didn't need it, she told herself. She didn't need anything. Lyda just sat in the middle of the cellar, closed her eyes, and allowed her mind to go blank and wander. She was done asking herself had it had all come to this. Instead, she called out to whatever Spirits might be listening and asked what she was meant to do. Betrayed. Forsaken. Abandoned. There were no better words to describe how she felt toward her family right now. Her own sister, just like Iris, had dared to cross her, and now her father had run off to the Valley, surely to put her to death without a second thought. The idea filled Lyda with an indescribable rage. She refused to sit back and wait like some sort of sick dog.

Her instincts leading the way, Lyda pulled herself to her feet and climbed up the stairs to the door. She pushed against it in vain, as if expecting the boards and nails to budge this time. She took a deep breath to urge herself to calm down. Closing her eyes again, she reached out and planted her hand firmly against the door. The cold, dank air began to pick up and swirl around her. She smiled as she could feel it; a presence.

Lyda did not open her eyes, Goosebumps began to raise all over her limbs when she felt another hand press against her own. It was large, cold, and clammy, but Lyda stifled her fear and focused all her attention on what she was trying to do. The other hand pressed harder. On the other side of the door, Lyda could feel the movement of the nails being pried from the door frame. With each passing second, she focused harder and harder, until at last, she heard a thud just beyond the door.

Lyda's eyes flew open. The hand she felt against hers was gone. She glanced around the cellar, but there was nobody else there. Turning her attention back to the door. She twisted the doorknob and, to her surprise, the door pushed open. Just outside, the boards her father put up were lying on the floor, still nailed together as though somebody had simply pulled them out. Lyda felt a warm, malevolent sensation course throughout her blood. She raised her head and gave a slow, aroused exhale and grew a wide smile upon her face.

It took Matthias half the time to ride to the Valley at full gallop without having to pull a carriage. He had left at dawn, hoping to get there just after sunrise and put an end to this whole situation as fast as possible so he could return to his family. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain Lyda's confession of murder. The Mistresses did not constitute the governing body of the Valley and its surrounding territories, but it was their duty as much as anybody's to report things like this to the house of the Chief. Whatever it took, he would not allow them to take his daughter away.

Upon riding into the Valley, Matthias left his horse at the stables and made his way to the Hall of the Mistresses. It was the largest building near the western edge of the village, similar in architecture to a church or temple. Matthias approached the steps leading up to the hall and was met at the door by a young woman in a dark blue cloak.

"Who may I tell the Mistresses is calling?" the woman asked with a blank expression.

"My name is Matthias," he answered grimly. "I live out on the eastern ridge overlooking the Dividing Mountains. It's about my daughter, Lyda."

At the sound of his daughter's name, the young woman's eyes seemed to light up. She told him to wait there while she withdrew into the hall. A couple of minutes later, an elder woman emerged, wearing a similar cloak but lighter in color and woven with intricate, gold patterns. Matthias recognized her immediately as the Healer Mistress.

"Good morning, my son," she greeted him with a short smile.

"Rhea," Matthias said, bowing his head in respect. "I wish I was here on better terms."

"Whatever it is, we'll make it right," the old Mistress assured him. "As soon as I heard dear Lyda's name, I knew I had to help in any way I could."

"Thank you. But I think this may be beyond your area of expertise. I need to speak with Hama."

Rhea's expression shifted to a cold frown. Hama, the Mistress of the Oracles. She was the eldest among the congregation and the only other one Matthias would ask for regarding Lyda. Rhea shuddered as she knew that this could not be a good sign. She beckoned for Matthias to follow as she led him into the hall. She took him up a flight of stairs along the right side of the enormous atrium. There were a series of rooms situated along the corridor on the second level. Rhea guided him around the corner to a large cell at the far end. She knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a somewhat hoarse voice told them to enter.

As Matthias entered the room, he looked around to see it decorated top to bottom with peculiar-looking tapestries and shelves stocked with various charms and incense that filled the air with sweet aromas. The two were met by a woman who looked about as ancient as the Spirits, draped with a cloak of crimson and silver. Matthias distinctly remembered Hama as the Mistress who denied Lyda the chance to train as an oracle, and he rightly so, he had come to believe.

"Thank you for seeing me," Matthias said, lowering his head to her as well.

"You come regarding your daughter," Hama uttered in her aged voice.

Matthias' raised his eyebrows. "How did you-"

"Because you would not come to the Mistress of the Oracles for any other reason," Hama cut him off.

Matthias nodded. "It's serious."

"You didn't heed my warnings, did you?" Hama said coldly.

"We did. We did everything in our power to keep the Spirits out of her teachings. She found a way to dabble with the subject on her own."

"Perhaps it was her own mentor who let her down," Hama replied, glancing at the Healer Mistress.

"I don't know about that. Lyda claims to have found an old book that belonged to my late sister. I think she used it to study its religious texts and rituals."

"Rituals?" Hama repeated, sounding surprised by the word. "What are you talking about?"

Matthias was not sure how to explain himself. "Lyda mentioned a ritual she had been messing with."

"My child," Hama began to stutter. "There are no rituals constituted by the Spirits of the Light."

"What are you saying?"

"If it's true what you say about your daughter dabbling in ritualistic practices, then it is anything but holy." Hama stepped toward Matthias, staring directly at him as she ran her thumb above his right eye. "Tell me, what of her eye?"

"What about it?"

"Is there anything peculiar about it?"

Matthias' heart skipped a beat. "I'm not sure when it started, but it has gone yellow as if stricken with a disease. My sister experienced the same thing."

"Il vah'Sel," Hama said under her breath. "Where is she now?"

I locked her up in the cellar until I return."

"You should not have left her alone!" Hama exclaimed. "You should have brought her before me immediately! I'm afraid the reality of this situation is far darker than you realize. Go now! Bring her to me! Hurry!" She ushered Matthias out of the room and urged Rhea to lead him back outside. Matthias tried to ask what was so serious, but neither of them would answer. They only pressed him to hurry back to the cottage and not to return without Lyda. It made his heart pound within his chest. The only thing he could think to do was what he was told. He hurried back to the stables, mounted his horse and made a beeline for the path leading up into the mountains.

The return trip was even quicker as Matthias made haste across the mountain paths. His mind swarmed with thoughts wondering what the Mistress was talking about. All that mattered was that he got Lyda to the hall as fast as possible.

As he emerged from the tree line along the ridge approaching the cottage, he spotted his wife and youngest daughter out in the garden. What were they doing out there instead of resting, he asked himself. He rode into the backyard, dismounting his horse before he even got to the stables. Alyra and Adea looked up from the garden. "Where is Lyda?" he huffed as he ran over to them.

"In the cellar," Alyra pointed toward the cottage. "You locked her down there, remember?"

Matthias shook his head as he charged toward the cottage. He burst through the back door, and that was when he saw it. The cellar door was open and the boards he had nailed to the frame were removed. Not broken, rather pried from their foundation. Matthias ran down into the cellar and scanned the dark area, but Lyda was nowhere to be seen. There was no denying it. She had escaped.

As Matthias made his way back out of the cellar, he refused to believe that either of the others might have released her. It did not matter, as far as he was concerned. He had to find her. His first thought was that she may have run off without the other two knowing. Perhaps that would have been wise. However, he would not feel the least bit comfortable until he searched every corner of the cottage. He swiftly searched around the den and the kitchen before heading upstairs.

The first place he looked was Adea's room. Lyda had once shared it with her, so it didn't hurt to check. He looked under the bed and anywhere else that a grown woman might fit, but he found nothing. The next he checked was the storage closet across the hallway, but the door was locked, just as he had always kept it, and there was no way Lyda could have locked herself inside. That was all he needed to dismiss the possibility. The only other place to check was his bedroom. Just like Adea's room, he checked under the bed, inside the closet, and in the bathroom at the far side. Nobody.

Matthias let out a sigh mixed with relief and despair. He turned to head back out of the room. Just as he reached the doorway, Lyda suddenly stepped in his path. Matthias let out a gasp of surprise that was immediately followed by a sharp pain in his abdomen that ripped the breath from his body. He tried to move his arms but they were completely immobilized. The only thing he could do was lower his trembling head to see a large hunting knife sticking halfway into his stomach, and on the other end of it was the grasp of his oldest daughter.

Matthias was stunned and unable to breathe as he looked into his daughter's eyes. The right eye was glowing more yellow than ever, but in both of them was a sinister look of evil that he had never seen before. Just then, Lyda placed a firm hand against his chest and pushed him back toward the bed. She drove the knife deeper into his abdomen until it was stopped by the hilt. Matthias grunted and choked on his blood as Lyda lowered him onto the bed.

"Shhh," she uttered, sounding almost aroused by what she was doing. "Time to be quiet now, as you should've been."

Lyda ripped the hunting knife from her father's stomach. Suddenly, she heard a loud scream behind her. Lyda whipped her head around to see Alyra standing in the doorway, a look of total shock on her face at the bloody sight of her dying husband right in front of her eyes. Lyda followed her gaze as it moved toward the massive knife in her hand. Just then, she lifted the knife in front of her, and in a gesture that sickened Alyra to the core, she ran her tongue along the blood-soaked side of the blade. She looked back at Alyra and grew a wide smile, displaying teeth stained with her father's blood. "Hello, Mother."

Alyra was frozen where she stood, unable to process all that she was seeing. She could only scream as her daughter suddenly lunged at her with the knife. Alyra stumbled back and Lyda shoved her against the wall, driving the knife straight through her heart. Alyra's scream was instantly silenced as she gave a sickening cough that spewed blood onto her daughter's face. Lyda merely blinked to keep it from getting into her eyes, and with a malicious grin upon her face, she twisted the knife within her chest cavity before ripping it out again. Alyra's eyes rolled back and her head fell forward.

Outside in the garden, Adea jumped to her feet when she could have sworn she heard the sound of her mother screaming. Alyra had gone in after her father moments after he charged inside to see what was the matter, and now, neither of them had come out. Adea had no idea what was going on. The screams sounded like that had come from upstairs, and Lyda was supposed to be locked in the cellar. She waited for a few more minutes before the curiosity became too much to bear. Whatever was going on, she could not wait for her parents to come back out. Overcome with anxiety, Adea made her way toward the cottage.

She slipped quietly through the back door, freezing when she looked over at the cellar door and saw the boards lying on the floor. Her breath began to stutter as she tried to listen for any sounds throughout the cottage, but it was deathly silent. "Mother?" she struggled to call out. "Father?" There was no response. She was becoming so scared that she was not even thinking about where he footsteps took her. She made her way toward the stairs and climbed up as quietly as she could, occasionally leaning forward into a crawl to stifle any noise she was making. It was so quiet in the house that her flustered breathing sounded deafening to her.

Adea's eyes fell upon the open door to her parents' bedroom. "Mother?" she called again, this time in little more than a whisper. Still, nobody answered. She was almost at the door when her nose twitched, detecting a rancid, copper-like scent. A second later, she peeked around the corner into her parents' bedroom.

Adea gasped in terror, unable to find the strength to scream. Her parents were both lying on the bed, dead and covered in their own blood. She was not mentally able to process the sight before her, but from what she could see, a huge, gaping hole had been carved into each of their chests, right where the heart would be. Tears were running down her face. She felt the urge to fall to her hands and knees and vomit until she heard a familiar voice that, for the first time in her life, terrified her to hear.

"Together again, as we were from the beginning."

Adea turned a shaky head to see Lyda now standing in the doorway of her bedroom, leaning against the frame and fiddling with the bloody knife in her hand. Adea's eyes shot wide open, her mouth hanging open in horror. "What have you done?" she muttered in terror. "What have you done?!"

"What they made me do," Lyda replied, disturbingly calm. "What Iris made me do. Tell me, little sister, are you going to make me do it, too?"

Adea's heart was racing. A cold chill swept over her body and she began to panic. "Get away from me!" she screamed. As if that set her off, Lyda's face shifted to an almost animalistic expression as she cried out and lunged at her sister.

Adea let out a scream of terror as she quickly backed into her parents' bedroom. She slammed the door shut and twisted the lock just as Lyda threw herself at the door. She banged against it ferociously, swearing and demanding her sister to open it. Adea fell back onto the floor as Lyda began putting the knife through the door. She continued to scream, her head darting this way and that as if looking for a way out.

In a matter of seconds, Lyda had broken the door to pieces. She kicked the splintered door off its hinges and barged into the bedroom. Before she could look around the room for her prey, Adea leaped out from behind the dresser beside the doorway. In a fit of terror, she unwittingly threw a punch at Lyda's face. Lyda grunted in shock and swung her hunting knife at Adea's head. Adea ducked and ran out of the room as fast as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs as she charged down the stairs with her sister right behind her.

Adea did not know where she was going to go. All that mattered was getting away from her psychotic sister. She had never been so scared in her life. She ran down the stairs so fast that she stumbled into the wall at the bottom, only to be faced with the terrifying sight of Lyda nearly on top of her. Her muscles reacting on an impulse, she pushed off the wall and sprinted down the foyer toward the back door, ducking just in time to avoid the swing of Lyda's knife. She cried out in vain for help, holding her breath as she sensed Lyda ready to reach out and snatch her by the collar. Before Adea could reach the door, she tripped over her own two feet and fell face first hard onto the floor. Grunting in pain, she flipped over on her back as Lyda was on top of her.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Adea saw something swing from the corner of her eye and slam right into Lyda's face. Lyda cried out as the object swept her off her feet and she fell onto her back, stunned and disoriented. Adea's eyes shot over to see Eran standing there, holding the boards that had been nailed to the cellar door. The look on his face told Adea that he was just as alarmed and confused as she was. Nevertheless, Adea leaped to her feet and threw herself into Eran's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"What the hell's going on?" Eran asked, staring down at Lyda, who was rubbing at her forehead in pain.

Adea was so distraught that it took her a moment to regain her ability to even speak. "Eran! She killed them! She murdered my parents and then she tried to kill me! I've never been so scared!"

It was almost too difficult to understand what she was saying amidst her crying, but Eran pulled her close and urged her to be quiet and relax. Once she had calmed down a bit, Eran asked her to explain herself again. Adea was drowning in tears and shaking in his arms.

Suddenly, Lyda rolled over and jumped to her feet. Adea let out a frightened scream as she stepped behind Eran. "You bitch!" Lyda screeched, the look of a terrifying predator in her dichromatic eyes.

Eran raised an arm in front of Adea as if to protect her. "That's enough, Lyda!" he shouted. "It's over! You're gonna answer for what you've done!"

Just then, Lyda's eyes went wide with panic. "No!" she screamed, whipping around to make a beeline down the foyer toward the front door.

Eran made a move to run after her, but Adea snatched him by the arm. "Don't leave me, please!" she cried. Eran glanced back and forth from her to Lyda until she had bolted out the door and was gone. Once all had gone quiet, Adea threw herself into Eran's arms again and wept. She asked over and over why all this had to happen as Eran ran a hand through her hair, desperately trying to comfort her, but he was unable to keep from shedding tears of his own. He wanted to go upstairs to see the bodies of her parents, but Adea only pleaded with him not to look at them.

In a matter of moments, her parents were dead, her sister was gone, and she feared she had completely lost her home. Adea was in anything but a mental state to think clearly. Unsure of how to handle such a terrible situation, Eran assured her that they would go to the Valley to report the incident, ensure that her parents could get a proper funeral, and that Lyda would be caught. Adea was relieved to hear this but still could not bear the thought of her own sister's execution. She blamed herself, for if she had simply refused to go with Lyda to the Crossing all those years ago, none of this would have happened.

As night fell, Eran took Adea back to his cottage at the bottom of the mountain where she would be safe. When Ellis learned what happened, he nearly lost his mind, proclaiming that he wanted to hunt Lyda down himself. Their parents were greatly sympathetic and allowed Adea to stay with them in light of what happened. Eran graciously gave her his bed to sleep in, but was forced to sleep in the den.

Despite how exhausted she was, Adea had no sleep in her system. She lied awake for hours in Eran's bed, staring wide-eyed at every little sound down to the rustling of the leaves outside. Eran had left the bedroom window open, thinking it best that she get a lot of fresh air after everything she had just been through. However, Adea felt increasingly uneasy as listened to the breezes flowing through the trees and the animals running across the fallen leaves. At last, she mustered up enough strength to get up to close the window.

Adea was reminded of the horrific nightmares she experienced so many years ago as she reached through the window to pull the flaps closed. It was setting her on edge, and part of her fearfully expected to see the same yellow-eyed demonic shadow that haunted her dreams for years staring back at her, but there was nothing. Adea pulled the flaps in and locked them. She let out a sigh of relief but flinched when something small and sharp seemed to pinch her on the side of the neck. Thinking it was just an insect, Adea reached up to brush it away, only to pull a tiny dart from the flesh of her neck.

Adea let out a gasp of shock, dropping the dart as she quickly began to feel weak and numb. Before she could even think about what to do, her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor. She managed to turn her head over enough to see somebody walking over to kneel beside her.

"We're not done yet." She was horrified to hear the sinister sound of her sister's voice whispering in her ear. "Tonight we finish what we started all those years ago"

In a matter of seconds, Adea lost all control of her muscles to the point that she could not lift a finger. Lyda just knelt by her side, waiting, until at last her vision was swallowed into darkness.