The Blade Witch: Songs of Eldrin, Book 0.5

Chapter Thirteen - Shadows Beneath the Light

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One day he would marry a sister. That was an undeniable conclusion that Brennan had come to. There wasn't a single ugly one at the convent and they all gave him sweets. In comparison to his work, it seemed that he was by far getting the best of the arrangement.

The duty Goffried had left him with was to lead sister Jennah through the catacombs once a week and help her gather whatever strange things happened to catch her eye. She was his favorite and had also been the prettiest of them until the new sister Helena had shown up a few weeks ago. Helena was much closer to his age and Brennan knew he might have fallen in love with that one if she weren't already thick with child.

He looked back at the new sister's ever-present grin, smiling back at her, but wondering why she'd been brought down into the catacombs with the rest of them. This journey wasn't like the others with Jennah. His usual companion was there, but as Goffried had returned, so he'd also brought nearly a dozen others that he called Holy Mothers. These women were different from the other sisters in more than just title. Not even one of them showed signs of kindness, they all walked with their eyes on the ground, mumbled prayers non-stop, and not one of them was nice-looking.

"We close yet boy?" Goffried asked him, auburn torchlight bounding off his exposed blade.

Brennan didn't offer a response, instead, he turned the corner and let the ashah find the answer for himself. He watched Goffried pause for a moment, gaping at the doors that Brennan had tread through dozens of times. The space beyond was strange enough, surely, but so were the rest of the things the Faith had hidden within the catacombs.

The Holy Mothers' prayers grew more intense, their chanting turning into a reverent hum as they entered the chamber. Brennan looked at the ornately carved mural on the far side of the wall, once again pondering what the strange symbols meant.

"Start going about your tasks boy and be quick about it," Goffried tossed him a satchel and joined the others in their preparations.

Brennan watched closely, his hands flowing through the same procedural motions of setting out candles and scrubbing the new layers of dust away until the room shined. While Goffried stood at the entrance like a glorified guard dog, Jennah had been allotted the same bottom of the barrel duties as him, being left to stand in front of the mural and examine its strange symbols as she always did.

Helena was the only one of them that got any special treatment. She stood in front of the stone slab at the center of the room, both hands resting on her stomach with worriment marring her comely features while the Holy Mothers gathered around her. A creeping apprehension found its way into the room. It slithered along the flooring, winding its way around Brennan's knees to speed up the beating of his heart. Brennan rose from the floor, making sure to avoid Goffried's eye as he made his way over to Jennah.

"I don't like this Jen," Brennan whispered. He'd asked Goffried what was about to happen plenty of times during their trek, only to be told that the man himself didn't know before he got cuffed over the back of his head. Apparent the Holy Mothers were above even an ashah in the Faith's hierarchy. "Feels like something's about to happen. Something bad."

The sister looked down at him with a look that mirrored his own. "Wish I had answers for you, but they don't tell me much either. The only reason they brought me is because I studied the God's Tongue for a while. That's what those symbols on the wall are. The written form of the ancient language."

Brennan turned towards the Holy Mother's. There was an audible hum rising from the walls that weirdly distorted his senses, almost like he was watching everything from a dream.

"Time's come," Goffried said approaching the pair of them. Jen wavered, looking as if she might argue, before nodding and moving to convene her findings with the Holy Mother's in hushed tones. "Back of the room with you boy," Goffried jerked a thumb towards the entry. The ashah followed behind him, his tongue poking at his cheeks while he watched the ritual continue.

"I'm only going to warn you once," the ashah bent over to mutter in his ear. "If you hold any value to your life, don't anything to intervene."

The puzzling threat caused a tremble in Brennan's spine that he was too preoccupied to hide. One of the Holy Mother's was arguing with Jennah, their arms thrusting towards the mural while their words were drowned out by the hymns of the others. The situation was getting out of hand quickly. Jennah yelled something at Helena that made the color flush from the pregnant woman's cheeks.

Helena looked about wildly, like a doe caught in a pack of wolves. The Holy Mother's reached for her, their prayers cut short, but the mind-numbing hum continuing to deafen the chamber. A dagger rose in the air and Jennah flew away from the altar, blood dripping from the gash in her arm. Brennan was halfway across the room before he'd even realized he was moving. Something struck him across the back of his legs, bringing his face to meet the floor with a thud.

He looked up just in time to catch the worst of it. Helena was splayed out on the table, a pair of hands holding down each of her limbs. The dagger crossed her throat, bringing forth a flow of crimson. The glistening steel moved down, opening her belly. Blood flowed over the edge of the altar, falling to the floor like miniature waterfalls. Instead of pooling on the ground to stain the spot of the atrocity, the crimson flow streamed together, finding passages through cracks in the floor, making its way towards the mural as if it were being sucked in. it climbed up the etchings, outlining the symbols of the stone and revealing it for what it truly was.

The crease of the doorway appeared ever so slightly, bringing forth a cloud of black smoke. The corrupting miasma screamed of a holy place besmirched with sin. With a silent voice, it swore divine retribution, corruption, defilement. Even as the blinding light within cascaded around the room, the corruption poured into the Holy Mothers. They screamed out, crying that this was wrong, that this wasn't what they intended. They raised their hands in the air, flailing about with muffled prayers to the Enlightened, begging for mercy. Their bodies warped into the first of the horrid creatures that would continue to roam the passages of the catacombs.

Goffried's boots stomped down next to Brennan's face. The boy looked up to see the fear painted on the ashah's face as the man watched the crease began to grow. A noise finally found its way above the clamor, the sounds of new life, the birth cries of a baby. Goffried flew toward the altar, shoving away the writhing forms of what had once been the Holy Mothers. Brennan lost sight of the others as he fought his way forward. A clawing fear threatened to overtake him as he thought Jennah and the ashah had been lost to the corruption as well, but both emerged in a terrified sprint, Jennah covered in blood with a bundle swaddled in her robes.

They rushed towards Brennan as he rose from the ground, the corruption spread across the floor towards them, boiling forth with whispers of harm to come. Goffried shouted something at him, pulling him towards the exit.

Despite how hard he tried, Brennan couldn't resist a last look back into the chamber and what he saw would forever stay with him. Instead of laying on the altar in death, Helena sat facing the gateway, still as stone. She refused to die, to pass away in the confines of this place. Instead of struggling against the corruption as the Holy Mothers had, she did the opposite. She accepted it, allowing it to change her body and darken her soul. It saw her for what she was, a victim, and it made her an offer; one that she gladly accepted.

Above her Brennan caught the slightest glimpse of what lay beyond the doors, it burned his brain, branding him with knowledge that he was far too young to comprehend. A powerful hand finally forced him to turn away from the scene. He left confused and scared, his bladder running hot and uncontrolled, knowing that this wasn't the last they'd seen of Helena.