The Ember Thief

Chapter Six - RemEmber

I can recall the memory, from my childhood, of a tinker who would travel around the villages with a dancing bear. People would gather with pockets full of tala, and beg him to fetch the giant beast out of its cage, to which the tinker would gaily agree. After forcing her up on her hind legs, he would then drag the bear around the crowds on a chain attached to a metal collar, to rapturous applause and laughter. If it didn't move, then a barbed stick around the back of the head would always be persuasive. The poor creature would then be carelessly tied to the ground while the tinker passed his hat around to collect his coins. I often wondered what that majestic animal would have done if it had realised that the only thing holding her to a life of cruelty and avarice, was a six-inch wooden stake held loosely in the ground. I look around and see people just like that bear - prisoners in their own mind.

Raide's fingers twitched. He sat head down, slumped on a small spoon-back chair. His arms dangled lifelessly over the sides. A warm light, from above, cast a spotlight around him and the bare stone floor. Despite the appearance of the old wooden chair, he felt comfortable and strangely at peace.

'I need you,' an ethereal voice drifted through the air.

He flinched before wearily raising his head, seeing nothing but darkness beyond the stark, circular light in which he sat.

'Over here,' the voice danced playfully around him.

Raide tilted his head back, squinting at the light above his head. 'Where are you?' he croaked, placing a hand in front of his face, shielding his eyes from the light.

'This way - come to me, my child,' the woman's voice whispered in the breeze of the shadows.

Raide stood up, looking in all directions. 'I don't understand. Who are you?' his own voice sounding cavernous.

'Come find me in the prison; follow my voice,' she rasped. 'Don't be afraid of the dark.'

Raide hesitated, staring at the curtain of black all around him. He pushed his hand out towards the shadow before being enveloped in its cold waters. Raide swam in the inky blackness for what seemed like several lifetimes until he found himself dashing down a maze of dimly lit corridors. A metal loop of keys jangled against his leg as he ran. Heavy doors lined the corridors, and each one was closed with a rusty bar sitting steadfast against the doorframe. Ahead, he saw one door broken outwards, hanging limply from its hinge. A subtle light, from the inside of the room, brushed the corridor floor over the debris of wood. He ran down and stopped outside the vacant room. Underneath a pile of straw, a broken sign lay on the floor with the number one-one-seven barely legible.

'Raide, my child,' her voice came from behind.

Raide turned around to face the heavy door opposite. 'Where are you?' he mumbled, pulling the thick metal ring on the door. It was sealed tightly. He knelt and pressed his face to the keyhole. There was an unusual thickness to the shadows inside. The odour of burnt flesh and rotting meat wafted through the latch.

'Finally, we get to talk,' her voice, firm, but gentle, came from inside the cell. 'Just us.'

Raide tried to focus on the shapes in the room. 'Wisp? Wisp is that you?'

Her laugh was colourful as if it swept through all the emotions in one breath. 'No, my name is Sera.'

He pushed his eye closer to the keyhole. 'I can't see you.'

'I'm here, in the corner. Follow my voice,' Sera whispered.

Raide followed the voice to the far edge of the hold. The room was thick with shadows, but his eyes began to slowly adjust. Buried in the corner, he could just about make out the pale face of a woman. Both of her iris' glinted like polished onyx stone. Only her gaunt face and the whites of her eyes were visible in the dark. 'How did you end up in here?' he said, through the latch.