Prologue
“come this way” she whispered
he was walking silently behind her, trying to keep quiet; he knew how dangerous taking this route to the cathedral is, especially at night.
confused by her agility, he struggled to follow behind as Sahar was hopping from ledge to ledge and running, lacking any rational concern for the obstacles in the way or ever giving a single thought about the various ways she might fall between them.
every couple of seconds she had to stop on her tracks and turn her head back to check behind her, waiting for him with visible impatience.
after some minutes of jumping between edges of windows and balconies, he could see the side wall of the huge cathedral they were heading towards.
reaching the wall in a jump - Sahar, to Aro’s surprise, landed on... nothing.
in his eyes, he only saw her hovering on the air next to the wall.
facing him, she explained “the shadows in this spot play tricks at nighttime.”
he jumped right besides her and found himself standing on a step, a hidden step that led to a staircase that was all just plainly there in front of him, but that no one could see unless they reached it. ‘were the shadows keeping this as a secret?’ he wondered.
as Sahar was walking along the staircase, Aro had to follow her to not lose himself, for the shadows made it impossible for him to distinguish even the general direction he was heading.
were they walking up the stairs? Down? Into the castle or out of it? he could not figure out.
the end was reached when they could visibly see the open mouth of the wolf at the end of the staircase waiting for them.
Sahar jumped between the sharp teeth that stood as big pillars at the entrance and landed softly on his tongue, while Aro walked cautiously inside it, stumbling between the lower set of teeth in uneasiness. now they were both inside the mouth of that giant wolf, that one could only see the head of in the darkness surrounding it.
Sahar opened a small sack that was being kept there and showed Aro the contents of it. “look” she handed him a handful of human teeth, “these are my collection so far.”
“where did u get those?” he asked
“I take them, usually from corpses that I dig up.”
“I see.”
There were a couple seconds of silence, and Aro understood now why she brought him here.
but first, Sahar had a question for him too. “so, what about the secret? That u promised to tell me, about my brother.”
“oh yes, your brother.” He answered, “im afraid he is currently in hell.”
hearing this, her expression changed in an instant.
Her face twitched sharply into the most agonized and furious look Aro has ever seen in his entire life, easily surpassing anyone else he has ever told this to.
She collapsed, falling to her knees and grabbed her head with both arms. Aro couldn’t think that it wasn’t understandable, for the news were certainly hard to bear, but the reaction was still the most extreme he had faced yet. her head turned red and her lips could not produce any other sound aside from horrifying shrieks, full of anger and anguish.
Her eyes were rushing with an incredible flow of tears that kept falling in streams to the giant tongue below.
even so she couldn’t help it, still the commotion made was much too loud, and the wolf was awakened.
instantly closing his jaws to keep them both from leaving, they were left in complete darkness inside. He opened his eyes, that had long pupils that spanned around the entire eyeballs in spirals, and directed their vision inside his head to look at Aro and Sahar.
“this place, this cathedral, once stood as a colossal light source.”, he spoke, “its vast illumination was utilized for the Masaic rituals and the royal ceremonies. It was the home for the four daughters of light. Each possessing their own vessel of the sea, the last of the four took the ship she harbored herself and escaped the invasion of the darkness that inhaled her sisters.”
Aro was not listening to the story, he was preoccupied with the stress that washed up on him over the sharp ivory cage he found himself in, with his only companion a screaming, mental girl who looks no older than 14... so as she is not of much use - what might he do, he couldnt help but ask himself, so to lift the girls spirit - and with it his chance of escape. but what of the weird tale the wolf speaks of? and for what reason will that tale be told now of all times, to him of all people? a barrage of questions and thoughts was racing his confused mind. maybe that is exactly how it happens, he thought, the sole culprit of hell itself.
So he calmed his mind. no need for questioning, his path will open before him just as the staircase that first brought him here came to light only after stepping into the shadows. he sat down and accepted his fate, whatever it might be...
And right at that very moment, on the other side of the world, a great dark fog was finally parted, and from it slowly came forth a wooden dragon figurehead, that was attached to the front of the red bow of an enormous ship. On it was a person wrapped in green rags, sailing forwards for the first time in ages.
