Paper Moons Part 10 (Patreon)

In the end, we gathered our supplies from the local vendors and headed out towards the last bits of town. There was a long stretch of land that wrapped around the market walls before spiraling out into the unknown. It was there that we made camp.

We didn’t venture far from the market. The amber lights still swung comfortingly in the background while before us, was a sea of stars and a moon so bright that it felt as if it were about to fall upon us.  I looked up at it as Gabriel began making camp, digging a small fire pit and laying out a few sleep sacks that were supposed to protect us from the night cold. It was far more bitter out here, the lack of lamplight to heat the streets making it nearly frigid.

When the fire was blazing, I began to venture outwards, searching the area. It was almost as if it were a different world here. The liveliness of the market couldn’t be heard, despite not being far from the walls at all.  The sounds of revelry, the music, the laughter, all of it was gone. Though I supposed all of that was only a mask for the desolate nature of the darker parts of the alleyway to begin with. As if they spoke of their joy and wonder loud enough, they could forget about the pain that drove them to the Night Market to begin with. Because that’s what this place was. A place for wandering pain, desperate to be forgotten.

Crouching down, I ran my hands over the soil beneath. It was thick with pebbles and dry, porous dirt.  I couldn't see a spread of grass anywhere. That in itself wasn’t as surprising as the lack of cobblestone streets. I missed the grass, though. I missed the sweet smell of hay.  I missed my home.

“It is quiet out here,” Gabriel said, voice coming from behind me.

I startled, not having heard him approach. As I turned, I saw that he had gotten the fire burning bright and had pulled out some of our rations that Reese had made sure to pack.  It was as if he were sending both his children to Sunday school for the day.  I laughed a little at the thought.

“Is the quiet amusing?” he asked.

“No,” I said with a small shake of my head.  “It was thinking of Reese. He is very protective.”

“That is a way to look at it,” Gabriel agreed.  We both looked out into the dark.  It was pitch black despite the light of the moon. That was what concerned me more than anything. There should have at least been shadows. A looming structure. An outline of a tree. Instead, it looked as if there was a wall of nothing that not even the light of the starlit sky could touch.  I didn’t know how we were supposed to venture forward.

“Is the plan to just walk?” he asked.

“We were given no reason to believe that we would not be accepted by the village.” I had a small map in my hand. The village was about a day's journey from here and I could only hope that it was worth it.  “From what I can tell, we head in that direction, making sure the moon and the brightest star stay to the right of us.”

“There are creatures wandering out there,” Gabriel said. He peered into the darkness in such a way that I wondered if he could see them.

“What kind of creatures?”

“Ones who wish for blood.”  He tipped his head to the side, eyes sparking silver. “And perhaps something more.”

“What do you mean by something more?”

“There is a hunger out there. A painful one. It is as if…” I put my hand on him to stop him. His skin was beginning to glow with grace.

“You cannot access your powers like that,” I told him.  “Preferably, until we figure this all out, you shouldn’t be using your grace whatsoever.”

He frowned, clearly bothered by this sentiment. “I am a celestial,” he stated. “How am I supposed to not use something that is innate to me?”

“I don’t know. But if you use it, you could also be a beacon for whatever is out there.”  Celestials were not hunted. Not like Gracelings. But Fallen’s were looked at as something easy to control.  I had seen it happen all too often. A Fallen was just desperately looking for comfort. They would take it however it was given.  I shuddered to think of someone like Gabriel, broken at someone's feet like that.  “Come,” I suggested. “Sit with me by the fire.  We should eat and get a good night's rest.”

I looked back into the dark, to the spot Gabriel had been looking, trying to see if there was anything lurking in the dark.  While I couldn’t see a thing, I in no way felt protected. The small knife strapped to my thigh was going to do nothing against whatever was watching us.

Closing my eyes, I shoved aside my paranoia and walked back to the fire. It was warm and did wonders to drive off the chill.  I pulled one of the blankets out and wrapped it around me as Gabriel handed me a few slices of bread and dried meat that had been packed. I ate them gratefully, never one to turn down food.  I had eaten more in the last few days than I had in months.

We were silent, the sound of the crackling fire the only thing around us. It made Gabriel shift uncomfortably and I could see that he too was not as comforted with our sleeping arrangements as we had once thought to be.  The lack of sound that was coming from the outskirts had me far more concerned than if I had even heard a howl on the wind.

Finishing my food, I laid down on my sleep sack. I was no stranger to the hard ground, having spent my youth having slumber parties in the old barn out back and sleeping on the hay.  I noticed Gabriel did not lay down.

“Do you sleep?” I asked curiously.  I had seen him in rest of course but I wasn’t sure if that was due to the grace leeching from him or actual exhaustion.

“Not often,” he said.  “Though, I do feel a sense of tiredness.” The moon shone silver, cutting across him in stark lines. It played across his dark skin in hues of silver, lighting up the cracks where his grace should be like old scars.

I curled my arm under my head, staring at him. “Does it hurt?” I asked quietly.

He knew what I was speaking of without me having to really explain.  My eyes were heavy across the paths of his skin.  The fault lines a map of where he had been and how far he had fallen.  I didn’t know much about celestials or the Knowing, but I did know that the higher within their rankings they were, the more grace was bestowed upon them. I wondered with the way Gabriel’s skin looked, if he had been someone important once. And what exactly he had done not to be there any longer.

“Not the body,” he said. “Not anymore.  It did when I first fell.  I felt as if I was on fire and yet I was cold all at once.  Now, it is the mind that bothers me more.  There is such a silence there that I find disorienting.”

“Is that what the madness is then? A silence?”

“Yes.  The absence of everything. No comforting embrace of the Knowing. No knowledge of what is to come or feeling as if the path I am taking is the most righteous. When the madness overtakes, you cannot even hear the sound of your own voice.  There is nothing. Nothing but this bleak and desolate world.”

His eyes ticked to me.

“But then I heard you.  That night you came to Reese and Elias’s, I heard you.”

I looked at the soft glow of my hand and the smooth glass like skin upon my palm. “It’s because I’m a Graceling. Something in me allows me to break through the madness.” Or at least I assumed that to be true. I didn’t quite know.  That was the problem in the end of it all.  I knew I could help. I just didn’t know how.

“How did you become blessed?” he asked.

I curled my knees a bit tighter to myself, the thick scent of a burning world filling my senses.  My father screaming for me to come back home.

“I trusted that the Knowing had answered my prayers when others did not,” I whispered.  He looked as if he were about to say something more but I turned away. My back was to him as I looked out towards the paper moon.  Tomorrow, we would begin our journey. Tomorrow, we would find it and collects its light to help Gabriel and to help others like him.

I just hoped we could reach the moon in time.

~~~~

I woke that night with a scream on my lips.  The town had been burning. The church bell had fallen from the tower and smashed upon the ground wetly, the heat from the sky turning the golden steel into nothing more than mush. I was begging them. Begging them all to please just come with me. Not to stay.  But they weren’t listening.  Each one of them were on their knees, holding their loved ones and praying for a quick defeat. Because they believed. They knew this was the path our world was supposed to take. Our time to join the light had come.

But I didn’t want to. I was seventeen and not ready to die.

The heat was unbearable though and my legs felt as if they could move no longer and the children were crying all around me and…

“Shhh….” Strong arms were around me and the grace in my palm pulsed bright, lighting the dark lanternless world around us.  I was on the ground, fingers curled in the dirt, with Gabriel kneeling beside me, holding me to his chest.  I reached out to cling to him, simply for the source of grounding as the world turned into something less fiery.

My throat tasted like ash and my eyes burned with tears. Gabriel was cool against me however, leaving my heart to calm.

“You were having a nightmare,” he told me.

I was reliving a memory.

Pulling away from him, I wiped at my eyes.

“Do you wish to speak about it? I hear that is helpful.”

I shook my head. “No. I– No. No I don’t wish to speak about it.” We sat there, kneeling upon the ground.  I suddenly felt unsafe, the grace in my palm stinging.  “Something is wrong,” I told him.  The pain was sharp, as if cutting through me. I gasped, clutching my hand to my chest. “Something is terribly wrong.”

A wet growl could be heard somewhere in the dark, along with the clacking of teeth.

[[Go investigate the dark]]

[[Find a place to hide]]

[[Pack up and move towards the village. Stay wary]]