Paper Moons Part 11 (Patreon)

“I don’t think this is the right place for us,” I said, trying to keep my voice low. Gabriel was already packing up the meager supplies and dousing the fire to our camp.  Without a word, he ushered me off towards a darker portion of the outlands.  When I began digging the map from my pocket, he waved me quickly off.

“I memorized it already.” I glanced down at the paper in my hand. To my knowledge, he had only seen it for a brief few moments.  “It is a perk I obtained after the Fall,” he told me.  “I need only look at something once.” His footsteps were rushed as we set out away from whatever was lurking in the dark.  I wanted to find a source of light to read the map myself, but as the lights of the market began to fade, we were faced with nothing but an inky horizon.  Placing a hand in front of me, I struggled to see even the barest outline of my fingers.  Even my grace was swallowed by the pitch of night.

When I stumbled, Gabriel caught me by the elbow.  “You do not have night vision,” he observed.

“No. I was human before coming to the Night Market.”

I felt his grip shift on my arm then, holding me in such a way that guided me.  “Is this alright?”

His hand felt warm against my skin, gripping me just a bit too hard as he helped navigate me over what felt like an unbearable rocky terrain. Though, I had a suspicion it only seemed as such due to my lack of sight. It was odd, being without one of my senses. The vision I had taken for granted was all but gone now and I was relying entirely on Gabriel to lead me to safety.

“It’s alright,” I told him.

“If you would like, I could carry you. I am almost certain we would move faster.”

Suddenly I was wondering what his arms would feel like. If I would be weightless in his grip. If he was gentle.  I felt my heart flutter a little in my chest over the romanticism of it all but quickly pushed it away. I had read more than my fair share of romance novels in my youth and my thoughts were starting to wander. All this man was just trying to do was get us where we were going without me falling and breaking my neck.

“I prefer to walk,” I told him. “Though your guidance is appreciated.”

He didn’t respond but kept us moving forward, the faint glow from his eyes providing a soft sort of comfort.  It did little to light the way but offered a soft outline of his face, the line of his jaw the only thing I could see.

We walked in silence for a bit and after a while, I let myself trust him.  After all, he was a celestial. The very creatures that I had prayed to for guidance as a child.

“What do you know about the outlands?” I asked him.

“Very little,” he said. “Only that it is what surrounds the market itself.  I am assuming it is a place of exile.”

“They say that the Night Market was not even up top years and years ago. That it was once a sprawling city underground. But then everything began to cave in so they had to move up top.  The Outlands may be the ruins of the old city.” I paused.  “Or, they are exile encampments.  The Velvet Guard does seem to send the worst of their lot out to wander this terrain.” It was a death sentence.  If you couldn’t see in the dark, I didn’t see how you would survive out here unless you were able to stumble upon civilization.

“I heard the Velvet Guard has other means to punishment. Why would they exile the worst of them outside of the city when their flesh pits and auction blocks are much more profitable?”

I shivered a little.  The flesh trade in the market was far worse than the Velvet Guard wished to let on. I knew that my hand alone was worth more than a year's pay for most.

“Maybe they feel bad?” Though it was clear I was just trying to make sense of a nonsensical situation.  Panic was beginning to swell within me the further we walked. “Do you think we have made a mistake, Gabriel? Coming out here like we are.  Do you suppose that these people will even help us? If they are the ones that not even the Velvet Guard will keep, what reason do they have to show us any sort of compassion?”

“Because it is the correct thing to do,” he told me.

“Not everyone operates under that assumption.”

“Perhaps not. But most I believe do. The world is not a terrible place unless we make it one.”

I had believed that.  It was what I had been taught my entire life.  But what was I supposed to do in the face of a world burning.  What had we done to deserve that? Terrible actions fell upon my people and for reasons I couldn’t fathom. Then again, maybe I had not known the full extent of my village's actions. Maybe we had deserved death in the end.

“You seem contemplative,” he observed.

“It’s nothing. I just wish to make it to the village.”

“Then we will focus on that.”

The night grew cold. Far colder than either of us were prepared for and along with the sound of our crunching boots, I could hear my teeth chattering.  I could no longer feel my toes and each breath I took felt like a sharp pain that was slicing across my chest. While Gabriel gave no indication that he was cold, his fingers felt stiff against me.  I was near suggesting that we find a source of light to look at the map, simply for something to say out load, but at this point, we had been traveling for hours and had found nothing nearby that could offer us shelter.  The only logical thing I could think to do was make another fire and hope that it did not attract the wrong sort of company.

But just as I was about to suggest this, the sky burst with light. The moon appeared from behind a large mountain I had not even known was there, silver and heavy in the sky.  I gasped as I looked upwards. It was far larger than I had ever seen. I lifted my hand. As if I could touch it.  My skin was frosted in the moonlight, crystallized with bits of ice. When I turned to Gabriel, he looked fragmented through the ice that clung to my lashes.

“The village has to be nearby,” he murmured. “The map indicated it to be right here.”

I looked but there was nothing. Not even a speck of smoke. Just the looming mountain range and the moon perched atop its peak.

“We could travel upwards towards it,” Gabriel was saying. “Though I cannot determine how long it will take, and your heartbeat is slowing to a concerning extent.” He looked none too concerned about it but it had the desired effect of making it pump a bit harder.

“No, I don’t think we were duped. I believe our map to be accurate. We just have to look a bit more.  Maybe they are behind one of the bends of the mountain or…”

There was a humming that echoed through the mountain.

It took a moment to follow the sound but when I did, I saw the silhouette of a form, bathed in shadow and moonlight. The girl was dancing upon the jagged ridge of a worn mountain trail, her pointed feet bare and hopping from rock to rock. She wore a ragged dress, torn and frayed, and her long blonde hair fell in dirty waves down her back.  Yet there was a beauty there. Something I was not quite used to. She was young and unassuming and looked as if she belonged to the night.

“She is singing to the moon,” Gabriel said.

“How can you tell?” I couldn’t make out what she was saying which was odd all on its own.  The market usually translated all languages for us but we may have been too far back.

“I can feel it,” Gabriel whispered with a frown, not understanding his own words.

Approaching, we tried to keep our steps loud so as not to startle her.  But even as I called out to her, she did not stop her dancing.  She only laughed, looking at the two of us before curtsying. Then, she danced down the side of the mountain as if it were nothing.

Without a discussion, we followed her. Walking as fast as we could, we wove through the mountain path to where she had been, spying a faint glowing hole within the rock surface. The amber light of a warm fire danced across glass steps that led down into the earth.

“Do you think this is the village?” I asked.  Gabriel exchanged a look with me. Hand on his sword, he began making his way down.

The stairs were a straight shot and I had to keep my eyes forward so as not to feel like I would tip into the abyss below. The walls were all made of juts of glass and crystal, reflecting beautiful frozen images of fire from within.  They gave off heat though, warming my nearly frozen skin and dousing my hair with sweat.  As we rounded a bend, the cavern suddenly opened up below, boasting the same frozen fire glass along with a sprawling city beneath.

“Halt,” a soft rumble came from the depths of a hooded cloak. I had been so enraptured by my surroundings I had not even seen the spindling gate of moonstone before me. Nor the man that stood shrouded before it.  “State your business,” he drawled.

[[We’ve come to seek the moon]]

[[There was a girl that we followed down here]]

[[We were given a map to a village though we may be lost]]