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Chapter Eighteen
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2022-03-17 18:55:14Lyda barely spoke at all for the rest of the day. As the sun went down, Eran and Ellis gathered wood and built a fire by the tents, where they sat for the rest of the evening eating their rations, laughing amongst each other, and telling stories to scare one another. Although she remained rather quiet, Lyda seemed to be enjoying herself as much as everyone else. They were all having a great time until Lyda finally decided it was her turn to speak.
"I don't like these stories."
Everyone else went quiet until the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire.
"Ghost stories are just meant for fun," Eran said. "They're not supposed to be scary."
"I don't think they're scary," Lyda said, staring blankly into the fire. "I think stories that aren't real are like the lig
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It took Lyda's mind a few minutes to regain her full consciousness. She kept her eyes closed and took in several deep breaths, which sounded as though they were echoing all around her. When she finally opened her eyes, she looked around to see that she was still sitting by the fire, exactly where she had nodded off to sleep. The brightness of the fire seemed to be toned down, and she could no longer feel any heat coming off it. In fact, the entire environment around her appeared to be drained of much of its color. That was all the confirmation Lyda needed to know that she was no longer in the conscious world. This was a dream.Lyda stood to her feet. This was not like any of the other dreams she had made for herself thanks to the ritual. She was not like her sister. She was not as interested in the blissful dreams Adea constantly rambled on about. More than that, Adea would never have dared to enter her ow
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Lyda descended for what felt like fifty feet, or more, there was no telling. The darkness at the bottom was so heavy that she could feel it in her skin. Her feet touched down in a shallow, liquid substance that sounded like water but felt much thicker and gave off a faint, rubbery smell. The voices were a bit louder but still not discernible. They came in short spates, leaving her standing in an atmosphere of pure silence otherwise."Show-" Lyda began to mutter as quietly as she could, but her voice still sounded deafening. Just like that, the voices ceased, as if made aware of her presence. It made Lyda almost too nervous to speak again, but she swallowed her fear as best as she could. "Show me something."There was a moment of silence like an eternity. Lyda's eyes were burning in anticipation. Just then, she heard another series of voices coming from be
Last Updated : 2022-03-19Whispers of Sikar Chapter Twenty-One
Jay woke suddenly out of nowhere, almost as if the sun was rising, but it wasn't. She lied on her back and stared up at the low roof of the tent. It was just as dark now as it was when they had all tucked in for the night. She guessed she must have only been asleep for a couple of hours. Why then was she now wide awake?Jay looked over at Adea lying next to her, swaddled in her own blanket and out like a light. She sat up when she noticed that Lyda was not in the tent with them. Through the flap of the tent, she could see the faint, shimmering light of the last embers of the campfire. She unraveled the blanket from around herself and crawled outside.The air was unusually cool tonight, and it made her cross her arms to keep warm. The first thing she saw upon standing up out of the tent was the form of Lyda resting on her knees in front of the fire as though she
Last Updated : 2022-03-23Whispers of Sikar Chapter Twenty-Two
Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Ellis sat by the fire, clutching his brother's bow in his hands. The quiver of arrows sat by his left side, and on his right, he had moved the comatose Lyda by the fire, hoping the heat might wake her up. He checked her pulse every few minutes and did everything their father had taught him and Eran, but this was a situation neither of them thought they would ever encounter. He continued to check her body after Eran and Jay had gone, but he could find no traces of bites or anything that might cause something like this. It was as if Lyda had simply gone to sleep and refused to wake up.Ellis looked back toward the girls' tent continuously, wondering if he should just wake Adea and tell her what was going on, even if only for some company. The longer he waited for the others to return, the more the faint sounds of the nighttime woods began to unsettle him.
Last Updated : 2022-03-23Whispers of Sikar Chapter Twenty-Three
Back at the campsite, Adea's eyes flicked open. She rolled over onto her back, groaning softly as she stretched out her arms. As she stared up at the roof of the tent, she noticed it was almost too dark to see anything. It was still the middle of the night. That was when she looked over to see the light of the fire peeking through the tent flap. She looked around the tent and realized that neither Lyda nor Jay was there with her. She was alone.Maybe they're outside, she thought. She was about to unravel the blanket from around her when a sudden disturbance drew her attention back toward the light of the fire. She had to squint to be sure, but she thought she could see the shadowy shroud of a figure standing up by the fire. It was too hard to tell who it was, but Adea could vaguely make out the outlines of the figure's long hair, which could only belong to one of the others.
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None of them could get out of there fast enough. Both Adea and Ellis were shaken up from their encounters. Adea was quiet as they packed up and swiftly headed back toward their cottage, wanting nothing more than to get home and out of the dark, and to forget all about this horrific night. Ellis, on the other hand, could not stop going on and on about what he saw out in the woods. He described it in great detail, his voice quivering as he did so, but it was clear that nobody really believed him. Nobody, it seemed, except for Adea, who was ready to believe anything could be lurking in the trees around them, perhaps watching them right now.Lyda was the worst of them all. Nobody could get a word out of her about what happened while she was out cold. Jay pressed her to the point of tears to tell them what happened, but Lyda was completely clammed up, not saying another word following her plea to go home. Her f
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As Lyda paced the cellar that night, her emotional state slowly transitioned from distraught to anger. She wanted to take Iris' words to heart, but no matter how she tried to look at it, she feared what her parents would think of her.It wasn't fair. From a young age, everybody in her life had been denying her the opportunities she deserved. For the first time, she was truly angry with the Mistresses for refusing to let her train as an oracle. She deserved it! It was what she was born to be! In fact, thanks to everything she taught herself in secret, she felt that she was fully prepared to stand before the Mistresses and claim that she knew more about the Spirits than anyone in the Valley.Perhaps that was why they tried to have her sheltered. That must have been it. They were afraid of her. They were afraid of how much she might learn. Well, she wo
Last Updated : 2022-03-23Whispers of Sikar Chapter Twenty-Six
Lyda found less sleep as the nights passed. Eventually, there was no sleep at all. Lyda was sitting on her bed in the cellar, never even undoing the blanket. She had lost all natural urge to sleep, as if something was forcing her to stay awake. Instead, she sat on the bed and stared blankly into the dark corners of the cellar, her own little alcove lit by a single candle on her bedside table.Mere weeks had gone by since the incident while camping, and many thoughts had gone through her head ever since. She hoped to learn more, anything she could, by inflicting that nightmare upon herself, but she got much more than she had bargained for with the most horrifying experience of her life, and she had gained nothing from it. It had been a complicated road. She had not felt like herself since then, until Iris had inadvertently given her the courage to think about what it was she really wanted.
Last Updated : 2022-03-23
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The return trip was even quicker as Matthias made haste across the mountain paths. His mind swarmed with thoughts wondering what the Mistress was talking about. All that mattered was that he got Lyda to the hall as fast as possible.As he emerged from the tree line along the ridge approaching the cottage, he spotted his wife and youngest daughter out in the garden. What were they doing out there instead of resting, he asked himself. He rode into the backyard, dismounting his horse before he even got to the stables. Alyra and Adea looked up from the garden.“Where is Lyda?” he huffed as he ran over to them.“In the cellar,” Alyra pointed toward the cottage. “You locked her down there, remember?”Matthias shook his head as he charg
