Chapter Two

Adea slept like a baby that night in her sister's bed, despite the horrifying events that had preceded. However, the following morning was no easier to endure. Adea felt an enormous strain on her energy after the nightmare that affected her usual cheerful attitude, and there was nothing subtle about it as everyone could see it. After forcing down breakfast with little appetite, Adea found herself sitting alone on the front porch of the cottage, staring off into the trees.

Their home was located just below a ridge that looked out over the horizon. On some cool evenings in autumn, her parents would take her and Lyda onto the ridge to watch the sunset over the sea of golden leaves, but that was halfway around the year from now. It was spring, and the trees surrounding the cottage were greener than ever.

A river flowed down the hillside not far away and into a small valley, where her father would go periodically to trap fish. They were neither hunters nor farmers. Instead, they kept chickens in a coop behind the cottage for food and trade in the market.

The market was located in a great, open plain between the mountains about twenty-five miles northwest of their home. It was in the square of a large village, simply referred to by most in the area as the Valley, though it did have a name of its own - Ravenna. They would travel there once a month to trade for food and supplies in the market, usually staying a night or two. Both Lyda and Adea loved going to the Valley. It was nothing like the cottage or the surrounding hills. It was bustling with life and merriment, and there were more people there than Adea could count. It was an exciting environment. There were many settlements, large and small, throughout her people's mountainous territories, but most considered the Valley to be their capital. It made sense to her, as it was the home of the house of the Chief. Neither Lyda nor Adea had met the family personally, but they knew they were held in such high regard by everybody in the Valley.

It had been nearly a month since their last trip to the Valley, and Adea knew they would have to go again soon before their stores ran too low. With something like that to look forward to, she thought it might lift her spirits some, but it did not. Perhaps it might have helped if her sister was here now.

As usual, Lyda had woken up and left the room long before she had noticed. She was always woken up early in the morning by their mother to attend to her studies. In her culture, it was customary for the daughters of every household to be selected for their future occupation at a young age. Adea always thought it was unfair because, unlike the boys she knew, she never had a choice. They could become whatever they wanted. Daughters, however, had to be brought into the Hall of Mistresses, an elected congregation of the most excelled practitioners in each occupation, who would judge the right path for any young woman. Although this practice was not mandated, most families recognized the custom, as it was seen as socially accepted.

Girls were usually taken to the Valley on or around their fifth birthday, where they underwent a series of simple tasks to determine where their talents would be best served. Most considered the highest honor to be to serve as an oracle to the Spirits - the great deities revered by their ancestors - which was a title assumed by both men and women. People said it was the one thing that truly kept the history of their ancestors alive.

Lyda's trip to the Valley on her fifth birthday was defined by both excitement and a hint of disappointment for her parents. They were thrilled when Lyda was recognized for her innate wisdom, knowledge of herbs, and fascination with the Spirits. However, much to their chagrin, Lyda was denied the chance to be trained as an oracle. When her parents asked why she was turned down, the Oracle Mistress, a elder, stern-faced woman named Hama, told them that, even though Lyda's fresh wisdom showed remarkable potential, her interest in the Spirits was more like an obsession. The Mistresses professed that they believed it would be dangerous to train her as an oracle and cautioned them against teaching her about the Spirits. Reaching a decision that her talents should not be wasted, Lyda was accepted to be trained as a healer instead, which was considered to be the next step down from the honor of an oracle.

This did not seem to bother Lyda much, not the decision anyway. However, she was greatly saddened when she was told that she could not pursue an education in the spiritual. Her parents shared this disappointment. Her mother was a gardener by trade, one of the lesser revered occupations a woman could have, but no less important. Still, their household did not have much to be proud of. Lyda's aunt, Mara, her father's sister, had become a pariah in the eyes of the Valley due to her own obsession with the Spirits, but they considered this to be more of a mental instability than anything. Whatever the case, it was around that time that they agreed to take her in and let her live with them in the cellar. Now, for once, they had something to truly be proud of, yet it still seemed unfair to them that the Mistresses would raise their hopes like that with the idea of someone in their house becoming an oracle, only to have it shot down at the same time, but they could not let that bring them down. Though Lyda could not get over her disappointment, her mother told her over and over with endless excitement how proud she was to have a healer in the family.

Adea was too young to remember this, being only three at the time. However, she was just as excited when it finally came time for her to be brought before the Mistresses. Adea did not care so much about whatever occupation she would be given. She only wanted to follow her sister, who she looked up to a great deal. Unfortunately, she did not possess the same potential as Lyda and was declared to be a gardener like her mother. At first, she feared resentment might come from her parents, as her mother never spoke highly of her trade. Instead, her mother embraced her and told her that she was happy to have a daughter who was just like her, offering a playful wink to her oldest.

Customarily, girls would spend the following years up until their tenth birthday studying their trade at home to prepare them for the day when they would be assigned to a mistress. Not a Mistress of the congregation, but an excelled professional in their given occupation who would teach them everything about their trade for the next several years until they were deemed ready to take their vows to become a woman, usually around the age of seventeen or eighteen.

Most of the time, assigned mistresses were young women who had recently taken their vows and were regarded as the best among their peers. Lyda's mistress was one such; a beautiful, 17-year-old healer named Iris. She was exceptionally skilled with medicinal herbs and was overjoyed to take on an apprentice. After her tenth birthday, Lyda would spend dawn to dusk with Iris for four days a week, who taught her everything she knew. Perhaps a little too much, because Lyda was ecstatic after her first day with Iris; not with her teachings, but rather that Iris also had a fascination with the Spirits and talked about them a lot with Lyda. This alarmed her parents, who kindly but sternly asked Iris not to speak of them to their daughter. Embarrassed, Iris apologized, and this brought Lyda's spirits back down again.

It had been over a month now since Lyda started training with Iris, and Adea was beginning to feel lonely not having her at the house all the time. She had no one to play with anymore in the morning after she was done with her early studies, and Lyda was always tired when Iris brought her home. The only ones she had left were their friends who would come around a few times a week, as they did now.

There were three children, all around their ages. One of the boys was named Eran. He was a few months older than Lyda and had wavy brown hair that almost touched his shoulders. His younger brother, Ellis, was Adea's age - that is, eight - and people often said he was Eran's spitting image, except his hair was lighter and his eyes shone a dark shade of blue like river water, while Eran's were brown. There was also a girl with them. Her name was Jada, but she preferred to be called Jay. She had just turned nine and had a visibly tomboyish nature, her blonde hair cut shorter than the boys'. Lyda and Adea often joked that she thought she was a boy herself, to which she took offense. The three of them lived nearby. In fact, Eran and Ellis lived in the valley below the ridge just by the river. They had all been friends for as long as Adea could remember, constantly getting into trouble as all children tend to do.

Adea was still sitting on the porch when her friends came by. They knew that Lyda would be off with her mistress, but that still left her sister.

"Adi!" Jay called as they came over the ridge, calling her by her nickname and running over to meet her.

"Hi, guys," Adea responded quietly, barely even looking at them. Jay ran up the porch steps beside Adea and then pulled herself up onto the railing to sit with her legs hanging over, waiting for the brothers to catch up.

"What's the matter with you? You look sick," Eran said, referring to Adea's pale face.

"She's fine," Jay responded from the railing. "Maybe Lyda switched out her milk again."

The three of them laughed, but Adea was disgusted as she thought back to a year ago when her sister pulled a prank on her by tricking her into drinking a cup of spoiled milk one morning. She thought it was funny until Adea threw it up and spent the rest of the day in bed with an upset stomach. She almost gagged at the mention of it.

"Don't joke about that!" she fired back. "It was disgusting and mean."

"Oh lighten up, princess," Jay laughed. "I was only teasing."

"He's right, though," Ellis jumped in. "You don't look so good."

Adea let out a quiet sigh. "I just didn't sleep very well last night."

"Bad dream?" Eran asked. "It's alright, Ellis has them all the time."

"I do not!"

Adea could not help but issue a laugh. "Yes, just a bad dream. That's all."

"Well come on then!" Jay said as she pushed off from the railing and onto the ground. "We were gonna go hunting for fish down at the river."

"It's called fishing, Jay," Eran jeered.

"Whatever, Eri."

"Don't call me that!" he cringed. "It sounds like a girl's name."

"Thanks, guys, but I can't," Adea replied somberly. "Mother says I have to help her in the garden today. We're going back to the Valley soon and she's a little short on carrots."

"Aww," Jay cooed, running her hand along Adea's head as if petting an animal. "She's just like her mama!"

Adea reached up to throw Jay's hand away, unable to hide a smirk as she did so.

"Well, maybe tomorrow," Jay said with a smile. "Come on, guys!" she said before skipping away with Ellis right behind her.

"Bye Adi," Ellis called back. "Tell your mother to save me a carrot! Come on, Eran!"

Eran turned to give Adea a quick look of pity. "Well, see ya," he said, raising his hand before hurrying after the others.

Adea waved after him and watched until they had disappeared down the hillside. Ever since Lyda started her apprenticeship, it seemed like a large chunk of their childhood had come to an end. It would not be long before Jay would begin her training as a farm hand. She hated it, constantly saying how she wanted to be a hunter, but it was not an occupation that formally accepted women. Whatever the case, Adea would be the next to go. It felt like the end of her childhood was coming soon, but she was still so young. She wondered if she had simply forgotten how to have fun lately. Perhaps her friends were right, it was all these bad dreams she was having more and more often. She wished she could play it off as easily as Eran did, but she was afraid she could not tell any of them about the horrid nightmare from last night. The image of the ghoul taking the form of her own sister was a sight she would not soon forget, and she suddenly felt uneasy thinking about having slept in Lyda's bed afterward. Adea simply reminded herself that her sister was too loving and protective to ever become something so inherently evil.