SHORT STORY: Eventide
I wanted to write something winter-holiday themed and this is what happened. Big thank you to Danielle, Kieran, and Romy for the help on this one! <3
Eventide
Year 6495 AC
Outside the town of Starholde, Kingdom of Krogia
Niseri’s home
A knock at the door made Niseri straighten up from where she was hunched over her latest project—finishing the embroidery on a coat that the Lady of Starholde had commissioned from her.
Flexing her fingers, she stood as the knock came again. Opening the door, she took the proffered letter and thanked the carrier, passing him a coin before closing the door. She recognized the handwriting as her brother’s and paused briefly, anxiety curling in her gut about what kind of recriminations could exist within the letter.
Steeling herself, she tore the letter open:
Dear sister,
To begin, you don’t need to apologize, you’re doing our parents proud. That said, we will miss you for this year’s Eventide Eclipse. Although, it truly is in the spirit of such a giving time that you’d share what you have. Maybe, in a few months, we could make the trip to visit you once your guest is gone, of course. Love you.
Also, the boys loved the gifts. Thank you so much.
Her nephews had drawn pictures on the back the paper. The tiny doodles were enough to spark a fierce pang of longing.
Niseri’s fingers bent the edge of the parchment, idly folding it back and forth as she took in her home—the lack of décor just emphasized how alone she was this year. It was the day of the Eventide Eclipse, when the moon would disappear for a few scant moments behind the veil that separated the earth and the god’s plane. In previous years, her whole family would gather at her home in Starholde, decorating the cottage with garlands, candles, and dried flowers. They would stay up throughout the night and day until it was time to watch the Eclipse from higher up on the mountain and offer prayers to their gods.
She sat down heavily at her kitchen table, tipped her head backwards, and blinked hard—taking a long sigh in an attempt to mask the sob bubbling up in her chest. By the gods, she missed her brother. It hadn’t been easy to pen the letter telling him that he, his wife, and their three children couldn’t come for Eventide this year. She hadn’t even been able to tell the whole truth as to why.
Instead, she’d told him that a friend had been badly injured, so she was taking care of him this year, meaning her spare bedroom was already occupied. Since Starholde was one of the most popular places to witness the Eclipse, finding a room at the inn wasn’t an option. So she’d sent gifts, apologies, and promises that they’d spend the holiday together next year.
It was the truth–she was helping someone who had been horribly injured–however, he wasn’t a friend, and worse, he wasn’t mortal.
The wooden floor behind her let out a creak, making her eyes fly open, and she turned around to see the non-mortal in question standing behind her.
Malik Vasili, a relictus–fiend–from the celestial plane. Grey skin cracked with black veins, glowing red eyes, over seven feet tall, and blood-coloured horns that curled like those of a ram. He should’ve been terrifying to her, and truthfully, she had been scared of him when they first met. Even though he’d been lying on the forest floor, bleeding out from a gaping wound in his chest, she’d been scared he’d kill her. All her life, she’d been taught that fiends were creatures of pure evil, killers of God’s servants—the caeles.
Still, his broken call for help had stirred something in her, and when he’d revealed that all his magic was being drained just keeping him alive, she hadn’t been able to leave him there. Trying to help heal him had turned into him living in her house while he recovered slowly.
He was currently shirtless, exposing the extensive linen bandages wrapped around his torso. In a few spots, the swirling lines of his God-Mark could be seen peeking around the bandages. Even spying a piece of it–its shape that of a wicked dagger–sent a ripple of discomfort through her.
“Are you feeling well?” His voice was low, a cautious expression on his face. While stories of fiends often depicted them as cruel, heartless killers, she’d found him to be a reserved, soft-spoken—if not a bit awkward—man.
Niseri cursed herself and surreptitiously tried to wipe away any lingering evidence of tears. “I just received a letter from my brother,” she said, gesturing to the now slightly crumpled parchment.
He gingerly made his way to the table and lowered himself into the chair opposite her. “Is your family well?”
She waved the question away with her hand. “They’re fine. It’s just…” she trailed off, unsure how to explain it. She didn’t want him to worry or feel guilty—if fiends could even feel guilt. They didn’t know each other very well; Niseri didn’t need to burden him with her feelings. He hadn’t made much more than a token effort to get to know her—not that she blamed him—she was sure he wouldn’t want to start now.
As if to just prove her wrong, Malik gestured vaguely at her. “Just what?”
She shrugged, uncomfortable, and slipped the letter across the table. Maybe him reading it would be easier than her trying to explain, lest she burst into tears.
He gently smoothed out the corner she’d wrinkled and read—eyes skimming over the paper. After a moment, he set the letter back down and pinned her with an indiscernible look. “You gave up time with your family for me?” his voice was flat.
She dipped her head—whether from embarrassment or sadness, she didn’t honestly know—and said, “I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth. Besides, even if I could, there really isn’t room.”
His brow furrowed. “You could have told me to leave. You have already been more kind than I deserve. I would be dead if not for you.”
“I wouldn’t kick you out!” She exclaimed, “You said yourself that your magic isn’t even strong enough yet to contact anyone, let alone leave this plane, where would you have even gone?”
He shrugged in a mirror of her earlier movement—the casual gesture looking odd on him. “I do not like the idea that you will not see your family because of me.” His voice was laced with something she couldn’t place, and her jaw clenched with anxiety.
He didn’t say anything more, instead picking up the piece of wood he’d been carving with a small knife the day prior. The rhythmic scraping filled the now-tense silence.
Niseri fidgeted for a few minutes, crinkling and picking at the letter again, trying to make herself get up and continue to work on her embroidery.
As she was about to stand, Malik’s quiet voice asked, “Do you have any other family?”
Niseri’s head shot up in surprise. “No,” she answered after a moment. “My parents passed away a few years ago, it’s just my brother and I now.”
He wasn’t looking at her but flinched as she spoke. He let out a breath and said, “It is just my brother and I left, as well.”
“You have a brother?” She couldn’t stop the surprised exclamation from leaving her lips.
“Is that so surprising to you?” He asked flatly.
She flushed in embarrassment. “N-no. It’s just,” a terrible thought occurred to her, “Shouldn’t your brother be looking for you? You’ve been gone for almost three weeks.”
At her question, Malik stiffened, and the knife stopped slicing through the wood. “Tomir most likely believes me to be dead.”
“You think so? Would your brother really give up so quickly?”
The glare he shot her made Niseri shrink back—she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen such a fierce look on his face. At her reaction, his expression softened. “Apologies, you would not know. I told you I was injured in battle, yes?” At her nod, he continued, “My brother was nearby at the time but the caeles who injured me sent me through a portal to Saebetia—this plane. It is unlikely they even knew where they were sending me, just that they got me far enough away from anyone who could help that I would bleed out and die.”
Niseri’s hand flew to her mouth. The brutality and cruelty of such an action…
Malik continued, “My brother would have begun searching for me immediately. I am sure the one that injured me died a slow, painful death at his hands.” Niseri flinched at the visual. “But, if he hasn’t found me yet, that means he learned nothing from them. And with my magic depleted as it is, he will never find me until I’m strong enough to send him a messenger.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “There’s no other way to get a message to your brother?”
He shook his head. “If we were in a larger city, I might be able to contact him through Xania’s temple, but I hadn’t felt even a whisper of celestial power in this place, and Starholde doesn’t hold a proper temple that could get the right kind of attention.” He began whittling again, and Niseri knew the conversation was over.
She stood and returned to her work. All the while, unable to keep her mind from Malik and his brother—who most likely believed him to be dead. She thought of her own brother and her heart clenched. What would I do if my brother was injured and taken away from me?
Upon stabbing herself with her needle for the fourth time, she huffed and set the coat down. She left it on her work table and crossed the room to her bookshelf. She scanned the titles until she found the tome written by her grandmother and passed down to her by her mother, full of rituals and spells to accomplish small, everyday tasks.
She opened it and flinched at the spine’s crackling. She flipped through the delicate pages until she found the spell she had in mind.
The sight of her mother’s handwriting in the margins sent a pang of grief through her. She noticed she’d begun worrying the corner of the page and forced herself to stop and smooth it out.
She double-checked she had everything the ritual called for and then got to work.
~~
The moon was overhead—minutes away from the Eclipse—when Niseri knocked gently on Malik’s door and called his name.
She heard a grunt and the sound of the wooden bed frame creaking and the floorboards groaning.
“Is everything alright?” He asked, voice heavy with sleep.
“Yes,” she responded, “I’m sorry for waking you up, I was just hoping to show you something.”
Silence stretched between them, and Niseri ran her fingers along the doorframe, pressing into the wood—trying to ground herself.
“Give me a moment,” he said finally.
She pressed harder against the frame, scratched it with a fingernail, then stepped back. “Great! Meet me outside!”
She left through her front door and into the night. Even though she was only a few minutes walk from the town of Starholde, the thick, snow-covered forest—especially in the dead of winter—always made her feel like she was totally alone and far away from the expectations of others.
A moment later, Malik appeared in the doorway, face carefully blank. “What is this?” He asked as he gestured at the snow-covered ground.
She’d created an array of intersecting lines using splitter bark—she’d used the last of her stores of it and would have to purchase more at the market in a few days. Beeswax candles burned everywhere that lines crossed and in the middle, a stone tablet inscribed with runes sat, waiting.
She pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to Malik. “Read this.”
He arched a brow at her but obliged, taking the paper from her. A moment later, he looked up at her, red eyes practically glowing in the dark. “I do not understand.”
She smiled at him. It was a short letter asking her brother to leave a note and an offering at Xania’s temple in Agrifel, where he lived.
“You write a short note to your brother, and mine can get it to Agrifel’s temple of Xania. The magic won’t let us send too much, but it should be enough to let your brother know you’re alive and where you are,” she explained.
Malik was silent for a moment—looking between her and the array. Finally, he grabbed the quill she’d pulled out and jotted something down on the paper in a language she vaguely recognized—the swirling characters were ones she’d seen in god’s temples.
He held the note out to her. Niseri took it, folded it into quarters, and then set it in the middle of the tablet.
Her hand lit up with bright yellow magic, and she touched the outside circle of the array, watching as the magic raced along the lines, sparking when it hit a candle until the whole thing blazed and sent bright light through the forest. As the moon disappeared, the sky went completely dark, yet her magic in the circle shone even brighter as if to compensate.
The paper in the center began to burn away, and as the last of it disappeared into smoke and ash, her magic winked out, leaving the forest dark again.
Niseri let out an exhausted sigh—the ritual had taken more of her magic than she’d expected. She stood and moved past Malik to head inside her home. She caught sight of his face, a slight frown on his lips even as his eyes seemed to dance with something else.
He followed her into the house, pulling the door closed behind him. “Niseri,” his voice was quiet. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever heard him use her name before and it sent an unwelcome shiver through her—although if asked, she’d blame the icy cold winter air.
“Yes?” She didn’t dare turn around; she was not sure if she could stand looking at him right now. She’d done a kind thing for him, which made her uncomfortable for a reason she couldn’t pinpoint.
His hand, so much larger than her own, gently grasped her wrist, and she turned to face him.
Before she could say anything, she was being wrapped in a hug, her face pressed into his shoulder.
Malik took a deep, shuddering breath against her. “Thank you,” he choked out. “Thank you.”
Niseri wrapped her arms around him in return, the discomfort she’d felt prior melting away. “You’re welcome,” she whispered back.
He let her go after a moment, his eyes darting away from her own. “I can never thank you enough—for everything.”
She smiled tiredly. “It truly was my pleasure. I can’t imagine if my brother thought I was dead…” she trailed off; just the horror of it made her shudder.
Malik stepped past her, and instead of going back to his room as she’d expected, he went into her living room and threw a few more logs onto the dying fire. He also grabbed a smaller piece of wood and began to whittle.
Despite a bone-deep weariness, Niseri couldn’t stop herself from gravitating toward Malik. She sagged onto the threadbare couch next to him. For a moment, their eyes met, and she felt something in her chest give the slightest tug. Cheeks heating, she turned away to stare into the dancing flames.
Slowly, the crackling of the fire and the sound of Malik working lulled her to sleep.
~~
Niseri awoke to late morning sunlight streaming in through a crack in her drapes. She looked around, momentarily disoriented, before realizing she’d fallen asleep on the couch. Her grey woollen blanket from the guest room had been laid on top of her. She shifted and felt something roll onto her chest. She looked down to see a small, wooden rose, petals carved in a full bloom.
She glanced around again and noticed Malik—slouched, head at what looked to be an uncomfortable angle—fast asleep on the other end of the couch.
She smiled to herself, ran her fingers gently over the carved flower, and closed her eyes. Warmth suffused her chest; she’d had much worse Eventide Eclipses.
