Afternoon turned to dusk, and dusk became night.
Anise and Effie couldn't say how many countless hours they had been sitting in the dark corner of that condemned attic, clinging weakly to each other as if they were the only two people left in the whole world whom they could hold on to. Which, in that moment, was their painful reality.
Wave after wave of grief crashed over them like a tsunami, until they were drowning in it. Yet not a single tear had been shed that evening, for Effie and Anise were still in too much shock to say or do much of anything. All they could do was sit on that cold, hard, splintering floor in silence until Effie's lids began to grow heavy. It was as if the weight of the entire world was dragging them down over her aching eyes, until they closed completely, affording her a few short hours of restless sleep.
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Effie woke to a hand gently shaking her shoulder, and a hushed voice whispering, "wake up, my dear. It's time to get going."
The dim, purple glow of morning's first light was peeking in through the window slats, bathing the room in a surreal, hazy glow.
Effie sat up slowly, a silent yawn drawing stinging tears like pin-pricks to her swollen eyes. She carefully wiped the tears away, then looked up to Anise who offered the girl a feeble smile in return.
Anise could no longer hide her physical state from Effie. Dark circles framed her sunken eyes, making her appear much older than her forty-some years, and betraying her grief and utter exhaustion. Effie began to wonder if Anise had slept at all since the whole ordeal had begun. If she did, Effie certainly hadn't seen it.
"Auntie Anise," the girl said groggily. "Are the bad men finally gone? Can we go home now?"
Anise's mouth tightened into a straight line, working to hold back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. "No, dear. I'm sorry, but you can't go home anymore. The bad men already saw us, and now they know what we look like. They're looking for us. They want to do terrible things to us. Like the things they did to your poor mother and those two other witches. They want to... hurt us."
"Just because we're witches?" Effie sniffled, dragging her sleeves across her moist eyes so she could be brave and hold in her tears just like Anise. "That's not fair!"
"You're right, Effie. It's not fair. It's not fair at all. But unfortunately, it's the the way things are right now. It's a pretty rotten rule the King has made, isn't it? Ah, how I wish that things weren't this way."
"Me too, Auntie Anise. I wish that the King didn't hate us. And I wish he didn't have to tell those bad men to... to kill mama..." Effie's little voice hitched, and she was powerless to stop two large tears from rolling down her round cheeks.
"Oh, you poor sweet girl," Anise sobbed, her heart breaking for the small child standing before her who was the only daughter of her closest friend; the little girl who was now an orphan. Anise reached out, pulling Effie into a tight embrace, and the two of them broke down in each other's arms, finally finding the tears they so desperately needed to shed.
Though they could only afford themselves a few, short minutes to let their hearts truly grieve, for dawn was already starting to break, and Anise knew they needed to escape from Avanthia as soon as possible if they were to have any chance of making it out of the city alive.
So as quickly as she had fallen apart, Anise pulled herself together. Leveling her eyes with Effie's tear-stained face, Anise spoke evenly. "I know it's hard, but now is the time for us to put on our brave faces. I'm going to take us outside and lead us to safety. All you have to do is hold tightly onto my hand and not let go. Do you think you can do that for me?"
Reluctantly, but firmly, Effie nodded her head, wiping the remainder of her tears away before hardening her face with resolve. And then, as quietly as two little mice, they scurried down stairs and out of the rickety old house, spilling onto the streets below where only a few mourning townspeople were now gathered, collected around what remained of their recently executed loved ones.
"Don't look," Anise murmured to Effie as they passed the execution scene, though there wasn't any gore or death to be seen. There wasn't much left to look at besides piles of ash and charred wood sending a few trails of still-smoldering smoke into the air.
Effie still couldn't help stealing a glance in that direction, wondering how that large pile of burned debris in the middle of the others, with no one mourning over it, was once her mother. But she didn't have much time to think, for soon they were rushing through the alleyway once more, Anise being careful to keep to the shadows and away from the soft lights of a few flickering lamp posts.
As they ran, Effie's mind began to wander far, far away. Her legs were moving on muscle memory alone, because Effie was no longer in the present. In her imagination, she was back at the cottage. Her mother was there, and everything was just as it should be. Even her mother's precious pendant, which she kept in a secret compartment in a jewelry box that only she and Effie knew about, lay untouched...
The pendant?! Why was she thinking of something like that at a time like this?
"Wait!" Effie suddenly blurted into the silent alleyway, her voice much too loud for a girl who was trying to make a quiet escape.
"What's the matter?" Anise startled to a standstill.
"We have to go back," Effie said, eyes wide.
"What? No we can't. We-"
"You don't understand, Auntie Anise. Mama's precious pendant. We have to go back to the house and get it. We just have to." Effie didn't know how or why, but all she knew was that she couldn't leave that pendant behind. Maybe because it was the last piece of her mother she had left on earth to hold onto, or maybe it was something more. Either way, Effie's nerves tingled on edge with the desire to retrieve it.
Anise tensed. Every fiber in her being was telling her she shouldn't turn around. That she had to get Effie out of Avanthia now. There was no time for detours. No time for games. Not even for a piece of jewelry. However, somehow Anise knew that Effie was right. She couldn't explain it herself, but something told her to go back and grab that pendant before it disappeared. Before the wrong hands got a hold of it. Anise called it intuition. And her intuition never steered her wrong.
"Alright..." She inhaled sharply, as though the thought of going back caused her physical pain. "We'll head back to the cottage and get your mother's pendant. But we must be very quick."
The next second they were running again, but now they were running in the opposite direction. And this time, Effie practically lead the way as they weaved back through the alleyways, still sticking to the shadows. Effie's heart thundered in her chest like a drum, the sense of danger electrifying her senses. But still, she kept running. And soon, they were at the back of the cottage.
Anise slipped through the back door first, making sure the coast was clear before Effie came in behind her. But to her horror, the cottage was not as he had left it. It had been ransacked. Furniture had been thrown across the room in some sort of struggle. Wooden chairs lay in scattered piles of splinters along the floorboards. There were shattered dishes, cabinet doors torn off their hinges, and debris strewn about. Even the lovely loaves of bread that her mother had been baking yesterday morning before all of this began, were now nothing but piles of crumbs on the floor. Effie's entire life, and all of her precious memories, now lay out on the ground before of her in utter ruin.
Effie swallowed hard against a painful lump forming in the back of her throat. Now was not the time to cry. She pinched her quivering lips together and stepped further into the room, determined to find her mother's pendant. Now that her mother was gone, she was the only person left who knew where the pendant was hiding. She didn't think that even the king's soldiers would have known where to look. Effie began pressing her toe into each floorboard, listening to the way the wood creaked beneath the pressure. Only one of the floorboards had a specific hollow sound to it when it was pushed. And Effie found she found that board quickly. She bent down, forcing her little fingers around the edges of the board until painful splinters found their way beneath her nails. Then she peeled the floorboard back, revealing a hidden compartment beneath the house. Inside that compartment sat a plain, wooden jewelry box.
Anise watched in complete silence as Effie lifted the box out of its hiding spot and laid it on her lap. Inside the jewelry box were a few pieces of priceless trinkets, and not very pretty ones. There were a couple of pairs of plain earrings, and a single necklace chain, all of which Effie threw out of the box without a care, working to get to the bottom of the box, which seemed too shallow compared to the size of the box from the outside.
Effie reached inside, pushing a hidden button, and the bottom of the box popped loose. Gently, she removed the bottom piece revealing something indescribably beautiful. Staring up at her from the true bottom of the box was a large, very violet gem cut into many, intricate facets. The shade of violet that reflected off its glassy surface was a vibrant sort of color that didn't seem to exist anywhere else in the world.
Effie lifted the pendant out of the box by it's silver chain, and held it in the air. Sunlight glittered off each of it's facets like a shimmering pool of crystal-clear water, fragments of violet-hued light splashing across the ruined walls of the cottage.
Anise's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat at the sight. "The Moonshadow Stone..." she whispered in awe.
"Moonshadow stone?" Effie hummed, watching the glistening gem that almost seemed to glow with a mysterious energy.
"That is its name."
"So it has the same name as the Moonshadow Forest?"
"Yes," Anise replied simply. "The Moonshadow Stone and Moonshadow Forest have both belonged to the Blackmoore family for countless generations. Your family."
"Oh..." was all Effie seemed to be able to say. Then she held it out to Anise. "Take it," she offered.
"I can't. This stone is yours. It belonged to your mother. And before that it belonged to her mother's mother, and her mother's mother before that. It's been wielded and protected by the Blackmoore family for longer than you can possibly fathom. And now it belongs to you. You are the next wielder of the Moonshadow stone. It's now both your honor and your curse to protect it and keep it from falling into the wrong hands."
"That sounds like a lot of responsibility," Effie muttered, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "But if it was my mother's duty, then I will take it for her."
With that, Effie bowed her head, letting Anise slide the silver chain around her neck, quickly tucking the pendant inside her collar.
"You must keep the stone hidden from prying eyes," Anise warned. "You must keep it close to yourself at all times, but you must never let another person get a hold of it, for the Moonshadow stone is said to be imbued with a great power that only members of your bloodline know how to wield for good. Other men, hungry for power and knowing the history of the artifact, might want to gain its powers for themselves, and indeed many throughout history have tried. But even men with the best of intentions will eventually become warped by its great power, and find themselves using its power for darkness. Only members of the Blackmoore family know how to use its powers without being overcome by them."
"But... But I don't know how to use it," Effie's head spun with all of this new information that young brain couldn't quite understand yet.
"You will figure it out in time, Effie. Once you-" But Anise's voice broke off, and she spun her head around at the same time that Effie had sensed danger lurking nearby, making her blood run cold. The presence of the king's soldiers were steadily growing nearer.
"It's time to go," Anise urged, grabbing Effie's hand and scurrying toward the exit at the back of the cottage.