Once supper was cleared away Emera spoke to Tiione and gestured in the direction of the stairs. He looked over at Anelle and flexed the tips of his fingers. Anelle brushed past him, placing the folded shirt into his hand. They shared a brief smile, hiding their secrecy, before he rushed up the stairs.
"Anelle." Emera called as she walked over to her.
Emera handed her a brown cloak. The cloak was simple. It had been turned inside out to hide a couple black stains on the underside. Anelle stood there while a sinking feeling settled into her stomach. With the sun slowly beginning its descent towards the horizon it was far too late to be going out.
Emera handed Anelle her outdoor boots before pulling on her own. Anelle was confused. Any minute now the curfew bells would ring out across the city. Her hands began to shake as she remembered sprinting through the streets in terror on her first night in the city. The sound of the soldiers' heavy boots mirrored her racing heart. Emera motioned for her to put on her boots. Anelle apprehensively sat on the lowest stair and laced up her boots.
Tiione came down wearing his, now fixed white shirt accompanied with a brown waistcoat that matched his pants. He reached past Emera and grabbed a matching brown coat and cap from the cupboard. He then slipped his toes into his leather shoes and, to Emera's disgust, banged the tips into the wall to get his heels in.
Tiione grabbed a lantern from the bottom of the cupboard and used a match to light it. He took the lantern and placed it on a hook above the front door and walked out into the street. Emera went to follow but looked back at Anelle. She stood on the threshold looking out, her eyes wide and distant. The memory of her first evening in the city swirled through her mind over and over. The sun would be setting soon. Her feet froze in place, fear rolled through her stomach.
Emera held out her hand and smiled. "Aigé."
Anelle shook her head. She looked away. Emera held her chin forcing Anelle to look at her.
"Aigé." Her tone was lower.
Anelle felt like a child being scolded by her mother and stepped out. Emera closed and locked the door behind them. She tucked Anelle's arm over hers, in a firm grip and pulled her away. The street was filled with people all heading in the same direction. As they passed more families exited homes and left lanterns out in front of their doors. Many greeted each other as they joined the sea of people.
"Phy-Los, Emera." Said a thin older woman with grey peppered through her hair, greeted them, holding a toddler in her arms, the child made sounds at them in greeting.
"Phy-Dae, Silei," Emera responded before turning to the child and rubbing his cheek. The rest of her family followed close behind. The child happily waved at anyone who looked his way. Anelle smiled and waved back.
Anelle could hear similar conversations happening around her. She repeated the words 'Phy-Los' and 'Phy-Dae' in her head a couple of times, committing them to memory. She was brought back to the present when her name came up in conversation. Emera tugged on her arm and continued to talk to her neighbour. Anelle smiled and nodded, the two women were clearly talking about her, not to her.
The crowd grew thicker as the road crossed the Cassien river that divided the city in two. At the top of the bridge Anelle could see up ahead the crowd slowed as everyone funnelled into a large white stone building. The cathedral was large with many arches and domes. Large spires trailed up into the sky. Two wooden doors were opened wide allowing people to enter. As the crowd shuffled forward Anelle could see the doors had chips and scratches on them. As she and Emera walked past she could hear paper rustling in the wind. A hushed silence came over the crowd as they entered. A stained glass dome in the ceiling cast a circle of light across the floor. The coloured glass made a pattern of a golden sun swimming in a sea of iridescent colours. Two fish, one black one clear, circled the sun. Anelle stood mesmerised as the colours shifted in the light.
She stumbled forward as the crowd pushed them further inside. Emera's strong grip stopped her from falling.
Across the hall were another set of doors, even larger than the once they had just come through. Thick mahogany wood with carved symbols across them, perfectly symmetrical in design. The people walking through wore expensive silks and jewels. Women in bell shaped skirts and men in lavish frock coats laced in gold and diamonds. Many wore a small veil over their faces, cutting their faces diagonally in two. The same sombre tone came over them, many scowled in distaste towards them, before turning and walking towards a white stone staircase.
Emera guided Anelle to the right, past the stairs into a large circular room lined with pews. She stood at the top of the ground floor, before her a central stairway led straight down to the centre of the room. Rows of seats lined the stairs, curving outwards in a semicircle. Every two steps was a new row of seats, with fifty rows. The mezzanine above created a crescent roof over them.
Along the outer walls were sixteen statues, getting taller as they descended towards the centre. People lit candles and prayed to varying statues. Emera picked up a candle and laid it at the feet of the closest statue, a stoic man holding a spear in front of him, his head bent slightly down. His body was wrapped in a peculiar cloak. The shoulders were made to look like stars with extra points bundled together on his shoulders and razor sharp spikes that looked like icicles draped like a cloak round his body. A symbol, resembling the spikes on his shoulders, made of intersecting lines sat just under his right eye. Emera mumbled a prayer.
The next statue along was a taller woman. She stood proud with one hand raised, holding a leaf to the sky. A look of contentment across her face and the symbol of a leaf was etched under her right eye. Her dress was a myriad of leaves cascading down her body and covering the ground below. Nestled within the stone leaves were candles, slightly less than the amount warming the stoic man's feet.
Further along was a woman dressed in a black gown, a red veil covering her face. She stood before one of the statues holding a candle. She reached forward and placed the candle in a set of upturned scales the statue was holding. This statue, unlike the rest, was bent down on one knee leaning forward as if to listen to the woman. Its billowing robes were made up of mismatched fabrics. A large hood shadowed the statue's face and a cloth carved of stone covering its features. Anelle felt an ominous feeling while looking at the statue. She quickly looked away.
Emera craned her neck looking across the room until her eyes settled on Tiione sitting on the other side of the room with some boys around his age. Satisfied, Emera took her seat and released Anelle's arm.
Anelle continued to look around the room. People stood or sat in groups talking. She remembered going to church back home. Socialising the same way these people were. She wasn't particularly religious. The sermons back home were often long and boring. But she missed the smell of incense and wood, the warm smile from the priests. This cathedral was made entirely of white stone, even the chairs and tables. She felt cold and more alone than she had since entering this city six days prior.
She looked over at the statues to distract herself from her homesickness and watched as more people lit candles. She looked at the status one by one. Everyone had a symbol below one eye, some obvious shapes like a crescent moon or a blade, others swirling shapes reminiscent of the symbols she had seen etched on stone walls or doors throughout the city. Each statue stood in line with the descending floor making the last two, closest to the centre of the room, the tallest. Both men towered over eighty feet tall. The statues were twins in likeness. Sharp cheek bones and hooked noses with cropped beards covering the lower half of their faces. The man on the right held a staff in his left hand, while his counterpart held out empty palms. Each statue matched its pose to one across the room.
The mirrored statue of the kneeling woman was a man with gigantic wings. The wings curled around his shoulders, open for an embrace. The top of the wings rose high above him, the tips gently brushing the floor. He knelt down, with an empty palm outstretched, welcoming any to approach.
The room continued to fill up until every pew was full and more people were left standing in the doorway. The room hushed as five men dressed in ivory robes walking out of a door at the front of the room. The first was a rotund man with his chest puffed out. He walked across the room to a small set of stairs that lead to a platform, elevating him to the height of the second floor. The mezzanine above cutting him off in the midriff for most of the congregation below. His voice billowed across the space.
Unable to understand his words, Anelle studied the four priests looking out at the congregation. The ivory robes were slightly different for each man. The one closest to the preacher had three stripes in green, blue and gold starting at his shoulders that ran down to the ground. The next two had two strips in blue and green. The man on the far right stood out. Instead of coloured strips, presumably to denote rank, he had a gold sash draped across his shoulders. He also had long hair and a bushy but well kept beard covering half his face. All the other priests were clean shaven. As she looked back at him she jumped as his eyes looked straight at her. Her cheeks blushed a deep crimson. She slumped down trying to hide from his view. From that distance she couldn't figure out his facial expression. Maybe he was looking at something else? Anelle could feel his eyes on her. She tentatively looked up. He finally looked away. For the rest of the sermon the golden priest kept sneaking glances at her. She shuddered at the attention. Her skin felt like it was crawling with bugs. Anelle desperately wanted to jump up and leave.
The entire congregation suddenly lifted their hands in front of them with their palms flat towards the ceiling. Anelle quickly followed.
"Acala." the entire room echoed with the word. Anelle mumbled it before lowering her hands.
The speaker descended the stairs and walked out of the hall, followed by two of the priests. The room erupted into chatter.The two priests that stayed were swarmed by people. The man with the gold sash was distracted by the crowd. Anelle relaxed her shoulders.
She looked up at Emera who was locked in conversation with a couple in the row behind. Anelle lightly pulled on her sleeve. Emera took pity on her. She bid her friends farewell before ushering Anelle up the aisle to the entryway.
A group of young boys were sitting in a circle. At the sight of the two women Tiione's face dropped in disappointment. He sighed before getting up and giving a half hearted goodbye to his friends.
The night air became plumes of mist between their lips. Cloaks wrapped tight around them as they walked back down the empty streets. The almost full moon cast a white light over the main street. The shadows creeped in from any crevice and ally it could swallow. Lanterns hung in front of doors, the soft warm hue working alongside the moon to keep the darkness at bay.
A family stood huddled in front of their door as they walked past. A young girl no older than six or seven looked up at the lantern, bouncing with excitement. The warm glow illuminated her smiling cheeks. The lantern was lowered and she blew out the flame.
Anelle watched as many families did the same ceremony. Often the youngest was given the honour of blowing out the lantern but not always. Sometimes it was the oldest of the group hunched over a walking stick or an expectant mother.
A lantern was held aloft a hundred metres down the street. Anelle squinted her eyes to see. A woman's silhouette stood watching the light. The breath caught in her throat. The woman herself was achingly beautiful. Her face was that of a statue, far too beautiful to be real. A beauty that could topple empires with knights and kings reduced to jealous creatures hanging on her every word. Her hair fell in perfect waves for the moonlight to shine across its hills and valleys. Her skin was as white as snow and death. The warm light of the lantern fighting with the moon to be the one to capture her.
The flame moved. It broke free of its cage and danced through the air, making joyful flicks of its tail. A fish. The light swam around the woman. The fabric of her dress was unlike any Anelle had ever seen. Her skirt was constructed with many layers. The fabric so thin the colours of the layers beneath shone through. As the fish danced around the different blues and greens swirled over her. The silhouette of the skirt was straight out of a fairy tale. The waist cinched impossibly small followed by a wide hoop half a metre in every direction. In Garlon this size and style had been out of fashion for over fifty years. None of the nobles she had seen at church had skirts anywhere near that size.
The woman watched the fish, she held out her empty hand for it to rest upon. As the fish nuzzled into her palm her attention drifted towards her spectator. Anelle's cheeks warmed with embarrassment but she could not look away. The woman smiled and whispered to the fish, while her eyes stayed glued to Anelle. With a flick of its tail a soft breeze flew by and the woman's words found their way to Anelle's ears.
"Follow the fish." A soft warm voice that sent shivers down her spine.
The words. She had spoken in Garlon. Anelle's mouth was agape in shock. The soft smile widened, inviting something darker to its edges.
The fish continued to swim, circling the woman. With each turn it grew bigger and bigger. The fish picked up speed and dived directly into the woman's chest. Sparks and flames flew in every direction. Her dress and hair joined the flames until she was engulfed in them. As quickly as they had ignited, they burnt out.
"Anelle?" Emera said.
A soft hand pulled her back to the present. Emera stood in front of her holding her arm, her forehead creased. The older woman's eyes were filled with concern. Anelle smiled trying to keep her breathing steady. Emera, not entirely convinced, turned to Tiione, who had just taken the lantern from the front door. She motioned for Tiione to bring the lantern closer. He walked closer and held out the lantern towards Anelle. She looked between mother and son before turning back to the lantern. With one quick sharp breath the light was extinguished.