THE REQUIEM: THE WORLD IN A DOWNWARD TILT
PART ONE: MELCENA

Chapter Nine: Where's Urgar?

Although she'd made the promise to keep an eye out for Urgar mostly because it was the expected thing to say, Sithli found herself doing exactly that nonetheless. Her heightened awareness however soon blossomed into active searching when she failed to locate her Murgo friend by absent glimpse. She found herself consistently distracted from her lectures by studying the students around her, searching for that head of ink black hair among the crowd. In each class she failed to locate him. The same held true for when the determinedly scanned the corridors, the library, and the grounds in search of him. No Urgar.

After several days of this, serious worry descended upon her heavily and she began checking the men's dormitory. Even there, Urgar failed to appear. She knocked on his door several times, but no matter what time of day she came there was no response. Not even the sound of movement from within to suggest that, for whatever reason, he was deliberately ignoring her.

After that particular failure it got so that she went to the tutors. Since she had to turn in her logics paper anyway, and Urgar also took logics at that same hour with her, she spoke to Master Fell first. He was, however, extremely unhelpful.

"If I kept track of every student that didn't turn up in my class, I'd have half the first and second year classes on watch." The older man informed her.

"But he isn't turning up for any class." Sithli protested.

"That isn't an infrequent occurrence. You, for example, have a healthy habit of skipping when it suits you. We tutors do talk to each other, you know." He gave her a pointed look.

Sithli's face turned red from embarrassment as well as annoyance at his lack of concern. "Regardless of his attendance," she said, forcing her voice to remain even, "neither I nor any one else he usually consorts with have seen him anywhere. I knocked on his door and there was no answer.'

Master Fell frowned at here. "This sounds more like a squabble between friends then, doesn't it."

"We didn't squabble." Sithli said from between clenched teeth. That was half true. She had been a bit bad tempered the last time she spoke with Urgar, but he wasn't the type to hold a grudge over something like that. And even if he were to remain upset with her, that was no reason to avoid Eridis, Malden, Airi, and Nathalie as well.

"Perhaps you don't see it as such, but something you see as inoffensive might be very off putting to another individual. If he's ignoring you then the best course is to leave him be. Now then," he folded his hands on his desk. "I have to return to my grading so you are excused."

Sithli didn't leave. "But isn't there the possibility that something has happened to him?"

"Student Sithli." Master Fell said firmly, his patience slipping. "Whether or not Student Urgar has been in attendance, he has, nonetheless, been turning in his assignments in a timely fashion. And, might I add, in far better quality then I've noted in your own work. I can't imagine that, having been severely injured, he'd still find the availability to write and turn in work. Now, as I said, you are excused."

Sithli was furious when she returned to number five study. Eridis was already there, seated in one of the deep chairs, and she looked up immediately when the Mallorean princess entered. She remained quiet as Sithli slammed the door shut, spewing curses, and being violent with several of the chair cushions. When her stream of curses ebbed some, Eridis inquired,

"What happened?"

"They all said exactly the same thing to me as Master Fell. Skipping class is normal, I should be more worried about my own attendance and work, and that they've been receiving Urgar's assignments on time and well done. None of them will even listen to argument!"

Sithli launched into another tirade of cursing and when it abated again Eridis spoke. "I'm also very worried now. I went to Urgar's room."

"And he didn't answer the door." Sithli supplied.

Eridis nodded. "So I broke in." Sithli's eyes went wide and she stared at her petite friend in surprise. Eridis didn't blush, instead she looked resolved. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was an emergency. I was simply going to glance in without even entering. But, Sithli, his room didn't look as if anyone has been in there for weeks. There was dust on things and the snacks he hides in his room had gone stale or molded completely. Even if he didn't eat them, the smell was horrible so there's no way he would have ignored them and not thrown the mess away. He couldn't possibly have been back there for at least a week."

Sithli sat down hard in one of the chairs, a grim frown on her lips. "So Urgar hasn't been anywhere on campus for a week at the very least."

"Should we tell the tutors?"

"To what end? They'll probably say that if Urgar chooses not to sleep in his room then that's his own choice. Or that the unseemliness of one student has absolutely nothing to do with them. No," Sithli shook her head. "they're not going to be of any help." Sithli glanced down at the table. The red leather book sat closed atop a stack of papers. "Have you been looking at the prophecy?"

Eridis shook her head. "Not since Malden's visit. I've been too worried about Urgar."

"Me too." Sithli agreed. "The shadows said not to be distracted, but there's no help for it. I believe something has happened to Urgar and it seems like its being left to us to find him. That's going to have to take priority." The small girl looked relieved. Sithli wondered what Eridis would have done if Sithli hadn't chosen Urgar over continuing to decode the prophecy. "I don't know how though."

"You said that all the tutors have been receiving Urgar's assignments in a timely fashion?"

Sithli nodded. "Timelier and better than ever. That alone should be a red flag."

"That means that either Urgar is turning them in or someone is doing it for him. If its someone else then they'd almost have to know something about what happened to Urgar, wouldn't they? I can't imagine that someone just noticed Urgar's absence and decided to do all his work for him for no reason."

Sithli's eyes lit up and she suddenly sat upright in her chair. "Why didn't I think of that! Hold on a moment." She dug her calendar out of her bag and flipped through it. "There's a paper due in western history four days from now. Urgar is also in that class, so he'll be expected to hand one in as well."

"That's perfect. How have the tutors been receiving his assignments? In class with the rest?"

"Dame Villette mentioned something about receiving his last work slipped beneath the classroom door the morning it was due."

"Then whomever is delivering his work must put it there during the night."

Sithli looked over at her friend. "This sounds like a proposal for a stake-out."

"I can't imagine any other course of action."

"Neither can I. Alright. Let's do it."

The days passed quickly and three evenings later, Sithli and Eridis found themselves sleuthing down to the corridors outside of the western history classroom. The halls in the history department were lined with high, thick marble pillars that stretched from the marble floors all the way up towards the high ceilings. In he daylight they were pale pink, shot with veins of black and dark brown. In the dark they were a murky gray color, illuminated only slightly by the moonlight that leaked in through the corridor's windows.

She and Eridis chose one of the pillars out of the way of the windows, where the shadows were deepest. It was well angled, so they could see the classroom door clearly, as well as anyone who approached it. They'd traded in their school robes for darker clothing: trousers and hats, so that they could pose as boys if they were caught. Slumping down in the darkness, they prepared for the wait with nerves on edge.

Despite having forced herself to sleep the entire day in order to prepare, Sithli felt sleepiness creeping over her as the silent night lengthened. It would have helped to have been able to talk to Eridis or even read, but the former was too risky and it was too dark for the latter. She'd almost slipped into a doze when, three hours before dawn, there was the muffled sound of footsteps moving across the marble floor. Eridis hissed Sithli's name in her ear, but the Mallorean princess was already alert. Her heat pounded in her chest, a horse's heavy gallop and she forced her breathing below even as she leaned around the pillar to see.

The figure was no taller than Sithli herself, shrouded from head to toe in a cloak whose color must have been dark, but was indistinguishable in the darkness. It moved briskly down the end of the hall to the classroom door, bent at the waist there and slid something underneath the door. Sithli felt Eridis' hand tighten against her arm. The figure turned, it's hooded face scanning the hall, and then it made its way back down the hall the way it came.

"We have to follow." Sithli whispered as the footsteps became distant. She saw Eridis nod through the shadows and the two slipped from their hiding space, and took after the cloaked figure.

Keeping out of sight was difficult, particularly when the cloaked figure left the department building and moved out into the expansive lawns of the university. Sithli and Eridis relied on the dark of night and the shrubbery to conceal them. Luckily the night was cloudy and only the faintest patches of moon shone through the gray masses that drifted across the dark sky. The figure continued its trek, on passed the other departments and towers, across the rolling hills of the campus, and then finally it entered a building.

"That's the women's dormitory." Eridis said in surprise, as the figure vanished inside.

"You're right." Sithli frowned, her curiosity at its peak. So it was a student after all. "Come on."

Without waiting she took off across the expanse of grass towards the dormitory. Her eagerness made her pace quick, so much so that she nearly ran into the figure as she turned a corner. Eridis' hand caught her arm just in time to pull her back around. From about the corner they watched the figure unlock one of the rooms, slip inside, and close it softly behind them.

"And now?" Eridis asked. She'd lost her hat chasing after Sithli and her brown curls had spilled down around her face, tousled by the night wind.

"I'll knock." Sithli proposed. "I'll make up some excuse, just so we can see who it is. Tomorrow we can go to the tutors with our accusations."

Eridis agreed and Sithli left her to cross to the door of the room the figure had entered. Without waiting to allow her nerves to rise again, she knocked on the door with her knuckles. The sound of occupied silence came from within and Sithli knocked again, louder. At that point there was a scuffling noise and the rattle of something that sounded metallic. A moment later the door was wrenched open.

Sithli's impromptu plan completely flew out the window, her lie dying on her lips as she stared at the pretty face before her, framed by waves of rich gold hair.

"Menary?" She said in shock.

Gray eyes had widened in similar surprise and then cooled immediately in to that haughty, superior expression they always had. "You. What do you want?"

"Sithli." Eridis had come around the corner. Her expression was neutral but her eyes sought out Sithli's, questioning.

Menary's face went even colder. "Two of you. I'm not interested in night time visits."

"That's a lie." Sithli said directly. "Where were you just now?"

"What do you mean?"

"We saw you." There was no point in beating around the bush now. Sithli wanted answers and it seemed like whenever that was the case it was always Menary she needed them from. This time, she wasn't going to avoid going to the source. "You were delivering Urgar's paper to Master Lambar, weren't you?"

Menary looked startled again and for a moment she seemed to grapple with something. Finally a wickedly amused smile made her lips curve. "That's true. I don't see why it's your business, though."

"Where's Urgar?" This time it was Eridis who asked.

"How should I know? I don't bother asking where he comes and goes. I simply drop off his assignments for him." Menary lowered her eyelashes deviously. "I've become quite fond of him. He's awfully…vigorous."

Eridis turned red with embarrassment and anger. Sithli didn't believe a word of it. Urgar wouldn't. Not with Menary. He himself had defamed her. Either way Sithli couldn't imagine Menary going to such lengths, even for a lover. And if so, why so late and in such secretive garb?

Her patience gone entirely, she shoved past the blonde girl abruptly, forcing her way into the room. Menary resisted a moment, but stepped aside and let the two girls' entered. Her expression was annoyed, but she held her chin aloft, her gray eyes narrowed to icy points.

"This is invasion of privacy, you know. I can get you expelled for this." She threatened.

Sithli ignored her, eyes searching the room. It was newly furnished. Menary had all but discarded the university's furniture it replaced it with her own. The bed was neatly made, proof that the blonde girl hadn't yet made use of it. It was immaculately clean, to the point that it almost seemed obsessive. Everything was in perfect order. There was a snarl from the corner and Sithli turned to see a large cat with ink black fur. Its fur was on end and its tail was bushed rigid. It had set to snarling and hissing when Menary had moved near the cage. It spat at Menary, but neither clawed nor backed away. Ears flat, it seemed to flinch from her touch as she patted its head, but its legs were limp.

Sithli frowned. Beside her, Eridis said softly. "I've never seen a cat in that humor that didn't try to bite the first had to come near it."

At her words, Menary glanced up. "Do you like my new pet? He's quite handsome."

Sithli stared. "What's the matter with it? It can't move its legs, can it?"

Menary tried to look grave but her eyes betrayed her amusement. "He fell climbing a tree. He'll be alright soon." Under her hand the wedge of the cat's head stirred. Menary moved her fingers soothingly; just enough so that Sithli met its glaring brown eyes. "Now, I think it's time you both left. I don't like people in my room."

Sithli experienced a slight sharpening of her vision. Weariness, hunger, and pique fell away before her sudden surge of anger. In a remote, calm potion of her mind, she thought how odd it was that people spoke of losing one's temper. Ordinarily, she was scarcely aware she had a temper. Now that she could feel it yielding like rotten rope, her temper was vividly present, like another person inside her skin.

With great detachment, she told herself that is was her temper that gave her leisure to examine the variety of her reactions. It was her temper that made time seemed to run so slowly. It was her temper that narrowed her field of vision to those hazel brown eyes. And it was her temper that made Eridis' voice sound far away, more distant than her recollection of her and Urgar's conversation with that maid from The Happy Wench. I found a dead rat in his unmade bed.

She heard her own voice, icy, as she started towards Menary. "That's not a cat."

Beside her Eridis had gone very still at Sithli's declaration and her head swiveled towards the cat and then Menary. "It can't be…"

Menary's mouth curved with slow satisfaction. "Whatever he once was, he's mine now."

Sithli stood over Menary, so close that she could see Menary's fair hair stir in the breeze that blew through her open window. Then Sithli felt the silk of Menary's hair in her hands, and heard Menary's outraged shriek as Sithli hauled her to her feet. The cat dropped free and fell to the ground a few feet away. Sithli shifted her grip to the blonde girl's shoulders. Her temper had made it hard for her to see. Her vision had shrunk until she could scarcely make out what her hands were doing. What little vision remained, anger tinted red.

Sithli shook Menary until her head banged against the wall. The impact traveled up Sithli's arms. Satisfactory but not perfect. She gathered herself for another try. Menary shrieked again, not a scream of pain, a scream of rage, a shriek with words in it. At once, Sithli felt her body go rigid and she was suddenly jerked off her feet and sent skidding across the floor, into the opposite wall.

Her vision hazed and when it cleared Eridis was at her side. Menary had the black cat again, and a long blade was to its neck. Her hair and face were wild, her eyes narrowed hotly.

"You're going to do exactly as I say or your friend dies." She snarled. "Bring me the prophecy."

Sithli felt like she'd been punched in the gut. How did Menary know about that? What was going on? She couldn't get out words however. Her head had struck the wall first and the dizziness was not abating entirely. When she moved the world swam.

"How do you know about the prophecy?" Eridis asked. Her voice was level and had no inflection. Anyone who didn't know her would think her to be perfectly calm. She stood erect; her hands behind her, but from her angle, Sithli could see her fingers making strange patterns in the air.

Fierce enjoyment was dancing in Menary's fine eyes now. "I know far more about it than you two idiots. I'll destroy it and The Void will be my personal well of power."

"You're insane." Eridis accused in that same, emotionless tone, as if she were a physician diagnosing a patient.

Menary's enjoyment became anger. "Give me the book! Or," she pressed the blade tighter against the black cat's neck. Red appeared like a bright ribbon wetting black fur.

There was a jumble of motion then that Sithli was to dazed to follow at once. Eridis' arm thrust out and she shouted something. As she stepped forward Menary fell back against the wall again, and shrieked in earnest as the tangled silk of her hair suddenly caught fire.

It was not a natural fire, Sithli realized. It gave no heat, no scent of singed hair. It blazed pale gold and green, Menary's wild halo. In its own way, it was beautiful, as cold and strange as the northern lights. Eridis had pulled her hand back, clasping it over her mouth in horror. Menary was screaming. Where was the cat?

Sithli forced her head to move and it throbbed more. Dimly she was aware that, even jarred, her head should have cleared by now. That or she should have been unconscious. Her eyes focus and she saw a limp black lump lying on the ground. Menary had dropped him when she'd caught flame, slicing deeper into the feline's neck in her startlement and pain. Blood leaked out across the floor. Horror rose in her gut. The cat was dying.

Urgar was dying.

Give him back his form.
O noble princess, you must save the prince

It was the shadow voices. The ringing in her head made her ears burn and she winced in pain. How? She through the thought back at them.

You must dream it.

Dream it?

That which is unnatural may be shaped by your dreams.

How? She had no strength to argue.

As you dreamed the snow.
We will guide you.

And then Sithli knew what she had to do. The world seemed to darken. Menary and Eridis, the room, everything seemed to fade away. And in the gloom Sithli imagined a black cat. Her ears felt stopped up with cotton. Slowly the cat grew in size. Its limbs lengthened, extended, developed fingers and toes. Its head became a distinguishable oval. The tail shortened till it was gone entirely. The black fur became pale skin. Her head swimming from concussion, Sithli dreamed of a black cat turning into Crown Prince Urgar of Cthol Murgos.

Suddenly cold, suddenly shuddering with cold, Sithli felt the world come to light again. Her vision was clear. Too clear. There was no way to avoid the sight of Menary huddled against the wall, her blonde hair gone, badly burned, screaming still. Eridis was weeping. The cat was gone. An arm's length away, unconscious and naked on the green rug, laid Urgar.

At the sound of soft footfall, Faris looked up. In the doorway stood the Dean, resplendent in his dark green robes. He was flanked by Dame Villette and Dame Cassilda. Sithli remained conscious long enough to see the calm severity with which the observed the scene before them and then, abruptly she blackness stole over her vision and her mind went blank.


She was some place warm, but empty; adrift on a dark cloud of warm air. She felt weightless and comfortable and the idea that she might not ever want to leave that space of cozy nothingness occurred to her.

Well that wouldn't do at all, would it?
That's the problem with people, you know. Once they get all comfortable they never want to do anything else.
You're quite right.
Thank you.

Sithli was startled from her drowsy serenity by the voices. They seemed to come from all around her. She realized she was sprawled on her back and so she quickly sat up. The world around her seemed to spin and it was like a light going on. Now she seemed to be in a room where the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor were all a blindingly bright white. The urge was there to slip down again into comforting half-oblivion, so that when the shadows began to move upon the walls in ways disallowed by the light she did not know whether she was waking or dreaming. Sharp-defined human shadows without human bodies to cast them, slipping and sliding across the walls and over one another like whispering leaves.

Deep in the wilderness there lived a fearful beast who knew nothing but hunger. And the taller shadow formed a fanged creature with what might have been her hands. One day, a beautiful princess came upon the beast and witnessed the ravenous thing devouring the old witch who lived in the wood.

'Oh, great and powerful beast' The other shadow spoke now, her voice high and musical in imitation of the "beautiful princess", 'You must truly be the strongest of all things to have so easily gobbled up such a powerful witch. Although you could eat me and for a time abate your hunger, instead hear my words. I am cunning and may roam where you may not. Therefore, let us profit each other. I shall deliver to you as much all that you wish to consume and more. If you wish it, I shall aid you in eating the whole wide world. And in return you must give me your great and terrible power.'

A shadowy princess embracing a shadow monster, till everything became a blotch of darkness on the white wall. That darkness spread until it took over the whole room again, plunging the bright gleam of the walls into lightless darkness again.

And so the princess went out into the wide world to pave the way for the beast's ravening. To prepare for the fantastic and the astonishing and the good of the world to be devoured by the beastial void. A hundred millennia beyond the end of the world.

"What's going on?" Sithli asked the darkness. Was she dreaming?

You can't stay at school anymore, dreaming princess.
You must obey the prophecy.

"Me? But I—Eridis and I—have deciphered almost all of it. What else do I need to do?"

Silly princess. Did you think unraveling the mystery was your only duty?
You are one of the integral pieces. You are one of whom the prophecy speaks.
To go beyond the end of the world.

Sithli's memory came flooding back. As if whatever had been keeping her from thinking too deeply had suddenly released its grip.

"Menary! Why did Menary want the prophecy?"

We've told you already.
She wants The Void to eat the world. Eat the world.
She takes what The Void eats. Takes what it eats.
And turns it into power for herself.

"What's 'The Void'?" Sithli asked in frustration. "Why can't you just speak sensibly?"

We can't. It has to all be a game for us.
Songs are games. So we put prophecy in a song.
Stories are games. So we put truth in a story.
Dreams are games. So we gave the heroine dreams to shape the unnatural.

"You keep talking about dreaming. What does that mean? How did I return Urgar to his proper form?"

You dreamed.
With your dreams, you can cause the unnatural. You can undo the unnatural.
But be cautious. When you dream, your body is vulnerable. Be not struck down when you go.

"Go?"

To the west, O dreaming princess.
To the Unchosen God. Send him to tourney.
To The Architect. Complete your company.
Then on past the edge of the world.