Viridescent Shadows II: The Nightmarish Nine
By Daring D.D. Danger
Phase One: The Prime With Pigtails
Trolberg, Present Day
"So, you destroyed Trolberg once?" Kelly asked.
"Part of it. It's not going to happen again. Maven sealed all the dark magic she knew, including the spell to stabilize the curses, in a tome and died with the spell to open it again." It was still snowing as I told Kelly about the witch hunts, and about my friends, Eunice and Alma. The roof of the Trolberg library had a centimeter or so of snow, glistening in the city lights.
"Did you ever find out what Alma told Eunice that night? Or why she could summon blades from her arms? Wouldn't it be cool if we could summon blades from our arms?" Kelly begged.
"I did. I also told you Marra can't do a lot of the things Alma could." I said.
"Then what was she?" Kelly perplexed.
"She'd probably have said she was cursed. At least that's how I feel about it." As I said this I summoned my sword blade from my left arm and pointed in the air briefly before letting it fade. Kelly was left speechless.
Trolberg, 1739
The haunting green pyre of the Marra fire pit was illuminating its clearing of the Huldrawood once again, burning just below the canopy of the trees surrounding it. The leaves rustled as Patience landed next to her friend Lucia. Patience had been a Marra for about a decade now, a small dark skinned girl. We'd made her a Marra mostly because Eunice and I had been alone as the twin Marra of Trolberg for almost one hundred years. Lucia had only been a Marra for about four years- she had pale skin and deep blue eyes. She was homeless and more or less sought out being a Marra herself based on rumors she'd heard about nightmare spirits. I let out a sigh as it became apparent Eunice would miss the bonfire again.
"Where's Eunice been?" Lucia asked me.
"I'm not sure where she is, but I know why she's avoiding us." I said. "Remember what we told you about consuming fear?"
"We need to consume fear to survive." Lucia replied.
"Not consuming fear is the only way I know of for a Marra to die, aside from magic combined with that stupid belt thing. When Marra get old sometimes they just get tired of being a Marra. Eunice has been talking about it since not long after you became a Marra, Lucia." The part I didn't want to tell them was that I knew when Eunice would go. Tomorrow is the same date Alma died, way back in the 1640s.
The fire was short lived, as we'd been subsisting on one nightmare a Marra, unlike back when I first started giving nightmares. Eunice and I figured out quality over quantity actually generated more sustainable fear. On this night I'd used one of the classics on some kid, the witch biting your head off dream. Eunice never grew tired of that nightmare. I sent the other girls away and laid down on the ground, waiting for sunrise.
A figure in a hood entered the clearing as daylight filled the Huldrawood.
"I knew you'd be here." I said.
"Same to you." Eunice threw off her cloak. She was covered in green lines, just as Alma had been.
"Is this the part where you tell me what Alma told you?" I asked.
"Indeed, Christabella." I shot her a dirty look for using my former name. "I'm the last being on the planet who knows you by that name. You got your weird wish to have no name, but it's how I know you."
"Fine." I said.
"How long do you plan on being a Marra?" She asked.
"Not sure. I told Maven I'd wait to see her library finished."
"Ah, the witch. It's interesting to me you've never spoken with her daughter."
"Maven told me it'd be safer if future witches did not interact with me."
"Interesting. Well, I need to get on with this part, or we'll be in trouble." Eunice said. "Remember all that weird shit Alma could do?"
"Like conjuring fire?" I asked.
"Exactly, let me show you why." Suddenly a green fire grew in Eunice's hand, and then she directed it onto the ground, drawing a circle. Suddenly nine fires spurted up within the circle forming their own circle, then green lines connected all of the little fires into a nine pointed star.
"Is this like a pentagram?" I asked.
"Technically, it's an enneagram." Eunice replied. She then snapped her fingers causing a tenth flame, this one purple, to form in the center of the enneagram. I looked closer and noticed some characters glowing around the flames.
"They're in some forgotten language. The nine green flames say Alma, Alice, Cicily, Estrid, Beatrice, Gemma, Ivett, Sibyl, and Eva. The one in the center says 'Huld'.
"This makes no sense to me at all, Eunice." I said bluntly
"The nine green flames represent the Marra who survived killing Huld. Alma called them the nightmarish nine. When they killed Huld, they read through her texts and discovered she'd made herself more or less immortal using dark magic. If she's killed, her soul will soon leave her body and possess another witch's body. The girls prevented it using Huld's own spells, they each absorbed a portion of her soul into theirs. If one of these prime Marra dies, their soul will seek out a new host for Huld, however it can be prevented by passing the soul to another Marra before death, using the enneagram spell."
"I know where you are going with this, Eunice." I said nervously.
"You need to take Huld's soul fragment and become one of the nightmarish nine." Eunice said.
"I don't want this!" I said.
"The enneagram spell also lets us check to see if Huld's soul is still broken up! That's what the nine flames are, Christabella! No Marra has ever failed to pass this responsibility on! I don't want to be the reason Alma's flame goes out!" Eunice bellows.
"F-fine." I said.
"Step into the circle," Eunice said. I moved inside of the ring, the purple flame at my feet. Eunice then stepped in as well, there was almost no space between us.
"How does this work?" I asked.
"Just shut up." Eunice says as she suddenly kisses me. I was suddenly in agony as it felt like she breathed fire into my throat. I pushed myself back from her and fell backwards. The enneagram had gone out entirely.
"Pass that on before you die, it's Alma's last wish." Eunice laid down on the ground. "I got that done just in time." She smiled and faded away into ashes. I couldn't move, or even make a sound.
Trolberg, Present Day
"So that makes you one of those prime Marra things?" Kelly asked.
"Yes."
"You can do that enneagram thing then?"
"Yes, but, things are a bit different now."
"How so?" Kelly asked.
"I'll have to tell you what happened to Patience, Lucia, myself, and the two weirdest Marra I've ever known."
To Be Continued in Phase Two: The Quintet of Terror