Chapter 23: Repel the Silence

Since we'd soon have four less cats in our camp, I felt it was time for another recruitment drive. My range on my soul sense had only gone up since we'd started implementing the constellation system. Splitpelt, inspired by my gate to the hunting grounds, was teaching the two leaders how to construct gates. The once empty portal frame exit to camp now instead lead to a straight clearing lined with several portal frames, of which two faintly glowed. From what I heard from Splitpelt, he labeled the clearing the Nexus. I didn't expect us to remain interconnected, but it is always wise to consider others' ideas. Soon we'll have constellations spread all over the Darkforest. I could already imagine it, the nexus abuzz with activity, friends taking breaks from their work to meet, the inter constellation relations being accepted. I could imagine kits bouncing around after their parents here, meeting different constellations, and looking up in awe at their leaders. Maybe we could create our own paradise.

Awaking from my fantasy, I looked around. The camp was empty save me. It faintly hurt, but that was to be expected given that I'd given every other cat duties at the moment. As I sat, I realized how much I hated the silence. There was no wind, no playful banter, no kit laughter, no near silent breaths of the sleeping, nothing… I could feel it in my soul that I'd never feel at home as long as this silence remained. Instead, I moved myself. I drifted back into my cloud sense, searching. I was looking for anything of interest.

Ever so slowly, I managed to find five souls of note. To what could be best described as Southwest and up was a cat whose sin was murder, but his soul's ears were heavily marred with trauma. I could feel him wince with every pop the mud made under paw. To him, it was like an explosion. All that put together hinted at a murder of madness. The sound was his weakness.

The next I noted and felt was against all odds a medicine cat, but from what I felt, they didn't only dabble in healing. Viewing their sin left an acidic burning in my throat with the edges of my saliva foaming, a poisoner, and one who'd become quite liberal in its use. Their soul still tasted of regret, so they had potential.

The third soul I noticed wasn't really a soul at all yet. It was more that a dense collection of echoes associated with gluttony were close together. Even viewing the mass left me with hunger pains I'd been familiar with in leafbare. I had ideas for the mass. One of the larges complaints about prey was they never tasted as they remembered. Maybe with a connoisseur, we could correct the prey population from just tasting like I thought they were like.

The final two were a pair, both fascinating in their own way. One stung of poison while the other didn't seem to belong at all. Yes. One was a Starclan cat who seemed to have entered here willingly while the other was a poisoner who seemed to have only poisoned once. Their sin didn't seem so much to pertain to them poisoning a cat, but rather who they poisoned. It was a vague feeling. What made the two special was that they were related, a mother and daughter. The mother was searching for something and the daughter was lost.

I let out a purr at the possibility to recruit so many interesting cats. They all were special in their own ways. Two medicine cats, a Starclan cat, a pure aspect amalgam, and a cat who could become normal with the use of powers. My spirits soared at the thought of a busy camp. I stepped off into the woods. My first target was the hyper reactive one. Already, I projected an aura of silence as I approached. The tom appeared in my vision. He was a skinny thing, white with orange patches breaking up the consistency. He noticed the silence as he raised his paw for another step.

I did not speak but rather willed my voice into his thoughts as I made my entrance. "Greetings. I am Mapleshade."

His eyes lit up with alarm, but he seemed to have realized I wasn't there to hurt him.

In barely a whisper he replied, "Why are you here? What do you want from me."

Again, in my projected voice I responded, "I wish to recruit you to join my cats seeking redemption. I offer you freedom from your curse, to hear things silently so you may be able to stand sound again."

He was not a bright cat, but I could already tell he was a cat born of stealth, a stalker's skillset with ears keen enough to hear the most minute of sounds. He would be an amazing informant, but to recruit him, I'd have to give him power earlier than most.

"Yes! Please!" He whispered, his own voice stinging his ears.

I generated for him a ball of blackish light. Sound reverberated off its form into what looked like waves unmoving. For him, it would be the power of silence. He absorbed the ball and looked at me curiously.

"What now?"

I let out a laugh. He didn't even notice, he'd already begun using them.

"Now you are free. You've already begun learning to use your powers instinctively. Do my words still sting your ears? Do you still find the sound of the mud overwhelming?"

Realization lit up his face. Slowly he pulled his paw from the mud with that familiar pop. He stared in wonder at how silent it had gone. Soon he started vocalizing, testing his limits before his voice became too much again. I soon had to put up with him screeching before he stopped with a brilliant smile on his face.

"Thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me. I, Quietstep, swear to repay you someday."

I smiled and opened a gate back to camp.

"Make yourself at home. If you meet any other cats there, tell them Mapleshade sent you. I've still got some more cats to meet."

My paws and focus turned towards the more liberal poisoner. Regret is a feeling I know well. Soon I spotted the tabby. Her steps were unfocused, and she seemed to still be grieving her actions.

"Greetings. I am Mapleshade."

The shecat looked up and saw me.

She more quietly responded, "I am Boragepelt. Why do you seek me?"

I responded calmly despite her sin radiating in her presence burning my throat. "I offer you a chance to redeem yourself, to make up for your sin of poison, to become better. I have a place where cats like you can convene and live. We all desire to make up for what we've done."

Boragepelt wasn't totally sold. She asked first, "What are you trying to make up for?"

"I murdered three cats who I thought were responsible for my kits' deaths. They weren't totally innocent, but I should have never went as far as to murder them."

Boragepelt nodded at that. The last thing she wanted to do was be surrounded by cats who looked down on her for what she did.

"I'll give it a try."

I generated a portal for her and guided her through. Like Quietstep, I let her know what to do on arrival and that I still had two more stops to make.

Finally, it was time for the duo that caught my interest. They weren't together yet, but I could make it happen. I sat down and wove their paths to meet right in front of me. Soon I saw the two padding closer. They hadn't spotted me, but they saw each other. Their pawsteps quickened until they were sprinting to meet. They brushed up against each other purring madly.

"Mother! I've missed you. What are you doing here?"

"My sweet Leafpaw, I came here as soon as I saw Starclan cast you out. I couldn't stay there while my beautiful daughter was sent here."

I let them continue their reunion before making myself known.

"It isn't often that families can reunite here. Its good to see there is light even in this dark place."

The two turned to look at me.

"I'm not sure if either of you could tell, but I guided your paw steps here hoping to meet you both. I am Mapleshade and I want to offer you two something."

The mother shook her head staring at me. "I appreciate what you did, but I think my daughter and I should be leaving."

I was somewhat annoyed by her response, but I played it cool.

"I'd prefer if you at least let me put my offer out first before you refuse it."

The mother looked at me cautiously for a second. She must have felt how powerful I was. Then she responded.

"Fine. What do you offer us Mapleshade."

With a kind smile I replied, "A home. I have a place where cats seeking redemption gather. As I'm sure you've both felt, Starclan isn't perfect, and neither are we. We all just want to be a bit better and there we push to improve ourselves as cats."

The mother was almost about to refuse before Leafpaw responded.

"Dawnfur, let's at least look. Maybe not all cats are bad here."

I opened a portal for them and let them know about the other cats there before setting out again. One last stop.

I soon emerged into a field filled with echoes crying out in hunger. They were soul fragments of the starved and the gorged. I pulled them together into one mass, one cat, but it seemed there was less here than I anticipated. I could only produce a kit from the amount of soul in the area. No matter. I now had a lovely new kit of my own to care for, love, and someday teach the art of forging souls. I could already feel how his faint soul was growing. He'd become the master of food and a connoisseur of the finest taste when he was grown. I would watch every second with the same loving eyes I had for all my kits. He was like a baby bird, soft and fragile, but he would someday become large and grand. My little Buzzardkit.