Kiersten's Arc

Chapter 33 of 33

After the feast hall emptied, Kiersten walked the path to the stone house with green shutters. The door opened under her hand. The rooms smelled like dust and cold hearth. She lit the fire, ate half a piece of bread, and washed her face. Witness sat quiet under her ribs. For the first time in weeks, no hunter pressed at the edge of her thoughts. She could rest. She unclasped the blue pendant and set it on the table by the bed. The linked charms clinked once and settled. The stone at its center kept its light low, like a banked coal. She looked at it a long moment. She had earned the right to take it off inside her own walls. She slid under the blanket and closed her eyes. Sleep took her fast and deep. She dreamed she walked a stone path to a house she had never seen. The house had a red tile roof, green shutters, and small hearts carved above the arched door. A woman stood on the balcony. She was short, brown-haired, with auburn eyes and a button nose. She wore Kiersten's tattoos on her arms. She was Kiersten and she was not. "You came," the woman said. "I've been waiting on your side of the door." Kiersten climbed the steps. "You're Witness." "I am what you named me." The woman opened the door. Inside, the walls held every tattoo Kiersten carried, each one glowing soft blue. "I fell to reach you. I stayed because you asked me. Now I want to speak plain." "Speak," Kiersten said. "You thought becoming a vessel meant emptying out. It does not. It means we live in the same house." Witness touched the wall, and a tattoo pulsed. "I see what you cannot. You feel what I cannot. Neither of us is the guest." Kiersten sat on a low bench by the hearth. "I fought five demons and did not break. I did not know I could." "I knew," Witness said. "That is what I am for." Kiersten's hand went to her throat. The pendant was there in the dream, cool against her skin. A slow swirl of blue light rose from it and hung between them, bright and steady. From it, a sword took shape in her palm, then faded. She did not need to hold it here. "What do I do now?" Kiersten asked. "Rest," Witness said. "Learn. When the next call comes, answer it awake." Kiersten woke at dawn. The fire was low. The pendant on the table glowed steady blue, no longer banked. She picked it up and fastened it at her throat. She had met the spirit face to face and heard her named terms. She was rested. She was ready for what came next, whenever it came.