Raven Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Raven Blackwood lived where no one looked for him. He slept in an old cathedral crypt, on a cot wedged between cold stone tombs. He wanted one thing he would never say aloud: someone who could stand his silence and stay. But Raven spoke to no one. He shopped at dusk, paid in coins, and walked home hooded. His only company was a black raven that rode his shoulder and judged him with one pale eye. "You again," he muttered. The bird clicked its beak. The town called him a ghost. He had decided that was fine. A ghost could not be left, because a ghost was never found. But tonight the crypt felt too quiet, and the quiet felt like a verdict. He went out for bread. Rain pushed everyone inside early. The streets emptied. That suited him. He kept to the alley shadows, where lamplight could not reach his face. Then a voice stopped him. "You walk like a man who doesn't want to be seen." A woman sat under a dripping awning at the alley mouth. She had set up a folding table there, as if the rain were a customer. Gold coins hung from her ears. Moons were stitched across her purple robes. A deck of worn cards waited under her brown hands. She did not look up at him. She looked at the cards. Raven said nothing. He stepped to pass. "Esmeralda Veil," she said, like that settled something. "I read fortunes. You'll want to sit." "I won't," Raven said. His own voice surprised him. He had not used it on a person in weeks. She smiled. "He speaks. The bird owes me a coin." She finally looked at him. Her eyes went past the hood, past the stillness he wore like armor. "Sit. You've got nowhere warmer." That was true, and it stung. He hated that she saw it. He hated more that he did not walk away. The raven left his shoulder and hopped onto her table. Traitor. The bird strutted across her cards like it belonged there. "Well," Esmeralda said. "Your friend chose for you." Raven sat on the wet stool. The rain drummed the awning above them. She dealt three cards and studied his face more than the paper. "You hide so no one leaves you," she said. "Clever. Lonely. Doesn't work." No one had named it that fast. He meant to deny it. Instead he said, "How long are you staying?" She gathered the cards and shrugged. "Wanderers never know. But I'm not done with you yet." She tapped the table. "Same time tomorrow. Bring the bird." Raven stood, gave no answer, and left. Yet he knew the alley was no longer empty space he could vanish into. Someone had found him. Now he had to decide if he would come back, or run before she learned the rest.