Vivienne Von Vexx's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

The hunter's breath grew steady, but the sky outside did not stay kind. Pale light crept through the broken window above the altar and stretched toward his face. Vivienne stood quickly. She pulled a heavy black wool tapestry from the chapel wall, branches and a pale moon woven into it, and pinned it across the broken glass. The room sank back into safe, gray dark. She turned to him and emptied his belt. A short sword. A coil of rope. A small bottle marked holy water. A second dark bottle she did not open. She stacked them in the far corner, behind a tipped pew, where his weak arm could not reach. Her hands shook only a little now. Then she faced the harder thing. He would wake. He would open his eyes and see hers, and that would end everything before it began. She found a brown hooded cloak folded in a dusty chest beside the altar. The fabric was old and frayed, but the hood was deep. She pulled it low over her brow. In the dark glass behind the altar, her red eyes disappeared into shadow. She knelt beside him and waited. When his lashes finally moved, he saw only a hooded stranger who had not killed him. He whispered a thank you and slept again. Vivienne did not move. The problem was hidden. For now, she was only a woman in a cloak, and that was enough to begin.