Pyrite Knight
Pyrite Knight
Kairi Aotsuki
Stones contain the world’s memories.
My father was a geologist. He’d often said those words to me when I was little.
Stones are an accumulation of layers of sediment, or rapidly cooling lava from a volcanic eruption, or places that were once underwater being raised up. My father told me how these radical changes created minerals over the centuries.
Even a pebble by the side of the road had formed long before I was born, shaped over a vast amount of time.
“Felicia, did you find it?”
My friend’s voice brought me back to reality.
I turned around to find a girl with long braids watching me with a concerned expression. My friend, Alma, crouched down beside me, her long skirt hiked up.
We were in a graveyard outside London. Rows of crosses marked the graves, dyed orange by the setting sun.
“Sorry, I don’t see it anywhere.”
“Oh,” she said, hope fading. “I could swear I lost it when I was paying my respects here yesterday.”
“You really liked that keychain, huh? Well, I’ll look a little longer. Don’t give up yet!”
But Alma shook her head.
“You’ve done enough. It’s a shame, but…” She glanced around the graveyard.
The cross-shaped shadows lengthened across the ground. The graveyard’s trees were already covered in darkness.
“I must have dropped it somewhere else. Or someone’s picked it up already,” said Alma.
“Mmm.”
“So let’s get out of here. The sun’s almost down.”
A warm breeze brushed my cheeks. I caught a whiff of something rotten.
“Yeah.” I stood, trying not to glance at the shadows around those trees.
But then something gleamed out of the corner of my eye.
“Ah!” I hastily parted the dense grass. Unfortunately, the thing I uncovered wasn’t what we were looking for. “Sorry, not it.”
“What is it, though?” Alma’s already large eyes widened further as she peered into my hand like an inquisitive squirrel. “Wow,” she said. “A pendant! Is that a crystal on it?”
The pendant’s crystal was about the size of my pinky. Covered in dirt, it must have been lying there for a while.
“I guess someone dropped it,” I said.
“Maybe. Or it could have been left as an offering? Weird thing to find here, either way!”
Alma looked around the graveyard again, as if making sure nobody else was here. Then she folded her arms, lost in thought.
“If we just put it back, I don’t think the owner will ever find it. I’d feel bad just leaving it here. We should take it home and turn it in to the teachers at school tomorrow.”
“Yeah. They might be looking for it, like you were looking for your keychain.”
I hoped we’d find the owner soon.
With that thought, I rubbed the crystal. My eardrums—no, something even further inside my head—vibrated.
“What is it, Felicia?” Alma asked.
“Um, did you hear anything?”
“No, nothing.” Alma shook her head.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn someone whispered something to me.
“Oh! No way! Felicia, are you hearing things I can’t hear again? Eww, don’t! We’re in a graveyard!”
“S-sorry, sorry. Just my imagination, I’m sure.”
Probably.
The rotting stench smelled like it was getting stronger. I was careful not to turn towards it.
“We’d better go. Which of us should hold on to the crystal?” I asked.
“Definitely you, Felicia.” She didn’t hesitate.
“Why?”
“Because you’re the rock expert,” Alma said with pride. With that, she headed for the exit.
I followed. “My dad’s the expert.”
“Same difference! You told me all about the rocks in that brooch, remember? The pirate one?”
“Pyrite,” I corrected without hesitation.
“See?” Alma said, as if she’d proved her point. “You know your rocks.”
“I only know what I’ve been taught.”
I glanced down at the brooch on my chest. It was an antique marcasite piece, shaped like a flower, with a number of tiny cut stones in it. The stones shone like gold, glittering proudly in the sunset.
“They’re so pretty, but they’re just a type of iron! I couldn’t believe it. I thought for sure they were gold!” Alma stared at the marcasite brooch again.
“Natural gold has a softer color. If you compare the two side by side you can easily tell the difference. Pyrite’s color is much stronger. The material’s also harder.”
“Hmm. But it’s still pretty! Shame to call it iron.”
“Iron sulfide. I think we should take pride in what it is. I’m sure it would get mad if it heard you talk like that,” I said with a wink. “If it does, you’d better apologize for me, Alma. Plead for forgiveness with plenty of tears.”
Alma giggled with me.
Still laughing, we left the graveyard.
The rotting scent that had hovered around us did not follow.
Falling darkness chased me home. No lights shone in the windows of my house. There were few streetlights this far out in the country, so once night fell it was hard to tell if that murmur in the distance was the wind in the trees or a muttering crowd.
Relying only on the feeble streetlamps and the light from the neighbors’ window, I stuck my key in the front door.
My father was a geologist, and his work often kept him out late. After my mother’s death a few years ago, I usually ate supper alone.
Well, I was thirteen now. I could handle it.
I threw something together from the ingredients on hand. When I was done, I headed up the stairs to my room.
As I did, the antique mirror at the foot of the stairs glimmered. Turning to look, I saw a blonde girl. Her hair was in pigtails, and she had spirited eyes.
Me. I saw plenty of my reflection in the mirror every morning as I got ready for school. The marcasite brooch’s gleam had caused that flash.
As for the eyes, I guess I took after my mother.
She had been a spirited woman. When she and my father were together, she had nearly always been the one in charge. Sensible and reliable, she had always been the one to save me when something scary chased after me. If I’d told her she was my hero, she’d have laughed it off. But she truly was my hero.
I’d never dreamed sickness would take her from me.
“Mum…”
I gripped the brooch tight, as if I could sense her warmth through the metal.
This? It’s an amulet. Your grandmother gave it to me. If you wear it, it’ll protect you from harm. That way you can always move forward without fear.
My mother had pressed it into my hand with those words. The stones embedded in it glittered like gold. I’d thought they were gold and gone to tell my father. He’d awkwardly explained the truth.
This is a mineral called pyrite. It’s often used in so-called marcasite brooches, but marcasite is actually a different mineral. They’re both types of iron sulfate, so they’re made of both iron and sulfur. Pyrite is beautiful, but it’s also very common. Lots of people find some and think they’ve struck gold, so it’s sometimes called Fool’s Gold.
Fool’s Gold. Because fools thought it was gold and got excited, like I’d just done. I’d felt like even the brooch in my hand shook its head at me in bemusement.
“It’s a good memory now.”
I’d gone to tell my mother about it, and she’d nodded. “Yeah, it’s just iron.” That had made it even worse. I’d been the only one who didn’t know, the only fool.
I’d been so mortified that I’d planned to hide it away in my jewelry box forever, but now I never took it off.
Because it reminded me of life the way it used to be.
“I miss you, Mum.”
I wanted the three of us to be together again. Surrounded by her amazing cooking while Dad talked to us about work, the evenings had flown by.
Nothing but humid darkness lay outside the hall window. With so few streetlights, going outside after sunset took a lot of courage.
Night scared me.
I’d better go to bed early.
I started to take the stairs to my room again, but then there was a knock at the door.
“Huh? Who could that be?”
I wasn’t expecting anyone, and most people would ring the doorbell. Was it Dad? He’d forgotten his key before. That must be it. He’d finally finished work and come home hungry.
“Maybe I can ask him about the crystal.” I touched the pendant in my pocket. He might know where it came from.
I loved hearing my father talk about the source of minerals and how they formed. It piqued the imagination, and getting absorbed in his talks helped me forget how much I missed Mum.
“Dad!” I said, turning the lock and opening the door.
But the thing standing outside, the thing surrounded by darkness, was not my father.
I managed a strangled squeak.
This thing was a black blob that seemed to meld into the night.
The silhouette alone was somewhat human in shape, but the torso was too narrow, and the limbs far too long. The feel of it was all wrong. It didn’t feel human. It didn’t feel like any living thing.
There was a face on the black thing’s head, like a white mask. Two red eyes glared at me through the eyeholes.
Oh, why had I opened the door? This was a frightful creature, a creature which brought misfortune from beyond the veil.
I tried to slam the door, but darkness wrapped around my arm. The moment the thing touched me, a horrible chill ran through my body.
“N-no!”
I tried to call for help, but a dark hand covered my mouth. The hideous palm felt like a swarm of insects crawling over me. I wanted to get it off me more than anything.
It smelled of rot. I was plunged into darkness.
Just before I was lost completely, a blinding light enveloped everything before me.
“I told you not to bring stones home from the graveyard, didn’t I?”
Mum had been humming to herself while folding laundry, but when I showed her the pretty rock I’d found, she stopped and scowled. Whenever I was in for a lecture, Mum would put one hand on her hip and glare down at me. She was very tall and extremely intimidating.
“B-but look, Mum! When the light hits it, it sparkles!”
It was small enough to fit in my tiny hand. I held it up to the light to prove its worth, but Mum’s hand stayed on her hip.
“I know you like things that sparkle. I know you like rocks just as much as Mum and Dad do. But you simply must follow this one rule.”
“But—”
“I’m worried about you.”
Her hand wrapped around mine and around the rock. Her touch was warm and gentle.
“You’re like me. You can see scary things. Scary things come after people with the sight. Maybe you aren’t scared of the graveyard, but you’re scared of those things, right?”
“Yeah.”
I could see things other people couldn’t.
There was always a rotting smell in graveyards or at the scene of accidents. Black, creepy “scary things” would be there, looking at me.
Back when I didn’t know any better, I went right up to one of them. It reached out and grabbed my arm, and nearly carried me away. My mother came running and saved me. Ever since, I’d steered well clear of them.
“Your dad said the same thing, right? Stones contain the world’s memories. ‘Scary things’ are a part of the world’s memories. It’s very easy for them to follow rocks around.”
When she said this, I understood the mistake I’d made.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Mum knelt down in front of me. Her eyes at my level, she put her arms around me.
“As long as you understand. When the sun comes out, we’ll put the stone back, together. Until we do, make sure you don’t open the door. Got that?”
“Yes.”
I nodded, and she smiled.
“I just wish we knew a better way to handle the scary ones. Maybe we should ask a mage,” Mum said.
“A mage?”
“Yes. They know a lot more about the world than we do.”
“Dad knows a lot!”
“Ha ha. He does. But as much as he knows about rocks, he can’t see the scary ones.”
Mum flashed a smile at me. I loved it when she smiled like this, like her smile alone could frighten away the scary ones.
“Hey, Mum.”
“Yes?”
“If rocks hold the world’s memories, do they have nice ones? Fun ones?”
Mum looked surprised at my question. But then she smiled back.
“I’m sure they do. And maybe that kind of stone will protect you.”
Her gentle, reassuring words remained burned into my heart, even now. I’m sure each of the stones in the brooch she gave me was that kind of stone.
Reflecting back on the day, I had many regrets.
I’d completely forgotten my mother’s rule. Crystals were rocks, too, so it made total sense they would draw a scary one.
I’d taken a rock home from the graveyard and then been careless enough to open the door. If my mother had seen this, her hand would have gone right to her hip. I was thirteen! What was I thinking?
“Mum…”
I could feel soil. Smell nature. I was lying on the ground somewhere.
“You’re awake?”
A young, male voice spoke to me. I bolted upright.
I saw a rough stone wall covered in…roots? Vines? Some sort of plant. No sky overhead, just sheer rock.
This wasn’t my home. I was in some kind of cave.
It was pretty dark, but I could see despite the fact that there were no lights here.
The person standing before me was the weirdest thing of all.
A young man in a black coat looked down at me. He had even, beautiful features, but there was something robotic about them. He gave an impression of great grace, but the arms that protruded from his coat sleeves were burly and thick. He had a barrel chest, making me think he was unnecessarily well built.
But more than anything, his golden hair drew my attention.
I’m blonde myself, but this man’s hair was far more beautiful than my own.
It shone in the faint light. Not in a “pretty” way, but a powerful one, like fire or the sun. His eyes were the same shade of gold, and the light in them never wavered.
He wore a sword in a scabbard at his hip. It gave him the appearance of someone from another time, but it suited him. If he’d been wearing armor, he would have looked like someone right out of a fairy tale.
“Wh-who are you?”
“If you need a name, call me Lewis,” he said, without a trace of a smile.
“Um, well, nice to meet you, I guess? I’m—”
“I know. Felicia, right?”
“Huh?”
He said my name like it was normal he should know it. I was left looking stupid.
“H-how do you know my name? Are you…”
A stalker? The idea floated through my mind, but I shook it off. I wasn’t nearly attractive enough to have a knight like this stalking me.
“Wouldn’t you rather know more about what’s going on than about me?” he asked.
“Oh! I do! Please, tell me!” I nodded vigorously.
Without ever changing his expression—or his lack thereof—Lewis began to explain.
“This is the veil,” he said.
“I’m already lost.”
“A place next to the real world but cut off from it. In other words, we are both close to your home but also not.”
“That makes slightly more sense.” Well, maybe I just thought it did. I waited for Lewis to continue. Hopefully, I’d figure it out as he went along.
“You were attacked by an apparition. I saved you, along with it.”
He jerked his chin towards my right hand. I found I was still clutching the crystal I’d picked up in the graveyard. I’d tucked it in my pocket, so I’d been squeezing it tightly this whole time. The crystal had left a mark on my palm.
“You and this crystal saved me? You brought me here?”
“You catch on fast.”
I laughed awkwardly at this unexpected compliment, trying to look normal. But Lewis’s expression never changed.
“But why did an apparition—”
“They’re fixated on that crystal, so they followed you.”
I looked behind me. It was dark, but there was nothing special in that darkness. No sign of any scary things.
“And it wasn’t my intention to take you here. It did,” Lewis said.
“The crystal?”
“That thing had the idea to bring you here.”
“Idea? Wait a second, rocks don’t have—”
“They do,” Lewis said firmly.
He stared at me, never blinking once.
I didn’t know what else to say.
“The crystal wants to go back to where it came from. It lost its master, and its function as an accessory is over. That’s why it wants to go home.”
“You mean its owner died?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I wonder if it was supposed to be buried with them? Maybe we should have buried it in the graveyard.”
“That’s not what the crystal wants. It wants to return to its home, which is why it chose to escape with you to the veil.”
And Lewis had helped the crystal do it. The crystal’s power alone hadn’t been strong enough.
“Wh-why did you save me?”
“My duty is to protect you, but I couldn’t find a place to hide you in time. So I made a deal with that crystal.”
I met his steady gaze, dumbfounded.
I tried to get the story straight. The crystal had been made into a pendant, and after its owner died, it had wanted to leave and go back home. That’s why it had taken me to this “veil.” And Lewis had borrowed the crystal’s power as a means of saving me.
There were so many parts of this I didn’t understand. Summarizing it all didn’t clear up anything.
But Lewis was the most mysterious part of all.
“So what are you?” I asked him.
“I am your protector.”
Cool. I was lost again. Every question I asked received an incomprehensible answer.
“I have been by your side all along,” he said.
The stalker vibe grew stronger.
I was old enough to be concerned about this. I wasn’t at all ready to be stalked by a knight out of a fairy tale. I had my share of secrets, same as any teenager, and definitely was not up for having someone always “by my side.”
I shuddered as a warm wind brushed my back.
“Oh! Well, if you’ve saved me, what happened to the scary thing?”
“We were able to slip past it for the time being, but it will find us soon enough. The veil is not that far away.”
I looked behind me again and squinted, but the cave seemed to go on forever.
Darkness shrouded its depth, so I couldn’t really see. But a humid breeze blew from out the cavern, stroking every part of my body. It felt like an appraisal.
“So you’ll have to make a choice,” said Lewis.
“What kind of choice?”
“Whether to help it or return home.” Lewis jerked his chin at the crystal.
“I can go home?”
“I have enough power to return you. However, the path leading to the crystal’s point of origin will never appear again.”
The crystal in my hand felt suddenly heavy. Its color became clouded, with no glitter remaining. What had happened to it? How long had it been abandoned in that graveyard?
“You said this cave was that path? Are we close to this point of origin?”
“It’s true that the ‘path’ is a shortcut, but the apparition from the graveyard will pursue us. It would be safest for you to put that crystal down here and return home. If we return it to where it came from, perhaps the apparition will give up. But the road there is fraught with danger.”
The scary thing was following the crystal. Without the crystal, the scary thing wouldn’t come after me.
I could just abandon the crystal, leave it all alone on this weird veil path where it would yearn to go home. Terrified of the apparition that was sure to find it.
“I…”
“Which do you choose?” Lewis asked.
“I want to take the crystal back to where it came from. Poor thing.”
I tightened my grip on the crystal. Its pointy head dug into my hand and hurt, but I held it tight.
“Understood. Then I shall guard you until you reach your destination.”
“Th-thank you!”
Lewis seemed rather reliable. I still had no idea who or what he was, but his presence comforted me.
But he stared back at me reproachfully.
“Let me ask one thing.”
“Y-yes? What?”
“Why did you take the stone from the graveyard? If you hadn’t, you would never have been in danger.”
Lewis put his hand on his hip as he stared down at me. He was much taller than I, so this was more than a little intimidating.
“I completely forgot. I’m sorry.”
I shrank, but Lewis did not lecture me further.
He drew his sword. The blade was the same color as his hair: golden but lacking the brightness of real gold. It had iron’s roughness.
My hand naturally reached for the brooch on my chest and for the pyrite stones embedded in it.
When he saw me do this, Lewis said, “Whatever happens, don’t lose that. As long as you wear that, I can protect you.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s go.”
Lewis headed off down the “path.”
We’d only just met, and since he was so expressionless, I had no idea what he was thinking. But as he walked away, I felt like I could rely on him, like he was someone I’d known a long time.
He didn’t really feel like a prince or knight riding in on a white horse. He seemed more like…
Like an older brother.
Part of me felt like he’d been part of our family. I could almost see him sitting with Mom and Dad, saying very little and nodding occasionally.
It was an odd sensation, but I felt a strange sort of warmth in my chest. With that, I followed after Lewis.
This natural corridor seemed to go on forever.
Occasionally, the uneven floor tripped me, and tree roots tried to make me stumble. We walked a while with no end in sight. Everything looked the same.
Will this really take us where it needs to go?
I peeked at the crystal in my hand; no answers there. The murky surface did not even reflect my face.
We just kept moving further along, putting distance between the scary thing and us.
“Um, Lewis?”
“What?”
“How much farther?”
“I dunno.”
“I thought this was a shortcut, though,” I said.
“It is, but I don’t know the exact distance. It might know more than me.”
Lewis glanced at the crystal.
“But it can’t talk.”
“You just aren’t listening. If you heighten your senses, you’ll hear the rocks speak.”
Was it that easy?
I stopped and held the crystal up to my ear. I listened closely, trying to hear beyond the waves of sound, but I only heard wind rushing from out the depths of the cave.
“Hmm. Doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Because you don’t understand the right technique.”
Lewis reached out his hand, his palm shockingly large and rugged. I gave him the crystal, and he spoke without even raising it to his ear.
“It says we’ll have to walk a while longer. We just passed the halfway point. It’s sorry for causing you hardship.”
“I-It is?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it does not sound like it’s lying.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Could he really hear what stones said? He hadn’t even listened closely. He’d just let it rest in his hand.
Or did “listen” mean something different to him than to me?
“What is it?” he asked.
“Er…nothing.”
Lewis didn’t seem like a liar. Someone as stern and uptight as him didn’t appear capable of deception.
“Um, Lewis?”
“What?”
“Are you a mage?”
I’d never met a mage, but I knew such people existed.
What was common sense to a mage would be alien to us. Mages were able to borrow the power of the “neighbors.” That’s why mages could do all kinds of things we couldn’t.
That’s what my mother had told me.
Lewis stared at me for a long moment, and then said, “No. I’m not a mage. But I have been known to lend them a hand.”
“You aren’t a mage?”
Then what? I wondered.
But he just repeated what he’d said before. “I’m your protector.” Not helpful.
“Then, um, can you help me hear the stones’ voices? That way I won’t have to ask you every time.”
“No.” No hesitation. He didn’t look mad, or even the least bit sorry. Just a blunt refusal. “That is not my function. My function is to protect you.”
“Ugh, you’re so inflexible!” I said.
All I knew was his name and his purpose and my so-called quest. He’d given me the bare minimum information I needed but had shed no real light on this situation.
I bet he can hear the rocks speak because his head’s like a rock! Of course they all get along!
I snatched the crystal from Lewis and started walking again. I wanted to get this crystal to its destination and then head home. My father might be back soon, after all.
“Felicia.”
“What?”
“Walking alone is dangerous.”
Lewis spoke calmly, his voice sounding behind me. Brushing him off, I walked even faster.
“I’m fine! It’s a straight path! And it doesn’t seem like anything’s here.”
Obeying Lewis’s commands irked me somehow. He wouldn’t tell me anything important, so I was going to solve this by myself without his help.
I couldn’t smell that rot right now, anyway.
But no sooner had I begun my minor rebellion than the path split in two.
“Ugh, gimme a break! God…”
Lewis had such long legs that he caught up instantly, without quickening his pace.
“One of these is the right path,” he said.
“I call tell that much!”
“It will know best.”
Lewis stared at the crystal in my hand like he wanted me to loan it to him again.
“W-wait, gimme a shot at this!”
Like Lewis had done, I put the crystal on my hand, closed my eyes, and focused my mind.
“Crystal, crystal, which way to your home?” I chanted.
Only silence answered.
“Ugh.”
“Let me have it,” said Lewis.
He quietly took the crystal from me. I thought he would just place it on his palm again, but instead, he asked, “Do you have any string? If so, may I have it?”
“String? I might have some…”
All I had was the string attached to the pendant I was wearing. When I held it out, Lewis asked, “May I take the decoration off?”
“Y-yes.”
I wasn’t a big fan of this idea, but I removed it and gave the string to Lewis. He ran the string though the pendant the crystal was set in and held it out to dangle in front of me.
“Is this…”
“Use it. If you do, the crystal should make its will known.”
“I’ve heard of this.” I took the dangling crystal from Lewis. “Oh, right. Like a pendulum?”
“Similar. Stand in between the two paths.”
I did as I was told, centering myself at the fork. Making sure the point of the crystal hung straight down, I focused my attention on the pendulum.
“Oh!”
The crystal’s tip began to sway. The swing aligned with the path to our right.
“This way?”
“If we believe what it says.” Lewis nodded.
“Wait, so I just communicated with the crystal, right?” I said, excited.
“Yes.” Lewis sounded completely unemotional.
“Wow! Even I can hear the rocks if I do this! I thought you had to be a mage!”
“You have a natural capacity to hear the neighbors’ voices. If you only knew the means, you could speak to all kinds of things.”
“Would I be able to hear rocks like you do?” I asked.
“If you learn the proper method. But that is not for me to teach.”
“You’re so uptight!”
I rolled my eyes at him, but I wasn’t that mad this time. I understood now. Lewis would give me advice where he deemed it appropriate.
He didn’t provide me with a lot of information, but maybe there was a good reason for that.
That thought made me curious about him. I’d wondered from the start, but now I was even more interested.
“So, Lewis.”
I want to know more about you. Whatever you’ll allow yourself to tell me.
I turned to ask, but—
“Look out!”
His arms wrapped around me, and he shoved me hard against the wall.
“Huh? What?”
His face was so close to mine. He was very good looking.
For a moment I was nearly swept off my feet, but the rotting scent brought me back to reality.
I followed Lewis’ gaze and saw it: a being of pure black, with long limbs and a twisted body. It wore a white mask over its face, with hollow darkness staring through the eyeholes.
The scary thing.
Those long, unbalanced limbs passed right through the spot where I’d been standing. If Lewis hadn’t saved me, this thing might have dragged me away again.
“Felicia. Run.” Lewis grabbed my arm and pushed me. “I’ll hold them off.”
Them.
The scary thing hadn’t come alone. Behind it scuttled several more black shapes.
“There,” a scary thing said, pointing its long finger at the crystal in my hand. “Live…want…home…”
“You want to live inside this stone?”
Stones contained the world’s memories, and the scary things were fragments of the world’s memories. That’s why the scary things chased after the stone. They were looking for a place to belong.
“Stones grow cloudy when exposed to corruption,” Lewis said, moving to protect me… No. To protect the stone.
“So it’s already…”
I looked down at the cloudy crystal in my palm. I could almost feel it trembling, like it was afraid of the scary things.
The scary things had surrounded it back in the graveyard. The crystal’s master had died, and it had had no one else to wear it. It would have remained forever lost.
I had to get it back where it came from.
“Want…”
The black head tilted, the figure bending over. It took me several seconds to realize it was bowing its head.
“You can’t have it!” I said, closing my hand around the crystal. “I would never let you have it! It doesn’t want you to touch it!”
The scary things let out an awful screech. I could tell that this was a howl of rage.
Scuttling around the cave, the scary things were furious, overcome with the desire to snatch the crystal from me. I knew that if I just threw the crystal at them, their hostility would dissipate. I would be able to safely get away.
But I didn’t want to do that.
The crystal was asking for help.
I was sure it had called to me in the graveyard. Its voice had reached me, somehow.
So I had to follow through.
After all, I had this strange knight on my side. If he was willing to help me, then I had to help the crystal.
It was the duty of anyone with power to help those in need.
“Felicia, the rest is up to you,” Lewis said, his sword at the ready. I gripped my brooch tight.
His gleaming sword was the same rough, golden color as my brooch. Was the sword made of pyrite?
Pyrite was a 6-6.5 on the Mohs scale. Harder than a knife.
He might be able to cut those scary things down.
“Stay sharp, Lewis!”
“Naturally,” he said, not looking back. “I am here to protect you.”
The air trembled. The scary one in front leapt forward, like a snake striking its prey. I shrieked, but a moment later it had been cut in two.
The top and bottom halves of the scary thing dissolved into black mist, leaving only Lewis brandishing his golden blade.
“Wow! That was badass!”
“Felicia,” Lewis said, neither embarrassed nor proud, just resolute. “Run.”
“Oh, right. I’ve got to get this home!”
Dangling the crystal pendulum ahead of me, I ran down the road.
A faint, foul odor wafted on the wind from behind me. Perhaps the odor came from fragments of the scary thing Lewis had cut down. Part of me wanted to see him fight, but this was not the time. I kept running.
More forks waited in the road, but the crystal pendulum told me which way to go.
Eventually, the rough path became a gentle slope. Dried leaves and grass appeared, and I could feel a breeze on my face once more.
The exit was near.
The awful feeling behind me had vanished. His blade still drawn, Lewis ran alongside to catch up with me.
“Wow, Lewis. Did you get all of them?”
“All I could see,” he said.
I couldn’t believe he’d really managed to defeat so many scary things. I glanced back over my shoulder but saw only darkness. There were no signs of any scary things after us.
“Lewis, is the crystal okay?” I held it up.
“You’re concerned because it’s cloudy?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“If you pour cloudy water into a river, the dirt is washed away. Same thing.”
“Um, so if there are lots of crystals, it’ll be fine?”
“Yes.” Lewis nodded. Good, I was right.
If many rocks shared the corrupted memories, then that corruption would grow thin and fade away. This crystal could be beautiful again, but only if many other crystals surrounded it.
“Hmm.”
“Felicia,” Lewis said.
“Y-yes?” I wasn’t expecting him to call my name, so I inadvertently jumped to attention.
“I’m glad I was able to speak with you.”
“Erm. Where’d that come from?”
“I was never able to speak to Alicia.”
My mother’s name.
Lewis couldn’t be more than five or six years older than me, rather like a slightly older brother. But when he said my mother’s name, he seemed to speak of old memories.
He looked so sad.
“You…knew my mother?”
“Yes,” Lewis said. “Alicia was a lot like you.”
“I thought so. Dad always says I have that same spirited look in my eyes.”
“You are equally reckless.”
“The same inside and out?!” That didn’t seem like a compliment, either.
“Alicia often picked up rocks. Like you, she once picked one up in a graveyard, and Cecelia got very angry with her.”
My grandmother. Apparently the family rule about not taking rocks from the graveyard went way back.
Wait. Then how old was Lewis? If he’d called my grandmother by her first name, and in a way that sounded affectionate, not rude…
“Lew—Mr. Lewis,” I said, suddenly feeling I should be more polite. “How old are you, exactly?”
“I stopped counting long ago.”
Could he not be bothered? Was keeping track of his age not part of his custom? Or was he just that old?
I’d heard mages were often much older than they appeared to be, so was he a mage? He’d said that he helped them sometimes, so maybe he was a mage’s apprentice? One who didn’t age?
I didn’t know if that was even possible.
“Apparently recklessness is hereditary,” Lewis said, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “Alicia’s partner was rather tame, but you have no trace of that quality whatsoever.”
His tone sounded weary, so perhaps this was a roundabout way of scolding me.
“When you find yourself a partner and have a child of your own, I’m sure it will inherit that recklessness as well.”
“That’s a long way off.”
I might be a teenager, but I wasn’t with anyone. Frankly, I was much more interested in rocks than I was in dating boys my age.
“At any rate, you and Alicia were both children. Children must be taught, especially the rule about not bringing home rocks from the graveyard. I might not be able to protect you every time.”
“Lewis…”
He wasn’t very expressive, but just this once, he looked deeply worried. It was like he was my older brother, my mother’s older brother, and my grandmother’s older brother. Those golden eyes held warmth reserved for family members.
“I-I promise.” I nodded. “I won’t do it again.”
He spoke as if he was always protecting us, but where was he normally?
I wondered about this, but I felt like it would be wrong to ask.
“I’ll be honest,” Lewis said, hesitating. “When you first arrived here…if you had chosen to go directly home, you could have avoided further danger.”
But I had done the opposite. I had chosen to take the crystal to its destination regardless of any personal risk.
I had no power to brush aside any danger that befell me. I had only survived this far because Lewis was with me. My actions weren’t brave; they were foolish and rash.
“But I couldn’t just abandon the crystal,” I argued. “You didn’t want to do that, either, did you?”
Lewis didn’t answer.
“I knew it! Deep down, you also wanted to save it. I mean, you like rocks, too!”
“I won’t deny it,” he admitted. No trace of reluctance, just a simple statement of fact.
“I don’t know why you’re protecting me, but you should admit how you really feel. You’re going to regret being so uptight about everything. Sometimes you need to forget about simply protecting me and do what you think is right,” I said.
Of course, if Lewis did that, I’d be a helpless little girl in real trouble. But I didn’t want him to turn his back on what he wanted to do just for my sake.
Doing so would mean he was as good as dead inside, more a thing than a human.
“Well, if I get into trouble, I’ll just grit my teeth and bear it. I got some toughness from my mother, too, you know. You do what you need to do, Lewis.”
“Felicia,” he said. His voice was quiet but with a strength that resonated through me. “I exist to protect you. If I forget that, then there is no point to me at all.”
“But that’s…”
I trailed off. I couldn’t say that wasn’t true.
Even the idea seemed like it physically hurt Lewis.
He turned his face away, like he was trying to hide the rattled look in his eyes. His resolute features suddenly seemed as fragile as glass.
Even he could look this vulnerable. I had made him look like this.
Guilt welled up inside me, like a cloud over my heart. Like a pounding rain from a gray sky come to punish me.
“I-I’m sorry.”
That was all I could squeeze out.
“No need to apologize.”
Lewis closed his eyes a moment, and his expression returned to normal. He adopted the same rough-hewn, even appearance as before.
For a while we walked without a word. I moved as quickly as I could, as if fleeing from the awkward silence. Lewis matched my pace without comment.
At last we spied the cave’s end.
“There it is!” I shouted. I took a step out of the cave and saw the stars far above us. “Wow.”
We’d come to a canyon. It was as if the earth had been split in two. You could clearly see the layers in the strata on each side. Piles of the world’s memories gathered over an incredibly long time.
“Look!” I’d found a crack in the cliff wall large enough for someone to squeeze through. It caught the moonlight, and something inside the crack glittered.
Lewis and I walked towards it. The closer we got, the more the glitter seemed to welcome us.
“This is amazing!” I cried.
Crystals filled the crack. Clusters of them covered both sides of the split.
The pendulum in my hand wavered, as if eager to join them.
I untied the string. I tried to remove the necklace as well but lacked the strength. I turned to Lewis, and he caught my drift. He tapped the fixture with the hilt of his sword.
“If you hit it too hard, the crystal might break first,” I said.
“What’s the Mohs rating for crystal?”
“Seven. Strong enough to leave a mark on steel and glass,” I recited, remembering what my father had told me.
“Then it’ll be fine.”
“Yes!”
I grinned happily. I thought I saw a trace of a smile on Lewis’s face as well.
He tapped the crystal with the hilt another two or three times. The fitting broke, freeing the crystal. Now it was no longer a man-made thing. Its life as a piece of jewelry had ended, and it was truly free.
“Look!” I said to the crystal. “It’s all your friends! How long has it been?”
I placed the cloudy crystal on top of the clear ones. I felt the cloudiness immediately begin to fade.
“Rest well.”
I rubbed the crystal, feeling like some of its glitter had returned. The moonlight winked upon it, as if saying, “Thank you.”
“I’m glad we did this.”
“Yeah.” Lewis stared down at the crystal. He seemed to have his own thoughts, but something in his expression made me hesitate to ask.
When I said nothing, he spoke of his own accord.
“That crystal lost its master. Its life as a tool ended.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know if that’s a happy ending.”
Why would you think that? After all, you aren’t a tool.
For some reason, I couldn’t say those words. I felt like if I did, he’d give me that sad look again.
“But if life as a tool has ended, it would be a misfortune not to be set free. You did well.”
“I guess so,” I murmured.
“You did.”
Lewis fell silent, his golden eyes fixed upon the crystals.
I didn’t know who he was or what was going on inside of him.
Still, I felt like I should give him this moment and decided to stay quiet until he was ready.
But then I caught a whiff of rot.
“Eep?”
I turned, and Lewis turned with me.
Darkness gathered at the cave’s entrance. No, not darkness.
The moment I perceived it, the hairs on my neck stood up. That was a scary thing.
Black body, white mask. Hollow eyes that stared at us—at the crystal clusters.
“Want!”
“No!”
The long arm shot forward like a snake, aimed right at the crystal. Before I knew it, I’d jumped in front of it.
“Felicia!” Lewis shouted. The scary thing’s claws pierced my chest. I felt a sharp pain and crumpled to the ground.
Lewis’ golden sword struck down the scary thing. The thing dissolved, and Lewis rushed to my side.
The moon in the night sky was so beautiful, bathing the earth in its gentle light.
The crystal was safe now.
Certain of this, I slipped into unconsciousness.
“Honestly, you never do anything the easy way.”
My mother had her hand on her hip. I was lying on my bed. Above me, my father looked worried.
Oh, right. This was a memory.
My thoughts were fuzzy, but I was aware of that much.
“I just wanted to save the kitten,” I said. I sounded so young.
“I know! You saw a kitten in a box drifting downstream, so you jumped in the river, right? Your friends told us what happened. But what would you have done if you’d died trying to save it?”
“I don’t wanna die, but I couldn’t just do nothing!”
“I know. That’s just who you are,” my mother sighed.
She reached out and placed her hand on my forehead. Her touch felt nice and cool. Somehow I knew she was really worried about me.
“I’m sorry.”
I tried to take her hand. Only then did I realize I was already holding something.
“Oh!”
It was the brooch, the one Mum had said would protect me.
“You’ve been clutching that thing this whole time. Maybe it’s the reason you lasted long enough for me to get there.”
“Mmm.”
I tightened my grip on the brooch again.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” my father said, tears in his eyes.
I saw someone standing next to him.
“You really are reckless,” he said.
He had his hand on his hip, just like my mother. Was he my brother?
No, I was an only child. Besides, my parents and I all had blue eyes. Not gold eyes, like him.
“But it’s my duty to protect you despite that recklessness,” he said.
He looked down at me like he was angry, but his expression told a different story. He was almost smiling, like he was really proud of me.
It was Lewis. He’d been with me that day.
Swept away by the current, I’d clutched the kitten and managed to keep my face above water so that I could breathe.
All because someone I couldn’t see was holding me up.
“Lewis!”
My own voice woke me.
A familiar ceiling stretched above my eyes, and I lay on something comfortable.
“You’re awake, Felicia?”
A bespectacled man with a slightly timid face—my father—peered down at me. He looked a little older than he had in my dream.
“I was…”
I looked around. I was lying on my bed in my own room.
“I found you collapsed by the door. I thought something had attacked you.”
My father’s voice cracked. His eyes were red and puffy, and fresh tears started pouring down his cheeks. He rubbed his eyes to hide his tears from me, but they wouldn’t stop coming.
“Where’s Lewis?”
“Lewis?” My father looked confused.
I sat up slowly and scanned the room. I saw the desk my parents had bought me when I started school, my bookshelves. Both pieces of furniture were covered in stones my father gave me or ones my mother had left me. It was a simple room; the only other thing in it was the closet. But there was no sign of Lewis.
Had it all been a dream?
As I pondered this, I realized I was holding something in my hand. Curious, I opened my fist and found the brooch…split in half.
“What…how…”
“You’ve been gripping that ever since I found you. Maybe that amulet protected you, Felicia. I know you can see things I can’t, just like Alicia could. I’m sure it protected you from them.”
Oh. Right.
I knew instantly what had happened. The scary thing had come out of the darkness and reached out its claws. I’d tried to protect the crystal, but the scary thing had hit me in the chest…right where the brooch was. Instead of piercing my chest, the brooch had broken. And because I’d safely completed my quest to return the crystal, I’d been sent home.
But Lewis had vanished. Where was he now?
No.
“No. I knew all along…”
I looked down at the broken brooch in my hand, the one passed down from my mother’s mother.
This brooch had known my grandmother and my mother, and had been always at my side.
“Lewis was the brooch.”
Tears fell on the broken piece.
My dad’s eyes were still puffy, but he’d stopped weeping. These were my tears. I was crying.
Would I never see Lewis again? I hadn’t even thanked him. I’d wanted to talk with him some more.
The tears flowed. My father looked worried, but I couldn’t stop.
Tears soaked the broken brooch, and my palm, and the sheet. My tears were like two waterfalls gushing down my cheeks. Then something reached out and touched my face.
A gentle breeze moved against my cheek like it was trying to brush away my tears.
The window was closed. So was the door.
Felicia.
A voice whispered at my ear. I turned but found only the bare white wall.
As long as you remember, I will be with you.
His sturdy hand seemed to briefly touch my own. I was sure I could sense his warmth.
“Mmm.”
I clenched my teeth, forced back the tears, and clutched the broken brooch tightly.
“I won’t forget you. You’re part of my family.”
My father looked down at me, baffled. But a few seconds later, realization dawned. He smiled gently.
Several years later.
I’d heard rumors of a mage who was good with stones. An artificer, one who specialized in magus crafts. Word was she had a shop somewhere in London.
“Sorry, this just isn’t my field.” My father had tried to help me find her, but this was easier said than done. “Maybe there’s some special way of getting in touch with her?” he said.
“Mages are like specialists in an already highly specialized field, so… Oh well. Thanks anyway, Dad.”
My father saw me off at the door with a sheepish laugh. My mother had once called that laugh cute, but I didn’t really get it.
“You’re going to town again?” he asked.
“Yeah. I saw another rumor online I want to check out. All my leads have come up blank so far, but mages are still human, right? The shop exists somewhere, and I’ll track it down!”
“The way you tackle problems armed with grit alone is just like Alicia.”
“Is that a compliment?”
My father smiled happily, but “grit” was hardly a word a girl my age wanted to hear.
“Why do you suddenly want to see a mage?” he asked.
I smiled. “There’s someone I want to meet.”
“Who?”
“Oh, you know. Girls my age gotta have secrets.”
“You do?”
My father looked deeply shocked. I threw my bag over my shoulder and left the house.
It was a bright sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky.
A cool breeze brushed my cheek. Conscious of the weight in my bag, I walked down the country road, wildflowers growing on either side.
I’d been saving my allowance. If I ever met a mage, I would ask to have the brooch repaired. If that wasn’t possible, I’d at least have them put it back together so I could wear it. If I didn’t have enough money, I’d work out some sort of payment plan.
And then I’d ask how to listen to the stones. How to talk to them.
Hope in my heart, I headed to town with the knowledge that he was by my side.
The End