The Sin's Virtue
The Silent Realm

Dread, is all I feel right now.

The feeling of anticipation was chilling my body and consuming every fibre of it, turning each tissue and cell, into nothing but a dead, cold organic waste.

I do not have any idea where I am being taken to but its definitely not any where near this world, I just know it. The apparation feels so different from the other times I have used it. May be because its Aire who is in charge of it? The force of air around me is different. Its not pressuring me like it does usually but as we channel ourselves through the passage, my body feels light and spacious. The wind is cool and speeds past me leaving a breezy sensation in its wake.

Without any warning, we fall into a pit of darkness. I stumble on my steps but hold myself just in time to keep myself from falling face first on the ground which were damp underneath my shoes. I straighten up and look around for Aire but there was no one around me anymore.

She was gone.

Instantly, panic dawned over me, sweat breaking out on my forehead. A shiver ran up my spine and I wrapped my clammy hands around myself. Turning around in a circle, I examined the scene around me and to say that I did not feel my self done after this would be an under statement.

I was in a middle of nowhere, an expanse of woods all around me for as far as I could see. The forest looked deep and majestic. The air surrounding it was heavy and wicked. There was no sign of life as I waited for any one to show up but all my hopes started to tear down as nothing happened for a long time. So, I decided to find my way out of here myself.

I counted till ten and decided to go in the direction ahead of me. Weaving my way past all the trees that were standing close knitted and tall around me, so much so that no light came past their canopy. I was careful with my hands and legs which were feeling for a way as I walked in absolute darkness. Dead leaves and fallen branches twitched under my steps, making creepy sounds and I had to remind myself over and over again that it was nothing.

The criticality of situation was not missed by me. This place, wherever it was, I had no idea about it and with each passing second, the pressure of finding a way out of it was increasing immensely. I was calling out names underneath my breath, hoping against the odds, for someone to come and rescue me but zilch. The dark place remained just as it was, intact in its gloomy state.

The stillness around me was eerie and looked almost fake. There was no motion which could be sensed, it seemed so that I was the only living creature disturbing the silence this place was adorning in.

I tripped over what felt like a giant root of a tree I was standing against and stumbled on the other side. Pushing myself straight up, my gaze fell on a small object which was shinning weakly in the distance. My eyes widened and I leaped to follow it.

It was like a small oasis in this desert of pure myth but then somewhere I was hoping for it to be true and not a trick that my brain was pulling on my eyes. I ran and ran and a flutter of relief graced my buzzing thoughts as the light grew more prominent when I neared it.

I stopped in my tracks just when I realised that the light was coming from a lantern and when I looked around there was a whole path shining under several other lanterns which were hanging from tree branches as well. It seemed as though I was standing on the side of a broken road that led off to somewhere unknown to this world which has been equally ignorant to it.

I approached the path slowly and cautiously, my nerves pickling in alarm. When I looked up, the canopy was gone. The dense shed on my head was clear along the path which was accompanied by forests on either side of it.

Just a lone road.

Who lit it up like this?

Even the damp, moist air which was raw inside those thick forest was gone. The sky above me was unnaturally dark . The more I stared at it, the more it looked evil to me, like it was going to swallow me completely, wiping off any trace of my existence.

Trace.

Yes, I was aware of it. My head snapped towards the path that was leading to a clearing in the distance. There was a faint, very weak essence laced in the air. Very much like the one back in castle. Subtle but still chilling and I knew just why.

So this was her way to welcome me, huh?

They say that death is easy, its life that requires a trick but as I stand here, tangled between the motives of an immortal who awaits me at the end of this path, I realise how her words were just a comforting lure.

She knew if she did not do it gently, it would scare me away and so here I am, as she wanted me to.

Pride was right after all. I should not have come here but well the 'I-told-you-so' part can wait now.

I sighed and prayed one last time before willing myself to follow the clearing. as I walked along the road, the trace grew stronger and stronger. It was a miracle that I was still alive after all of this but then I am not sure how long that continues before I find myself decaying in one of Death's personal favourite traps.

The letter was a smart move though. She pulled me out of my safe heaven, letting me believe that this meeting was my idea when in actual it wass her who is directing me through this. As Chao had said, elusive.

I crossed the way and came out of the lantern lit passage into a field that was stretching too far for my vision to cover in one try. My eyes , though, were rather focused on a small cottage that was built a few yards away from me.

It looked foreign in such an area where life seemed so difficult to imagine with the still of the night.

Is this where I am supposed to report to?

I am not sure what I expected out of this, but I am pretty sure this was not what I had imagined it to be like.

Who lives in there?

Who would even want to live there? In the middle of nowhere, in a cottage? It was small and looked rather simple and decent size. Nothing to brag about.

I gulped hard and walked towards it, approaching it with great caution. Every sense of mine was highly alerted. It was strange how my steps were making no sound as I walked on the dead grass. There was no crunch of the blades snapping over each other. It was as though nothing could ever produce a single sound in this, this realm?

Should I call this a realm? Perhaps a different from the one I came from? It looks like a silent realm to me. Stranded somewhere in the universe

Up close, the cottage looked ancient. There were unique swirling lines tracing its walls which were looking really fragile. It looked otherworldly. None that could make much sense to me. The tribal patterns were black and looked liked they were carved in a long time ago.

I waited to catch any kind of moments from inside the small hut but when it remained as quiet as ever, I sighed and knocked gently on the door.

It was only after several minutes of wait when I heard the sound of steps coming to answer the door on the other side. It felt odd to know that some one was as alive as me beside me here.

The door flung opened and a girl, a rather casual looking girl, dressed in a waitress's atire, stared at me passively.

My mouth opened to say something but I closed it almost immediately to compose myself enough to not embarrass the angels out of me.

"I was here to see Death." Ain't that funny though? Now a normal human being would never say that. Even the word 'death' is a jinx for them, let alone the person who masters it?

"This way." She invited me inside with no questions asked whatsoever. Maybe she was alerted about my arrival. The cottage was bland from inside. Dim lights and barely furnished. A single couch was pushed against the wall at one side and a wooden door which I assumed led to another room was on the opposite side of me.

The waitress who I think worked for Death, opened the door and went in with me tailing her. However, I faltered in my steps on the threshold, rationality completely abandoning me just like Aire did. All the assumptions long forgotten.

Ahead of me was a long, elegant corridor, leading to what looked like a castle. I looked back and forth between the room and the hallway that was leading to a manor and the dull room which hid it so well.

I am sure there was no such piece of architecture that stood outside when I crossed that lord awful expanse of dead meadow to reach to this cottage, a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. Then how this corridor can be here?

What sort of magic is this?

Facade.

The waitress waved me over to follow her as she waited for me to recover from the shock. I was starting to question if she was even a girl. I mean don't get me wrong but everything around here was nothing as it seemed. First that forest, then that lantern lit path, this cottage, a girl answering it and now this castle wrapped behind a small hut.

I sighed. What was waiting for me next was beyond my imagination.

Walking through the corridor, I admired its royal decor. The walls had various frames of abstract paintings lining it and as we made our way out of it, the waitress led me into a room, a ball room if that made sense.

The grandeur was evident in the built of the palace. From the floor that was polished so immaculately to the perfection, to the high walls that had different golden and black metal carvings, to the magnificent dome that was just above my head, everything about this place screamed superiority.

"Wait here." The waitress told me quietly and left. My gaze followed her, as she disappeared behind the stairs that was in front of me, splitting on the either side on the next story of the manor.

I had lived my whole life in a castle too, so the high walls and the antique furnishing did not look very out of the fashion to me but this, this is something completely alien to me. Antique, just did not go with this place. The manor itself looked more antique than antique itself.

There was a strange dominance in the air. The one that knew no bounds.

The dread that I was feeling earlier was long gone, replaced by the intimidation which was slowly crawling under my skin and underneath it all, I was containing my curiosity in, putting it on a leash to stop myself from stepping out of line.

There is no way, I want to offend Death than she already maybe from my letter, so much so that she dropped me head first into that terrifying forest.

It all fits though.

I had been a fool to work according to her instructions and come here, right into a trap but not anymore.

I am not going to fall for her words anymore.

"My sweet pleasure, you are here."

Trust me, I don't want to be.

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