The Listeners

Maia sighed. She rested her elbows on the creaking ancient windowsill. Gadfly her small sparrow was perched beside her. The Traveler’s young free horse galloped hard against the turf in the star bright night. Agonizing anger boiled up inside her. He was the reason she was here. He was the reason they were all here. The horse stopped, the handsome young man about the age of eighteen dismounted and ascended to the lean-too. A mystical binding fog sounded the fragments and Maia, sealing them to the house. She was the only one aware, the only one able to answer the lonely Traveler’s cry. But she didn’t want to and she couldn’t risk it anyway. Maia sent Gadfly to seek out the purpose of his visit, the knock cam and Gadfly left the turret. Maia turned to the phantom listeners; they faded and grew clear, fragments of lost souls trapped in this forbidden dead house. They flirted in and out of the room not realizing she was there. She wanted to be free. She needed to stretch her winds and take flight again; this might be her only chance to escape. She came to the window beside the door. Moonlight filtered inside, a patch of white among the silencing black. The Traveler banged upon the door a second time, waiting for an answer. She leaned out. The darkness of the night hid the young man’s face but the trees behind him were strangely lit. Maia was concealed by darkness, which flowed steadily out from the house.

“Is there anybody there?” he called. Maia stayed silent. Gadfly was sitting on a branch behind the Traveler’s head. He knocked louder and then;

“Tell them I came and no one answered that I kept my word.”

He left. The plunging hoofs disappeared into the night. Though Maia didn’t hear them, they faltered and turned around. Maia sighed and leaned back on the windowsill. She blew a strand of silver hair out of her golden eyes.

She walked downstairs again wandering around, mirroring the fragments around her, wondering what to do, when she heard the hoofs outside again.

A moment later the Traveler appeared again. He moved towards the house, a different person, his eyes glazed over and his face impassive. Going straight up to the door he placed his hand on the handle and pushed. Maia had half a second before he saw her, and she shot behind an old clock just as the fragment of her mother floated past.

The door creaked open and Maia bit her lip, wishing it to stay open as the Traveler past her. It however swung shut.

“Damn,” she whispered. He walked past the clock she was hiding behind; Maia tried not to breath deeply. He was changed, like all the rest before him. He went up the stairs. Maia came out from behind the cobwebby grandfather clock. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear. The Traveler’s cloak hung silently on the cloak stand.

“No doubt he’s dropping off another fragment,” Maia said to herself. Sure, he knew that she was here, but he didn’t know that she had regained her consciousness; she had Gadfly to thank for that. At that instant the sparrow flew in and perched on her shoulder. She approached the staircase. The floor boards creaked upstairs; she could hear him speaking in a different voice.

“Well, here you go,” he paused then began, “I cast this spell, you may never leave and you may never return, I keep my promise to my father and his father before him, that I will come in three days to seal the spell. If no one answers the it will be so.”

Maia heard him coming down the stairs; she looked quickly for an escape. She took a step forward.

“Maia?!” the surprised voice of the Traveler came from behind her. Maia turned to see the perplexed Spell Castor standing in front of her. “That spell should have held forever,” he said, his younger voice had returned, like it was the first time she had talked to him, like it was when he was a child, only a little deeper.

“How is it that you regained consciousness, when mother, like you is a daemon and she is still a fragment?” the Traveler questioned. Maia didn’t answer. The Traveler noticed Gadfly sitting on her shoulder. He recognized the tiny sparrow as the same one that flew out of the turret when he came the first time. When she didn’t answer him he turned and left with his right hand clasping around his cloak. Maia watched him leave surprised that he didn’t put another spell on her. He made his way out the door.

“You will regret not putting another spell on me, brother,” Maia called suddenly looking over her shoulder. The Traveler just stopped and flung his hand backwards without looking. Maia’s whole body seized up colours flashed before her, life in the hell-hole was slipping away faster than she could scream. Gadfly was becoming blurred in front of her. Maia heard the Traveler shut the door. She was falling, falling was always a bad memory. The dusty floor on which she had stood gave way, or was it just her? She fell, holding out her hand as though someone would take it.

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He stood beside her as she fell, her wings to broken and crumpled to fly. He didn’t even bother to hold out his hands and fly her to safety he just watched her fall.

“Brother, help me!” Maia screamed, she was falling into the sea. Matt her brother just watched her fall-

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The eagle daemon’s body slammed with a dieing crash into the musty soft soil. Her golden eyes missing of all consciousness and Life.