Karver Moreau

Dense mist drifted between the tall and steep black rocks that rose out of the infinite ashen sea. Foaming waves crashed high and violent upon the cliffs. The sand of the beach held a dark color, almost black, and shined as if a layer of a million diamonds had been scattered over it.

The sound of loud laughter of the first waking children echoed from below my balcony. They ran out of the entrance of our fortress across the wooden bridge to meet the cold of the dawn. It was invisible to the eye, but below that bridge swam dozens of alligators who were descendants of the crocodiles my ancestors had long ago used in war. The four tall stone walls joined through the four tall towers in each corner of which each was meant to house watchmen to defend us. But in my lifetime, those large wooden doors had never been closed and the bridge leading to them had never been pulled up, nor had anyone used the towers to keep watch.

Though I would never say it aloud, often I doubted the truth of my family's wild tales. I, along with everyone else born here on this isolated island, grew up being told that legions of supernatural beings were on the hunt for us, out to kill each and every one of us, and that we were part of the seven most powerful witch families. But perhaps these people were merely a bunch of madmen. The thought of them keeping us here, isolated from the world, being nothing more but a result from their insanity often crossed my mind.

A little girl with red hair flew high in the air and screamed. I let out a grunt and ran down the flights of steps, out of the entrance and down the bridge, and onto the beach. A group of children had gathered and looked up at the panicking girl, some of them laughed and others yelled at the girl with her hand raised to let her down. I grabbed the little witch by her collar and threw her behind me, and caught the red haired girl right before she fell off the cliff.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" After the redhead nodded, I turned around and marched at the one who still lay on the dirt. Again I grabbed her by the collar, only this time pulling her up. Her brown eyes peered deep into mine, reassuring me that she did not fear me even though I was the adult. "Are you out of your mind, Neviana? How many times have we told you to never use magic on a living creature? You could have killed her, do you realize that?" I waited for a moment for an apology, but Neviana remained silent. The girl's height barely reached my hips and yet she felt like she was above me. Power could do that to even the youngest ones. I released her collar and nudged at the fortress. "Go inside, and don't you dare come back outside until you have permission to do so." Sure, the girl had magic, as every other girl did on this island, but that didn't relief her from punishment.

The other children and I watched her go in solemn silence. Neviana turned her head a few times as she went, frowning and glaring at me with bared teeth. But on the last time she turned her head, her face switched from angry to surprised.

I turned around and saw dozens of ships moving towards our island. Their tall masts held white sails that flapped in the wind. The ships rocked violently as the waves pulled and pushed at them, and the passengers screamed and held on tight to the edges and masts.

"Get inside." I turned to the children and pushed them forward by their shoulders. "Hurry, go inside and warn everyone." I turned back to the ships and regarded them with worry and some curiosity. "Tell them we have visitors."

The ships grew bigger and my excitement grew as they neared us. Then the ancient tales of war made my excitement come to a halt. What if it were true? What if all of those ships were merely here to kill us? I scratched my head. The ships were almost on shore now. From behind me I heard the creaking of the bridge being pulled up. Upon turning around I was met with the cold gaze of my father. Behind him stood a small crowd of our most powerful witches and a handful of armed men. It was a frail looking man, my father, bald and his posture thin and so unsteady that he needed a stick to support him, and his speckled face looked more like leather hide than flesh. In his youth, it had been a striking giant of a man, his shoulders broad and his face bearded, but today remained only a wrinkled heap of bones and veins.

"Are those the enemies you told me about?" I asked him.

"No, most definitely not." My father walked closer to the waves and I, along with the crowd behind us, followed him. "Keep your distance, son. My life is expandable, yours is not."

We watched in silence as the ships stopped near our shore. They waited for one another and helped each other climb out. The group grew larger and larger as more ships set sail and their passengers set foot on dry land, women and men and children of all ages, but they remained where they were and spoke in a hushed voice among themselves. For a while our two groups stared at one another, until a woman approached us. It was an old woman with grey hair pinned into a bun, I guessed she had to be somewhere near her eighties, but she still looked ever so graceful in the way she carried herself.

Once she had stopped in front of us, she threw us a tired smile and said with a trembling voice, "My name is Eileen Dovraven, one of the Original Seven, and I stand here with no ill intentions. I've come to see Alaric Moreau."

"Lady, you're a little late to see Alaric," my father said. "Unless you want to dig him up from his grave. I'm his son, Pavel Moreau." My father gestured at me. "And this is my son, Karver."

"We have travelled far," Eileen said, "all the way from..."

"Chrim," my father cut her off. "Yes, you are a long way from home."

"We have come here seeking asylum."

My father's laugh thundered through the air. The man bent forward and rested his head on his stick as he continued his husky laugh. Once his laughter died down and he straightened himself, not a trace was left of that joy. "You, one of those who exiled my family, have come to our home to seek asylum?"

Eileen took a deep breath. "Correct, and I'm sure you can imagine, Pavel, how dire our situation must be."

"Oh, I can imagine. But, the more important question is, can I care?" My father slightly turned to lock my eyes. "Tell me, Karver, can we care about their dire situation?"

The woman's blue eyes were surrounded by dark circles, her face was filthy with smudges and the people standing behind her looked equally dirty and exhausted. Some of the women held a baby in their arms, and their tiny bodies had gone limp. Even if the children who could crawl and walk would survive the journey back, those babies and the elderly surely would not. I looked at my father and gave him a nod. The muscles in his face tightened and his brows furrowed.

Then he faced Eileen and passed along my nod to her. "We will grant you asylum for the time being, but you will make camp here, outside of our walls, until you have gained our trust."

Clusters of our people went back and forth the fortress to the tents we had set up, bringing them essentials like pillows and blankets, food and water, soap and buckets, and clothes and underwear and socks. Some were picking fruit and vegetables on the fields and putting them in crates. The children ran back and forth holding dry wood in their arms, dropping them on the dirt and hurrying back to gather some more. I lit one campfire after the other, and gave a flask containing gasoline to each group after doing so.

In one of the tents sat my father with Eileen, they were talking. I sat down near the opening and listened.

"...dozens have been slaughtered," Eileen said, "the Ordinance has been slaughtered. Witches and vampires and werewolves, they all formed an alliance. Nobody in town is safe anymore. It's all chaos."

"Are all of them dead, even Nestor Krol?" My father asked.

"Him too, they're all dead."

"A dire situation, indeed. How will you retaliate?"

"First we need to regroup and gain our strength, reach out to the others all across the world to help us in this battle. These witches who led the uprising are no ordinary ones, they are the strongest witches this world has ever seen." Eileen fell silent for a moment. "And they know no mercy."

Their conversation turned into dull history and I lost my interest. Sauntering through the fire-lit stone hallways of the fortress I realized how much more alive I felt now that we had been joined by strangers. Through all the tales they told us as children, they did not once tell us who these so called evil people were, or where they resided, and for all they knew that old lady, Eileen, was out to kill us. But she was not, neither of them were. For centuries they had known where we were hidden and never bothered us until they needed our help. I felt betrayed by my family's paranoia, but most of all I felt this rush raging inside of me. It was a hunger, one that craved more of the outside world. I had no idea where Chrim was located, or how to get there, all I knew was that I had been on this island long enough and nothing was going to stop me from finding that town.

That night I climbed down from my balcony, holding on tight onto edges and branches, and sneaked past the camps to the edge of the shore. I admired the long row of ships bobbing up and down the water. A smile spread across my face. In books I had seen images of them, but where they had just been objects on paper in real these looked much more impressive. Who knows how much more was out there that would impress me, I dared not to imagine what the outside world looked like since I was in complete ignorance and didn't want to look silly, not even to myself.

The ships were tied to wooden posts with thick ropes, strong enough to hold my weight, I figured, and I grabbed the rope tightly and pulled myself up little by little, just as I had done countless times as a boy. Even though I was a man now, nearly twenty years old, boyish games like climbing ropes still never failed to bring me delight. I crawled on the deck and inspected my surroundings with a grin, then hunched down and let my hands slide over the smooth white surface.

A loud laugh came from below me, a girl's laugh. I ran up to the edge of the deck and peered down, there in the dark stood a dark haired girl, slender and small, with her hair pulled in a ponytail looking up and laughing at me. Her eyes were dark and her blushing face was round and youthful.

"What's so funny?"

The girl stopped her laughter and tilted her head aside. "You are." She bent down and removed her shoes, holding them as her bare feet plunged into the water. I watched her go to the side of the ship and climb a metal staircase, and I instantly felt like an idiot for having missed that ladder. "I'm sorry, it's just... The way you climbed that rope and admired the boat, you look like you stumbled upon a miracle."

As she kept staring at me with a smile, clearly still amused by my ignorance, I frowned at her. "Well, maybe you're just jealous that I would never admire you like I have this ship."

She shrugged. "Yes, maybe. I mean..." She snorted. "I mean no one has ever admired or loved me as much as you and that boat." And once more, she started laughing, to which I threw my head back and looked at the sky. "I'm sorry. Please, excuse my bad manners. After weeks and weeks of death and bad news, and lots of sea sickness, I am desperate for a little laughter." The girl extended her hand my way. "My name is Lily Porth, it's an honor to meet one of the Moreau's."

"Karver," I said as I shook her hand.

A silence followed. I wanted her gone so that I could learn more about this ship, but she made no move to leave. A strong wind came by and made her long white dress flutter. Lily glanced around and I sensed some unease coming off her. Maybe she wanted me gone as well. If that were true, then we'd still be standing here at dawn.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Lily asked.

"I live here," I said. "What are you doing here, creeping around at night? Shouldn't you be in your tent?"

Lily folded her arms and frowned. "My tent? Don't speak to me like I am some kind of peasant to you. Just because I was robbed of my home and my family, does not mean I lost my dignity as well."

"Be it as it may, it still doesn't answer my question. Why are you here?"

Lily scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. "That pile of rocks over there may be your house, but these are still our ships, and if I want to go to our ships then I have every right to do so. You, however, these aren't your ships. You have no business here."

"These ships are parked on my island, which makes them mine until you and your people sail out of here."

"This argument is so pointless," Lily said. "Really, are we actually debating which one of us has more claim to be near these ships?" She shrugged and lifted her hands in the air. "Fine, I'll tell you." She swallowed and glanced at the camps, where some of the fires were still lit with people sitting near them. "I can't be here. I can't just be camping on some island while there is a war going on in my town. And, I didn't come to just sail out of here, but that's the thought that brought me here."

For a moment I pondered over what she'd said, and how the very same reason had brought us both here tonight. "Could you, though, if you wanted to? Sail away the ship, I mean."

Lily nodded. "I could." A smile appeared on my face, and it was answered by hers, and as we looked at one another our smiles grew wider and wider until we both grinned. "Ah, so you want to sail away, as well?"

"But... We'd need supplies," I said. "You are the one who has made that journey here. If you tell me what we need, and how much of it, then I make sure to get it for us."

"Meet me in the morning by the camps, and I will give you a list. If everything goes well, we'll be sailing out of here tomorrow night."

The next day I stood in the watchtower on the left of the entrance. I attached my flashlight in a crack inside the stone wall. Inside the tower it was humid and smelled of a blend of mold, urine, and vomit, but I had gone back and forth so many times that I had gotten used to the stench. I looked over the jugs filled with water, the burlap sacks containing bread and nuts and cheese and eggs, and the wooden crates that held everything else we needed. This reminded me of when I had ran away as a boy. Then, too, I had stuffed my belongings in a burlap sack. Then, however, I had nowhere to run to, nor a ship with a captain to take me across the sea.

The door opened, bringing along a squeaking, and shut close once Lily had stepped inside. She had let her hair loose today, draping over her shoulders and chest, and looked like a new, prettier girl.

"Do we have everything?"

I nodded. "All that remains is carrying it to the ship. Which ship are we taking, anyway?"

"Don't worry about that, I picked the very best ship for our trip." Lily took a deep, loud breath and smiled. "Karver, please, don't be late tonight. I'm not one to wait."

That night we hauled the last of the burlap sacks on the deck, and, once the rope had been cut, the ship sailed and I watched the dark island I had not once left shrink smaller and smaller, from a massive piece of land into a mere speck, until it was no longer in sight. There were so many things going through my head that I no longer knew whether it was fear and regret, or excitement. It didn't matter, it was now done. We had set sail. And with that, I laid my head on the pillow and fell asleep underneath the stars.

Days passed and I learned how to steer the ship so that Lily and I could take turns. After a while the crashing of the waves and the sight of nothing but an endless amount of water began to wear me out. Lily and I barely spoke anymore. Being on sea for so long without stepping ashore had a way of killing every bit of joy, and I finally understood why Lily had found such a small thing as me looking at a ship for the first time so amusing. Right then, anything that wasn't water would be amusing to me as well.

On the 16th day I stood on the deck again when a piece of land appeared in the distance. I ran over to Lily and she met me with a smile.

"Are we there?" I asked. "Is that...?"

Lilly nodded. "Chrim. We made it."

Without realizing it I hugged her tightly. Then, when I did realize, I stepped back. "I'm sorry. I... I'm just so relieved."

Her smile faded away and she swallowed. "Don't be too relieved, Karver, because no matter how many stories I tell you about Chrim, none will do it justice. If there is a hell on Earth, then this town is it. Make no mistake, these people know no mercy, nor morals." The sad face replaced itself with a stern one as Lily peered at the nearing land. "Neither do I. It's rooted in our every being, Karver, and I don't differ from them." She locked my eyes. "Look at me, and look closely. This is the face of evil."

"You're not evil," I said.

She shook her head and looked away. "And this is why I fear for you, Karver, you have an idea of what is evil and you go by that. Just because I don't look like it, doesn't mean anything. You don't know me, Karver. I've killed and tortured more than those you do deem evil." Lily stepped forward and pulled me down by my collar. "Look at me. I was an executioner, Karver, and it was my job to kill boys like yourself. But not before torturing them. So, look at me, and forget everything you think you know about evil."

I looked at her, more carefully than ever this time, and failed to see the killer she admitted herself to be. But, I also knew she wasn't lying. Chrim was known for its execution shows, and its executioners, and my father had told me many stories about the infamous witches who tortured the prisoners to death. My father had told me about each of them, each of the executioners in history and each of those in the present day, and he had told me about Lily Porth, too. Regardless of all that, I failed to detect the evil in her.

Lily took us a way's out of the beach, near a mountain, and we spent a long way swimming to shore. In wonder I looked at all the houses, amazed how different they were from our fortress, these homes were tall and big enough and each had their own piece of land fenced by hedges or fences. They didn't all live in the same building here like we did, instead they had divided the land amongst one another. The first car I ever saw in my life happened to be black, parked at the side of the pavement. I rushed up to it and ran my fingers down its shiny metal, then looked with disdain at my black stained hands. And I learned that cars, unlike in pictures, are very dirty.

It was quiet in this town, except for one area in the center, which Lily told me was called Downtown. There were many streets with buildings where some sold products and others prepared you food. There were wooden stands scattered around, and Lily bought me a tall cotton candy with a soda. It took a while for me to get used to the prickly drink, but the cotton candy was the best thing I had ever tasted.

It felt like I was in a beautiful dream, until the coffins came by.

A long line of people dressed in black carried the coffins on their shoulders, there seemed to be no end to the line with more and more coffins appearing. As I watched dozens of new coffins appear I wondered how many had died, and how it had come to this. Big bundles of flowers in the colors white and green draped over each coffin. Their faces were sullen and they did not say a word as they passed by.

A tear rolled over Lily's cheek as she watched them. "Welcome to Chrim."