Weave and Unweave a Rainbow

I stared at the ticket in my hands, wondering if I had made a terrible mistake.

Sitting across from me, Ash’s face flared bright red in the campfire’s glow. She was doing her best to remain composed, but the death-grip her fingers had twisted into around the hem of her dark gray tunic betrayed how she really felt about the witch cackling beside her.

“I can’t believe she actually said it! I told you, Chryssie, this is how we can turn a profit even when our little Ash makes a mess of things,” she said with a devilish smirk.

Everything about this woman was flashy, from her wild red curls of hair to her bright purple dress fitted with glittering stones. Not to mention, she wore an ornate golden band around her head that completely obscured her eyes, yet didn’t seem to affect her ability to see in the least. Then again, considering she had called out to both Ash and I before we’d even crested the hill that brought the Bellis Troupe’s carriage into view, I doubted she was relying on something as basic as natural sight.

She was certainly the strangest of the group. But she was also the only other human.

“Leave the poor girl alone, Dahlia. I’ll not have her doing such things,” Chrysa chided. She shook her head in disapproval, clicking her forked tongue.

With the upper half of a woman and the lower half of a snake, she was the spitting image of the Lamia of Greek mythology. But this lady, the leader of the Bellis Troupe, carried herself with utmost dignity and grace. Her waves of black hair already showed streaks of gray, and the wrinkles of old age had begun to set in on her face. Her golden eyes glimmered with wisdom far beyond the years of a human lifespan, and the exotic jewelry adorning her hands and tail told a long story of achievement.

Dahlia gave a theatrical sigh. “Yes, ma’am. I suppose we have given too many tickets for free because of that.” Suddenly, her attention shifted to me. “But just look at what she’s caught tonight: a human nobleman! And from beyond the Gate, no less.”

“I was going to tell you all soon,” Ash muttered.

Dahlia gave me an unnerving smile. “Oh, it’s no big deal. It just means you’ve been possessed by a demon, right?”

“This again?” I asked.

A gruff voice called out. “Give it a rest, Dahlia. The boy’s already been through enough for one night. Let’s not scare him off now.”

Dahlia rolled her eyes. “You too, Yarrow? You old-timers are no fun.”

Yarrow took his seat next to me. I still wasn’t quite used to being in the presence of this giant of a wolf-man, an absolute wall of muscle and dark brown fur. He and Chrysa were the oldest members of the Bellis Troupe, and seemingly the last remaining of those who had been there from the beginning. The battle scars across his body were a bloodier tale than that of his partner, but...

“Sorry ‘bout that. Nature called,” he said, nudging me with his elbow.

He was actually quite friendly and playful. Chrysa gave him a disapproving look for the crude comment, causing him to scratch his head in embarrassment.

The last member of the troupe was not far behind, landing atop the troupe’s ornate carriage before hopping down to join the others. He was a white owl, nearly as tall as I was. There was youth and inquisitiveness in his one good eye, and he greeted me with a polite bow.

“I’m afraid I did not have the chance to make your acquaintance before my departure. My name is...well, now it’s just Hinata. I come from the Cassio Islands, though I wouldn’t call them my home anymore.”

Dahlia chimed in. “He doesn’t know where that is, Sunny.”

The owl’s head snapped completely backwards to glare at her. “Good gods, woman, have you no manners?!”

She shrugged.

Hinata’s head returned to facing forward. “My apologies. I’m a fairly new addition to this lot, and I’m afraid I don’t take too well to Miss Dahlia’s...jokes.”

“Yeah, I’m with you there. Anyways, the situation is a bit complicated, but I’m Reed Arbour. Nice to meet you.”

I held out my hand, and Hinata offered me his wing. We shook each other’s respective appendages.

Yarrow stoked the fire, then looked at me. “So, you’re a Gatewalker?”

“I’m not sure what that means, but apparently I’m from ‘beyond the Gate’ or something.”

Yarrow nodded. “That’s getting into some real deep magic. Ash would know the most about that sort of thing. What has she told you?”

“Not much,” I said, shooting a look of annoyance at her.

She put her hand to her mouth and thought for a while. “Alright, let me see if I can explain this to you in as simple terms as possible.”

She stood up and opened her palm. A moment later, tiny particles of light began to hover around her hand.

“Magic is fueled by anima, which flows here from the border between every world. We call that border the Anima Gate. Anima is essentially energy with infinite potential, but that’s not the only thing that can slip into this world. The Gate is also the destination of souls.”

“So demons are souls from beyond the Gate that come here and take control of people?”

“Sort of. The difference between you and them is that they’re...incomplete when they pass through. They may have emotions, desires, or even memories sometimes. But they’re never aware of themselves. They can’t identify themselves separately from their host.”

A parasite that doesn’t know it’s a parasite. It was unsettling, to say the least. But at least it confirmed that I wasn’t one. Unless “I” was a demon who had taken over the mind of Reed who had taken over the body of Lord Jonquille...

I decided to stop thinking about that.

But wait...there’s something else that’s bothering me about what she said.

“Um, Ash? What do you mean about the Gate being the destination for souls?”

Dahlia threw her head back and laughed. “Don’t you get it, kid? You’re already dead!”

“Dahlia!” Chrysa shouted. The witch shrunk in her seat with a self-deprecating grin.

Everyone turned to me, but I could hardly focus on my surroundings.

I can’t be dead. I can’t!

Wouldn’t I have remembered dying? I’d just went to bed like normal!

Could it have been a heart attack? A random murder in the night?

No. This isn’t even worth thinking about. This is just one tiny possibility in a circumstance that nobody really understands. Ash is just making assumptions based on what she knows about demons.

I’m different. I have to be different!

What about college?

What about work?

What about my future?

What about Viola?

Before I knew it, Ash had taken hold of my hand. She squeezed it tightly and stared directly into my eyes. She said nothing, but having her so close gradually brought the world back into focus. I hadn’t even noticed I’d been shaking.

Ash looked at each member of the Bellis Troupe one by one, then spoke to me in a calm voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. This has never happened before, so nobody really knows what’s going on. But we’re all here for you if you need us, okay?”

I silently nodded and slowed my breathing. Once Ash had left my side, Chrysa decided to call it a night. The journey to Laurel would continue in the morning. One by one, everyone headed off to either their tents or the carriage to sleep. I remained there by the now extinguished fire, collecting my thoughts.

After about an hour, a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

“Can we talk?” Dahlia asked.

She sat on the ground next to me, and removed her blindfold. Empty, white eyes stared up at me.

“You’ve probably already guessed that I don’t really ‘see’ the same way others do. The truth just...pops into my head. It lets me see things that people try to hide, things that are best kept hidden. People used to call me an evil witch back home, and so that’s who I started to become. I wanted to be hated, because I hated this gift. Even when the Bellis Troupe had come to my village, I saw Yarrow’s biggest regret and threw it in his face. But you know what he said?”

She put the blindfold back on and smiled.

“He said I could probably do some neat tricks with that gift. So now I tell fortunes and make a show of being psychic. Ash and I, we’re here because we said good riddance to our old lives. I’d assumed you were the same, but that still doesn’t excuse it.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I think I can forgive you. This all is just...way bigger than anything I’ve dealt with before.”

“Then don’t let me ruin it for you. I’ve told this to everyone else a million times, but if I ever say something out of line, tell me to shut up. Trust me, I can take it.”

I couldn’t help but feel a smile coming on. “Alright then.”

She stood up and brushed the grass and dirt from her dress. “You and Ash are both weird as hell. I hope you two get along.”