Broken Angels
Earthly Secrets
vii. broken angels
Tiffany stared back at her reflection in the mirror. Her once shiny hair lost its luster as they fell limply on her shoulders; dark shadows under her eyes were the remaining imprints of many sleepless and tearful nights; and the usual glow of cheer evident on her face disappeared along with her mirthful smile. She looked dreadful.
Her mother's death had been a huge blow. For the most part of her life, she had understood that death was ever-present as much as life is and that everything, even the seemingly most perpetual object, is impermanent. The accident from years back had been a close call and just as she thought that the close encounter with the hands of Death was an anchor dragging her down towards the seabed of reality, it did not prepare her much until the sands of truth about finally losing her mother had already hit her full in the face.
The feeling of a wrench clamping around her heart hit her once more. In as much as she wanted to cry, her eyes shed no tears. Perhaps, exhausted and dried of supplementing her misery for the past week.
It has been seven days, she remembered, since the awful news arrived – seven days away from school; seven precious days taken off a supposedly perfect year; seven days without seeing her friends. The thought of her friends sent her back into deep contemplation. Jessica and Sooyoung.
Sooyoung.
Remembering the younger girl woke the torpid feeling of anxiety in her chest. Like long-forgotten memories slowly returning, she recalled the reason why she chose to shut them off her life for a week. Depriving them the right to mourn with her over the demise of a second parent, she told them she needed a time to grieve and would prefer it if she will be left alone. Leave her alone they did, albeit she can feel their uncertainty; for Tiffany was never the type to shun people away but all Tiffany asks is for a moment of privacy right now, so stay away from me please? She told them a mouthful of hurtful words and yet she never told them why.
It started on the first day of her mother's funeral. The little chapel had been busy as throngs of people – friends, relatives – paid their respects. Tiffany stood outside the chapel doors, tight-lipped and sorrowful-looking, when she saw something – or rather someone – which made her pulse run.
A curious-looking man, hair the color of pale straw and skin as clear as snow, garbed in flowing robes of white and gray was standing beneath a tree not far from where she was. People were passing by in front of him and yet they appear to not notice his existence. The dazed look on his face too told her that he was just as unperturbed as the crowd. His appearance in itself was unearthly and yet she felt an odd sense of familiarity as if she had met him before. Perhaps the grief had been too strong, clouding the rest of emotions within her, that she felt no fear as she walked towards his direction.
She was no more than a few steps away when a scene forced her rooted on her spot. There was only one person calmly standing beneath the tree and suddenly, in a blink of an eye, there were two. Another man, equally-dressed, but taller and more imposing appeared beside the blonde-haired boy. She saw his lips move and the shorter one turn a lighter shade of pale as he drank the news the tall one had for him.
Too engrossed with their conversation, they seemed not to notice how she was standing too close that she was able to catch some words spoken swiftly, like broken notes thrown out in haste. Decipherable to her were the words 'cloister', 'return', and something which sounded like 'zoom' or 'soon'. Tiffany failed to hear the entire conversation and yet what stuck her most was how the newly-arrived spat out a word – name – very much familiar to her.
Sooyoung.
The look of horror on the blonde-haired male's feature told her much that she did not need to hear the words 'must find and bring her back' to know that her friend might be in mortal peril. Grief was a strong narcotic but seeing someone appear out of nowhere and speak in codes about someone you knew was enough to slap anybody awake. She fled away from the scene and had only realized that she had dialed her friend's number when she heard her voice on the line.
“Tiffany? Jess and I are coming. Sorry if we're la–”
“No. Don't come here.”
“Tiff?”
“I said don't come here!”
“Tiff, what's the problem? We're coming, okay?”
“Please! Give me time to mourn alone. You will only be distracting me and I have to tend to you like what a host does to her guests.”
“No... Tiff you know we're not like that. You need us–”
“I don't! Are you deaf? Sooyoung don't come here! I don't want to see you here!”
“Tiff...”
“If you still count me as a friend, if you still respect my mom, don't come here!”
Tiffany closed her eyes as she remembered her last conversation with a friend that had always counted as family to her. It wasn't the best choice of words but it was something she can no longer take back. None was heard from Sooyoung then and her conscience had been eating her for the succeeding days after that. On the day her mother was buried, five days after her death just as she had wished back when she was still alive, she met with Jessica secretly on the gates of the cemetery. The other girl was still curious on why she insisted on not notifying the younger girl but said nothing else. They parted with few words and a promise that everything will fall into place.
She said nothing more of the white-robed figures consistently following her; especially the tall solemn-looking man watching them under a cluster of trees on the outskirts of the cemetery right at that moment. Tiffany had tried mastering the art of pretending she could not see them; and though she had only seen once the blonde-haired boy outside the chapel, she half-wished that he would come back and replace the taller man who, despite his handsome face, gave her a feeling of rigid uneasiness.
Surprisingly, the burial was the last she had seen of the man. However, a sense of false peace still hovered over her. It had been a week and perhaps, it is about time she face what she had last left – hoping against hope that the worst was over. She missed her friends – and she missed Sooyoung – knowing she had a lot to explain. Mustering all the courage she could, she took one last glance at her reflection and tried her best to smile.
The cheerful Tiffany must come back.
Dressed back in her favorite school outfit, she walked towards her father sitting on the couch and gave him a hug. The old man's lonely eyes followed his youngest daughter as she walked out the house; a proud smile crept up his lips as he watched her take a step forward. Tiffany swung her bag on her shoulders and looked straight at the earth bathing in the morning sunlight as the grandfather clock inside their living room chimed eight.
It was time to move on.
“Where are we going?” Sooyoung whispered at Kris as she wobbled beside him. The Whisperer looked a bit uncomfortable as he spied Changmin's eyes sweep towards them but answered the girl’s question nonetheless.
“To the Bastile.” He whispered back. “Lower your voice or the Djinns will think I've gone mad talking to myself.”
“Pastille?” She tried to suppress a giggle as the foreign word rolled off her tongue.
“Bastile. Not Pastille.”
“Something which sounds similar to pastille should look and taste similar as well.”
“I guess you’re in for a disappointment.” He answered in a teasing voice.
“Oh well, what else should I expect from bland liver-lovers like you?” She rolled her eyes and scoffed.
Kris was trying his best to lower his voice but the chortle he released upon hearing Sooyoung's answer sent a couple of Djinns looking at his direction with a dubious look on their faces.
“Neae, Kaine; what brought you out at this time of the morning?” Changmin's strong voice startled Sooyoung making her cling unintentionally into Kris' arm.
The djinns, Neae and Kaine, threw a look – of what Sooyoung thought as disgust – towards the oldest Whisperer of their lot. “It's none of your business, Whisperer.”
“It would be our business if you will once again drag a mortal here like you did before.” Changmin stated coolly, a stark contrast to the hard stare he was giving them. “And if I am not mistaken, it was exactly like this, wasn't it? Sneaking around in the morning when your parents are sleeping.”
The shorter Djinn with black beady eyes and squeaky voice whimpered. The other one, hair the color of mature corn, held her friend's hand and hissed.
“Let's go Kaine. My day has just been ruined.” With a stomp of her foot, the Djinn turned around the narrow footpath and disappeared; her friend following behind her.
“Call it a day, Neae. It's late and almost around your bedtime.”
If she hadn't known him as the no-nonsense, retentive Khaka Sahl-angun, Sooyoung would have thought that Changmin was enjoying the fact that he just pissed someone off. It was like there was an untapped source of mischief hidden in his bones waiting to come out. Her face broke into a goofy grin when Changmin shot her a look; said grin vanished as quickly as it came when the latter walked swiftly towards their direction.
“Kris, I asked you to stay with the Human so she wouldn't be much of a trouble but if that simple task is something burdensome to you, I think I'll have to handle it then.” He spoke the words as casually as if he had just told them that grass is green and the sky is blue and yet Sooyoung understood the underlying note of annoyance in his voice.
Kris bowed her head apologetically. “I'm sorry, Khaka.”
The taller Whisperer said nothing else and rested his eyes on her. No words were exchanged but his sharp glare provided a good enough warning. Sooyoung pressed her lips tightly together. As though satisfied, Changmin moved back on his place in front of the line.
“He's such a tyrant. How can you stand him?” She muttered under her breath when she thought the older one was out of earshot.
Kris gave a sigh and swung his arm forward, completely forgetting that Sooyoung's arm was tied tightly into it.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!” Kris said more to Changmin, who threw them a look, than to Sooyoung.
“Can you not untie this stupid knot?” She said through gritted teeth.
“No. Khaka Changmin made sure of that. And even if I could, I wouldn't.”
“But-”
He let out a huge breath and calmly replied. “Remember it's your fault why we ended up like this.”
It was true though, she admitted. Changmin made sure she wouldn't be out of their sight after she tried escaping earlier that morning. Woken up by the sharp ribbons of light streaming through her window, Sooyoung went out the Cloister hallway to see it deserted. Carrying her shoes in her hands, she sneaked into the lobby and walked on tiptoe so as not to make a sound; an act she found useless when the sight of Changmin and Nana talking in the Hall welcomed her. Nana was standing with her back against her and Changmin stood directly facing her direction. Nevertheless, Sooyoung thought it peculiar that despite her obvious presence, Changmin seemed not to mind. She thought that he might be too engrossed with the discussion to notice her. It was only when she had passed by the two and was making a run towards the huge doors of the Cloister when she understood why. Her name resonated all over the columns that supported the vacuous room when Kris called her. Suddenly aware of the impending catastrophe, she turned around to see the two discussing Whisperers stop and look quizzically at her. The shoe fell in a soft thud and she saw her guilty reflection staring back at her on the shiny marble floors.
By Changmin's own conclusion, she was fed the knowledge that she can turn herself invisible at her own will – something they tried afterward to unexpected results. First, it was true that she can be invisible to anybody she wanted, and second, Kris was – to his shock – unaffected by her invisibility prowess. As a consequence of her failed escape and newly-discovered skill, Changmin changed plans; that instead of keeping her in the Cloister, she was to be brought along to where they were going and that Kris would be assigned to keep an eye on her. As additional precaution, the oldest Whisperer fashioned a knot from the vines in the courtyard to keep her attached to the young Whisperer. An action he had obviously regretted once they set on foot and realized that keeping the two together meant having Sooyoung consistently bothering Kris as they go through the long walk.
“I still need to master this invisibility, you know. Sometimes, I think that people can still see me even if I wanted them not to see me.”
Kris chuckled at her pronouncement. “I think you only want to be invisible to Khaka Changmin.”
“There goes the most accurate statement you've ever spoken in your life.”
Her answer forced another round of repressed laughter from the Whisperer. The conversation could have gone on longer until Nana shushed them up.
“We're here.”
She looked around her surroundings and noticed that they were standing on what looked like a rocky hill. The landscape fell down into a wide plain blotched by random small trees. It wasn’t much of a sight and yet Sooyoung felt that there has to be something remarkable in it for Changmin to bring them there.
Her thoughts were cut off when she felt Kris tug her hand. Apparently, Sooyoung was looking on the wrong side of the picture; for Nana and Changmin were already disappearing in a concealed crack in the side of the hill. The hot breath of the midday sun disappeared as they plunged into the underground cavern. For a cave, the interior of the fissure seemed more man-made than natural – even floor, polished walls – and yet it exuded a sense of strange and deep secrets no man nor machine must have completed. Torches line in equal distance from each other on the wall, casting a dance of eerie light all over the cave.
“The Watchers were roaming the east side of the Bastile.” Nana’s soft whisper resounded in a hiss all over the dim hallway that Sooyoung worried it might have reached the part where the guards were roving.
They reached a small room which split into two hallways. Changmin walked towards the left entrance before facing them. “Nana, stay here and keep an eye out for the guards. Kris, follow me.”
The female Whisperer gave a curt nod before disappearing into the shadows. Sooyoung, on the other hand, was starting to get annoyed with how Changmin only refers to Kris and Nana as if she wasn’t there to begin with.
“What is this place?” She scooted closer towards the younger Whisperer.
“It’s a prison.” Came the hushed reply.
Her hushed conversations with Kris died in its own as they went on deeper through the labyrinth of halls. She lost count of the curves and turns they took. It appeared that the hallway grew darker and narrower that she believed they might have been going down the bowels of earth itself. Sooyoung thought that they have reached a dead end until Changmin pressed the stone wall and lines glimmered brightly for a few seconds before it faded to form the contour of a door.
He touched the rough surface once again and the stone moved revealing what she thought was an empty room, until something – or rather someone – stirred on a corner.
Light coming from the lone torch outside the hallway seeped into the room and Sooyoung stared wide-eyed at the scene in front of her.
The creature's head was bent down and his wrists were tied on a manacle embedded on the wall. He raised his head with much difficulty when he heard them come in and Sooyoung had taken her first look of this being. His skin was still as young as skin of supple pears in summer and yet his antiquarian eyes spoke of age and unfathomable mystery. He looked like any young Whisperer but an aura around him augurs of lifelessness and devastation. Back hunched and skeletal legs bent in weird angles, his hair was a stream of silver matted with rust and the loose cloth that was his cloak draped on his bony shoulders turned white with age; like a battered wing. He looked like a broken angel.
“His name is Eeteuk.” She heard Kris whisper. “Older than Bhafa Soumm, given S’ua at the age of twenty-seven. He was the most brilliant Whisperer of his batch.”
“What is a S’ua?” she whispered back.
“The worst punishment a Whisperer may receive.”
Sooyoung swallowed a lump on as the cold air seemed to dropped a few degrees lower than it originally was.
The creature, then, opened its ancient mouth and a scratchy voice spilled out in the caliginous space. “Whisperers.”
“We are here to seek answers.” Changmin’s firm voice slashed through the air like a sword, cutting off irrelevant lines that might delay his purpose.
“Answers.” The Whisperer repeated as he gazed at them though his narrow, amorphous eyes. “Everybody seeks it. But who am I to give it? I am a wretched form of an immortal that prefers the dissolution of breath over endless days of emptiness.”
“Something happened in Dunya which stirred the concerns of the Jurist. We do not know what it was exactly but we guess that we might know how it might have happened.” Changmin walked closer towards Eeteuk, his tall form blocking the light from falling on the bound Whisperer.
“The first step to the truth is to know that you are on the right track. There is nothing more you need from me.”
“To tread the forbidden walls of the Bastile is a risk we have made. We are not to go home empty-hearted and failed.”
Silence lingered for a moment.
“You are brave, young Whisperer. Brave and rather stringent.” A thin shadow of a smile formed on his lips. “But bravery is not always the most desirable of virtues. Like the wind, it allows you to soar…” A small pause. “And like the wind, it can make you lose your balance.”
All the while, Sooyoung and Kris were silent. A flicker from the torch’s light shone on the wall and she noticed that they were lined with symbols. The stony surface appeared dry as a chicken bone, yet it gave off a damp, musty smell adding to the eerie feel of the room.
“We have no time for riddles. The Jurist has spoken of imbalance and the fate of Dunya is at stake. You are a Whisperer and your very purpose of living is to protect Dunya.” Changmin's voice was calm but there was an underlying note of impatience in it.
“Ah, you are right, young Whisperer. But I am not living at all, you see. I am merely existing. Stripped off my responsibility as a Whisperer, I am left to die though it will take ages for that to happen. Whisperers only die when they are in line of duty and a banished one like me... I could go on for a hundred years or more, until Death will take pity and take me. An immortal, a contrast of the short thread of Life expected of our kind… but what sense is a life without purpose?”
He was speaking mostly to himself.
“A Whisperer's life is his destiny. We are created by accident and yet our purpose was made to warrant our existence. We are to serve Dunya and provide protection for the human world. I have lost my purpose the day I was banished. And with it, I have lost my life as well. To live in shame, to die forgotten, it is the punishment for my stubbornness. Death is a threat to you young Whisperers, but it is also an honor. For what could be a more honorable demise than to die doing your purpose?”
The forsaken Whisper gave a sad smile and his gaze darted forward past the towering Whisperers only to land on the spot exactly to where Sooyoung was standing.
Sooyoung felt the tension solidify even before she felt Kris' hand hold hers tightly.
“What you seek is something I cannot answer. There are mysteries older than time, itself. Like dreams weaving in to form a reality in our heads, the opaque truth of what our senses perceive are sometimes mere illusions. One who seeks knowledge must sacrifice to get it. ”
“What is your point?” Changmin's voice cut through the aged Whisperer's speech.
“Show me what it is that you've been concealing and I shall impart you with my knowledge.”
If the air around them were liquid, it would have been frozen with Eeteuk's last words hovering in mid-air.
“There is nothing that we hide of you. We have no time for games.” Kris spoke loudly for the first time since they got inside the room.
“Ah, but you have been playing with me. An old man's senses are limited with age. Of all the senses it is the gift of sight which we tend to treasure more; but is the sense of perceiving – being one with your surroundings so that the walls become your eyes and the floor becomes your ears – that we should be more grateful for.”
“Khaka Eeteuk.” Sooyoung did not know how or why but suddenly was opening and words were pouring out. A spark glimmered in the old Whisperer's timeworn eyes and the Whisperers knew that he can finally see her.
“We are taught about your wisdom and knowledge of things our kind could only dream. We ask for your guidance and help in saving Dunya. You say you had lost the purpose of living when you were denied an honorable death and yet you refuse the offer of reclaiming your dignity by altruistically lending a hand to that which defines your purpose. We ask you, humbly, of this. If your will cannot be bend, please receive our apologies for troubling your talk with eternity.”
Sooyoung finished her impromptu speech and she thought the floor slanted beneath her feet just as Kris caught her in mid-fall. She steadied her shaky legs, hands holding on tightly unto his arm as the silence stretched on.
Eeteuk gave out a smile, sad and meaningful. “You have a skill with words as you are with the senses. What is it you wish to know?”
“Why do–” The rest of her sentence was never heard as Changmin butted in.
“The story behind your banishment.”
Eeteuk stared at him, long and hard, and then he spoke in a sorrowful voice.
“I have been banished and forgotten. My story is supposed to end right when my exile began and no one of our kind should know about me. How you learned of my mournful past, it appalls me, but it is something I have not regretted.”
An eerie silence caught on.
“I pity this which has been my destiny but not once have I repented the reason why it is so.”
“What is it?” Kris’ voice floated above the hush. Eeteuk looks at him through curious eyes. “What was the reason why you were given S’ua?”
The Whisperer was silent, as if he was asked to rip a venerable cloak of mystery shrouded upon all of them.
“Love.”
The word echoed and died but nobody dared to speak.
“You have not expected it, haven’t you? Something very human.” The Whisperer sighed. “Love never comes alone. When it met me, it brought with her courage and life. A life different than what I had lived; and though that life had only been brief, I am grateful that I had a taste of it. I used to think that, perhaps, what Whisperers are deprived of is knowledge. We only knew what was fed to us and for that I chose to seek it.”
He tried to move his aged hands but the chains and the manacle prevented it.
“I was proud. Drunk with the thought that I’ve found what only few have. I knew so much but then I knew less. Knowledge, relied too much, is ignorance. That I learned when I met her.” His voice dropped low the next words were barely audible.
“My Daniella.”
Sooyoung thought she saw tears form in his eyes but Eeteuk looked up and there was none.
“Do not seek what does not wish to be sought. If it is written to be yours, it will come. Many are the things only a few is bound to know; only a handful is bound to understand; and most are not allowed to speak of. Yet I say yet again, the truth. There is nothing much I know of what is happening. Trapped here for years – centuries – maybe. If the Imbalance you speak of shakes the very foundation the Jurist had built on, perhaps it is time.”
“Time? Time for what?” Changmin found his voice again.
“Time for what was destined to happen.” The archaic creature paused as if on a reflection and spoke, his eyes still set on Sooyoung. “Ah, that which you find can only be found in yourself. The knowledge of the world is of no use if you are ignorant of yourself. Learn about who you are and everything will fall into place."
It was as if he was speaking just to her as he repeated once again. "There are mysteries older than time, itself. Like dreams weaving in to form a reality in our heads, the opaque truth of what our senses perceive are sometimes mere illusions."
Changmin shifted uncomfortably in his feet. The mask of calmness he had long carried was staring to crack and his annoyance started slipping between them. He took a step forward towards the old Whisperer when Nana came bustling through the door.
“Khaka Changmin, the guards are coming.” The tone of her voice was calm and yet her disheveled cloak and sweat-moistened forehead spoke of the urgency of the situation.
The tallest of the lot moved towards the door and listened to the faint footfalls coming from the end of the hall. “Let's go.” He pointed at Nana, who quickly went out the door, and then to Kris. The latter nodded and before Sooyoung could even blink, Kris moved quickly on his feet, dragging her behind him.
“Wait, I still haven’t asked him my question!” the girl whined as she tried to fight the pull of Kris' gigantic steps.
“We are not allowed to be here, Syoung. We'll get skinned once they found out we've been here.” A note of panic was apparent in Kris’ voice.
“I need to ask him what is wrong with me!” She craned her neck and tried to catch a glimpse of the forsaken creature.
“Khaka Eeteuk!”
“There's no need to call him Khaka.” Changmin said loudly as he moved forward and blocked her view of him. “He is no longer a Whisperer.”
“But-”
Sooyoung tried putting up a fight but Eeteuk's voice rose above them before she could finish her sentence.
“He is right. There's no need to call me Khaka.” She felt strong pairs of hands push her out of the door but she heard Eeteuk’s last words, nonetheless.
“…because you are not one of us.”
A/N: Hi guys, I'm sorry if I can't reply to your mentions one by one but I want you to know that I'm reading them and I am really, really grateful that you take time to leave your thoughts for me to know. Your messages are my inspiration in continuing this fic so thank you, thank you. :) Anyway, for this chapter - special appearance by Eeteuk and some random trolling only a few will get~ =))) Apparently, this is a chapter that isn't very much important loljk EVERYBODY LET'S WELCOME TIFFANYYYYYYYY!
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