About

_{In The Mist Keeper’s Apprentice, Brent Harley meets a mysterious woman in black who sets his life on a course of disarray. But what is her side of the story? Find out below.}

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Caroline strode on a cloud of smoke through the gardens. Her black cloak floated around her, masking her with the evening sky. This was not the first time she had visited this small mountain town, nor would it be her last. After three hundred years, her life had been one of repetition and nothing more. But the garden always did catch her attention.

            Cast like a stain of mold against the otherwise gray mountains, it bustled with flowers which Caroline failed to name. In all honesty, she did not even know that this many flowers existed!

            But here, in this tiny town in the mountains, they bloomed.

            She snapped a white flower from a nearby bush and stared at it. As she touched it, the Mist rose around her fingers and traced the petals. As the Mist touched them, the petals fell, brown and wrinkled to the ground.

            Frowning, Caroline crumpled the flower in her hand and continued along the path.

            Overall, the day had not differed much from most others. She wandered through the town, seeking out the dead to release their souls and bring them peace. It was second nature to her; she barely had to think to find the next soul, guiding them forward with a mere wave of her fingers.

            She took pause only midday, when a young man backed into her and offered an apology.

            Something that should have been impossible.

            Throughout her reign as Mist Keeper, the Mist acted as her cloak. That was what she was taught: hide in the Mist, do not allow the living to see. If she allowed them to see her, then it threatened the very balance of Life and Death. It was better to live in the Mist.

            And she stayed loyal to that promise in all her years as Mist Keeper.

            But then, that young man collided with her.

            That in itself wouldn’t have been an issue.

            But then, he did the unfathomable.

            He apologized.

Not a nonchalant one, but an actual apology straight to her face.

            As soon as he spoke, she rushed into the Mist. To her relief, he did not follow her. Perhaps the interaction had been a farce. She misinterpreted his behavior…or something! The boy did not have the red eyes that belonged to the Seers. No one else had seen her either, so the shield for the Mist remained strong.

            Caroline tried to shake the boy from her mind, but as she continued to release souls, the scene returned to her psyche with force. The boy had to be no older than twenty-or-so, with messy hair and anxious eyes. He stared at her, not with a fear of Death, but as though someone had reprimanded him for clumsiness in the past.

            It was a fluke, Caroline. Forget him.

            Yet, as she approached the oak tree in the far corner of the garden, she struggled to put that boy behind her. His stammering voice. His fearful gaze. Everything about the boy was…wrong.

            But she didn’t know why.

            With the tip of her foot, she kicked the oak tree’s arching root. It pulled upwards, and with it, the ground opened. A flimsy ladder unraveled in the opening.

            She glanced over her shoulder once. The gentle wisps of Mist floated behind her.

            Forget him.

             Sighing, she climbed down the ladder. The ground closed above her as she traveled down into the dark hole beneath her. The climb never took long. Just like everything else, this was part of her routine.

            Each day, she voyaged across the world, using the magic tunnels beneath the earth to take her to a new destination. She never questioned the surrounding magic, knowing that the Mist Keepers created them long ago to help expedite travel and facilitate more releases of the dead. She’d seen the Tunnels as they led to bejeweled canyons, or out into barren deserts, or seaside caves. They changed with their surroundings, as they did here just the same.

            Like the garden above, greenery thrived at the base of the ladder. A wall of vines waited at the opposite end of the tunnel opening, reeking of a damp forest. Caroline wrinkled her nose before turning toward the tunnel.

            Thump!

            She paused. The hair on her arms rose.

            “Urgh…”

            Caroline turned. Water dripped down the stalagmites.

            And landed on that very boy who dared to haunt her.

            He gripped the ground with his hands, his wild curls falling over his eyes. Caroline approached him, seething.

            His gaze trailed upward.

            Caroline glowered down at him.

            “Shite!” The boy scrambled away from her.

            Before he could get far, Caroline jammed her sharp heel into his hand. Her voice cracked, trying to hide her own fear, “What are you?”

            “I, uh…I’m uh—”

            She hoisted him up by the collar of his shirt. Adrenaline coursed through her body as she threw the boy face-first into the wall of vines. “Answer me! What are you?”

            “I—I don’t—” He winced, devolving into a puddle of panic. “This can’t be real! I’m spent, aren’t I? Shite—ow!”

            Caroline slammed him against the wall again. Despite his height, he was relatively light, like a long fishing rod that snapped too easily. He whimpered as Caroline held him there, running through every possible option. While she was Death, she was no murderer. Should she bring him to the others? Let him go? Leave him bludgeoned on the surface so he thought it was a dream?

            But before she could decide, the boy’s body fell away from her. As he fell, he glanced over his shoulder at Caroline. Their eyes locked for a moment.

            Then, the vines wrapped around him and gobbled him whole.

            Caroline gawked. The wall of vines had returned to normal.

            “WHAT?” she screamed, clawing at the vines. They tightened as she attempted to tug them apart. “CONSARN IT!”

            Try as she might, the vines did not move.

            “YOU MILKSOP! COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF! CONSARN IT!” she shrieked again and pulled at the vines. Was the boy a Magii? She did not get that feeling from him. He seemed just as shocked as she was that the vines had sucked him into them.

            “No! This is ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! Consarn it!” She cursed a few more times before stomping down the tunnel. How dare he disappear on her! He did not belong in the Tunnels!

            Her own frustration carried her farther down the tunnel than she had hoped. By the time she reached the main junction, she realized her mistake. If she had thought through her actions, she could have waited the boy out to see if he had reemerged. But no, she had to let her anger get the best of her and carry her into irrationality.

            She grumbled to herself upon entering the junction. There, the Tunnels collided, all beneath the watchful gaze of the tall, intricate doors of the Library of Mist Keepers. To anyone else, this door would strike fear or awe. But to Caroline, it was her front door. One that she could open with a mere touch of her hand. After three hundred years, she had lost interest in its historical carvings.

            Just as she had lost fascination in the very beauty of her home.

            Behind the doors, a massive library greeted her. With rows upon rows of books, iridescent glass pathways, and hundreds of rooms that seemed to change every day, Caroline recalled her initial fascination with the Library of Mist Keepers. Now, it was just a massive library that she returned to each day; perhaps one day, she might discover all its secrets. But, to be frank, there were far more mysteries that enchanted her.

            Like that boy.

            “Hello!?” she shouted as she entered the Library. “Alojzy? Tomas? Aelia? Anyone there!?”

            Her voice echoed. But for the Mist waltzing through the aisles, all remained still.

            “CONSARN IT, ANSWER ME!”

            “Will you be quiet?” A thick, pointed voice responded from behind the shelves.

            She yanked a book from the shelf and peered through to the other side. Glowering at her, his towering body hunched over, stood Jiang, holding a flask. He glared back at her.

            “Where are the others?” She barked at him.

            “I’m sure your obnoxious yelling caught their attention. Have you ever heard of patience?”

            “Have you ever heard of patience?” Caroline mimicked.

            “I swear, this childish behavior does you no good.”

            “Well, I am sorry that something of utmost importance occurred and I need to speak with someone as soon as possible.”

            “You are speaking to me now.”

            “You are nothing.”

            Jiang’s face darkened.

            “Caroline? What are you yammering about?”

            She turned away from Jiang and toward the voice. Alojzy stood by the crystalized stairwell, his hands folded over his stomach, his dark eyes narrowed. Beside him, the scarred-faced Tomas raised both of his brows.

            “Oh good! You are both here! Something horrible has occurred—”

            “I am sure she is being dramatic!” Jiang shouted from behind the bookshelf.

            “BE QUIET!”

            Tomas held up a hand. “Both of you, stop.”

            Caroline pouted.

            “What occurred, Caroline? Be succinct, please.”

            She inhaled, pushing back the fear that suffocated her. “There was a boy! Well, really, a young man. But that does not matter. What matters is that he saw me! And the Mist was strong! And he is not a Seer! Then…he followed me into the Tunnels…and there were vines and—”

            “Caroline! Slow down!” Tomas interjected. “Start at the beginning.”

            Caroline took another breath, then with care, detailed the events over the last few hours. Tomas and Alojzy listened, no speaking as each word exited her mouth. Even Jiang remained silent behind the bookshelf. When she finished, her mouth had gone dry, and with a wave of adrenaline leaving her body, she leaned against the wall, panting.

            A beat passed before anyone spoke.

            “Oh, Caroline,” Tomas shook his head.

            Alojzy added, “Your impulsiveness has gotten the best of you again.”

            “What are you talking about, Alojzy?”

            The man chuckled. “You were once in that boy’s shoes too.”

            “In his shoes? What are you implying?”

            “Caroline. Think for a moment, please. When else would someone see us?”

            She narrowed her eyes at Alojzy. Ever since she had known the man, he spoke in riddles, going back to when he served as her teacher—

            Her mouth dropped.

            Teacher.

            “You are saying that he is to be…one of us?” Caroline whispered.

            “Potentially, if all goes as planned. He would train under you as your apprentice.”

            “My…apprentice.”

            “You mean you didn’t realize that!?” Jiang vociferated from behind the shelf.

            Caroline did not humor Jiang with a response. Around her, the room began to spin.

            “We will need to decide how to approach this boy. Of course, there’s the matter of the vines…” Alojzy muttered.

            “The vines have nothing to do with him,” Tomas replied. “Trust me.”

            “Oh, I know that.”

            “As far as the boy is concerned, I’d say we must take it slow—”

            Caroline’s head pounded. She struggled to focus on anything that Alojzy or Tomas said. An apprentice? Already? She knew that a new Mist Keeper might pop up at any point during her tenure, but it still felt…wrong. Her run as the primary Mist Keeper, conducting releases without fault, could not be ending. Not yet! She loved her work.

            To have a bumbling young man take her place seemed…wrong.

            But if he was her apprentice, she did not want him to fail. She had learned of Mist Keepers struggling. Even some of the Council, like Julietta, had stories of struggles and confusion as they joined the Mist.

            She did not want this boy to face the same hardships or uncertainties.

            As much as she dreaded being a teacher, it was part of her job as Mist Keeper. Alojzy had trained her, as Malaika had trained him, and Jiang had trained her…going all the way up the chain, back to Ningursu.

            “I must have terrified him…” Caroline whispered.

            “He will be fine,” Alojzy remarked. “Come, we should talk with Aelia and Ningursu about the next steps—”

            Caroline disregarded Alojzy. “I need to ensure he does not do anything rash. If he does not trust me, then we may not make any progress.”

            “Caroline, wait,” Tomas stepped toward her. “We must decide on the best course of action.”

            “No, I shall go find him! He must be confused and frightened. Oh, this is not good.”

            “Caroline!”

            Before they could stop her, Caroline spun, a flurry of black fabric from her cloak catching behind her as she headed toward the exit.

            There was no time to waste.

            Her apprentice was out there.

            Scared. Bruised.

            And without a doubt, confused.

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And don’t forget to check out The Mist Keeper’s Apprentice to read the other side of the story.