Alessy and the Golden Tapestry

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Chapter 1

Alessandra gazed at the fading blue sky over the rocky monastery, lost in thought among the twinkle of the waking evening star. It had been a beautiful day. It was the evening of her sixteenth year  and the dusk marked the anniversary of when she had been found, like many of her sisters, crying and abandoned in a hastly made rush woven cradle, left at the entrance of the priory doors.

The Older Sisters said she had been found alone, the story the same as most of her sisters, past, present and future, no one had seen who had left her. Only a pair of footprints amongst the freshly laden snow, leading away into the oncoming darkness of the night. The Older Sisters didn't like to talk about things like that, and many of the younger sisters followed suit, but Alessandra had always been curious.

She folded her rough clad feet beneath her, tucking them under the harsh grey wool gown of the order, the canvas shoes did little to keep out the oncoming cold as her breathe began to cloud before her. She was grateful that the spells of the Older Sisters kept some of the cold at bay inside on the midwinter nights. With a last exhaled puff of mist, Alessandra steeled her resolve. She needed to return for the evening chores. It was her covens turn to set the tables of the great hall for supper, and she would be scolded for leaving them so long.

The stars overhead, began to twinkle in chorus of light against the darkening evening sky. An unexpected voice cut her thoughts as it broke through the crisp winter airs stillness and startled her enought she nearly jumped upright.

"So, what are you moping about now, Alessy?" Came the dusty soft voice of Clemency from behind her. Alessandra, didn't bother to turn around once she registered her voice. Clemency only came out when the stars did, she was always as soft footed amongs the rocks as one might be barefoot across moss. "Good Evening, Clemency" she greeted with a quiet smile. She could her the purring of her friend as it radiated outward. Clemency was a cat, to be frank, and a very unusual cat at that.

She was the same size as a small bowl with soft, dark, thick, bluish-black and brown fur. Her huge pointed ears protruded out like that of a bat, with large mesmerizing green eyes, one struck  with a lightning bolt of gold along her iris, and her long tail was almost bare with a tuft of fur at its end. Small feathered wings in similar colours as her fur protruded from her back which she used to flap, hover, and sneak up on Alessandra.

There was another odd thing about Clemency. The cat emitted  an constant eerie cool blue light where ever she went, and for some reason only Alessandra could see her. Alessandra had known her since she was a little girl, the Older Sisters, had been sure Clemency was just her imaginary friend, they still thought that in fact, and for a while, when Alessandra grew older, she had at some point questioned her own sanity, but the things Clemency knew, well Alessandra had not been able to imagine that. Clemency insisted on teaching Alessy (as she liked to call Alessandra), everything, from geography, to mathematics, to astrology and history. She 'poo-poohed' (Clemency's words.) the Older Sister's who taught at the monastery and on many occassions convinced Alessy to sneak out of bed, challenging her to explore the large Haven Monastery. They would sit in old, forgotten rooms together, covered in inches of dust, while Clemency would teach her things, things she'd never have been able to discover by herself or during the day. As a result, the Older Sisters became exasperated with Alessandra, thinking she was a dullard child, constantly half-asleep, always late, often covered in dust, dirty and unkept, and more often than not found far away in rooms she had no business in to be in, explained away as having walked there in her sleep. Her insistance for years of Celmency's existence, paired with the displeasure of the Older Sisters, and her own secretive nature, made her the black sheep to her fellow younger sisters, and that could at times make life in the monastery almost unbearably lonely. Almost.

Haven Monastery was the oldest, largest and most revered learning institution and stronghold in all of Torfjel for the daughters of nobility who were enrolled there. For the orphens like herself, the monastery provided her shelter, a family, and meals, in exchange for her piety, loyalty and labour. The priory had seen days of onslaught from the time of the Old Waring Kingdoms and was placed strategically above the only mountain trade pass in and out of Torfjel and the Old Kingdom. It also housed a secret collection of royal and magical artifacts and icons of worship below in its labyrinth of catacombs that riddled its underground structure, too powerful to be left in the main cities, but on hand if the great war should once again return. To stray too far in the catacombs would mean certain death, whole armies had lost regiments in them when they had tried to usurp Haven from below. Alessandra had even hear the Older Sisters tease one another in their private seances that the catacombs themselves where the guardians of the Monastery, and that their Gods might well live beneath their feet to guide the souls of the misguided dead that had ignorantly inflitrated them for they treasures. For the Order of the Sisters & the Order of the Brothers, were charged with oversight of these catcacombs and the history and power that they housed. As above, as so below, with the Order of the Brothers at the base of the large mountainous range. All served the Old Gods, and in return all would be buried deep below in the catacombs, as close to their Gods as servants in death, as in life. This had given many young girls nightmares as the younger sisters would tell stories of the ghosts of the Older Sisters & Older Brothers, haunting the hallways below. They would dare the other to see who could go the furthest for the longest. A very silly and very dangerous game as Alessandra had found out. She had gone down into the catacombs on a dare but quickly had gotten lost. With only her candle as a light she had wandered for over an hour, trying to find her way back, scared what she would find in the darkness of the caverns and when her candle had gone out and she had been trapped for hours, suffocating from fear in the darkness that surrounded her. She was lucky when night fell, for then Clemency found her and lead her out from the catacombs. The cat had been furious with her, if she had strayed just a little further, she would have fallen to her death at a drop barely steps away from where she had sat, curled in a ball, frightened for her life. There were other things, Clemency told her later, unspeakable things that lay in wait in those dark tunnels, that very well could have found her first.

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Chapter 2

It was midnight, Alessy could tell by the way the winter moonlight trickled in through the small window across the dormitory floor, it's pure light like freshly ladden snow. Shifting as quietly as she could, she rose from her bed so as not to wake her sisters, Alessy silently and slowly lowered herself off the bed, her bare feet hitting the freezing stone floor first making her jump a little, the magic of the Older Sisters worked to keep the worst of the cold out didn't seem to work as well in the ittle sisters dormitory. Donning her woolen jacket over her night dress, Alessy crept quietly, huddled beneath her night dress for warmth, and slipped outside the shared dormitory into the dimly lit corridor. Within moments Clemency appeared by her side. "Boo" said the cat quietly with a dry wry smile out of the shadows. Alessy looked unimpressed. "I knew you were there Clemency, you do that all the time," she hoarsley whispered, so as not be overheard. Clemency looked disinterested, turning her head to the side she began to groom herself. "Well if that's what thanks I get for teaching you things most mortals couldn't even possibly dream of then I guess I'll just stay right here!". "No, I'm sorry" wailed Alessy as quietly as she could, "I didn't mean it like that, I just want to go down the tunnels again. You promised you would show me something now its my sixteenth year." Alessy looked up at her companion, wide eyed and sad. "Oh, alright," purred the cat, bumping her face along Alessy's cheek, paws on her shoulders as she rubbed her small body against her friend, immediately ceasing her teasing. "You silly, dear". Smiling Alessy reached up to pat Clemency, her fingers brushing over her soft warm fur, her own eyes twinking against the soft moonlight streaming through the hallway windows. "But we must hurry if we are to be back before daybreak. there's a long way to go." With that, Clemency leapt gracefully from Alessy's shoulders and sprang into the air, flying swiftly around the corner of the corridor.