"Elora!"

Nutcracker and I took turns shouting her name through the hallways. We'd only succeeded in getting ugly glares from the Fiannu we passed. We could have asked any of them about what the book said, but for some reason, we wanted Elora to explain.

I opened my mouth once more to screech her name. "Elor--"

"What?"

Elora came stomping out of the kitchen, her arms folded over her chest. Her blue eyes glinted dangerously. "What do you need?" she growled. "You've been screaming my name for over an hour!"

An hour? Really? It didn't seem that long.

I shoved the library book I brought with us into Nutcracker's hands. "Nutcracker, you tell her," I squeaked.

He slowly turned his head to the side to stare at me. I got an overwhelming sense that I was about to be tackled and punched.

Elora sighed. "Fürcipe , quit glaring daggers at Clair and tell me what you came to tell me."

He turned to Elora. "I told you not to call me that," he snapped.

"Just tell me."

He held up the book. The picture of the vyecher came fluttering out and landed face up on the floor.

Elora's eyes widened slightly once she caught a glimpse of the drawing. Her fist clenched, then relaxed.

She's scared.

At least that meant she knew what the picture was and would hopefully tell us about it.

Nutcracker swept the drawing up. "The vyechers--they look like animal versions of muraes. The book says that you--the Fiannu--survived the vyecher venom injection. What about the muraes? Are they the ones that didn't survive?"

Elora mumbled a few words under her breath. "I take it you want to know about this."

"Yes!" Nutcracker and I cried in unison.

I found myself nodding furiously. "If it will tell us about muraes, then please."

She took a deep breath. One of the women near us was trying not to seem interested but was failing miserably. Elora caught her curiosity and grinned at her.

"Let's go somewhere quieter. Library okay with you?'

Where we just were. That works well.

I caught Nutcracker's half-laugh. "Perfect."

*****

Elora sat on the couch, shoulders tensed, eyes downcast. She'd been more reserved than usual since she saw the picture of the vyecher.

She moistened her lips. "You have to ask before I can answer."

I raised my hand. Something that I should have thought of before we hunted Elora down was whether or not she'd try and kill us.

It probably would have been good to clear that up first.

I bit my lip. "You aren't going to kill us, right? I mean, me asking probably doesn't do much good, considering you'd lie if you were going to, but at least someone would have asked before we got chopped up and thrown to the figurative alligators."

Breathe, child. Breathe.

I could just about see the gears in Elora's brain whirling as she tried to decipher what I blurted out.

Something clicked behind her eyes. "Oh!" She raised an eyebrow. "Do you honestly believe that we'd bust our butts to get our leader to let you in, heal your brother, feed you, then kill you?"

Heat rose to my cheeks. She was right. It made no sense for the Fiannu to that. It was a waste.

I didn't meet her eyes. "I guess not..." I mumbled.

She chuckled. "Besides, we would rather let you starve outside a little more. It gets you weaker so we don't have to use so much energy."

"That makes us feel loads better," Nutcracker laughed. I did too.

The other option was to scream.

My half-smile faded. "Can you..." I gestured to the book Nutcracker held, at a loss for what to say. "I don't know, explain or something?"

"You have to be more specific," she whispered. She clasped her hands together so tightly her knuckles turned white.

I bit my lip and pointed to Nutcracker. He could do the specifics, not me.

He shook his head. "The vyechers look an awful lot like muraes, according to the picture Clair and I found. It also mentioned the Lumita Fiannu, so we hoped you had an answer for it."

Elora pursed her lips. She made some type of face, one I couldn't describe, and started to shake her head.

No.

We needed answers, not lectures in how to ask a question.

I leaned forward in my chair so that my elbows were on my knees. "Tell us how the Fiannu were formed. Tell us your history."

Her eyes lit up. "I can do that. However, I can't tell. I have to show."

Huh?

Nutcracker voiced my thoughts for me. "How are you going to show us something that happened years ago?"

She moved to the center of the couch and patted the cushions next to her. "It's like I'm showing you a memory. I can't explain this so it makes sense, so you have to see."

I met Nutcracker's eyes. We shared a nod.

It was now or never.

I pushed myself over to the couch and tapped my feet against the floor. My nerves had apparently decided to ball themselves up in a great big, tangled up ball. I swallowed, pushing down the lump in my throat.

Nutcracker let out a shaky breath. Even though his face never changed, I could only imagine what he was thinking and feeling.

What Elora was about to do would be a mixture between terrifying and exciting.

She wiped her palms against her dress. "Okay," she mumbled. "I've never done this with two extras, so this'll be interesting."

My eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

Too late.

One of her icy cold hands grabbed mine and the other shot out to meet Nutcracker's wooden one. She squished her eyelids shut and mouthed a word.

I felt a swoop, like a rug had been pulled out from under my feet. Everything in front of my eyes went as white as snow, then turned to ebony. Slowly, an outline of a hand waved around in my vision. Muffled voices drummed against my ears.

The hand grew clearer. The ebony turned to a faded grayish color, then went to normal.

My lungs burned.

"Curly!"

The hovering hand shoved itself toward my nose. It was only then that I could make out the tan, grainy wood.

Nutcracker.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, then gasped for air. No wonder my lungs hurt so badly--I forgot to breathe.

Nutcracker's head loomed in front of my face. "Getting up?"

I gripped his hand and pulled myself up.

I don't think we're in the library anymore.

A single candle lit the small room. Couches and chairs and tables covered with large, white cloths were all in the middle of the room like they were thrown there. Large gaps big enough for a rat to slip into stood out between the old wooden floor boards.

My heart picked up speed. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, tickling my skin. A cool breeze blew past.

Then a scream.

I jumped. It came from below us, from below the floor.

The person screamed again, the sound cutting through the silence like a knife. It was long and high, like--

Like they were being tortured.

Elora paled every time the screech pierced through the night. Her hands balled into tight fists and shook by her sides.

"Come on," she whispered. "We're in the right place."

"The right place?" I hissed to Nutcracker. "I'd hate to see the wrong one!"

He nudged me with his shoulder. "Hush. I don't think we should joke right now."

"It's either joke, barf, or run."

Elora stopped ahead. "It's alright, Nutcracker. Let her joke while she can." She smiled, although it didn't reach her eyes. "It helps, anyway." She paused at a gray door that hung halfway off its hinges. With a trembling hand, she reached out and stick her fingers between the wood and the wall, then tugged.

Nothing happened.

A hint of pink tinged her cheeks. "That's right. We have no body here."

What?

She waved her hands, signaling us to follow, then walked straight through the door.

Last I checked, that wasn't natural.

Nutcracker grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. It worked well, considering I had been staring at the wall in disbelief.

A blast of cold air swallowed me as I walked through the door. As soon as Nutcracker and I were on the other side, the cold went away and was replaced by the dank smell of sweat. A long hallway stretched out before us, with a gray-blue light coming faintly from the end.

Another scream--that time a man's--came from below us. It was louder than before.

Elora kept walking down the hall, then down a set of stairs.  She met my eyes. "If you're joking after this, then I'm going to be worried."

"Trust me," I whispered back. "I'm jumping between barfing and running now."

The shrieking became a steady noise. Words from others started to mingle with the cries, making it seem like a haunting song.

I glanced at Elora. "What's going on?"

She pursed her lips. "You asked where we came from."

When we walked into the room, I understood what the screaming was about.

A long, white table sat in the middle of the room. Leather straps dangled off the sides of it, barely scraping the dirt ground. Broken vials with a spoonful of liquid caught in the shards littered the floor. Dark red blood stained the sheets on the table and splattered an apron hanging on a hook in the wall.

That wasn't what bothered me though.

A pile of bodies stacked in the corner, reaching up to my chest. Dark tears leaked out of all the dead's eyes. Purple and green splotches traveled around each arm. The lines were the same size as the leather straps hanging from the table.

Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed, trying to push it down, but it didn't want to go.

I will. not. vomit.

Nutcracker didn't seem to have that issue. I heard him gagging next to me.

I kept my eyes on the table in front of me. My voice seemed to vanish, then come back as less than a squeak.  "Elora--"

At the same time, a deep voice--a rough voice--said her name.

I shouted and whirled around, then slapped my hands over my mouth. A man with a white jacket on stood where I was. His back faced me, but even his back had stains of dark liquid streaked across it. Dark, stringy hair sat like a mop on the top of his head, dangling to his shoulders. He faced a group of people--I couldn't count how any--and waved his hands.

Elora touched my shoulder. "It's okay. They can't hear you."

"Okay" wasn't the right word.

A girl with midnight hair and dark, almond-shaped eyes stumbled forward. A long dress flopped off her scrawny shoulders. Glass shards stuck into her bare feet.

"Ohi?" she squeaked.

My mouth dropped open. I turned to Elora and pointed. "That's you?"

She nodded. "It's a bit weird to see yourself move and talk with no mirror."

The man said something else to her. She responded in rapid-fire Carriel, sneering at him.

"What'd you say?" I asked.

Elora smirked. "Nothing that I'll repeat to you."

Nutcracker sniggered, finally done from his dry gagging. "Too late, I already know."

Whatever it was didn't go over well. The man grabbed the closest syringe and plunged into her arm, pushing the plunger down as he shoved. Young Elora cried out and yanked herself away from him. The needle broke and stuck out from her skin. She fell to her knees in the middle of the crowd.

Instead of gathering around her, the people backed up, getting as far away as they could.

The man laughed. The sound bounced off the walls and sent chills up my spine.

Elora-from-the-past screamed. A thin trickle of blood came out of her nose and eyes. The room shook. Vials of liquid burst open in a shower of glass and water.

Then she fell to the floor and was still.

The man made a type of ticking noise with his mouth. "That's number one hundred," he mumbled. "Oh well. She showed so much promise."

It felt like something punched me in the chest. I knew where I'd heard his voice before.

It was the voice of the murae's leader.

Nutcracker clenched his fists. He caught it too. "That's the son of a--"

"Language," I found myself whispering. "There are children present."

He glared at me and continued. "--biscuit that attacked my home."

Attacked his home.

I opened my mouth to ask but stopped. Past Elora stirred slightly on the ground. Her hair turned from ebony to silver in less than a second. A small snowflake tattooed itself on her cheekbone.

The man caught it. He smiled, his crooked teeth grinding against each other. "So she lives. That's number ten."

Everything turned gray and blurred, then all three of us stood in the same room, just fewer people.

Nutcracker looked around frantically. "Wait--"

"My memory ran out," Elora answered. "This is the next important one."

Young Elora stood in the middle of a group of people. They all either had silver hair, blue eyes, some combination of the two, or no appearance change at all except for a small snowflake on their cheeks.

Elora nodded in their direction. "The Lumita Fiannu before we gave ourselves that name."

A door opened and the man appeared again. He held one last syringe in the air and narrowed his eyes.

"Half dead, half alive," he whispered. "Half dead, half alive. Half dead, half alive. The ones alive are Feyre, the ones dead are not."

"The Fiannu all had Feyre?"

Elora nodded.

With every word, he moved the needle closer to his skin. He paused when it was poking him slightly. "Vyechers, shonle a los zilig."

Then he shoved it into his arm. He pushed the plunger down and started to laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh.

He fell to his knees, still laughing. Blood poured from his nose and stained his lips, mingled with his saliva and painted his teeth crimson.

He still laughed. He laughed until he fell on his side and shook, then was still.

"'Crazy' does not even begin to define this guy," I mumbled.

"What'd he say?" Elora asked. "I've never known."

I shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Vyechers, don't fail me now," Nutcracker whispered. "That's what he said. It's not in any recognizable language because he made it up. It his own, special way of talking to himself."

Lovely.

The man shrieked. His body extended and stretched out, reaching much longer than it had been. His hair grew from his scalp and started to hover in the air. It faded slightly, then attached its strands to another, making tendrils of smoke. One of his hands reached into his pocket and pulled out a rock bigger than my hand. He squeezed it so tightly it broke into five separate parts.

Five separate parts.

"The cavaliers!" I cried. I opened Nutcracker's mouth and grabbed the stone. "This is that!"

"Yes," Elora said. "This is the making of the cavaliers as well."

Each stone changed color the longer murae-man held them. One was green, another blue, then yellow, orange, and finally, red.

"What was that stone anyway?"

"Just a kidney stone from a dead vyecher. Nothing much."

I shoved the rock back into Nutcracker's mouth.

The man rose from the ground. His head split into seven pieces, then each piece expanded so it made a circle.

His heads.

He turned away from the Fiannu and grinned. "It worked. This was my goal. This power, this magic. Sosarunt, Feyre."

"That was Arian," I said. "No, I'm not translating."

The murae waved his hand, then pointed to the pile of dead bodies in the corner. They started to shake and expand.

Elora pointed to the Fiannu who were no longer behind the crazy guy. A large hole was in the wall. "This is where we made our escape."

I turned back to the pile of dead and gasped. They were no longer dead.

They were muraes.

The world started to fade. "That's all I have," Elora whispered. "I hope it answered everything."

It answered too much.

_______________________________________

That last part was fun to write. I was having trouble until that point, then I think I let crazy brain take over.

This chapter was designed to answer where the muraes/ Lumita Fiannu came from. I hope it did. *crosses fingers*