The Nightfall Saga: Secrets Revealed (Part 1)

The story beings with The Nightfall Saga: The House Gathers
And continues with The Nightfall Saga: Moving Pieces
 
The reason for the Gathering was now coming ever closer. The Testing was about to begin, made pretty evident by the ambient intensity increasing by the day. Cixi was not entirely sure testing meant, but the swell of  whispering clued her in to it's importance and shrouded secrecy. She asked once or twice before it began, but the only answer Cixi received was from her handmaidens. She was told not to worry about it. Lady Alara had made sure that Cixi would not be participating. Of course that didn't quell Cixi's curiosity in the least. If anything, her exclusion only added more fuel to her ever burning questions.
 
What Cixi could glean from the clandestine whispers, the five heads of House Ebonlynx gathered together in one of the many rooms in large estate and called for candidates to come and sit with them. Behind those closed doors, some sort of examination was administered. What it entailed, no one would say. How the test was passed, no one would say either. Not even so much as what the test was for. But, when the day came that the first name was called, everyone headed to those doors and made themselves comfortable outside of them.

Cixi watched the entire procession with everyone else. One person after another walked into that room and had the doors closed behind them. Time would pass, the doors would open again and they would walk out. A servant announce the results for everyone to hear, then he call the next name. Cixi was confused by the somber ceremony of it all, especially after all the lighthearted socializing that had gone on before. None of those who failed looked disappointed. Those who passed did not seem elated or joyous about their success. There was no discussion of it afterwards. Everyone talked about everything else except what was happening behind those doors. And no matter how many times Cixi inquired, even her own mother never expounded on what was going on.

Cixi had tried asking others, but her questions were met with less than warm answers. Her status among the House had changed slightly now that everyone had seen how protective Lord Jaias had been with this niece. The powder haired huntress was under the protection of one of the Heads of the Council. No one was to so much as look at her cross ways. And while this had saved her from the arrogant berating she had received when she first arrived, it could not save Cixi from this. Her inquiries about The Testing had been met smoldering stares and tight lips.    

Cixi was exempt from having the go through the Testing. That did not sit with anyone in House Ebonlynx. Especially since everyone knew it was because of her deserter mother, Lady Alara. If Cixi was to be accepted as an Ebonlynx, she should be at least be considered as a candidate as well. Cixi should get no favoritism, especially being the granddaughter of a former Head and the niece of the new one.  And while no one breathed a word of it, the air was thick with dislike for Cixi and her the outcast mother.And now, Cixi didn't even have Lord Jaias to talk to.

Times like these, Cixi wished that she was back at home, hunting, with her actual family. There was none of this smiling in your face and then ripping you to shreds the moment you were out of the room. Cixi wondered how much longer she was going to have to tolerate all of this. How much longer she would be able to tolerate this. Little did she know, it would not be long at all. Thanks to a relative whose name Cixi never knew, the days of her stay were to be abruptly truncated.


Story continues: Secrets Revealed (Part 2)