Mirrored/1

 chapter one.

 relived

"You must avenge me," she murmured in her dying breath, her shattered eyes staring into my mine, looking into my soul. "I have left the victims unkilled, the stories untold, and they are still on my trail." She took a wheezing gasp. "You must follow in my p-pawsteps. They d-do not know about you yet. Be c-careful, and look for -- "

In her last sentence her eyes rolled up into her skull, her head lolled back.

"L-look for what?" I mewed frantically, prodding her. But the odor of death was already enveloping us, pressing down on me. Her body had gone cold.

I realized that my one and only mother had left me inside, and it was only replaced by a hollow feeling of anger. My mother had left me with only the words, "You must avenge me." No goodbyes, no I love yous.

But since that moment those words had always stuck with me. I didn't know what we were facing until she had left me. And I would have died on every day following if I had not heeded her dying words.

Maybe you loved mysteries so much   that you became one.

From my perch high in the trees, I could see the sun slowly sinking. When the sun set, came the kingdom of darkness, my realm. I could but hide in the darkest places when light touched the ground, but come night I was the queen of the land. No power could oppose me. The shadows could never devour me like it did the others.

...for I controlled the shadows.

I could easily imagine what a cat would think if they knew I had such power. They would think it amazing, something they would want. Something they would have fun doing in their spare time. I scoffed down on all the beings who feared the dark -- if they knew the potential of the darkness, how much power it could actually unleash, and how much pain I went through to keep them in line, they would bow down to me.

Despite the ability I had, it was the last thing in my mind to pursure power. I had something else to find out... my mother's last words.

She had never told me exactly what she did. She kept me confined in a little place she called "home". There was no entrance, no exit, and even though I knew dens were supposed to be anchored, I could never shake off the feeling this den was floating. But, nevertheless, preferably while I was sleeping, my mother slipped in and brought me food and essentials to keep me alive. I hadn't ever thought she loved me, but love could never come across my mind in a time like that.

Then, the day she had died in front of me, she asked me to do something I myself could never begin to think of -- avenging her.

See, even though I barely knew anything about my mother, I could feel that aura of power around her. Power is something important in empyrealties, and when you are around someone or something with power, it is unmistakable. And from the first day I could sense it, I knew my mother was powerful, that she did something outside the den that I could not imagine doing myself.

Avenging was beyond the question. I knew I didn't have any power within myself, and avenging a powerful cat I could barely call my mother was another question. But even though my mother's words I had tried to forget all the years, it still echoed through my mind sometimes, like a long lost memory. And I knew she had put it there intentionally. I needed to avenge my mother -- it was more than a personal conflict. I had a feeling if I didn't, I would be contributing to something larger, something dark and evil.

At the end of the sky I saw a core of yellow glide under the line of the horizon. Pulses of midnight was seeping into the starry night. There were no cats about. I could continue with my journey.

I had never known exactly how to begin my journey, so I started from the first thing I knew about my mother -- she had a connection with the shadows.

That was something else I could just sense, the essence of shadow, where shadow lurked, and shadow users like my mother. Shadows were a part of me, that I couldn't just leave behind. So I had done the most logical thing in my mind -- head toward the shadows.

In this region, the shadows massed in one place -- toward the sun. The place of strength come nighttime is where the light dies, and that was the path I followed, hoping it would lead me somewhere, or at least give me clues.