A Girl in Black and White (Alyria 2)

steps.

My eyes came to eight Sisters sitting in the main room, the soft sounds of the fountain the only noise. It was morning, maybe ten, but they each wore their nightgowns as if they’d come straight from their beds.

A couple of the girls’ brows were pulled together in confusion, though Magdalena and Farah were hiding some contentment. Agnes looked distracted, as if there was a lot going through her mind.

“What does this mean for us?” Sinsara asked. She was the only one who appeared to be upset and not merely perplexed like the other girls.

Agnes shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“What’s going on?” I asked as I stepped off the last stair.

“Really, Cal,” Sinsara said harshly. “You’ve got more magic than us all, but you slept through the wards going down?”

That’s why the house felt so empty, like it was merely wood and air.

Agnes flicked her gaze to me; it was full of indecision. “There’s been an issue within the Sisterhood.”

Farah snorted. “An issue? The Sisterhood has crumbled!”

“What?” I breathed.

Agnes cleared her throat. “All ten of the Superior Sisters are missing.”

I blinked, hesitation rushing through me. “What do you mean, missing?”

“They are nowhere to be found, Calamity!” Sinsara snapped. “Gone. Poof, for goodness sakes.”

My head reeled. “What happened to the wards? Why would they be affected?”

“The Sisters who put them up either reversed them or . . .” Juliana trailed off.

“Dead! They’re dead,” Sinsara said with agitation.

So we were missing our Superiors and our wards, but would that mean we were crumbled? We must’ve had hundreds of High Sisters all over the country . . . but when I looked to my High Sister sitting at the head of the table, it dawned on me. “What does this mean that the Superior Sisters are missing?”

Magdalena looked at me with a gleam in her eyes. “They are the only ones who know the count of the Sisterhood. And the only ones with the personal information on each one. Before they step down, the information is provided to the next one.”

“So that means . . .” I started, but I already knew—I just couldn’t process that this actually happened.

“All the information about the houses, us Sisters, it’s gone,” Farah supplied.

My gaze shot to Agnes, and I could already see the decision in her eyes. She could run without consequences. I could. She might have given me that speech about ‘family’ but only as a warning of what to suspect once I was sworn in.

“Does this mean I don’t have to have children?” Magdalena asked.

Amusement, relief, and uncertainty of how this happened, they all bubbled up inside me, a laugh escaping my throat.

Sinsara shot me a glare. “We are all going to stay right here until this is fixed. If you leave, the Mages will kill you all off. Right, Agnes?”

We all looked to our High Sister, but she didn’t say a word. She pushed her chair back and walked away, wide eyes watching her retreat.

“Apparently her job looks bad from her angle as well,” Magdalena muttered.

Sinsara let out a noise of frustration. “Agnes! I’ll report you!”

“Oh, stuff it, Sin!” Carmella said, shocking us all as she stood from her chair and headed to the stairs. “By that time, she’ll be long gone, and you’ll be here in her position, hating your life.”

Sinsara looked aghast before pushing from the table and grumbling about how she was going to see her mother about this.