The Legends of Samira
She came in the middle of the night outside Samira manor, while the sky was filled with corner to corner with stars and the cold wind sunk the temperature lower and lower as it tore through the mountain pass. The little girl had white skin and white hair. A pair of boots with knives laced and hammered into the soles dangled from her shoulder by the knotted laces.
There had been rumors of this girl. Pala, one of the youngest of the seven servants, swore she’d seen her twice before anyone else began to echo her. Angela Gracia Rosario, called Ang’lo, backed Pala for a time before the child admitting that she had only been pretending. But this night she had been seen by an astronomer, a sober, reliable man who called everyone within range to come see, and the occupants of the manor came to the tall windows on the western side to squint through bubbly glass. What windows could be unlatched were.
The little girl stopped by the little shallow pond, sat unceremoniously on the ground and began pulling on her skates. And though the pond had not frozen she stood on the surface of the water as if it had, and began to glide over it in smooth, practiced motions. The water did not ripple under her, nor did she cast a reflection.
The girl tried to spin around quickly, wobbled when she began to lose her balance, and righted herself. There was no sound to accompany the image. She skated backward and turned herself around awkwardly.
A figure eight, followed by a slight bend as she tried to go faster. The girl stopped suddenly, and opened her mouth to scream as her form fell and sank beneath the water of the pond.
There was a long, solemn silence from the servants. They began to close the windows. The people of Benaphorne had been, and perhaps always would be, a superstitious nation.
Who knew what came of dishonoring the dead?
Pala caught up to Petir, the gentleman of the manor, and begged forgiveness for disturbing him. “Permission to speak, master?”
Petir eyed her for a moment, placed her, and nodded.
“I thought I should tell you, sir. We, that is, the servants, think we’ve seen two others. There’s one in the second cellar, and another one in the east tower.”