#Friday no Saturday Free Write

Whoops forgot to post this yesterday. Enjoy!

Catherine was sitting on the hard wooden chair. While it was mighty uncomfortable, the stares she was receiving from the guardians of Cael were worse. When her soul had left her body, she had expected it to instantly be sent down to Cimmerian. Dea knew she deserved it. Looking up from her hands at the guardians, she waited for them to speak. Among them was King Orion, Nebo the Warrior, King Evander, and Queen Riona; each were distinguished members of the Vigilia in their own right.

Regarding their confused faces, she caught sight of her own mother, Sophia, in the background hovering nervously. Suddenly loud, angry voices broke through; she recognized King Midas’s voice as well as King Draco’s and Queen Kekona’s. She bit her tongue, and her nose crinkled slightly. Suddenly the clouds behind the council opened. There stood Dea in all her glory, with many souls behind her clearly protesting.

“You may still ask her the normal course of the entrance questions, but she is to be admitted when you are through.” Dea’s sweet voice informed the guardians, to which their expressions changed to shock, “I am sure she will provide the proper answers to all questions.”

Catherine got the message. If she wanted entry, she would have to answer the questions honestly. The doors closed again before any other words could be uttered. Dea swept her mother inside.

Riona was the first to speak, “You are singularly responsible for the worst treatment of the people. As a leader, you severely lack qualities that generally allow entry into Cael. Instead, you choose a path that specifically nearly caused the destruction of the universe. Why does Dea believe you deserve entry into Cael?”

“I can not speak as to the reasons Dea has; I do not proclaim to have her counsel nor know her thoughts,” Catherine answered softly but firmly.

“Then explain why you chose the path; there were, after all, other options,” reasoned King Orion.

“My family has long had the gift of seeing. We enter into a trance to see the future; it can be stronger in some and weaker in others. I saw that I would bear a fatherless child that would have a gift never before seen by any of my family. In addition, the three other families would bear children of similar power before her birth. As the time approached for the visions to come true, the curse on the land was breaking. Angelus was awakening. My visions became stronger, and as I carried my daughter, the visions of pain and death became more prevalent. Still, the death was not by Angelus’s hands but by my Childs and Dea children’s other heirs. The future is often a river or a braided stream with multiple possibilities. However, as the day came closer, only one path remained open to ensure that the four children did not destroy everything. The only hope was to allow Angelus full reign in Azurite and allow his influence. For my child to be born in destruction, she would never want to wish it on others.”

“So that is your defense; the only possible version of the future would justify the torture and pain that your people went through?” Nero leaned forward, observing the woman in front of them carefully; she had stopped looking at them as she relayed her story.

“I would not call it a defense. A defense would require some belief that there is no justification for punishment. I make no such argument. I merely offer a reason as asked for. The determination of guilt is not my duty.”

“So then you have no guilt over the course of events.”

“I can not pick and choose the events that cause guilt, nor can I choose my regrets, but I learn to live with them. Even if I admitted to such feelings of guilt and remorse, they would not change your mind about my decisions. I would not waste your time with things you will not believe.”

“Let us go back to allowing Angelus to possess you.” King Evander switched topics after a long pause. “His possession caused large quakes in the earth, was responsible for the torture and death that occurred in a short five-year span and continued to eat away at the lives of those in Azurite.”

“I suppose I should clarify a statement I had made. The curse put on the world for storing Angelus’s physical body below the earth and his spirit within Sarai’s heir has the effect of building up pressure. Such as heating up a potion in a closed pot without any way to release some of the pressure. When the curse broke a century later, the flow of magic that had been built up would go directly to the heirs of Dea as they are direct links to Dea’s magic itself.

Thus it goes back to what it knows and where it originated from. Thus four daughters were born with powers beyond the control of all mortal mages. As such, it resulted in lots of magic. Every time Queen Nephrite cried before she could communicate, it stormed terrible storms. Queen Andrea flooded the rivers multiple times, and Queen Mylonite brought earth shakes never before seen. My daughter, Klytië, shook the foundations of the buildings; she expelled magic at terrible rates. Kings Draco, Midas, and Queen Kekona were soon able to recognize this and circumvent much of the magic’s effects. However, they did not realize where the strength came from. With the power of the thirteen Elders, and a large majority of mine tied up with keeping Angelus asleep, there was not much left over to help control her flow of magic. However, each time she let loose coincided with a vision, terrible visions of the future, so I risked the energy of a trance. I found that only one small stream barely trickling still held a future of hope..”

“Barely trickling?” Interrupted Queen Riona skeptically.

“There were maybe two or three drops till the stream dried completely, and all it needed was for me to fail to continue to protect my people from Angelus. Eventually, it provided the perfect cover to protect her from Angelus’s seeking. By convincing everyone that the power rested in his destruction, Angelus, for the most part, left alone her magic and instead just wanted his perverse enjoyment of pain, both hers and mine.”

“So you rewrote the prophecy?” Nebo leaned back in his chair, and Catherine couldn’t believe she was doing this. She felt a mischievous presence by her side and knew it had to be Sarai trying to give her strength.

“No, at least not the original one. As to the second one, I am uncertain. The original prophecy states; Dea’s woes fall heavy on the land, Sarai’s heir bears chaos uncharted, If death she doth not face, fraying strings forever lost shall be Dea’s children, hope resides in chaos when Phoenix twice dead burns no more. Again, four sisters will unite, To build what was lost, In fire the world shall end, In fire it shall be reborn, Sararis’ child bound by darkness, Returns to grace above.

First, Dea’s woes will fall heavy on the land. For the last century, Dea’s gifts to land have been few and far between. At the end of the century, I bore a child so connected with lumen obscurum filled with churring chaos because of the curse. As time passed, the only option left to me was death. I do not know what dark magic Angelus used to bring me back. Still, as my soul was about to go to Cimmerian, I opened my eyes in the cavern below Azurite that held Angelus. When the war was imminent, I realized Klytië’s plan was to die herself to complete the portal. It wasn’t hard to wait out the deaths of others before taking her place. Thus dying a second time. Klytië could have completed the portal as Dea had re-granted her blessing. Still, due to Sarai’s restrictions and rules on her heirs, Klytië did not have the proper paperwork or been recognized by the magic as Sarai’s heir. It would have resulted in the future she often dreamed of. Four sisters are required to rebuild the peace to heal the past’s hurt. It will take time. However, as Klytië’s birth certificate should appear any day, she will no longer be bound by the darkness that results from rejecting the light. Thus Sarai will have an heir, not just an heir, someone who has earned the respect and blessings of Dea, thus returning Sarai’s heirs to grace. There’s a grammatical mistake in the originally recorded prophecy, leaving it open to all future heirs of Sarai and her Dea.”

With that, the doors opened again, the council faded away, and Catherine felt herself lifting out of the chair and floating into the entryway of Cael. As she looked into paradise, she never felt more guilty. She didn’t make eye contact with any of the crowd, which parted quickly as she made her way deeper into paradise. It took her a while, but eventually, she found an empty room. Letting out a sigh, she wished there was a bed she could hide away in, and just as quickly, one appeared, complete with pillows and blankets galore. She buried herself in them and cried all aches of her spirit into the pillows until she was empty and hollow.

Klytië sat up in bed, tears pouring down her face, they were leaving tomorrow from Serrateua, and she had just watched her mother’s entrance. She heard soft sounds of running feet approaching, but she didn’t notice. Instead, she felt the arms of Tara and Ashlyen encompass her. Holding her tight, suddenly, they let go and left the bed. Nephrite’s gentle hands stroked her hair and back while Andrea’s soft whispers of consolation echoed in her ear. Mylonite’s quiet whispers relieved the thirteen of their rush before she joined the group on the bed, taking Klytië’s hands and just holding them. They understood the tears were both relief and pain. Relief, her mother would not be punished for doing her best to stop Angelus. Still, the pain at the shared understanding of the torture would be to live among those who did not think she belonged.