Wings: More Than Just Two Worlds

Chapter 7: Daughter of the Sun

Eve Azuré

Age: 25

Species: Iridescent

I didn't cry myself to sleep. I didn't try to escape. I didn't fight back. I was made to serve this man, to fulfill his every want, every need, every desire. I became accustomed to Leo, and the children. The public never knew about the original Eve's death, so I easily ruled as queen in her name. The world fought a treacherous war for a hundred year. Around ten thousand kingdoms remained, equal parts Iridescent and Incandescent. This war is to determine the superior species.  Although there are different kingdoms of the same specie, you are forbidden to fight with your own kind. When a kingdom looses a king typically the neighboring kingdom of the same species inherits the previous kingdoms people. People are like sheep, they follow the masses. So when their king perishes they follow this general rule, everything weak suffers and everything weak dies, so a dead king was never a king of mine. A living king doesn't lie, and will only get stronger with time.

After the first night of my existence, Leo impregnated me. I felt happy, but that happiness was short lived. I laid back in the blue, medical chair with my feet up. Leo performed a sonogram on me in his lab. The baby was seven weeks old. I could see the precious life growing inside me! As I looked at the live footage of my baby on the screen, I asked eagerly, "Is the baby healthy? Is it a boy or a girl?"

He informed, "A healthy girl." He paused as he remarked, "...with no wings."

"What should we name her? In astrology the sun is the sign for Leo, so maybe we could name her Lian... it means daughter of the sun," I suggested, holding my stomach. On the screen I saw her put up a thumb and my heart melted. I smiled, pointing, "Look, ohhhhh... that's our baby! Our baby."

Leo shook his head telling me, "Did you not hear me? She has no wings! We can't allow it."

"What are you trying to say?!" I exclaimed, jolting up. I knocked over a gold tray of surgical items. They scattered across the white tiled floor.

He banged his fist on a metal cart, shouting, "I'm saying we have to abort it! Your parents AND my father had no wings. If you give birth to her, the public will know we're impure! We'll be dethroned! The most important thing for a king is to have citizens who adore him, and who likes a liar, let alone the offspring of filthy no wings?" Leo was the illegitimate child of the previous Queen and a butler who was very close to her. If the public knew he wasn't the previous king's child, he would be overthrown. I loved Leo, but I also felt connected to the baby growing inside me.

"I won't let you," I screamed, turning to run away.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. The pressure bruised my arm. He kneed me in the stomach with so much force I coughed up blood. I abruptly fell to the floor, where I laid crying, gasping for air. He offered, "We will keep trying for a baby, but if it has no wings we aren't going to keep it."

We had another failed daughter before Leo decided to engineer what he thought to be the perfect child. He mixed our DNA and added other genetic segments; segments that would make our child strong. I carried that monster inside me. As she developed I could feel her strength. Usually mothers are happy when they feel their baby kicking, but I dreaded every moment of it. With every kick, her foot tore through my skin and could visibly be seen. She broke nearly all my ribs. Leo saw this, so he took the chance to experiment on me further.

He secured me on a familiar, metal table. One strap held down my head, another wrapped around my chest, the others fastened my arms and legs. Leo said, muffled slightly through an operation mask, "Is she kicking?"

"I can feel she's about to," I cringed, bracing myself. Her foot pushed out of my stomach, kicking a rib out along with it. I heard it cracking in half then piercing through Leo's arm like an arrow. I screamed, shaking on the table.

Leo didn't seem fazed. Instead he glorified, "She's perfect!" He pulled my bone out of his arm and dropped it to the floor. He stabbed a large needle into my thigh. The serum he injected into me produced the sensation of my body being lit on fire. I screamed for several minutes releasing a tortured bellow with every exhaled breath. He explained over my screams, "This will make you stronger! Not only that, but you'll be able to heal almost all your wounds in seconds!"

The healing of my wounds hurt more than the injection. My missing bone regenerated miraculously. All my previous wounds, and the recent one from my baby, recovered fully. My reaction with the serum distressed the baby. She wanted to come out. Her fingers tore open my stomach moments after like she was digging through dirt rising from hell. She entered the world screeching like a wild animal. Leo picked up her blood drenched body with tender care. He cradled her in his arms smiling, "She's everything I thought she would be." She didn't like that. Her baby teeth sunk into his arm and chomped off a chunk of flesh. He laughed psychotically, "Remarkable." While she spit the chunk of flesh across the room, he laughed like a maniac. He held her up in the air as she, prematurely, spread open her feathery wings. Leo insisted, "You wanted to name our baby Lian right? Lian it is. She truly is the daughter of the sun."

Oh, Leo, in these memories I loved and I loved, but now I can clearly see I lost you. There is nothing good left in you; I can see it in your eyes. Why do I continue to love you regardless? I panted, "She... she can't act like this when we publicize her."

"I'm aware," He calmly stated, injecting her with a tranquilizer, so big it looked like it could knock out an elephant. She fell asleep, limp in his arms. He unfastened the straps around me so I could get off the surgical table. He held my hand, requesting with as loving as eyes could be for a lunatic, "I want you to bring in Esoteric and Cyrus. Can you do that?"

"Y-yeah," I stuttered, backing away. I knew he was crazy, but infatuation was my enemy.

These children were way too young to experience such pain... but the sad truth is the world didn't care.

How do you escape such darkness?