The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 11

Did her whole life has to be a deception? First, Erini and now, Vakenes. None had shown her their true nature. Erini was deceit on its own, with its people's backs turned against her. Vakenes was strange, full of unknown territory, with thousands of lies covered up. Yet, somehow, in her heart, she knew she wanted to stay here. She wished to call this foreign planet her home, and for that, she had to uncover all of its secrets.

And so, she rotated the lens of advanced binoculars in her hands and eyed the horizon, watching the Vakenians go by their businesses in a disorder. She was surprised to see that all the faces she saw were young, as though they just hit their mid-twenties, but she knew that too was a deception. She didn't want to know how old they actually were.

She saw children hopping around, chasing each other. Some were performing errands, carrying bags or books in their arms. The adults swiftly performed their businesses as they disappeared from Calista's view and appeared somewhere else in her area of vision. They were using their super-speed powers.

The place she was looking at appeared to be some kind of bazaar, with wooden shops shaped like cabins lined neatly at the sides of the roads. She spotted a square with a fountain sitting majestically in the middle, a child leaning down to gulp water from its pool. Everyone's red eyes seemed to glint in the morning sun.

She spotted some unusual people as well; men and women with unusually bright gold skin. Their hair was brown, shimmering with tiny golden specks. The orbs in their eyes were gold and brilliantly reflected the morning light. They wore gold and brown robes with long trailing cloaks pinned at their shoulders. They always seemed to move in a group of three. Calista recognized them as Serafiels.

They gracefully glided across the expanse of the Vakenian land. Calista noticed how the people around them lowered their voices to a hush and stepped out of their way as they approached, patrolling. Even the patrolling Vakenian royal guards dressed in red seemed to scurry away from them.

One day, as she focused on the trail of a trio of Serafiels, one of them, a sturdy tall man whose hair was braided, looked up and seemed to stare right into Calista's eyes through the binoculars. His eyes glimmered as bright as the sun itself. Instinctively, Calista dropped to the floor, hiding behind the thick railings of the balcony where she stood, her heart drumming wildly. She looked around, confused. How could the Serafiel have known she was looking at them when she was far away within the walls of the castle?

That night, she perched on her bed with a book about the Serafiels. She knew that the atmospheric conditions of Vakenes changed the color of its habitants' eyes to a crimson red, but the same did not seem to apply to the Serafiels. Their eyes forever remained a brilliant gold, proving that no conditions could acclimatize the Serafiels because of their immense powers.

They could kill the immortals themselves, without the help of Rexil and that's how they gained their fear within the community. The Serafiels were considered loyal to the Vakenian royal family, and partook in many of their wars, resulting in many victories.

The large tower with a glass dome at the top, that hovered above the Vakenian expanse, belonged to the Serafiels. Calista felt like she could stare at the awe-inspiring building for hours. A mansion spread over a wide expanse, patched with glass windows on either side of the gate. A giant brown gate fixed at the center was open most of the time during the day, the Serafiels strolling in and out of the building. The most marvelous thing about the whole architecture was the minaret-like tower that felt like it was touching the pink clouds. A spiraling staircase lined outside the minaret, reaching the top, till the glass dome chamber.

The building was a living breathing magnificent proof of the Serafiels' importance in Vakenes and overall, in the immortal community. She remembered the first time she had found herself face-to-face with the chief of the Serafiels in Erini. The memory seemed to belong over a decade ago. Alastor, the Chief, had opened them a portal to Vakenes. The encounter was brief, with no introductions or greetings passed but she remembered the eerie sensation she felt when he stepped out of the woods. At that moment amidst the darkness of the woods, he looked like the definition of radiance and power. Although she had witnessed Zayden using his powers for their defense once before, even he looked close to nothing in front of the Serafiel.