Heaven Hath No Rage - Book Two

Promised

"You should try and get on your mother's good side when you get back," Viv looked up from her sketchbook, "do your best to minimize her being upset with you for taking Killian's spot."

Ava nodded as she looked out the window, "Yes. I should do that."

Viv didn't continue the conversation. Most of the ride had been spent with each of them chiming in with a comment or two about business or the landscape. Truth was, Ava's mind was caught up in trying to grapple with the truth she had learned. In the moment she hadn't reacted with as much shock as she felt. The Center was corrupt, which was never in question, but Ava thought The Council controlled the classifiers, that the whole noble class with old connections controlled it.

She hadn't imagined her father and a few others were the origin of all of Baethos and its inequities. It wasn't a leap though, it made sense. The grip that they had on Baethos was what kept it together for so long. The benefit of being in the shadows is that when the people would complain, no one could point to a group of dictators from the same families generation after generation. All they could point to was a Council that was as close to democratically elected as had ever been seen in the world's history– allegedly.

She wasn't sure what the truth about the time before the great war was. Was Baethos united under force, was there ever a need to mediate between continents, was there ever really a need to control the populations? Who could she trust to tell this? Who could she even confide in without endangering them? What would she do?

She could stay, she could run. She could try and find a way to see Theo. Brandon Cooker had since left from court but if she could find a way to see him before he left to Niveal they could go together. He had already said that he might have found a way. The hope creeping in was all too familiar and it was followed by the memory of every time in the past length her hope had been crushed. She couldn't rely on that. If she wanted to go she would need to secure a plan for herself.

First, she needed to decide, once and for all, if she would stay or go. If she ran, she would need to stay away for good and leave behind any access to the top and forget about the help she could provide to bring down the system from the inside. If she stayed, she wouldn't be able to get to Theo– and she needed to get to her somehow.

What she had laid to rest some cycles before had reentered her mind with a vengeance. She had a renewed interest in getting communication out to Theo. She didn't know why but she needed Theo to know that she wasn't evil. And that Oceane was alive. And that her father was alive. She needed to also tell her about The Vault but so much could go wrong with that.

It couldn't ever be sent through written communication. Even if it could, she couldn't guarantee that Theo wasn't the same person that she was during the last cycles Ava was on Corinspe. It was a real possibility that she had never regained her real self again. Yet, she didn't believe that was true. Although Jona said the things he had said about her, she was beginning to doubt it. Theo was hard-headed but Ava couldn't accept the fact that she had been at peace with her decisions and actions and did not try to make it up for it in some way.

Her thoughts were a loop of concerns, floating from one to the next and back to the beginning without rhyme or reason. It made it difficult to make a plan or find a resolution. One thought triggered another which triggered another and it was an endless jumble.

"I think it will be a little colder when we get back so you have to consult with your mother on how to entertain any guests that may come in between court seasons since the garden won't be an option," Viv spoke up but it was a comment that didn't merit response like many of her one-off statements she had spouted off that trip.

Ava decided it was time to engage, "We should get moving on pushing for a union between Cameron Cooker and I."

"Come again?" Viv raised an eyebrow, "Am I hallucinating? Did I will myself into an alternate plane?"