Children of the Eternal

XXXIII

Every day felt eternal as Will waited for the paper. It was all he could do not to travel across the city and find out what happened with the others. But he remembered Kate's warnings and forced himself to stay in his shining neighborhood, far from the shadows of truth.

His escapade went unnoticed. When he returned, his father had already left for work and his siblings were wrapped up in their own day. The servants gave him curious looks, but no one said anything. He changed his uniform and rushed to school. It was a struggle to stay awake, and more than one teacher reprimanded him. With exhaustion dragging him down, he couldn't care that they marked him. All he wanted was to get home and sleep.

Mary approached him at one point, but he didn't have the energy to talk to her. She wanted nothing to do with the world in the shadows. He never felt more distant from her. He mumbled a farewell to her and couldn't even remember how he got home. When he opened his eyes, morning light hit them, an irritating reminder that it was time to go to school again.

Then everything slowed. The worst was when his father had one of his parties and Will had to put on one of his suits as he forced himself to play the role his family expected of him. The expensive food tasted foul when he thought of Anna dying in the darkness. No one spoke of what happened. It was like a sanctuary never extinguished. Nobody there was touched by it.

Disappointment dragged him down when the paper arrived, and he missed the messenger. As soon as he was in his room, he shook it, hoping the note from Kate would fall out. There was nothing. He scoured each page, looking for a message. Worry surged inside as he found nothing.

He rubbed his eyes and began paying attention to the newspaper. There was an article reporting that agents of the Sacred State were the ones who burnt down the sanctuary. But the authorities were blaming heretics and had made arrests. That unnerved him. Kate's sister could be among them. She had already been investigated. If something happened to her, that was very bad for Kate.

Unable to sit still, he rushed over to the door, ready to go all the way to her neighborhood and find out. But he promised to wait for her signal. He gripped the doorknob, unsure of what he should do.

In the end, he did nothing. He went back to his paper and found Anna's obituary. It mentioned her defiant faith, her strength, and that she had a son. Matthew's name was left unmentioned. Everyone had to be so careful.

It was harder for Will to show caution. Frustration grew as the newspaper gave no hope that anything would change after those events. People were missing since the Sacred State allowed the darkness to grow. Anyone who read the paper had to know what happened to the sanctuary. But life continued as normal. There were students in his school who received the paper, but they didn't seem to care about what the Sacred State did. They were content to read in private and chatter about upcoming social events in public. When he was in class, he had to bite back the truth as his teacher lectured about a history that was false. He read lies and wanted to rip out the pages. When one of his classmates was bragging about their required viewing of an execution, Will almost puked. The young man showed glee about watching a heretic drown.

The worst part was no one disagreed. Students ordered the newspaper, but none of them spoke out. Will clenched his hand and tried to fight the anger inside.

"The heretic pounded at the glass." Ernest White held a captive audience by the staircase in the hall. It blocked students from reaching their classes, but it wouldn't matter to him. He acted like the world belonged to him. His father owned much land and mining camps. He mimicked the drowning person's desperation with a sick cruelty. "But he turned away from the Light every chance he got. I've heard he even helped burn down a sanctuary."