It had been almost a week since her birthday and apart from the occasional glimpses of his knotted brown hair flying around a corner, she hadn't seen Tate at all. Althea was pretty sure her weird dreams had frightened him off and he didn't want to deal with her baggage anymore. Or maybe he had been confronted by an appealing village woman with skinny legs and a dainty physique. But that was fine, Althea thought bitterly, she didn't need Tate around to make her feel valued, though the thought of him holding hands with another girl made her knuckles tighten.
She indignantly shoved the last of her training equipment into a large brown sack, sealed the opening with a rope and hauled it over her shoulder. It was too risky to train in open area because of all the soldiers patrolling. In her books, her characters would wear a black hood to avoid being detected, but she thought that would make her stand out even more. There was no doubt she'd be caught in an instant.
Instead, Althea wore her normal attire and walked with the group of people who were hauling their goods to the marketplace. She hunched her back with feigned exhaustion, that way she had an excuse to kept her head down. Almost there. All she had to do now was walk over the garbage dump, which wasn't guarded due to the horrendous smell, and she'd be in the forest where Chief would be waiting for her. Suddenly without warning, she was snatched by her braids and dragged out of the line.
"What's a pretty thing like you doing with such a heavy load on your shoulders?" His voice was deep and had the consistency of stones being scraped to sand. He wrapped her braids in his hands and despite the pain shooting up her skull, she kept her head down and could only do so much as grit her teeth.
"Come on, you know we're not supposed to do that sort of thing on duty." Another voice chimed in, smooth and refined, but still possessing a degree of authority.
"Ahh, what a shame it is too," he lowered his voice and leaned closer to her ear so she could smell the heavy scent of cigars on his breath, "come find me afterwards and I'll pay your services with a loaf of bread." Then he pushed her roughly back onto the path where she faked a stumble and ran off to join the crowd, her body overcome with a barrage of fury.
***
"I still can't believe it!" She screamed, taking her emotions out on her sword and smashing it against Chief's. "When I overthrow the Royals I'm going to weed out all of those filthy scumbags."
"Keep your voice down, Althea, you're wasting your breath." Chief scolded, blocking all her attempts to attack him and eventually knocking her sword to one side. She promptly retrieved it and when she turned around, her voice was softer than a whisper.
"Do you think some women... go back?"
Chief gave her a despairing look that said it all.
"When things get hard, people will do the unthinkable to live another day. Even if it means giving up their own pride. But you should know, there are things in this world far worse than death."
***
When she arrived back home, it was almost midnight. Chief was already snoring away in his room so she did her best to tiptoe into her own without tripping over the miscellaneous objects askew on the floor. Although she desperately wanted to take a bath, she knew that walking up to the river at this hour would be unwise. Instead, Althea climbed into her bed, lit a candle and took out the book Zeb had given her for her birthday. Under normal circumstances, she would have finished the book within a few hours, but lately she just didn't have the time.
She flipped to the pages that were wedged between a string of tree bark and placed her makeshift bookmark to the side. The title of the book was 'The Shrouded' and included short stories and information about faeries, mermaids, dragons and other mythical creatures. Although it was a bit far fetched, it proved to be a distraction from reality.
Althea flipped to the final chapter of 'trolls' and was surprised that unlike the previous chapters, this next one was annotated with a dull pencil.
'Angels-- P̶̷u̶̷r̶̷e̶̷ spirits made by God. Immortal servants and messengers.'
Weirdly enough, the word 'pure' had been crossed out and three words were written above it. 'Nothing is pure.' While chewing the edge of her fingers, Althea flipped through the remaining pages of the chapter, which were divided into columns introducing several different angels. Her eyes glided over all the names until she saw one in particular, which was so heavily scribbled upon, she had to squint in order to make out the words.
'Lucifer Morningstar
God created Lucifer at the beginning of time, he was God's second in command and was often praised as his greatest handiwork. So it was only fitting that Lucifer became the judge, jury, and the executioner of heaven. He was created to dwell eternally in the throne room of heaven, in the very presence of God. Lucifer perfectly fit the name 'Sun of the Morning.'
But his splendour and beauty were finite. Whilst overseeing heaven and earth, he began to desire more power. Lucifer wanted to take the place of God himself. He wanted to be worshiped. Lucifer brought forth of an army of angels, all of whom he promised eternal glory to. In total, he had 1/3 of heaven on his side and they brought destruction and terror wherever they went. In the end, Lucifer and his army were only barely defeated and cast out of heaven for going against God.
Although there is no passage from the bible that confirms L̶̷u̶̷c̶̷i̶̷f̶̷e̶̷r̶̷ i̶̷s̶̷ S̶̷a̶̷t̶̷a̶̷n̶̷, many say that when he fell from heaven, he became the ruler of all evil and his army turned into harrowing demons.'
An arrow branched from the three crossed out words in the last paragraph and lead to a handwritten footnote. The words crawled up the edge of the page and pressed against the sides in an effort to cram everything in.
'Satan existed to maintain the balance between good and evil. He was God's counterpart ever since the dawn of time. Lucifer lost his wings and walked the mortal realm after humans were created. It's impossible for them to be the same spirit.'
This was an odd topic for someone to care so deeply about, Althea thought, flipping to the next page and stifling a gasp at what she saw. The entire page was a covered in a drawing of Lucifer Morningstar falling from the sky. His wings were limp as he fell from a single beam of light protruding from the clouds into the darkness. The world was a black hole sucking him in. The details were so exquisite it sent a shiver down her spine. Each feather was so carefully shaded, each strand of hair drawn with absolute precision. Beautiful wouldn't even begin sum it up.
After marvelling at the extraordinary picture, Althea began to felt a wave of exhaustion brush over her and her eyes drooped with sleepiness. Today's training was really getting to her. She scanned the drawing one last time before picking up the candle to snuff it out. But she stopped mid-breath when her eyes landed on something that she hadn't noticed before.
There, in the bottom right hand corner was a signature that made her drop the candle on the floor.
Zebediah Morningstar.
YOU ARE READING
Revolution
Fantasy*A promised leader. A book of tales. A love to unravel all.* Althea Trodaire was born into a world of chaos. She lives her life under a strict hierarchy that oppresses the poor and profits the wealthy. On the top of the social ladder are the Royals...
