Empyrean

Chapter 23

Chapter 23-Serena

Imperial Jail

514 minutes after lunch, 24th of Pachon, Year 612

            It is now that I finally realize I might never get out of here. At first I had hopes that I might get to leave, and soon! I thought that it could never end like this, in a dark cell with no one to talk to after they separated Mentor and me and moved us, well at least me, to the Imperial Jail in the Palace. At least I don't have to hear anymore of Mentor’s crazy plans of suicide.

            I had hoped that Fenix would charge in with an army ready to break me out of this shithole, but every second that I spend waiting in here for a god to come and save me is little by little diminishing my strength and fight. The Emperor was coming in every day for the first few days asking questions and having me injected with scorpion venom as punishment, for what I don't know. Apparently there are some wild animals out there still. He said that I would be helping him, but I don't see how that would work given I have just been asked questions that seem unimportant and I am hurt regardless of my answer. After five or six days he stopped. I guess he got bored of it.

            I have eaten every third day, but it is still more than some of the Zenith I have seen. I feel weak to have only been in prison and tortured for a couple of weeks while, as I remember now, Fenix was put on the verge of death every day for a few months when he was captured to carry out my test. The fact that they did that to a Zenith for every single academy graduate is incomprehensible. Either way, the pain is unbearable. Not the physical pain, but the mental. I will die in here, alone, with only a few people to ever know my name.

             Mentor’s plan creeps into the back of my head again. “No!” I scream aloud. The idea of taking the life of one of the only people to care for me is unbearable. When I look back on it, he many be the only one. My parents love me I guess, but if they knew that I am opposed to their beloved Violet they would disown me in a heartbeat. They said it themselves.

            There is a small cricket on the ground next to a drip from the ceiling. I sneak up to it and grab it with my left hand. “Are you okay?” It doesn't respond. “I know you probably think that I will eat you, but I won’t. I will say, they do feed me here, no matter how little.” The cricket stops squirming and jumping around so I open my hand so that the little light may reach its tiny compound eyes. “Did they lock you up to? They locked me up.” The insect seems interested in me now. It looks up into my face turning its head without moving. I decide that it will hear me out so I sit it down right in front of me. I lay down on my stomach with my face as close to the animal as possible.

            “Why are you here? You can fit through those bars over there.  The world outside is much better than in here. I used to live there. I have even seen others like you out there. Maybe you are even related!” It chirps a little bit and I laugh. “You know, in school, they told me that your sounds, your songs, your music, is a scream. I think it’s beautiful. I learned how to sing you know.” It chirps again lifting my spirits a little more. “I have been in here for at least two weeks now…you maybe your whole life, but we can still sing together! I only know one song though.”

I’m walking down that road for all to see

The sunshine and rain be battlin’ over me

Don’t know where I go or what I am to be

But the sunshine and rain do do battle over me!

 

            I sing it once, softly. I can barely hear it myself. “Was that not loud enough? I can sing it louder if you want. I am not embarrassed, no reason to be.” I sing it again this time with more conviction. I feel literate enough to even add a verse.

I’m swimming cross that ocean for all to see

The storm and the calm be battlin’ over me

Don’t know where I go or what I am to be

But the storm and the calm do do battle over me!

 

            Then I sing my two verses louder and louder until I know the cricket can hear me. I hear a voice come back from down the hallway somewhere singing with me, echoing all the way down to me. There are other people in here. I add another verse.

I’m climbing up that mountain for all to see

The fire and the ice be battlin’ over me

Don’t know where I go or what I am to be

But the fire and the ice do do battle over me!

 

            I start over from the first verse and this time there are a few other voices singing with me. For all the times in the academy where I had to memorize things doing it in song would have been incredibly easier. Catchy things just stick in your mind like honey or a thorn. By the second verse there are many voices singing with me. I can’t see any other cells from mine and I assume the same is true for everyone else, but we sing together. On the upbeats I hear the sound of wood beating against metal. I pick up the cricket and go to find my plate. I all but throw the cricket out the bars to the dark concrete of the hallway. It looks back at me for a second then runs of to the left. I’ll never see it again, but it’s okay. I don’t need him anymore. He gave me a song to sing with everyone else.

            We keep singing louder and louder, until I know that everyone in the prison is singing with me and everyone knows that they aren’t alone. It is only now that I realize something that Mentor would have noticed instantly. We are all singing our hearts out, but there is no guard to stop us. It seems the guards only come once at lunch every three days to feed us. Other than that they are not even within earshot. This means I can escape. Today they fed us, so I have two days or so to figure something out. I’m sure the rest of the prisoners in here have tried. But none of them remembered how to sing either, how could they remember how to run?