VOX

Ch 1

Fate is older than it cares to admit. It was already middle-aged by the time cavemen were drawing on walls and fighting beasts much much too large for them. It was considered old when Man first went to war. Rusty by the time of the fourth "World War" as they called it (though it was more like watching children fight over toys). And it was ancient by the time a young girl sat down and learned of her story. She and Fate would meet several times throughout her life, and whether they cared to admit it or not, they had a soft spot for the child.

It was Fate that brought the young girl's parents together, and their parents, and theirs. But their great-grandparents? Total accident, who'd have guessed. Fate was there when the girl's life would irrevocably change without her noticing, and of course they were there when she decided to take Destiny into her own hands.

Destiny, what a piece of work.

⟴

"Much like the secret underwater gardens our pre-war oceans housed within shallow waters, Poncona Sea is home to a variety of seagrass. Isn't that fascinating Noel?" A pair of hazel eyes filled with thoughts of swaying grassy spikes turned to peer into glassy black ones. The sleek raven Davina had been whispering too blinked disinterestedly at her twice before returning to the pile of seeds laid between them. Noel was one of her favorites, sleek, satiny, and the best listener of the bunch.

Noel let out a deep croak. Davina took that as the bird's agreement and smiled proudly to herself. Though she herself did not quite understand the importance of undersea grass, nor had she ever seen it, to Davina the idea of being anywhere, even the bottom of the sea, was riveting.

The sudden metallic toll of the bell sent the girl's hands into a frenzied panic. Stuffing the smuggled book back into its hiding place between coarse brown bed sheets and the wooden frame, she didn't even notice the quick slice of a paper cut. Expert fingers secured the clasp of the white mantel that draped down her back and reached her ankles. Brushing off any bits of seeds from her brown tunic she turned back to the window to whisper a goodbye to her closest friend. All that was left of the bird was a slowly shrinking black dot on the horizon. Davina couldn't help the pang of envy that spread through her chest as she watched Noel. Watched him fly over a gray sea. Watched him soar carelessly. Watched him...leave.

Taking a quick breath to settle her nerves, and hide any traces of her wrongdoings, Davina opened the door to her unit and joined the slow procession of the other black and white veiled sisters. Ahead of her walked Sister Viola, a black-veiled tempus like Davina, and the itchy panic of secret keeping faded further away.

Unlike the third, and last, tempus in their community, Sister Angelonia, Viola was a bit of a rule breaker herself. It was not uncommon for Davina to share whispers with Viola during prayer hours, gossip over statue carvings, or even share exasperated glances about stern lectures from the old-fashioned maneats. Davina could still remember when Viola and Angelonia had joined their shrine five years ago. Before then, there had never been a sister remotely close to her in age. At that point the youngest maneat was Sister Zinnia, whose warm smile or crow-footed wink felt more motherly than anything else.

Giving Viola's veil a soft tug and getting her attention without alerting the other sisters, Davina did her best brow wiggle. Viola only gave her a soft smile in return before diverting her attention back to the ground. The path down to the worship hall was more fun than her company, apparently. This is how a raven became her closest friend, and not the person walking before her. Viola was a bit of a rule breaker herself. Past tense. Though Viola and Angelonia had both joined the shrine at sixteen and were a few months older. Meaning they were preparing their souls for the Ceremony of Sun, and Davina wasn't.