Ashes of Vile

06

CHAPTER SIX
Happy Ashgrim Day!

Ashgrim had celebrated again. It had been a month since Cassidy's capture and she was starting to uncover answers. Most importantly, she would finally understand what the group stood for and whether she was willing to stand for the same cause.

The grand dismay was indifferent, Ashgrim was truly grim. They no longer swayed like the wind, they no longer cheered like lightning, they no longer had joy like the skies. It didn't feel like a celebration, people were distressed and worried, royalties and lawmakers were no longer engrossed in the monthly festive. Something was keeping them busy, and that something was important. Otherwise, no sane person of high power in Ashgrim would disregard it.

Chase Creed and Cassidy Idgen along with a few others would embark on the journey of straying onto the path of disclosure. Cassidy's infectious growing novelty would hatch further into greatness and snag. They had revisited the path of the beginning of it all: the beast. Along the way, Chase explained to Cassidy just the veneer of enormity, the spectacle of paramount root with the dynamism of clustering an odd faction of entities with peculiar individuality.

He held a mini cork bottle that withheld not sand but a strange strikingly bright blue that looked like lightning in a bottle. He held the exclusive concealed substance so tightly it seemed that the bottle would run away at any point. Chase was starved for power and when he was given the fortune of bliss, he devoted his time, wellbeing, and future to it. Maeve had presented him with the discovery, being the bearer of her family name, the offspring of the Pierce family. They were prominent in many things but they buried the greatest secret than any heirloom: the substance. They were hard to acquire, so hard that they had to risk their whole lives and reputation built in order to obtain it. They had to steal from the Valkyrie's building itself.

The substance had come from the councils of Ashgrim but there was all to it. They had attempted many times in digging deeper into the history of Ashgrim and doing the physical work of peeking into the building and its people. But there was nothing. And the reason could be the officials being clueless as to what lay beneath their haven, or they were just extremely good at hiding secrets. Either way, they were aware of when the substances were being stolen, as per August's claim, but they never acted on it. They did not care and it was insignificant to them. They never came to the beast and they never revealed nor' made use of the substance. If there was any true use to it at all.

Lilac was gathering intel with Lace on the compass and the oracle. Cassidy disliked the idea of being apart from Lilac and being around people she had just met, but she was eager for something. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what, but she knew it was no mistake she had bumped into the group twice. No, it was not fate or ridiculous things like destiny, but it also was not a coincidence. And this was what the world had to offer her, so she took it.

Cassidy, Chase, August, and Sung Mi had taken the liability in getting to the beast. Chase wore his usual monthly outfit. August with her usual sweeping onyx outfit that consisted of a black hooded long coat that ran all the way down to her feet, paired with a pair of black boots. While Sung Mi and Cassidy wore casual clothing.

They stared at the hole and stood in the darkness that wrapped itself and hooked onto the amusing set of group. The string-pullers of the world would have to take a second and look at the four and question whether they had been a string they pulled. Chase's tension in his shoulders suddenly dropped and he stepped forward, a little closer by the hole. He faced his whole body at them, and in silence but adequate manner. He popped the cork open and the source quickly poured out in such a delicate manner. It was suspended mid-air, bobbing softly, and it slowly formed into a ball of actualness. The illumination was enough, or more than enough to light the area. Chase lifted his hand cautiously below the round power and approached it slowly. The ball of source approved of the withholder and accepted the bearing. A slight smile made its way onto his mouth but he quickly hid it away. It didn't go unnoticed by Sung Mi as she said, "It gets better every time, does it?"