Ashes of Vile

16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Big Reveal

Ashgrim had celebrated the greatest feeling again: success and winning. It was the day of the unknown festivities and suddenly the grimness of the past month's isolation had been replaced with solidarity. People walked with confidence, and screamed on top of their lungs to make up for the days of fun they had missed out on. While the people of Ashgrim looked forward to the day of partying, it was a curious one for Chase Creed who stumbled upon his old routine of visiting the beast; And although he braced himself for the reveal of the beast dead and frozen with his disappointed self to stare at it with empty hands, he had captured quite the opposite.

The beast still existed amongst the walls, alive and just like the usual. Chase had thought his own eyes betrayed him, but he felt the touch of the vital beast. There were no longer any orbs for it to feed from which gave them the only expected conclusion: its death and removal of existence. Dumbfounded, Chase visited the beast every single day after the celebration and not a single thing had changed. Whether it was from the results of miscalculations or assumptions, the beast was still alive and he was no longer certain about anything. The impossible seemed to be possible, and everything that was known to him was thrown out of the window.

After Abourne's mission of digging up useful information, her return brought a massive controversy among them. Her only offer to them being 'let the world give its secrets to us' and 'we're very close to the truth' had given them all a huge frown. It was a let down, and no one believed her. But after Chase's discovery, he had started gaining new hope; And maybe there was some truth to what Betty Blaque had said.

And if the recent turn of events wasn't enough, there had been an emergency meeting within the center of Ashgrim where August Vile and Oceanna Vile's eyes met. They had twin striking dark eyes that immediately became magnets the moment it mirrors one another. They had the kind of quiet glare that placed a barrier between them, but it also spoke with such anger and resentment.

Everyone was gathered all at once to hear it for themselves the great announcement: Ashgrim will be under extreme measures of tight security due to theft and other matters. This had brought a mini riot within the tense crowd, their feelings tense and unreleased.

But that was promptly dealt with using the extreme intimidation of power. Within just a second of command from Oceanna, the watchmen are immediately under her string of control. Given her current position to be the one and only to wield such jurisdiction, some speculated that the Valkyrie title wasn't enough to be served with such loyalty. Oceanna seemed to be playing a good game of chess, and she always had the leading upper hand. There was no way of undercutting her success and road to winning. Her moves were predictable yet still seemed to come out as unexpected. There was just something about her. And that something could be the most anticipated answer to the most anticipated question: how could she be Oceanna Murray Vile? The Oceanna Murray Vile: the first woman to lead Ashgrim and the first ever to be highly respected. 'How could a fragile, powerless, ordinary woman do such thing? It must be her last name, its privilege greater than any physical value of the world.'

"I vow to protect our land, the very ground our ancestors walked on and fought for. The very land we ourselves entrust every breathing decision we make. And the very home your children will love and defend for their own." August grimaced at the exaggeration of your children. She found it funny, that Oceanna could do no amount of convincing with her self peace to ever get rid of the fact that she had her own blood running the city she loved more dry. In fact, there was no 'more'. She never loved August, and she could never bring herself to. She was devoted to her greed of being seen so highly.