Golden [bxb]

Chapter Two

As my eyes filled with the incinerating glow of the flames outside, my ears twitched with the sounds of cannons piercing the air and slamming into the walls leading to the castle. My sister's screams crawled through those blaring sounds. 

Athena burst through my door, shouting for me to follow her, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the scene of flames engulfing our home. I had read about battles and war, but it had never been so real to me. I had hardly ever even seen blood— now it was staining the stones. 

"Artemys!" Athena shouted, cupping my cheeks and forcing me to look at her. I swallowed. She breathed and pressed our foreheads together. "We need to go."

The pressure of her hands and the calmness in her voice settled me down, and I followed her out of my room. The horrible sounds of yelling and cannon blasts filled the corridors as we ran toward shelter. Commander Arthur and several of the guard flanked us and lead us to the passage behind the throne room. 

"Are you alright, my lady?" Commander Arthur asked as the ran. She held onto his arm as I held onto hers while we made our way through.

"I'm fine," she snapped. The tone of her own voice made her wince, and she sighed. "We have to get to my father. There were no reports that the Omorrowan army was even anywhere close to our borders. How they could have gotten here undetected..."

"Stay close to us and only us, Your Highness. I fear treachery is the source of this—"

For the first time, Castle Stone Ivory's walls shook. 

Suddenly, the loudest thing to ever roar in my ears erupted against the castle. An explosion burst through the wall beside us as a cannonball blasted through, sending a storm of rock and debris at us. The force of the explosion tore through like a whipping current and sent us backwards like litter. 

I groaned as the smell of thick smoke filled my lungs. When I opened my eyes, I found myself looking up at Commander Arthur shouting something down at me. I shut my eyes again, a dull ache in my back as I lie on the ground. I felt my body lift off the ground then, and, when I peered out again, I was in Arthur's arms, my sister in another soldier's arms ahead of us. She had blood running down her head.  

The stone walls blurred passed in a gray smudge. I dangled in Arthur's arms, searching for any movement from my sister. She was still. I reached out a pale hand toward her and signed her name between trembling fingers. But she couldn't hear me.

Then, just as suddenly as the cannonball had crashed through the walls, Arthur came to a halt and took a step back. I looked passed my sister, at the end of the corridor where the safe room waited, and saw the reason for his sudden stop. 

Six men and women in black headscarves obscuring their faces blocked the way to the door. Commander Arthur shouted something at them, and they shouted back at him, but none of it was loud enough to overcome the ringing blaring in my ears. 

Commander Arthur turned around for the exit, but there were only more people in black headscarves. I felt his resolve weaken as he held me, bringing his back together with the man who held my sister. 

My eyes rolled down to examine my surroundings in my confusion. Only the blurry sight of my bloody hand rising from my bloody torso greeted me back. My stomach twisted at the sight, and then my strength gave out.

At the crossroads of eternity, there was nothing. It was numb, colder than frozen, and all memories of who It could if anything be. It had nothing to grasp as It drifted off like forgotten wreckage, free of fear with a body whose heart did not beat. There were no memories of anything valuable to It. They burst from It the moment Its existence tasted life. As It sunk deeper into hollow space— perhaps even itself— It was nothing.