Divine Ascension (Wattys 2024)

Part 1, Chapter 1 - Birth Of A Hero

When a legend begins to take root, the whole world quivers. It isn't immediately noticeable, but it's still there. Something shifts in the ground, in the wind, in the way people talk and behave and conduct themselves in general.

It was so on the day of Melinda Grey's birth as well. Even that event was a legend, in its supposedly small and insignificant way. Her parents Imelda and John weren't particularly important people - she ran a teashop and he worked on the farm his father owned - but even they had their battles.

Imelda's first husband Victor was a fallen soldier, and although she hadn't become as hopeless as she feared she would, it still left a mark on her psyche. And, as if that weren't enough, she had always wanted to have a child, but all was not so well after three stillbirths. In her own way, she was a soldier, but even soldiers had their limits, and if she lost anyone else, she felt she would become insane.

Luckily, that never happened, close though it was. Complications arose after the first month of pregnancy, as they always did, and even in labour, which was the furthest stage she had ever reached, the looming spectre of Death hung in the air. Blood and sweat and tears forced themselves from her body as it contorted painfully, causing her to release screams of anguish as she clenched her hands into fists, praying internally not again, not again, not again...

However, it was all worth it in the end. Hours of labour produced a baby that was small, but not frail, and when it came out of her body, Imelda couldn't believe it. She was afraid to look in the beginning, afraid of the worst even during what looked like the happiest moment of her life, but when the baby wept, she cried tears of joy, never having experienced such happiness before. She knew that it was due to all the pain she had gone through and all the bliss that came after, and she knew that she would love her daughter and keep her always by her side and never let anything happen to her.

"Ma'am?" the nurse intervened after several minutes of her trance. "Mrs Grey? What name do you want to give your daughter?"

"Melinda," she replied with a tired smile on her face, holding her child tight. "Melinda Josephine Grey."

"A lovely name for a lovely girl," the nurse mused. "And there's something else to her, too. I see it in her eyes. Your child is meant for something great, I feel it."

The parents felt it too because how could they not? How could they have anything but absolute admiration towards a child who fought to live against all odds and still looked as cute and innocent as any other? It was the sign of a child who was meant to be born.

As the years went on, not much had changed. Melinda grew up in peace with her parents, who loved and cared for her very much. She visited her mother's teashop frequently when she wasn't playing with other children, and her mother was immensely glad that nothing interfered with their idyll, hoping that someday her daughter would inherit her teashop and forever be happy and carefree. 

However, Melinda wasn't like other children. From an early age, she took an interest in magic and swords, playing games of war with her friends pretty often. Imelda wasn't a fan of it, for horrible memories kept returning to her constantly, but her dear John told her that it was okay and that she was simply acting like a child and that it meant nothing. Imelda trusted him completely because it really did seem that way when she wasn't being paranoid, and as her daughter spent more and more time in her teashop, she started to become more and more certain that her daughter's life would be nothing but tranquil.

But then, something happened that no one could have predicted. 

Monsters began to infest the forests again, coming from a source that no one could locate. The dark magic that was creating them, controlled by various rivalling factions, stalled and degraded the regular way of life. No one could escape its influence at any given moment - it crept its way into houses, buildings, meadows, mundane conversations, and even souls. Every soul was burdened by the knowledge of the unfathomable evil that lurked beneath the surface. Children couldn't be children anymore, not while their playgrounds were being demolished and corrupted, isolated within their safe, pristine homes for what seemed like an eternity. Melinda especially was sick of it.