Shadow | Huang Renjun

28

"Eunah?"

Looking up, Eunah smiles politely at the sight of Kim Sohee. The woman is holding a huge book, which she places on the table and slides over.

"Found this in the Mythology section. Someone put it in the wrong place, but I think it could be useful."

"Ooh. Thank you, Ms Kim."

"No problem, sweetpea."

Sohee leaves again, having a few people to check books out for at the front of the library. Moving her notes out of the way, Eunah picks up the book and reads the front cover.

History Is Written By Victors

She frowns at the title, recognising it as a quote often attributed to a former British prime minister. She's pretty sure it wasn't his quote to begin with, though.

The first page has a short paragraph, explaining that the author's motivation for writing this is his frustration with inconsistencies in history books. How he thinks history should be an objective fact, rather than subtly changed to favour the country or organisation the books were published by.

Agreeing so far, Eunah turns the page to scan the contents list. It's a long one, full of both Supernatural and Human historical events– some she didn't even know were mistold.
The Phoenix War is there, so she checks the page number and flicks through to find it.

1849 was the year the sky fell and the dead rose. Ask anyone and they'll tell you exactly that. I'm here to tell you the truth, and we'll start with the senseless murder of an innocent child by a cruel God.

Eunah spends the next hour reading this, heart in her mouth and brows permanently furrowed. She knows some of the things mentioned here; how the first Phoenix was born to an Angel and a Demon, and how Heaven sent its best warriors to defend against the Demon army trying to take the child for their own purposes. The rest she remembers being taught about in History class, but always thought it was a little biased.

–God, supposedly benevolent, released the souls of the dead to overwhelm the Demon army– killing their own Angels in the process. The Amulet shattered under sheer force, its pieces becoming lost to time along with the truth of God's selfishness. She had won, at the cost of thousands of innocents, all to keep their place on the throne.

She covers her mouth with her hand, tears beginning to well in the corners of her eyes. Everything she knows is a lie.

It was getting more and more obvious from the start of her research, but seeing it all laid out like this in detail is a huge shock to the system. She wonders if her parents know, but dismisses the thought. According to this account, God replaced the remaining loyal Angels' memories with a fabricated version of events. So even if her parents did fight in the Phoenix War, which is unlikely, they would only know the version told by God and Heaven's history books.

–The Angels who defected pledged their loyalty to Satan instead. They became darker versions of themselves, with ashen wings tipped white and inverted eye colours to represent the betrayal of the one they revered.

She leans back in her chair, covering her face with her arms while her mind races.

What do I do now...?

The conversation with her parents replays in her head, resigned gaze lowering to the book again. How can she know what's right when everything seems so wrong?

"–so do what you do best."

Wiping away the tears, Eunah exhales and closes the book, swapping it with her notes. Her eyes shine bright honey gold as her pencil scribbles rapidly on paper.

Research is what she does best. No more spying, this is for herself.

~~~~

Short chapter, sorry! I felt the ending would seem weirder if it just continued afterwards.