Thalia has been haunted by vivid nightmares for six months, each one more intense than the last. In these dreams, she is both an observer and a participant, a man named Alexander chained and sentenced by a mysterious council. The strange, lightning...
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I was staring at a grand entrance, made of dark wooden doors with intricate carvings of different creatures in all kinds of twisted positions. Two tall men walked up to the bronze handles, opening them with a heavy clank. Five men walked in, four of them holding chains leading to the shackles around the man in the middles wrists and ankles. Enormous raven-black wings trailed behind him on the floor.
I turned to look to the far end of the hall, in the center there was a circular arrangement where twelve council members were sitting, giving them command of the room. All of them wearing hard grim faces, ready to dish out judgment. The room was filled with standing spectators, all focused on the guards guiding the man in shackles up. I looked up at the high ceiling where tall windows were letting in natural light, yet the atmosphere was solemn. Beside me, our group was standing watching tall and serious, all of us clad in our uniforms. We were the embodiment of discipline and duty. We were all wearing stoic expressions having to watch this. I blinked, and as my eyes opened I was no longer a guard watching from the outside, I was the man in shackles. I opened my eyes, and looked down at my hands, a mild feeling of amusement spreading inside of me.
I watched as the elderly lady in the middle finished writing up a document. Her face was composed with a certain sternness that told you not to test her. Her eyes were sharp and focused behind small circular frames, and she had a strongly defined face with lines showing her age. She signed the document with an elegant swoop of the pen and ending with a dot, before she glanced over her glasses at me.
She sighed as she leaned back, putting her fingertips against one another in a triangle shape. "Well, I suppose we have no choice but to get this over with" her tone was one of defeat, but still loud enough for the people who had gathered around to hear. I glanced down the hall to see my friends standing next to one another, all holding their stance with dignity. However, barely noticeable one of the men, the one with pearly-blue hair and hazel eyes, shot me a brief look keeping eye contact, before he lowered his gaze down to the floor again. Nobody would have noticed unless they were looking directly at him, which nobody seemed to be doing except me. I looked down as my lips tugged upwards.
"You know the punishment for defying a direct order, Alexander. I have no choice but to reprimand this." I was struggling not to let a wicked smile break out on my face as I looked up at her. "You will be sentenced to 50 years of community service and have half your powers taken away from you for this" - she continued. "You will also be expelled to the earthly realms until said service has been executed." I couldn't help myself any longer, I started snickering. My shoulders were shaking trying to hold it in, but in the end I broke out into a full on sinister laugh. I felt unfazed, unbothered, and even amused by the way they were handling this situation. After finishing laughing, I looked at all the members of the council and slowly shrugged. "Do what you must" I said, feeling the smile spread across my face. The lady pressed her lips into a thin line, and nobody else said anything. After a few seconds staring me down, she lifted her hand and snapped and I felt it as powers were drained out of me in powerful surges. I saw it crawling across the floors and away from me into the orbs some of the guards were holding ready. I saw a brief glimpse of sadness in her steely-gray eyes as the last of it trickled out. I straightened my back again, put my hands as casual as I managed with the shackles on and shrugged again.
"I wish you luck", she said and with a wave of her hand my shackled fell to the floor, before a lightning hit me right in the chest. The floor under my feet disappeared and I was thrown through the sky, falling at an extreme speed. My wings were battered and beaten, so even when I unfolded them all they did was make me spiral, I didn't manage to break down at all. Multiple feathers were torn away by the updraft as I tumbled closer and closer to the fast approaching ground. A slight panic started to spread through me as I realized I was going to hit the ground at this speed. Just before I did - I jolted awake.
