The Rise of The Powers vol. 1

Chapter 25: Betrayal

Chapter 25: Betrayal

I followed Saphara back to her cabin, there Sinoda and Adonis were waiting for us. I nearly walked by Lilith who was standing ominously in a corner.

I looked at Saphara, she nodded,quickly, and I broke away from her and walked over to Lilith.

"What's going on?" I asked, grabbing hold of one of her hands. My voice was low and gruff. Lilith slowly looked up at me. "What happened to you? If you want to go, that's fine, but you were the one who brought us here, after all."

I dragged Lilith outside. The last stragglers of the camp were heading back into their cabins. No one was supposed to be out after dark. Bad things tend to happen in the dark, more so than the daylight.

"Duke." Lilith finally said, firmly. "I can't tell you what's going on . . . I'm sorry. Just know I love you, okay? And that I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry." Lilith gulped and tried to run backwards, but fell, onto The Forest floor. She quickly got up and run off into The Forest.

"Lilith!" I bellowed out, running after her. "Lilith! Damn it come back here!" But she never came back, and something stopped me from abandoning everything and everyone here and running after her. Even though I loved her, and had gone through way more with Lilith, then anybody else here, I did not run after her.

Something told me not to.

That I would regret it in the time to come.

So, I turned away.

I walked defeated back to Saphara's cabin, my head was down, my shoulders were hunched back, I sighed heavily as I walked into the cabin.

Saphara looked at me quizzically. "What's wrong, Duke? Where's Lilith?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. She ran off."

Adonis stepped forward. "We know, we heard your conversation-" Sinoda and Saphara looked down sheepishly. "We're sorry."

Saphara took her place beside Adonis. "Was that Lilith Powers?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's not as bad as you might think. How do you know of her?"

Saphara stared at me. Her mouth twitched. "Horror stories from my dad. He told me that Lilith and her whole family were horrible, terrible, deplorable people." Saphara looked down, her voice lowered an octave. "He never told me what they did though, no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't ever answer any of my questions."

It seemed as if Saphara was no longer paying attention to me. I envied those who could get lost in their past, and forget about reality. Where as I had no past. Well, I did, but not one where I ever did anything; thought of my own free will, walked on my own accord, loved without caring, felt hope, love, anguish, and despair.

I headed into the cabin shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts, sometimes I envied the days when I had a blank head: thoughtless.

I berated myself. I hated when I thought that way. However bad this was, the Empire was worse. Way worse.

An ear-deafening explosion suddenly came from the outside. "What-" I started to say but stopped myself.

Not the time.

Saphara and the twins were already unsheathing their swords and running out the door.

I grabbed Saphara's sword from my side and followed after them.

I smelt it before I saw it. Fire, smoke, death. Lots of death. Cabins were burning. So were people. Dead people littered the ground like grass.

No one I knew though, and that made me feel guilty. I hadn't even bothered to try and get to know people, before Saphara, the twins, and Lord Synth, and that wasn't even my doing.

I choked involuntarily. The smell of sulfur, smoke, and rotting bodies filled my lungs.

Saphara stood shell-shocked next to me; not moving a muscle. Her eyes blinked robotically. Her mouth formed a perfect 'o'.

Adonis was crying over a dead body of someone he knew: friend, relative, who knew? Sinoda was lurching on the floor, this afternoon's lunch coming up and out of his mouth in great heaves.

Lord Synth stood at the door way of his cabin. He didn't say anything. His face showed no expression, but somehow that was the biggest kind of expression showed in the camp.

All of that passed by me though in the blink of an eye. All of that I understood. Death had become a reality in the passing weeks of my 'soul-life'.

There was only one thing I couldn't wrap my mind around, only one thing that made me scream and out and drop to the floor. A mix of tears and ash dripping from my eyes.

My hands fell onto a burning patch of ground, but that pain was nothing compared to the pain of seeing who had caused this disaster.

It was the Powers and Lilith was with them.