The Rise of The Powers vol. 1

Chapter 31: New Hope

Chapter 31: New Hope

I was floating. There was a light, a bright light. There was also a voice, a far away voice. Whose was it? What were they saying? It sounded a lot like my name.

I blinked. Saphara was standing over me and Adonis was there too, crying over something a few paces away.

There was a huge bruise on Saphara's neck. It was purple and red and blue and about an inch wide.

I was alive.

No.

No, I didn't want to be alive. I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this.

"Why am I alive?" I shouted at Saphara, my voice seething. "I'm supposed to be dead. I was hung. I felt the stool go out from under me! I was dead!. I know I was." My voice got small there at the end. I was shaking visibly all over my body. Even=ry part of me was shaking. I was enraged. Alembria, was I enraged.

This was absolutely not how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to be dead!

"Duke, I'm sorry, but I really just don't know. I woke up on the floor with the Powers nowhere to be seen. Adonis woke up when I did and then I woke you up. But Sinoda and my father—our father," Her voice choked off. "They didn't make it."

I looked over at Adonis. That was what he was crying over. Sinoda. He was dead. He was dead, Ahilian was dead, but yet, I wasn't.

Why?

There was always that single worded question. Why?
 Adonis looked over at us. His eyes were clouded by tears, yet his voice was steady. "Twins in Paevanshire are a sacred thing. They rarely happen, and when they do most of the time one of the twins dies during birth. So Sinoda and I were very rare. We were given mirrored twin names, to make our birth even more sacred, meaning that my name backwards was Sinoda's name, and Sinoda's name backwards was my name. Lord Synth—Ahilian, apparently—told us that the spirits put a spell on us. Well, I thought it was a spell at the time, but now, it is really more of a curse.

"If one of us were to die, a part of the one living, should die too. And that's what just happened here. It's even crueler to leave me alive while they killed off my twin. It's like I don't even have a reason to live anymore. My parents died in a fire right after we were born, he was the only family I had left."

What's your last name?" I asked, thinking of something.

Adonis looked at me strangely. "Fine."

The first of them all is the last of the Fines.

I shook the thought off. Not here.

"Soren said something to me, right before they hung us. That killing us off wouldn't do them any good or give them any satisfaction. That's why they kept us alive, to torture us longer." I said, finally standing up and walking around on surprisingly steady legs.

Adonis looked at me, his eyes blazing. "So why stay alive then? If they kept us alive only to torture us why shouldn't we just give them one final slap in the face by killing ourselves, right here and now, and leaving the bodies for them to find."

"Because that's what they want us to do." Saphara said glaring at both of us. "Whether we kill ourselves or stay alive, no matter what we do they will still have a plan to get what they want. Whatever they want. What we need to do is stay alive, and just live but thrive, and show them that they made a huge mistake by keeping us alive."

That was the biggest outburst I had ever seen from Saphara. "You know," I said looking at her with a new form of respect. "That isn't the worst idea."

"But how can I live?" Adonis shouted, his voice coarse and tears running down his face in streams. "When the biggest part of me is already dead? When my soul is already dead."

I gave him an icy glare. "Your soul may be dead, Adonis, but at least you have one."

He looked down. "You're right. I'm sorry. I can be so retarded sometimes."

I didn't even look at him. "Let's get out of here."

We walked down the streets of The Empire. The people looked at us, but their eyes glazed over the moment they did, forgetting.

I didn't even have words when I saw Mrs. Whitings. Soren, you finish this thing off. She is of no importance.

I walked over to her body slowly. Her new son was nowhere to be seen. He had probably already been given a new mother; his memory wiped of all of this. I knelt down to her. "I'm so sorry." I barely whispered. This was my fault. If she had never adopted me, if she had never gotten involved with me, she would still be here.

I touched her forehead and whispered, "Goodbye and farewell my mother. May you rest in peace."

I stood up shakily and started walking, Adonis and Saphara following. "She was the only mother I ever knew." I explained, but before they could help it I saw what flashed through both their eyes.

Lilith.

I gave them the look that stated quite clearly: You will never mention this again.

Suddenly, I felt a slight burning in the inside of my shirt pocket. In curiosity, I took out the piece of paper that the Mountain Shae had given to me what felt like millennia ago. It was warm to the touch.

I slowly unfolded it, and unlike the last prophecy, this one I could read.

"The chosen three shall collect seven Shae.

Slay the world or bow down to fate.

The fate of Alembria lies in their hands.

The one who was curse, alone he shall stand."

Before anyone could say a word, the paper crumpled in my hands and slowly blew away, piece by piece.

Saphara and Adonis both looked at me, probably waiting for some sort of explanation. "The chose three." I muttered.

"What?" Saphara asked.

"Nothing." I said. "I'll explain it all to you later."

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Adonis asked.

"My friends, we're going to take a little journey."

And I grabbed both their hands and whispered, "Placae opque." And we spiraled into darkness.