The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Seventeen - The Chosen Ladies

"Damn it, where is she?!" She said between sharp breaths. Tora had gone through most of the Hall of Vera without any luck of finding the White Queen, Celesta. Every door held no persons, whether it was of ivory, gold, marble, or wood. She should have been in her room. But she had gone through every single bedroom she could find.

As she rushed down a long stretch of hallway she looked outside through the many windows of the Hall and saw the queen. She seemed focused, completely so. Her hands moving through the air as though she was slowly conducting a silent orchestra. Tora slowed to a stop, and pounced through a window toward the woman she was looking for. Celesta didn't notice her pursuer, and if she did, she wouldn't care. With a final twist of a wrist and a small whisper a black wall of impenetrable blackness appeared around the Hall of Vera. Light still peered over from the top of the wall. But it was fast fading, the sun was already starting to set when they left the arena.

Tora grabbed Celesta by her shoulders as though to ground her. A wild expression of fear, awe, and surprise overtook Tora's face. She couldn't believe a thin woman such as the queen could pull off a feat of magic such as this.

"What are you doing?" Yelled Tora. She looked at the queen and back at the wall. She looked for the signs of magic exertion on the queen and looked at the wall for signs of where it draws it energy from. She couldn't see anything.

"What do you think you're doing?" Replied the queen with a icy stare. Tora could feel her skin crawl and flinch. She felt hot, sickeningly hot. "Because it would seem like you would be setting hands on a queen, farmer girl. I have sentenced death for less than that. On top of that, questioning a queen. Whose thoughts are order and words are execution."

"I...I...I..." stammered Tora. She had totally forgot why she had wanted to find Celesta. She could feel malevolent energies coming from the queen. Energies speaking hate, disgust, and unwieldy power. Then she felt something different. A vibration; shaking in her bones. A vibration that spoke of malice, greed, lust, and pain. Unbelievable pain. She turned to the Hall and saw a darkness surround where the library was at. She turned back to the queen and saw that Celesta was focused on the Hall too.

"I feel it too, peasant." Said Celesta, "this was not supposed to happen." Her expression grew from anger to something that resembled worry. "Something is wrong. Very wrong." Celesta bolted towards the darkness, with Tora following shortly. As they both ran they could see the common folk run away from the source of danger. Tora then spotted through a window of what seemed to be a prayer room with plant life growing at an astonishing rate.

"Queen, wait!" Tora stopped with a powerful plant that dug her foot a few inches into the ground. Celesta stopped on a dime. She slowly turned towards the farmer girl, giving her the same look she had before when Tora touched her.

"You keep forgetting your place, peasant!" She walked to Tora. She decided she would give her a small cut. Even if she was insolent she was a priceless ally in combat considering she was a Prodigy. "Zhyet'dwǝ"

"Shield!" Screamed Tora. She said the first thing she could think of as soon as she heard the witch speech. The true way to command magic. Forbidden to use by anyone other than residents of the Witch Permagrounds.

Had Tora known how little energy Celesta had put into her spell and her intent she wouldn't have made a grand shield. But she didn't know, and showcased to the Queen exactly how strong she was in one spell. The shield she conjured completely encased her in a dome of yellow light. The shield was also layered with clear gaps in between each layer that was filled with little supports strengthening the outermost later next to it. Not to mention, the shield was 10 yards wide, and 7 feet tall. The shield was so strong in fact that the spell had rebounded and hit Celesta on her cheek. A small, superficial cut appeared on her pale, perfect skin.

"Who are you?" Asked Celesta. "Even Prodigal borns of The Grounds have a hard time creating such a strong shield as yours. Even with the True Speech."

"I...I...I am Tora of the Gardens that I was named after. I am but a farmer. Was. I was a farmer."

"And your mark? Where did you come up with the mark on your shield spell?" Celesta moved closer to inspect the spell. To the well trained magic user, all spells have a certain mark on them. Though not everyone is different, they tell a lot of who it was that conjured the spell.

"My...mark?

"They haven't taught you about spell marks? Looks like I'll have to take you under as my student." Celesta was equal parts awed and frightened at the mark she could see. It was a holy sigil. In fact, it was the sigil of the first goddess. Tora. The mother of all the gods. She had read of people having the holy sigil of Tora as their mark, but only if they were a champion of the Goddess. She had met only one other with the mark, but she was only ten years old. And she belonged to a low caste of the Witch Community.

"But, I'm already a student of Halt. And you're too young-"

"To what? To teach? Clearly you don't know who I am or what I'm capable of." This was a real threat. She was growing much too annoyed of Tora to give idle threats now. "Look, we can talk about all of this later. We just need to get to the library."

"But why? What's happening? What's at the library. I felt something that shouldn't be there. Something that doesn't belong in this world. Something that is in so much pain that it goes against every will of the Mother to exist. Something that can deal the same pain to others."

"That is exactly why we are headed over there. I blocked the way for others to reach the Hall. We are the only Prodigies here. I personally made sure of that. We are the only ones that can do anything about this creature. And I fear that our chances to do anything substantial are getting slimmer and slimmer."

"Why would you do that? Why would you have our group fight this ourselves?"

"Look, I didn't mean it to happen this way. We were to fight this thing some time in the near future. But it's here now and I need your help, Chosen."

"Chosen?"

"Yes. Did you not know that you are a champion of the Goddess?"

"The Goddess?"

"The very one. And don't feel so special about it, I'm a Chosen as well. Not by your Chooser, but still Chosen."

"H...How do you know?"

"I'll tell you later but first-" and with that there was another vibration. The same as the first one. "We need to move now!" Celesta bolted once again towards the growing darkness. Tora stood still in thought for a moment. A champion of the Goddess? Of Tora? It couldn't be! Not her! She quickly undid her shield spell and ran for the darkness as well. She didn't know what it was they were going towards, but she knew the queen would need some help. And she needed to know why the queen said what she did.

"Am I a Chosen?" Tora asked herself as she dashed towards the library.