Hope's Flight (temporarily on hold)

Chapter 3:

Cecelia sipped her tea thoughtfully for a few moments while Hope patiently waited for her to begin talking. The patter of the falling rain and the crackle of the fire provided a hypnotic drone. Hope tried to clear her mind of all thoughts as she waited, but her head was buzzing with questions. Thoughts of Nick kept trying to surface, but she pushed them away for another time.

Cecelia gave no indication that she was 'listening' in on Hope's thoughts. "I don't know how much you know of the gods, child, or their feud," she said, "but it may help to better understand the people here."

Hope leaned forward and thought back to what she had read during her clandestine studies in Narce's library. The archangels, Rhys, Ser, and Noll, were regarded as gods by many people. Even some of the seraphim had been worshipped by mortals, but Hope assumed Cecelia was speaking of the three most powerful beings.

Cecelia nodded to show that she was on the right track, so Hope dug through her memories for more information. Supposedly, the three had once been inseperable and all powerful. They ruled as equals and used their combined powers to create all manner of things.

Eventually, they turned on each other and seperated, but no one knows why. They divided the realms into the Celestial Kingdoms; ruled by Rhys and the High Council, the Crimson Realms; ruled by Ser and the Crimson Court, and the Shadow Kingdoms; formerly ruled by Noll and the Shadow Court, now ruled by the Conclave.

"Very good, child," Cecelia smiled. "I hadn't expected you to be so well educated."

Hope smiled tentatively at the old woman. The unexpected praise had made her feel oddly self-conscious. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat while Cecelia poured herself more tea and settled back.

"I know very little about the others, but it was Noll himself who founded this realm after the split," she said. "He kept his work here secret, and we have had few visitors."

Cecelia shifted to drape a blanket over her lap. Hope noticed the chill for the first time, but it hardly bothered her after the swim in the icy water followed by the nightmare.

"Noll loved mortals, unlike his brothers," she said. "He even loved a mortal woman."

Hope was taken aback. Her experience with immortals had led her to believe that they were incapable of love or any other selfless emotion.

"You're twice mistaken, child," Cecelia said in answer to Hope's thoughts. "Love is rarely selfless, and the gods are capable of anything we mortals can manage," she shook her head. "Nay, their emotions put ours to shame. Noll's love for Thalya gave life to this world, and his grief took it away."

****

Long ago....

Noll admired his latest pupil above all others. She did not show exceptional talent, but her zeal for life entranced him. She was quick to smile, and her joy was contagious. He found that his heart, so hardened by the passing eons, softened a bit in her presence.

He'd been working tirelessly to shift the balance of power in his favor, and he assumed his brothers were doing the same. Rhys and Ser had long discounted the mortals as nothing more than minor amusements, but Noll believed that they held the key to his ascension. Mortal magic was weak compared to Anuk power, but it was seemingly endless. He believed that a hybrid child of an archangel would be nearly as powerful as a true archangel.

Unfortunately, the mortal vessel was a fragile thing, and his attempts to conceive with a human woman had all failed. He'd moved on to hybrid women, hoping that they would be strong enough to beget him a child, but his attempts had proved in vain. He'd found, however, that he could enhance a hybrid child while still in the womb, granting it some of his own power. Too much would kill the child, so he was ever seeking stronger hybrids for his experiments.

Thalya was one of his, and she had become a distraction. He feared for her safety, ever reminded of her mortality. Hunters roamed his kingdoms in secret, searching for hybrids to sell in his brothers realms. He was growing more desperate to keep her safe, and it was interfering with his work. 

He watched her as she tended her garden and contemplated his options. Every moment he spent here, was a moment he wasn't searching for a suitable vessel. It was another moment his brothers had to move closer to an answer. The time he spent away from her was time for the hunters to take her or fate to kill her. He was torn. He sighed.

"Thalya," he whispered.

She turned to him with a smile. "Were you watching me, my lord?"

Her look of joy at his presence shattered his heart. "Oh, Thalya," he said, "how can I keep you safe?"

She laughed. "Your affection is all I need, my lord. Safety is never a guarantee."

He swept her into his arms and kissed her deeply. He could feel her delicate heart beating against his chest. He wondered how many beats she had left.

"Let me alter you, darling, so that you can live forever." It was an offer he had made before, and it surprised him to make it again. He was not one to make such an offer twice. He knew that altering a mortal changed them, but he was certain that Thalya could withstand it; that her personality was strong enough to fight the darkness.

She pulled away with tears in her beautiful eyes. "My mortality is a part of who I am, my love. Please do not take it from me."

"Then let me take you away from here and hide you from the hunters," he beseeched her.

"You know that I can not live a solitary life in hiding," her eyes pleaded with him, and he knew she spoke the truth. "It would kill me faster than the hunters."

"Then I will make a new world for you, and populate it with other hybrids and creatures loyal to me," he said. A new vision was taking shape in his head, and he was amazed that he hadn't thought of it before. "You'll be safe there, and never lonely."

She laughed, "We'll call it Elysion, and we'll live in a castle by a waterfall where there are constant rainbows."

He laughed with her. "We'll be so happy there, my darling."

****

Hope stood at the window of Cecelia's cottage and watched the rain fall on the lake. Hope's End, she reminded herself. The lake is called 'Hope's End'. The thought sent shivers up her spine.

As Cecelia had told the story, Hope had lost herself in the tale. Now, she was back in the present contemplating love and grief. It seemed to her that the former always led to the latter, and she wondered if love was ever worth it.

"Love is perhaps the only thing that makes it all worthwhile," answered Cecelia.

What happened to Thalya? Hope concentrated on the thought, and Cecelia clearly heard it.

"Noll brought here here," she answered. "They were happy for many centuries, but Thalya craved the same thing many mortal women crave, the one thing Noll could not give her."

Hope looked at the old woman quizzically.

"A child of her own," Cecelia said. "They conceived three times, but all were stillborn. Thalya took her own life out of grief and hopelessness." She pointed to a spot on the peaks above the lake. "She leapt from there, before the lake was formed."