Fear, love... and betrayal; that's what I feel about my new life.
It's a life I never asked for, at least not like that.
I certainly dreamed of adventure, of escaping from my ordinary life, but nothing prepared me for what would happen when my norma...
I follow Bethany towards a small door that opens onto a spiral staircase. When she climbs the stairs, she looks so tall and stands so straight that she seems like a ghost rising into the air. We finally reach the top of the tower, which opens into a round room with smooth, white stone arches that are grouped around a central vault. Between each gable, the wall is made of clear glass and gives the impression that we are in the middle of the clouds.
"I love to come up here to think, especially on a clear night. Can you believe that our creators are up there among the stars trying to reproduce what they've done down here?"
She says this with so much feeling that I find it hard to believe that the words are coming from what seems like such an emotionless being.
"Do you believe the enchanters abandoned you?"
She turns and walks towards me, pushing a lock of hair behind my ears and caressing my cheek in a motherly way. But somehow I feel she's doing it in a way that's meant to put me in my place.
"I understand how for you, being raised by humans, you might see things that way. They were created as our inferiors. It's normal for you to feel abandoned since they pulled away after your creation. We enchanters were able to get the best from the Gods and when they decided we no longer needed them, they left. They simply forgot to erase their mistakes before they went away."
I feel sick to my stomach listening to her...why do enchanters have such all-consuming hatred of humans?
"Oh, my dear, don't give me that look. You're one of us and your talents are stronger than the majority of ours, so you have nothing to be ashamed of. We're in evolution, we're the future of the earth and we need to finish what the Gods began. The earth needs a good cleansing and it's imminent. There's no room here for two distinct races. We've left them too long at the forefront and all they've done is destroy."
"Don't you think we could somehow ally with them and show humans how to improve life on earth rather than destroy it?"
She frowns and shakes her head.
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"So naïve and innocent, you don't understand a thing right now, Lou, but it's inevitable. It's the law of survival of the fittest."
"And what if we aren't the fittest?"
She looks away from me with evident disgust.
"I think you were more affected by your past than I thought. I'll have to work on correcting that this week."
"Why did you keep Zach if you're intent on destroying all humans?"
I know, I shouldn't ask questions like that if I'm to fit in here, but I can't help myself.
"We can love dogs, but at the same time understand that dogs can never dominate the earth. Also, what better way to understand the enemy than to study a living specimen? Dead, they're useless. Anyways, we don't want to destroy them, only dominate. After all, we'll always need a workforce to repair the damage they've created."
