Lineage of Zeal, Book One: Rosemary

Chapter Nineteen: Enemies of the Faith

Rosemary woke with a start.

Her eyes flitted about the room as deftly as grogginess would allow. All around her was dimly lit stone. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the whole room was cold, lifeless stone in its entirety, lacking any sort of furnishing save the bed she laid in and a dying torch by the door.

They had imprisoned her.

If they thought Rosemary, the half-succubus, half-seraph, beast of a woman would be contained by mere stone, they would soon realize their folly. Rosemary swung her legs off the bed and stood, but the strength in her lower half wavered and failed her, collapsing the great red woman to her hands and knees before she could take a single step.

Rosemary cursed herself and sat on her haunches with her back to the bed, letting her hair spill over her chest as she wondered at her weakness. Why could she not stand? She had only just woken. Usually people were refreshed after sleep, but it seemed this rest had been anything but restful. It had been the exact opposite, in fact; Rosemary felt drained, devoid of energy as though she had been fighting with Emily for days on end without pause.

As soon as the thought of Emily crossed her mind, Rosemary bolted to her feet. Standing once again, she swayed dangerously, her legs threatening to give out once more, but she found the wall's stony firmness to be the support she needed to remain upright.

Rosemary's breathing grew rapid and shallow as she remembered the previous day's events. She had found her son. She had found her son, but he had denounced her before the Second Prince of Gratia, a Lord Father of the Faith, and an entire township as a demon, and not just any demon, but a demon determined to end all that exists. And even though she had refused to acknowledge his intent and had begged him to come to her as a son should, Mikhail once again refused her and sent that barren wench Emily to dispatch his own mother.

Bile flavored Rosemary's mouth as she crept toward the door using the wall as a bolstering guide. After yesterday's events, she knew that she could no longer hold on to the hope that her son would be something other than evil, an entity different from his father. But because of yesterday's events, she knew who was to blame. Even in her weakened state, Rosemary would not hesitate in hunting those who had turned her son against her. Once she found those responsible for twisting her son into the spiteful, unloving child that he was, life in the Realm of Darkness would seem like Paradise in comparison to the retribution she would visit upon them.

At the door, Rosemary's free hand slid down to the latch. But before she undid it and opened the door to begin her revised quest, a thought crossed her mind: dungeon cell doors don't have handles on the prisoner's side. Nor do they have actual beds. This was not a cell, as she had originally assumed upon waking in this sparsely furnished stone box. And with that thought, her ears opened to the voices her vengeful mind had blocked out, giving her pause. Instead of barging into the next room, she would first listen.

"For the last time, brother!" came Courtney's voice through the wooden door. "I cannot share any more with you until she wakes. I would not trespass upon her privacy in her absence without her prior permissions. I know what you saw and what you have seen since. But you must have patience. I dare not say anything that might compromise her."

"And you too?" This voice she recognized as the prince who had tried to defend her at the fountain. "You've told me all about yourself. Though it has been—and still is—a difficult draught to swallow, I am willing to entertain the thought, after what I've seen, that you are a demon who no longer wishes to follow the path laid before him at birth. But will you too refuse me?"

"I can only say so much." This voice Rosemary knew to be Leviticus. "She's like me in that she too is a demon, a succubus or something more, that has turned from the darkness. You can't believe that boy. I've only known her for so long, but she would never do anything like he's said. All she wants is to have him, her son, back in her arms, as any mother would."