Daye (complete)

The Climb

    DECIDE woke up in a cold sweat, not knowing where she was. She sat up, glancing around her. It was still early in the morning, the sun just barely risen above the horizon. The sky was a lavender peppered with orange and fuschia clouds, and the brilliant white walls of the capital city rose around her, reaching into the sky.

That's right. She was safe in Cyule, in the sorcerers' camp. There was nothing to fear here.

Many of the sorcerers had already woken, Decide saw, preparing for the day, setting up their wares and decorating the camp for the Moone Festival that had just begun.

The Moone Festival- right. One of the biggest celebrations of the year, a festival to honour the Gods. A holy celebration. People were fearless and careless the entire duration of the festival, which made attacks all the more common. One week the celebration lasted; one week Decide would have to stay in the city of nightmares. It was longer than she would've liked, but, well, when money was on the line... she'd do anything.

Everyone got drunk during the Moone Festival, as ale was free at all the bars and taverns. Everyone dressed up in ridiculous clothes, the 'ceremonial garb' that supposedly infused one with the power of the Gods during the week. Decide remembered when she and her mother would dress up for the festival, and go outside on the streets, where everyone danced and sang happily together. She'd had fun, then.

But she'd stopped believing in the Gods when her mother had died. What kind of merciful god would kill your only beloved parent? What kind of god would condemn you to a life of pain and sorrow?

During the holy festival, the High Priestess would emerge from her shrine and speak to the people of Cyule along with the members of the royal family. It was practically the only time the commoners got to catch a glimpse of these high-ranking people. Decide scoffed. The High Priestess was a complete idiot, as were all the nobles, who blindly obeyed the commands of the King.

The royal family had been corrupt for a while now, she knew. It'd started before she'd been born- the King was a lazy, war-loving man, who cared nothing about his people. He'd married into the position, and taken forceful control of the kingdom, even going as far as poisoning his own wife, the rightful ruler. Now the queen could barely walk, and was confined to her bed. Ah, what a scandal that had been- hastily covered up by the royal guard and the rich nobles.

Decide smiled as she thought of the second scandal- one she'd been able to witness as a young girl. The second child of the the king's- a young girl, the princess of Cyule, had disappeared. Kidnapped, supposedly. But the rumour that'd gone around the streets was that she was an illegitimate child- born from a mistress, not the proper queen. And therefore she'd been killed before she could grow up and prove the rumour true.

She didn't know what other scandals had erupted during her time away, but she was sure they'd be hilarious. Decide hated the royal family with a passion- almost as much as the vampyres.

She'd tried to drive it from her memory, but now and then she recalled the moment when she'd met the crown prince: a nasty, selfish boy named Orlan. They'd met as Decide had been playing in the castle gardens with her few friends, he'd come up to her and yanked her ponytail, mocked her mark, and called her an ugly monster. Furiously she'd taken a fistful of his golden hair and yanked out a chunk of it. He'd run away crying, hiding his new bald patch with a chubby hand.

She'd never returned to the castle after that.

Beside her, Luca stirred in his sleep, and his eyes fluttered open. He blinked at her with his sleepy eyes, the colour of ice, of the pale sky.

"Good morning, Decide," he said quietly, sitting up.

"Are you feeling better?" she smiled.

"Much better," he agreed.