Awaken (Of Gods and Angels #1)

Chapter 2

The slender girl ducked through the labyrinth of streets and buildings, each step feeling as if she was going no-where. The once-rich smell of spice and delicious food was dull and even the strongest aroma's were a struggle to smell. Everything was so much quieter and even her vision was less detailed. It was like the clarity of everything had been turned down.

She swiftly maneuvered through the street parallel to the one she just traversed, stopping only to catch a glimpse of herself in a small puddle of some unknown liquid. She raises a hand to the hair on her head, grey despite the youth in the girls- her face. One side of the hair fell just past her shoulder and the other half was shaved short, right to the scalp. Her glorious hands which once shaped worlds were now petite, and weak.

Oh how everything had changed.

Everything,

Yet she wasn't upset, not in the slightest.

She could even be, as humans call it- happy,

The foreign word recoils in her mind, even the very definition of the word made her shudder. Happiness did not exist where she came from.

And oh how she wish it did.

She looked down at the strange attire she was wearing, the long moss green dress doing her weak body no favors. She sighs, tightening the buckle on the brown sandals that were doing nothing but hindering her as she walked down the street.

The image of her pale, heart-shaped face and docile, black eyes in the puddle followed her as she walked. Taunting her, reminding her how low she had sunk.

But at least she was free.

She had done everything, once been everything, but there was always something she had never had, freedom. She had jewellery, riches, clothes, beauty and power, she was feared, she was greatness, but she was never free.

And it was the thing she wanted most of all.

And it was because of mortals that she has that, and she will not let anyone take her freedom back. She has a new face, and in a new land, there is one way her past can find her but she will never let it.

She sees a pub filled to the brim with humans and her lips tilt into a half smile, perfect. She ducks into the crowd and pulls up a chair quite close to an especially rowdy group. Not close enough to draw attention but enough to hear and sense everything. 

Especially when one man, solidly built and wearing the mortal king's insignia spoke something particularly interesting.

She smiled even more when she saw him nail multiple pieces of parchment throughout the pub, each of them with the same message.

Angels wanted! 100 pounds of gold for each angel, brought to General Ulindon ALIVE,

And so she rose from her seat to join the murmuring crowds at each poster. People were whispering names and locations trying to be discreet but failing miserably. The king was playing it smart, why do the dirty work yourself, when you could get thousands of bitter townsfolk to do it for you?

But she didn't care for the reward nor did she care for the angels. She cared for what it meant for the prophecy.

The prophecy that she could never let come true.

The prophecy suggesting that Angels could change everything, and destroy everything she had worked for.

She gulped down the strong drink, feeling satisfied from the burning sensation in the back of her throat, and as she lay down the few chunks of silver, the ratty bartender spoke,

"What's your name, lass," he said in the iconic accent, unique to only Tethoris.

She thought for a moment, and her mind wandered back to the name of the young woman who pointed her to the pub she was currently in. It was a generic Nethiloran name, common even. But her true name was out of the question, so she was left with little choice.

She does an act of zoning out, then 'realising' she wasn't paying attention.

"Oh sorry, could you repeat that?" she asks sweetly with a feigned smile.

"What is your name?" he asks, slightly more irritated. 

The fake name rolls off her tongue like she had been called it her entire life, and with the fakest smile she can muster she says, "Eira,"

And no-one noticed the smirk on face as she walked out of the pub.

She learnt what she needed, now she must find the girl in the prophecy.

All was going well.