(3.9K words — 16 mins. to read)
Chapter Twelve
A HIGH DEMISE
I.
The crimson thunders among the clouds rocked in Ashley's ears. The sides of her vision dimmed as she felt the light tapping of the black rain on her shoulders, spilling unto the ground into voids.
Bodhi raised her eyebrows, putting on a tiny smile. With the sword changing back into a small dagger, the blade unsheathed from the prince's body, thick with his blood. Gideon dropped limp on the ground, his stomach rising and falling slow and heavy.
Ashley's throat burned. She got up to her feet and held her sword by her side, her other arm clutched around her bleeding chest. She stared up at the Cloud Crown with an unbreakable gaze.
"You're misguided, girl," Bodhi said, crossing her arms. "You hurt yourself because you followed the wrong path."
She raised her fingers in the air and snapped once more. As if on cue, Ashley heard groaning and moaning behind her. She turned to them and saw all the people—Violetriver, Glassedge, and Cloud Casts alike—shaking their stupor off and getting back on their footing, as if they had all just come from a good night's sleep.
"I know what you are, Ashley," Bodhi continued, staring out into the crowds ahead. "I know your name, I know your dreams, and I know exactly how your town mistreated you."
The orphan kept her look at the Cloud Crown's sharp eyes, which now turned to her.
"I know you're an orphan, just like me. I know you've been mistreated by your own earthly monarchs, just as I have been. I know the world hasn't been any kind to you—just as the heavens haven't been to me."
As people recovered their senses, they raised their weapons again. The Cloud Casts affirmed their footing and pointed their spears, while the Violetriver-Glassedge combatants stood their ground, eying the spiked barricade around them with growing worry.
Ashley's voice came out stale. "How do you know?"
Bodhi scoffed. "People have been so keen about their own capabilities that they forgot the heavens are alive. Every memory off you—everything you've seen and experienced—they all melt down through the clouds, joining the chorus of life in the universe. Have you not heard them at all?"
The realization hit the orphan all too quickly. She remembered the beautiful melody of sounds—the harmonious verses of the cosmos, sung just for her—whenever she surrounded herself with the touch of a cloud, just as she had done when she had entered Moorhollow for the first time, and when she had climbed the celestial ladder on that fateful Winter's Eve
"If you only know how to listen," Bodhi said, "you can know everyone's story."
Iron scratched and boots thumped as the Cloud Casts advanced a step closer towards Ashley's people, spears raised sharp. The townsfolk began to shuffle amongst themselves, muttering curses and wishes under their breaths.
Ashley watched them and felt her heart shriveling.
"I didn't really plan on killing this much today, but I suppose there's still the other Lorvale towns to... re-supply," the Cloud Crown said, shaking her head.
She allowed her dagger to slip from her fingers, spinning in the air before dissolving into dancing particles of green light, swimming away with the winds that came their way. Then, she came close to the orphan, rested her heavy palm on her shoulder, and lowered her gaze.
"Someday, the people of the Loft will relive your history, too," she whispered. "And they'll know about how foolish you were and where that got you."
YOU ARE READING
The Celestial Princess
FantasyTo Ashley's grim misfortune, she grew up as an orphan in a town that hated orphans. For sixteen years, she lived under the hatred of the people around her without ever finding willing parents to love and care for her--and she is not surprised. Now c...
