At the Fields of Fire and Blood

Chapter XXIX

Memory 1/12

Kayla's shoulders and arms burned from being held up for too long. Her wrists were bloodied and raw from the manacles clasped too tightly around them, her bare ankles had suffered the same fate. Where were her boots? Where was her battledress? The rest of her garments? Her relics? They had all disappeared, replaced by a simple, pure white nightgown that didn't cover her skin or keep the cold away. Cold? She lifted her head to look around the freezing room she was in. A square, compact thing made of rough stone, bare save for the chains holding her to the ceiling and floor, the circle etched under her feet, and a stone table off to her left. No windows, only a featureless wooden door right in front of her and a demon blood lamp to the side of it. A cell, then. And not just any cell but one that could contain her, could contain a Scion.

Anger flared up in her chest and Kayla called upon her host of ghouls to break her free of her bonds, take her out of this room so she could find the ones responsible for this. Nothing happened. The familiar voices stayed quiet, her mind a placid surface of dark glass. It was only then that she felt the weight. Like a boulder sitting on her torso, keeping her from breathing. Like a wall in her mind, keeping her from accessing the deepest parts of her. Panic ignited in her, mixed with her anger and turned it to pure rage. How dare they take her powers away from her? How dare they cage her when they were so close they could already see into Eden?

The door to the cell opened and a man wearing the black and white neutral uniform of the Order walked in. He didn't belong to any House, then. This hadn't been their idea, had instead come from the ones that thought themselves their higher-ups.

"What's the meaning of this?" Kayla spat at him before he had even closed the door and turned to face her.

He was tall, his mass of wavy hair the same tone of ginger as his beard, his eyes an implacable grey. Kayla didn't recognize him. As most of the Fire House she kept away from the politics of the Order, preferring to stay on the front lines fighting the angels instead. She had little patience for humans stabbing at each other with words.

"You're awake," he said, his tone flat. "How are you feeling?"

He didn't sound like he wanted to know and Kayla didn't want to answer him, either way.

"Answer my question," she said, trying to keep her voice level.

Her tone was already lilting and she didn't want to end up burning him on the spot just because she was angry. He might be just a messenger that had nothing to do with her captivity, for all she knew, and she didn't like killing in vain. There were already too little humans in the world as it was.

The man smiled slyly and a shiver ran down Kayla's back, her entire body stiffening. That wasn't the face of a simple messenger.

"Your relics are being redone, Scion," he said. "You'll re-bond with them at a later time."

He stayed close to the door, outside of the circle etched on the floor and well out of her small reach. Whatever they had done to contain her powers, he was still afraid of her enough to remain cautious.

"Redone?" Kayla asked, her brows furrowed. "By whom? What do you mean? Where am I?"

A thousand questions were running through her mind and she had to keep her lips from asking them all at the same time. The relics had been bestowed upon her when she had contracted with the Archon, how could they be "redone" by the Order? What was happening? A kind of animal fear was starting to take over her mind. Was she the only one going through this? Or was it happening to all the other Scions?

"The Nephilim, of course," the man answered, tilting his head as if the answer to his question should have been obvious. "They're the ones who modified the relics the first time as well, after all. As for where you are, well... It's your new home."