In Noctem (NaNoWriMo2020)

4. The Empress

Liwayway

The air was damp from where I was.

Along with other three kids about my age, I am kept on a dark chamber which walls were decorated with pictures of what I thought represented a story. It looked like a timeline by analyzing it. The chamber was semi-circular in shape and the images were seen from the whole curvature. Bluish green light came out from the outline of the images etched in the cold stone wall. Other than that, there was no source of light in the room except for a cylinder located in the center of the space which emitted the same blue green light.

The mural sparked curiosity out of me. There was a serpentine dragon whose body reached the farthest left end unto the farthest right corner of the chamber. On its background were seven moons. Inside each one of them, there was a scene to be studied.

The first moon was a picture of a gigantic hand atop a cloud, holding a marble spheroid that might represent Earth. The continents were not in the position that we are used to seeing. The second moon had a group of citizens which seemed like were celebrating a festivity. The women's hands were risen in the air and the men were playing ancient instruments that are similar to today's drums and horn. The third one is a picture of a man standing in the middle of the forest, with the symbol of the four elements surrounding him – earth, fire, air, and water.

On the fourth moon, in the center of the room parallel to the cylindrical light source, were three letters. No picture or illustrations. Just the letters S, S, and V.

SSV.

I wonder what those meant. A thought provoked by mind while looking at the illuminated outline of the letters. I remember being captured by sparrows two days ago. Perhaps the cryptic designs of this chamber is the answer to why days ago, in the middle of the day in the fields of Samar, was I kidnapped by three hooded men.

The experience was still fresh in my memory. I would never forget how their faces morphed into sparrows with those black beaks and laser red eyes. I remember the feel of being helpless beneath the heat of the sun and the wave of indescribable eccentricity as I was being sucked by the portal.

I was the first person to come here. The First Ingenuus, they called me. I cried while they had kept me locked in this room. I was sixteen and miserable. Everything happened so fast. A day passed and a second kid named Marc who said he was from Mindanao appeared. For a while, a was a bit glad when I saw that I had a companion with me.

"Welcome, Second Ingenuus," said the High Priestess. "Tell me who you are and where you came from."

"I am Maakuf Raahil Amir from Tawi-Tawi. The only god I serve is Allah. I don't accept demons like you!" he said angrily.

So much for introductions. The priestess snapped her fingers and the bars that covered the diameter of the chamber slid slowly upwards. I went near it and tried to get out, but I could not escape. Shit. "You enter alone, you live in a group," the lady called out to me as she smiled. I hated her smile. It was like she was mocking me every time I showed signs of weakness.

On my third day, as I was looking at the fifth to the seventh moons etched on the wall, there came the third Ingenuus. I still don't know what the word they called us means, but the priestess assured me us that everything will fall in place three days before the Great War.

War? I didn't sign up to the fucking military to get involved in a war. All I wanted to do was to study and become an agriculturalist to help my family in farming!

The familiar line was heard again.

"Welcome, Third Ingenuus. Tell me who you are and where you came from," the lady stood in her marble throne as expected and bowed her head slightly.