All my life I had endured through different kinds of pain and torment, but nothing is comparable to the anguish that is radiating throughout my body, the feeling of regret for being the cause of Auric's and Devereaux's deaths. Selfishness is a sin, and I have paid the ultimate price for it. Inside my mind, I was weeping and mourning for Deveraux who sacrificed himself for the sake of my freedom, and for Auric who was an innocent bystander that happened to stumble upon a condemned soul.
If there is any hope for a place in heaven for me, all hopes were gone ever since.
"Lady Aurelia..please wake up" a feminine voice sounded as someone shook my body gently, my body jolted awake and immediately crouched into a protective stance, a natural instinct to defend myself, ignoring the soreness of my limbs. My eyes examined the short figure in front of me but the face does not belong to someone familiar, or maybe it was just my clouded state of mind. Soon enough, infinite thoughts start to berate my mind. Am I back in the orphanage? Where is Sister Judith? What becomes of Auric and Deveraux? And then the staggering truth rained down on me. Dead.
"Lady Aurelia...I..I'm C..Chh..risty." The lady cowered in fear, I could see her whole body trembling and staring at the distance between us. Aurelia, hadn't I heard Deveraux called me that once? I eyed her once again, her hair was coal black but her skin was contradictory pale, somehow crystal-like when the moonlight shined upon her skin. She was small, but equivalently beautiful, there was something angelic about the way she looked that it was somehow comforting. I started to relax when I noticed another figure stepping out of the moonlight. I snarled at the approaching stranger.
"Easy there." I looked up at him and saw that he looked so much like Deveraux that I almost shouted in surprise and relief, only to notice that his face was not scarred, and it was not Deveraux. Grief overwhelmed me that I was choked up in my own tears. How ironic it is that I was terrified of Deveraux but suddenly missed his presence after he was gone. I wished I had spoken more to him, what was his intent on freeing me from the Orphanage, but instead I ran off foolishly from the only kindness that I have ever known, bearing the doubt that he was no different from Sister Judith, and that act of kindness had cost him his life. No amount of redemption will make up for my sin and I will mourn for them for as long as I lived.
"I'm sorry, I did not meant to make you cry." The male's voice sounded apologetic and he reached out to touch me, but I snarled again, he backed off. He stood in an awkward stance, obviously feeling alienated towards the entire situation. My cries faded into the background. He cleared his throat and introduced himself. "My name is Julien and this is my wife, Cristhrie, we just call her Christy all the time"
"Where am I?" I finally spoke, for a moment they were taken aback by my voice. As hoarse as it can be, it sounded demanding yet authoritative.
Christy responded "You are where you are safe my Lady, they won't get you here."
"They?" Could they know about the Orphanage? The sisters? Christy and Julien exchanged a sceptical glance, as if they were suddenly unsure of the person they took under their wing. Julien approached me first, I immediately retreated to the corners of the bed. "They are the ones you are running from, the ones who had imprisoned you for 16 years and had kept you from fulfilling your destiny, my Lady".
"Julien, perhaps it's too soon to-" Christy was cut off when Julien spoke again. "You call them the Sisters, but not to us, we called them the Cult." Christy's eyes showed signs of fear as her lips trembled at the sound of the name.
I eyed him as he paced in front of me, walking back and forth across the room as he narrated the tales of the Cult. "Lilith, or Judith as the name you known her as" I gasped at the mention of her name. "-is the heiress of the creater of all fire, Brisingr. After his passing, rumored to have been murdered by Lilith herself, her thirst for power striked her a deal with the dark side." He stopped and stared at the moonlight. "5000 years ago, all elements lived peacefully side by side, our kingdom who controls the element of water, ruled by King Perseus was at the peak of its triumph where we manipulated most of the trading business dealt in the sea, of course mankind was oblivious to the greater force where all they can focus on was money, so much for civilization." He snickered.
"But all King Perseus's achievement burned into ashes, literally, when he decided to marry Queen Lilith of the Fire Kingdom, hoping to unite both kingdoms as one. One should know that it is impossible for the elements to mix, for it will only result in disaster, and that was exactly what happened. As how Lilith killed her father, she stabbed King Perseus in the heart with the same dagger and his death was the downfall of a great era."
Christy was teary when Julien reminisced the past, as if she was there and it triggered a distant memory. "Lilith ruled the people with absolute cruelty, because of her deal with the devil, she made the people, us, as slaves to the fire by burning us alive as sacrificial lambs to the underworld. The burning flesh made the entire city reeked, and turned the entire city dark with smoke as black as her eyes. It was a day of mourning." I held back my horror, terrified of the cruelty she was capable of.
"But the beast she worshipped was still insatiable. It needed something much more powerful, something that is so pure it called to him like a nectar." He paused, unsure of how to proceed. Christy looked at me as if she was regretfully about what he is going to tell me next.
"That something, my Lady, is you."
I took a moment to absorb this bizarre tale, everything I have lived in for the past 16 years failed to relate to the stories he told me, but the most unbelievable part of this all is that what do I have to do with the feud that has been going on for 5000 years. My rational thoughts could not comprehend and I sat on the bed, dumbfounded by the information he just told me.
"I don't believe any of this." I shook my head, I stood up so quickly I lost my balance and almost fell down if it weren't for Christy who steadily held my hand. "I told you it was too soon!" Christy hissed at Julien and he remained quiet.
It was just too much for one night. My escape from the Orphanage, the hellhounds, Auric and Deveraux's deaths, my sudden ability to control the mist, it was all part of a horrifying nightmare. Maybe, just maybe if I could hit myself real hard and I would just wake up to the confines of my bare stricken room. At least it was better than the alternative of losing my mental consciousness to this preposterous story.
I freed my hands from Christy's grip and began hitting my head with my palms. I do not care if I looked absolutely ridiculous for inflicting pain on myself, I just had to wake up.
"Lady Aurelia! Please stop! Stop hurting yourself!" Christry cried as she tried to pry my hands away from myself.
"What's all this commotion?" A familiar voice sounded from the door, it took me a second to register the voice, and another second to stop my actions.
But it took me less than a heartbeat to acknowledge the person standing in front of me. The same scar that runs down his face.
Deveraux.
YOU ARE READING
The Mist Heiress
ParanormalMisty is no ordinary girl. When she was born, her mum died, her dad disappeared and she was left to the hands of the sisters. But, she was claimed by the mist. She grew up in the Orphanage, treated by the sisters cruelly and never known of the worl...
