Alitia: Hellfire and Blizzard

IV: Detested Bloodlines

Minerva should have seen it coming. 

That was what she would be told after it was all over if nothing else. She had always known she was in danger because of her position as a member of the royal family of Pyre, but she hadn't ever felt it as deeply as she did then deep beneath the earth. She had been out preparing for her upcoming enrollment at the Millennium Six, gathering everything she thought she would need. Minerva was enrolling a year early so she could return home as soon as possible with all the power she had gained at her back. She would be a powerful ruler, and every enemy she ever met in battle would know it. 

Or so Minerva had been hoping. When she looked back on it years later, she would realize it was never going to be quite so simple. How could it be when her family had something to say about it? Minerva had been told that she could grow strong enough to rule over Pyre one day, but she had only been chasing that phantom because she had no other choice. She was never the person her parents had chosen to rule over the planet. She never would be. Instead, Minerva was left trying to follow after her younger sister's shadow, but she could never quite catch up. No matter how strong Minerva became, there was always something there to stop her from truly reaching Brynn. She had tried more than anything else. She had been desperate to reach Brynn, but what chance had she stood in the first place? Her parents had already made up their minds. Minerva just hadn't yet accepted that her defeat was inevitable and out of her control. 

When Minerva was first taken hostage, she hadn't known how to handle it. She had wanted to yell at her captors that she wouldn't be staying with them for long. She wanted them to know that she was going to find a way to escape from them no matter what it took. Her parents would send people to find her. Soon enough, she would be on her way back home, and there was nothing they could do about it... But then Minerva was there for longer than she should have been. Someone should have come to rescue her. Days had come and gone, and Minerva had forgotten about the flow of time in that void beneath the ground. She was trapped, and no one seemed to care enough to rescue her. 

In the end, Minerva had needed to save herself. Her parents didn't care about their daughter being held hostage. They had no reason to care. Minerva lashed out with all the rage and hatred she had been bottling up throughout her childhood, and she hoped her captors felt it. She would never hear if she had killed them or not, but she didn't think it mattered either. Minerva knew what needed to be done, and she would do it regardless of who tried to stand in her way. 

Minerva had broken free of her temporary captivity, but it had come at a price. She had shown off the full power of her magic and even earned her Isolis for her bravery... But what was the point of a transformation like that when it was taken away just as quickly? The people who had taken her hostage knew how to make their blows hurt, and even though Minerva had thought them defeated, they would not go down quite so easily. The fingers of their leader sunk in deep to Minerva's wings, and with one swift tear, everything ended. 

Minerva would never forget the pain of that day. She had thought nothing could stop her once she reached the Isolis level, that she would be able to return home with a claim to the throne and a declaration of worthiness that she had managed to escape from captivity all on her own... But all of that fell apart the instant his fingers started to tear at her wings. Minerva had thought she was dying. In many ways, she was. If not for the intervention of medical personnel who found her in the streets, Minerva would have died that day. She had already known her wings were gone, but she had still hoped perhaps foolishly that she would be able to come back from this. All she needed to do was hope a little bit harder, and if she did... Everything would be fine. It had to be. 

Minerva had already known her world had collapsed when she next opened her eyes. She was stretched out on a bed somewhere in Pyre's poorer districts, and she wondered if they had figured out who she was or not. In the end, it hadn't mattered. Minerva was no longer a royal by the time the week came and went. She managed to push herself back to her feet far sooner than she had any right to, and when she returned to the castle, everything had been taken from her.