Ashes Of The False Devil

CHAPTER 1

I opened my eyes and was met with the eyes of the hundreds of the civilians in front of me. All shouting at me with inappropriate names while I crouched there,horrified.

Meanwhile, my 'dear' sister was there, standing next to the crown prince SLASH my husband! Crying and weeping her eyes out as if she hated that I am about to be beheaded.

The reason of me getting beheaded, for your information, is because 'someone' tipped the neighboring Empire about our Empire's medications which were kept a secret from the outer world AND they, the Royals, assumed that I was the one who did that! Why?! Just because my friend, Isa, is the daughter of a count of that neighboring Empire. I mean,what in the actual demon's hell?!

Then, I saw the Head Knight, Christian Keith, walking towards me with his sword out of its sheath. His thirty six year old tanned skin was glistening under the sun and his almond locks were swaying with the air but he had that cold and severe expression on his scarred face.

I closed my eyes, clearly knowing that I am about to die for something I surely didn't do. Tears fell from my eyes as I felt the cold metal of the sword touch the back of my neck, the feeling of any hope dying as the sword was lifted up just slightly so he could make the move to behead me in the right way, on the orders of the crown prince(and I am sure my dear sister was also mixed in this, "correct position for beheading traitors" drama).

I opened my eyes for the last time, my vision being slightly blurred by my tears and whispered in a low and shaky voice,"I am coming to you, mother."

Just then, the pendant which was in the shape of a lily, which my late mother gave to me, started glowing with luminous white light which was enough to shut my eyes and of all the people around me.

I could feel something screeching through my body...hope. I felt like the time when my mother was alive, when everything was fine, when it was just us three. Me. Mother. Father. And there was no Georgia, no Isa and no Athan.

I smiled as I remembered this feeling which I always used to get whenever I was on that hill, under that Mahogany tree in that field filled with lilies. My head on my mother's lap as she sung me lullabies and told me stories of fairies and beasts while my father leaned against my mother's shoulder and played with her ginger hair and hummed a tune. Everything was peaceful, quiet and loving. My mother and father both spoiled me rotten but not enough, for me to forget that I was the daughter of Duke and Duchess de Selene. Elpis de Selene, my name,which meant hope from the moon.Which I was, according to my parents and to the others..well...not until Georgia came into our lives as an angel.

I could hear my mother voice in my ears saying,"Dearest, I bestow upon thee mine own life, the life that remaineth and which I have lost. Employ it wisely and live it well. Yet forget not to redress the wrongs and those who hath wronged thee...-"

I couldn't understand what she said next. Everything was a blur. Nothing was clear. All I could see were my past memories, memories of my mother, my father, my love and.....my current state. It was all too much to process at once. My breath got heavier, heartbeat became faster as everything around me started to vanish.

My eyes fluttered opened. Everything around me was pitch black, not a single strand of light, of hope. It was, as if, I was submerged into complete silence and peace, but that peace was the peace I dreaded. The peace in which I was alone, with no one to talk, no one to care about, no one to love. Just me. And me alone.

I looked at my body, confused, since I was glowing with a white light, a dull one at that as if it showed my hope inside of me, my belief in myself which.. well.. was, no doubt, very low. AND just as I thought that, the light dimmed..so I was right. It does represent the hope which was dying inside me. Or maybe I was dying..here...in this eerily quiet place.

As I kept on thinking, I didn't noticed the small teeny tiny ball of dull green light which had appeared in front of me. Well, I did after a few more minutes of overthinking. The light was strange and unfamiliar but it didn't made me feel on edge. But more like comfortable and provided me warmth in this rather cold and dark place.

I asked the light in a small, timid voice,"Who..no..what are you?"

The light just zoomed around me with a soft tune, the same tune my mother used to hymn all the time. The light kept on circling me and its smell, the smell of "Lilies of virgins", my mother's favorite flowers. And the light itself was that light, sage green which my mother adorned but that color also reminded me of two pairs of eyes, of hers and of mine.

"M-mother...?", I whispered in a soft, almost broken voice.

The light stopped right in front of my nose and sat on the tip..the place where my mother used to kiss me the most. That light was my mother or my mother's soul and I had no doubt.

"It really is you, mother." My voice grew a little more cheerful and a small smile crept on my lips.

The light flew a little away from me as if telling me to follow it or her.

"Wait for me!" I giggled as I started following that little light.

It felt like those usual walks I used to go on with my mother in the garden of roses, emerald roses, I mean. I was happy but a part inside me knew that I won't be able to stay with my mother's ...uhm...spirit?..soul? whatever for long...but why? Why does I felt like that? I mean, I was in the after-world,right? She was leading me to heaven...or...maybe not.

I was right, she was not leading me to heaven since the light, my mother's soul, stopped in front of a big door which was purely made up of light..not the golden light of the sun but of the white silvery light of the moon. Again, my mother's favorite. She adorned the moon, always did, after all she was a devotee of the Moon Goddess, Lunacise. The ethereal beauty, the goddess for whom many warriors gave up on their lives just to protect her and maintain her reputation; According to the historical books.

Then, came the voice of my mother,"Dearest I bestow upon thee mine own life, the life that remaineth and which I have lost. Employ it wisely and live it well. Yet forget not to redress the wrongs and those who hath wronged thee."

The door flung open and I was pushed into it. It was all pitch black, nothing in sight like before but this time, I felt sleepy, almost tired. I tried not to doze off but I did. And then....

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Hello! Hope you liked this chapter. It was of around 1300 words..quite some work and time it took off my schedule but no doubt it was worth it.

Love you all and hope you will read the story till the end and will stan our dear female lead "Georgia"..no..."Elpis".

Love you all,

Anwesha<3.