A Dangerous Destiny: The Pure One Book I

Part Four: Chapter Sixty-One

Hey there readers. Welcome to part 4!! Thank you SO MUCH for following the book to this point! So yes, Fiona is gone, but the story isn't over yet. We haven't seen Manna and Karina for some time but now that will change in a big way. Let's get back to the Senmin! Their leader is dead. That's gotta be a pretty major thing...

Manna

It had been three days now since the messenger arrived from Auresir with an official communication from King Henry himself. Nita Fiona Amoral was dead. Henry expressed his greatest sympathies for the Senmin's loss. The body followed two days later. 

Trenton had been the one to greet the messenger in Cainell. Manna wondered how he'd received the news. No doubt he had put forth the proper display of decorum and quiet grief when the message was read and Fiona's lifeless corpse revealed, but Manna knew that it would have all been for show. To him, Fiona meant nothing, though she had been their leader. He had always looked on her with disdain. Fiona was too headstrong, too independent, and too scornful of the Council. Still, Manna knew she should be grateful to the Council Leader. Better he had dealt with the formalities. She needed time to prepare herself. Time to accept the fact that Fiona was was gone.

The King's message reported that a woman was found with a fatal wound to the head in an alleyway near the western gate of the Capital. When the body was brought to the main guard post at the western gate, a commanding officer recognized her face. Soon after, the broken staff was discovered and the High Chancellor had been called to identify her.

Though the crime was still under official investigation, the King's message gave mention to the recent presence of the Vox Populi within the Capital city and of the Crown's continued efforts to eradicate the danger they posed, particularly since their attack on the House of Lords.

'We have ferreted out our enemies and they are running scared. We will soon wipe such evil from our midst,' Henry promised, 'And if Vox Populi are indeed found to be culpable in the death of Nita Amoral,rest assured they will be brought to justice in the name of the Crown and the Senmin people.'

The message made no speculation as to what the Nita had been doing within the city limits on this occasion, nor what she might have been doing venturing through the streets of the Middle district though curfew had been in place throughout the Capitol at the time of the attack. Manna wondered if any of the Council members had taken notice of those facts.

After receiving the body formally in Cainell, the Council had brought Fiona to the home of the Elder Nita. It was Manna's job to prepare her for burial. The body of a Nita was sacred even in death, and it was required that burial preparations be performed by a first ranking member of the Initiate.

The Seven had come to her together, Avery and Caleb at the lead, shouldering the unmarked pine casket. In spite of all she had done to prepare herself for the moment, when they removed the lid it took every once of strength Manna possessed to remain on her feet as grief washed over her.

She had not been cleaned. Dark patches of dried blood covered Fiona's cold pale skin and crusted on her face, hair, and clothing. The broken remains of her staff lay by her side, now nothing more than a pieces of splintered wood, devoid of life, like their wielder.

The councilmen had not stayed long, though Caleb had volunteered to remain should she need any help. Manna had respectfully declined his aid asking only that the body be removed from the box and laid out for burial preparations. This duty was Manna's alone to bear. It was then that Caleb had offered to take Karina along with him so Manna could focus better on her duties without interruption. She vaguely remembered nodding her consent.