Opal Wings

Chapter Twenty Eight - Innocence

A rowdy cheer rung through the area, so loud Saki had to clasp her hands over her ears to stifle the noise.

And should they reject the true right of the world, we will drag them back to the light by force!'

A booming chorus of voices ricocheted through the area, louder still as the people outside the drainage grate seemed to shuffle aside, enough for Saki to lean up and get a clearer glimpse of the scene outside.

Standing at the front of the masses as if a beckoning performer atop a stage, several large, burly forms of men dressed in lavender and gray robes stood motionless with lit torches in their left hands, a ceramic depiction of the same milkweed cross that many of the soldiers wore held in their right. And before the seven forms with their robes pulled up to hide away their faces, a tall and remarkably eerie form clad in all white stood at the forefront, wearing a white mask with a long, bird-like beak.

Beckoning towards the crowds with arms held wide open as they spoke to the masses.

As if they were welcoming their woes without concern. Without doubt.

'Will you let them whisper lies into your child's ear? Steal from you before you act? Wait for them to try and kill you before you cast them back from whence they came?! These charred demons of the desert claim these lands as their own and fight back against right! What say you to this injustice?! NO!' The roar of the crowd prompted the masked man to continue. 'It's our holy plight to rid the world of the scourge of unbelievers and faithless, the demons in the guise of humans that continue to gnaw at the backs of our minds and spill false truths into our ears!'

Shrieks of "heretics" and "demons" rung through the air amid the rallying of the men before the masses, and Saki knew for a fact that this wasn't good, even if she didn't understand half of the words that were called out. She could understand hate, and knew that the roaring mass of people above were engulfed in hate and anger.

'Let us draw a line before us now! Let us turn our ears dull and our hearts immovable to the whims of demons! We will make a declaration of war against these vile spawn today!'

With a dramatic turn away from the crowds rallying in the streets, the masked preacher appeared to disappear for a second.

And then the shouts and shrieks grew deafening as the people in the streets swelled with anger.

'We declare our stance to the demons by sending their own twisted children back to the fires from whence they came!'

The anger swelled to an even louder, more furious state, until Saki could hear nothing but screams from past her tiny hands clasped over her ears. But she saw the seven other, robed men with torches turned away, raising the flames above their heads as they disappeared out of Saki's limited sight.

Just then, terrified cries swelled in the crowd, loud enough for Saki to hear. Just barely loud enough for the girl to realize exactly what this was.

This was a public execution. A burning.

And as cheers ricocheted through the streets like deafening hail, Saki knew those flames had been lit.

Before Saki could yell out, before the tears building up had managed to shed, large hands had grabbed the tiny girl by the middle and lifted her right off the stack of barrels before she even realized there was somebody else here in the dark corridor. A terrified squeak escaped the distraught girl as she tried to wriggle herself free, before she heard her father's hushed voice commanding her attention.

'Calm yourself, Saki.' The large, bear-like man told her with a small chuckle. 'I told you I would come find you as soon as I had finished talking with those gentlemen.'