The light was dim in the council room, the only illumination coming from the massive array of candles that flickered openly across the room. The fireplace was not lit, leaving the room cold and unwelcoming. There were more than a dozen people all around the low wooden table, kneeling on the floor. Some of them I vaguely recognized. Others were little more than strangers to me. Katarina sat in the middle of the table, Seyla by her side. There was an intense discussion going on when I first walked in, but silence quickly fell over the room at the sight of me.
I didn't care for it. I didn't think being the center of attention suited me.
I did my best not to make eye contact with anyone as I hurried over to a spot off to the side and kneeled down.
"Judith." Katarina said to me. It took all of the resolve I had left inside of me to look her in the eyes.
A nod was all that I offered her.
"You have been chosen by a goddess to drive the children of the moon back into their lands." She continued.
I flinched at her words. Did she have to say it in such a direct way? Did she have to bring it up immediately? I thought I would just be sitting in on their meeting. I didn't know I was going to be the main focus of this discussion. I knew nothing of war. I knew nothing of leading anyone. I wasn't prepared for this.
What could I possibly hope to contribute to such a thing?
"Hopefully for a few good centuries." Seyla quipped from beside her.
"I suppose I have." I mumbled.
"You'll need a better attitude than that if you want to achieve victory." Seyla added.
Katarina ignored her.
"I can only hope that you will answer this call." She said, "Our people will be more than happy to assist you. Our people want them gone just as much as your people. They have done enough to us over the centuries."
My mouth was dry, but I somehow managed to find the words on my tongue.
"I assume I have no choice." I said. "I can't exactly ignore a direct order from the goddess- and I can't let my homeland be taken over and my people enslaved either. I just don't know that I am suited for such a thing as war."
"If a goddess chose you there was a reason for it, even if you don't see it yet." Katarina said.
"I just wish things didn't have to be this way." I said. "I can't help but feel that I bear some of the responsibility for your village being attacked in the first place. If I had not been here, they would have never come."
"It was only a matter of time. It was going to happen." Katarina said. "And I would much rather have a saint as an ally than an enemy."
"The Vanslovian Kingdom has been getting away with too much as it is." Seyla said. "Someone needs to drive them back to the dark corner they crawled from, and if they want to be the ones to instigate their own eventual slaying then that is fine by me."
"So what am I to do?" I asked "I know the goddess wants me to stop the invasion, but I have no idea how to even begin to accomplish such a task."
"We will have to start small. I will see if I can get us an audience with the Alexandrian king. Unfortunately, the king has been hiding in a rural castle at the edge of the Kingdom ever since his unpopular decision to deport former slaves. There is a lot of unrest right now."
"Yes, I assume that was the goal of Vlansovia all along." I said. "I don't think the kingdom is any state to effectively fight them off."
"I have heard word of a village in the southern lands of the Vlansolvian Kingdom. They don't agree with the King, and they want to remain isolated within their walls at whatever cost." Katarina said. "Would you be willing to travel there with Imanthi and see if they will aid us from inside the walls?"
I glanced over to Imanthi, who sat not far away from me, but her face was unreadable. I could tell this was something she wanted me to decide for myself.
"Yes, I will go. I will do everything I can." I said.
"It will be incredibly dangerous for you to go within their borders." She said.
I looked up to meet her eyes.
"I will go."
But I didn't want to.
I didn't want to save the world and I didn't want to lead an army and I didn't want to be a hero. The goddess chose the wrong person, I knew that.
All I wanted was to be with Greta. I wanted things to be like how they were before. No, I wanted them to be better than they were before. I wanted a quiet, long lasting happiness with her by my side.
Forever and for always.
And I was going to get what I wanted, one way or another.
When I returned to my room I knew something was wrong. Ayla was there, and her face was pensive. Something about her seemed almost nervous when she saw me.
"What is it?" I asked.
She did not say anything, just reached her hand out towards me.
There was crumpled paper between her fingers. I recognized the edges from it. It was torn from my journal. Glancing over what was written there, I knew it was from Greta, though I didn't think I had ever seen her handwriting before.
"What's this?" I asked.
"She left it for you." she said, her eyes cutting away from me to the floor. "When I got back, she was already gone."
I narrowed my eyes and took a step towards her.
"What? Gone? What do you mean? Where has she gone?"
"I don't know. I've looked, and I can look again, but I couldn't find her anywhere."
"Then look again." I said. "She couldn't have gone very far."
She grimaced and gave me a curt nod.
"Of course."
As she turned and left I looked down at the paper, running my fingers across the grooves and dents of the words. There were only two sentences written there. I didn't understand what they meant.
I wouldn't come to understand for a long time.
Please wait for me. I'll find you again.
Book Two: Unhinged
"I'll find a way to touch you again. And then we're always going to be together." She said, "I'll build us a house— a white house with green shutters in the mountains— and I'll learn to cook and I'll make you anything you want to eat. Anything."
"Can we move somewhere warm?" I said. "I want to be warm."
"We can go anywhere you want."
"As long as it's with you." I said. "And as long as it's warm."
I CAN'T BELIEVE I MADE IT TO THE END HELL YEAH. Thank you so much to everyone who has read this far! I've had the worst year of my life and you seriously don't know how much it means to me.
Some things: I'm going to start posting book two on June 1st. I've already started it but I want to make sure I have enough written when I start posting that I can keep up with weekly or bi-weekly updates. I only had half of the book written when I started posting this and it got stressful near the end.
Questions: Do you guys want me to post book two as a separate book or add it at the end of this one?
OR
Do you want me to post extra content as an addition to this book? I have about 10k of extra scenes that I ended up putting to the side for this book and I want to do something with them.
Again, thank you so much for even bothering to read this. It means the world to me.