"Release me! I have a child, a family!" Charleigh pleaded, placing her two hands together as the electric shackles which bound her like an animal rattled on the cold, white, tiles, constantly emitting enough voltage to subdue even one of the strongest lycans discovered.
"Follow up with the order to find her family if she's telling the truth. I want to know if her strength is hereditary. That beast killed three-fourths of our battalion with ease." General Alvin Gerero directed his subordinates.
"Yes, General, I'll relay the order to the search party and update you as soon as I can."
"Dismissed." The soldier nodded and left the laboratory, but the general was not yet finished with the chained lycan.
"Silver fur, camouflage, heightened senses, speed, strength, and so much more gathered on our database. Who are you? You've displayed more abilities than a council member ever did. Come on, Charleigh, it's been two years and all we know about you is your name and the fact that you have a family." The man crouched to level with the woman, his curiosity and intrigue peaked by the sheer endurance and secrecy she held on.
"How do you know about the council?!" Her crestfallen head suddenly jolted up, eyes wide with surprise.
"How did you gain those abilities?" The Solune general avoided the question by firing her with another one. "If you won't answer, maybe your offspring will." Alvin taunted her, his deep blue eyes mirroring the resolve he had for his cause.
"Leave him out of this! What I have isn't hereditary!" Charleigh's brows furrowed and her eyes transfigured from a hazel hue to a Merigold tinge.
"So, it's a boy. That just narrowed our search by half. Thank you, Charleigh, I'll be taking my leave." He rose from the position and fixed his tilted necktie, before leaving the lycan which was now going berserk.
"NO! STOP, COME BACK!" Charleigh stressed, her black hair sticking to the surface of her pale skin due to the amount of sweat she was producing. She pounded her arms on the tiles, breaking them in half from the sheer force. All of her efforts seemed to land on deaf ears, however, because soon after the door to the containment room closed shut.
"The child is a male." He relayed the information to the head researcher as he brushed past.
Meanwhile, in a small cave that looks to be in the midst of corrosion, a council member angrily approaches.
"Liam Cornelius, respect this sacred land if you do not choose to be slain this instant." The deep voice of the blue wolf reverberated throughout the cavern with authority.
Liam's stance immediately fixed, his expression of anger slowly fell, and his voice softly spoke with caution. "Forgive me, my dear Visionary, but I must say this is not the future you foresaw."
The Visionary's piercing gaze intensified as he responded to Liam's words, "The threads of fate are delicate, Liam Cornelius, and your actions tug at them recklessly. The path you tread is not one of destiny but of your own desires. Beware, for the consequences of disrupting the balance may extend beyond your comprehension."
Liam, feeling a subtle chill run down his spine, feigned confidence. "I am prepared to face whatever consequences may arise. The position of power demands sacrifices."
The blue wolf let out a low growl, "But not at the cost of the balance. There is a force greater than you, and you toy with powers that could unleash chaos. A threat can become a weapon, but wield it with care, for its backlash may be far-reaching."
Liam's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"
"In nine years, a shadow will rise, one battered by the punishment which unrighteously befell him. A force that could bring about salvation or doom. The choice lies in the hands of the one who walks the thin line between threat and weapon."With those cryptic words, the Visionary retreated into the shadows of the cave, leaving Liam alone to ponder the weight of his decisions and the impending emergence of a figure that could shape the destiny he so arrogantly sought to control. His mind lingers on the thought but it drifts to another, the thought that the current threat must be diminished before he schemes for the removal of one which will appear in the following years.
After arriving back to the underground prison chamber the council created for lycans, Liam Cornelius called for a nearby guard. "Take the refined silver and applicator from Dr. Alisa Rivera and deliver it here. Call for a meeting and send out the word that all lycans must come to witness the punishment against traitors." The man nodded in response and left for his expedition.
The air was thick with tension and fear. Whispers of impending punishment with the use of refined silver were spreading, and when the news came to Monica, Ivan, and Cecilia's cell, they shared worried glances about the punishment beyond usual restraints.
"What did I say?" Parker mocked the group, his smile was evident on his chapped lips.
"Shut up!" Cecilia stood up, panic gripping her heart. "I can't believe it, he's gonna brand us like we're some sort of criminals!"
"Well legally-" Parker raised his finger but was greeted with an unhinged glare from the frantic Cecilia, silencing him. They looked like a mess. Cecilia's long, wavy, blonde, hair now turned frizzy and crinkled. Monica's left eye was still bruised from the hit she had taken earlier, her dry tears imprinted on her rose cheeks. However, those failed in comparison to Ivan whose whole face was still healing from the results of his previous battle with Liam.
Cecilia gripped the silver bars holding them in the cell. "Agh!" The burning sensation caused her to immediately take it off. "We need to find another way to get out of here!" She tried to brush away the burn on her hands which were now rough.
"Itsh no use, this berry woom ish covered in shilver, you know zhat." Ivan tried to say coherently, his mouth still purple from the beating. He hugged the sobbing Monica with his left arm, and she leaned to her father who couldn't really provide much comfort in the situation.
"I'm sorry about your face, I would transfer my power to heal you but I used most of it on Evelyn and the fight with Liam." Concern momentarily distracted Cecilia until Parker spoke once more. "Savor it."
"What?" Cecilia asked, dazed in confusion.
"Once they brand you with that rune, you'll have no sense of self. It doesn't make you human, it makes you nothing. Savor the breaths you take now because once they mark you with that wretched rune every breath you take will be heavy and painful. Every Karavat in your body will become needles that pierce through every pore. You'll want to die but they won't let you. It's worse than death. Every move burns, scorches, and aches. You'll be stripped of everything that ever made you yourself." A moment of solemnity, even for a man who lost his sanity like Parker, showed the gravity of the situation to Monica and the child ran to the silver gates. It didn't burn her because she was not a lycan yet, but her attempts remained futile. The bar stood still, the only thing wavering was Monica's hope for an escape. Her father's embrace could no longer satiate the rapidly expanding fear within her. "HELP US!" she begged to whoever might hear them nearby.
And for a moment her hope came to surface when several footsteps were headed toward the direction of their cell. But what Monica saw would only crush what hope she had left. It was Liam Cornelius, Hector Santiago, and five new lycans dressed like them, wearing the robe of the council.
"Meet your replacements, Cecilia and Ivan, these dare the new council members." Liam raised his hand to his side, to point out the new faces.
"You're restructuring the council?!" Cecilia yelled at him, flabbergasted by his choice to replace almost all the council members who showed the slightest bit of opposition, even Phoebe.
"Silence!" He ordered, his eyes enlarged, displaying his desire for control. "I'm in charge here, you are in no position to challenge my authority, traitor!"
"Traitor?! That's a lot coming from the likes of you-" Cecilia's response was immediately cut short by Liam when he grabbed a silver bar from the cell and threw it on the ground beside her, releasing a sequence of loud clangs while it rocks back and forth on the floor.
"I SAID SHUT UP!" his unhinged bellow echoed through the hall. "I tried to be nice. TAKE THEM!" he ordered as they grabbed the three by force, their weakened state offered them no chance to deliberate and oppose.
"I can't believe you, Hector." Cecilia darted him a look of hatred and despondency as the new council member dragged her past him. "You're a dishonor to the council name." Hector looked away in dismay, a hint of regret traced on his face as he combed through his brown hair with polished nails.
The chamber was filled with an eerie silence brought by the mixture of hesitance and hatred that the lycans bore. The air was thick as all held their breath abate, both fearsome and ecstatic faces were spotted from the divided crowd.
"Are they really gonna brand a child?'A pregnant woman with a thick British accent asked from the audience, concern drawn all over her frowning face. "If that's what they do to children, I don't want our David to be birthed into such a cruel world." Melinda caressed her abdomen as she tried not to imagine her future child in such a state.
"Maybe they're just trying to avoid another case of treason, there has to be a logical explanation for it. We must trust the council." The man beside her, her husband stated with either foolishness or immovable faith.
"Listen to yourself Roger, the kid's done nothing wrong." A deep voice behind them joined in the conversation. It was Caden Crestheart, the newly positioned Chief Executive Officer of Crestheart Media, their boss. "The new Sentinel's taking control of things, he's worse than Evelyn." A sliver of abhor shaped his refined countenance. "He has an ulterior motive." His remarks opened the shut mind of Roger, whilst he fixed the necktie of his suit.
"How is your newly adopted daughter, sir?" Roger awkwardly attempted to sway the conversation away from the event that was about to take place.
The CEO looked at him with a cold glare but reciprocated anyway, "Kassidy is doing fine, she's getting used to the new environment but I think she'll get along just fine with Connor. He's stoked to have a new sister."
"Look alive, they're approaching." the bearing woman warned the others, quickly turning to face the stage.
"You won't get away with this! Agh!" The new faces dragged the uncooperative prisoner which used to be a paragon of hope and morality within the now-reconstructed council.
"I can't believe what they're doing to madam Cecilia," Roger mumbled to the group, his previous demeanor of righteousness began to crumble upon seeing the sight. "Melinda, do we just watch this unfold? This feels so wrong." his perspiration began to build as he looked to his bearing wife for answers.
"I...I don't kno-" Melinda's answer fell on deaf ears as Liam Cornelius began to speak.
"It has been eight hours since the fire that befell the council room, a fire that was deliberately set by traitors and their accomplices. Thanks to Crestheart Media we have been able to keep the arson out of the public's eye and halt the ongoing investigation, but as of now, we have a different matter to discuss. The punishment of those who chose to betray our kind to save their tail, and as the newly appointed Sentinel of the council I wish to take the initiative and ensure that this kind of treachery will never happen again. Marlon, bring me the applicator and the silver!" He pointed to a vat of heated silver and a steel and stick-shaped instrument that was molded to have a flat, crescent moon on its end.
The guard sprinted to the stage where three individuals knelt, their heads dangling from their necks due to exhaustion and hopelessness. That very tool asked by Liam would seal their fate. Gasps were heard from the spectators. Anxiousness and even excitement filled the room, creating a compact enclosure of emotions.
"Hasn't that rune only been used once before?" whispered a shocked lycan, his eyes scaling in size.
"It's only been used on a serial killer, then again their actions killed more than ten people tonight." replied the other with such nonchalance that you would think they were simply discussing what they had for lunch.
"They deserve what's coming to them, I lost my family because of those traitors!" The loathing viewer sobbed, his nostrils flared with fury.
"Tonight, I hope that you all see this as an example never to perform such heinous acts against our kind. Justice shall prevail and this tool shall be the instrument for change!" Liam raised the applicator high, some lycans cheering alongside him and the new council members. "For Justice!" their chant sounded more like the creaking door to hell to Monica and she glanced to her father for comfort. "Dad..." She barely let out the word as if a lock were tightening around her throat, voiding her ability to speak.
Ivan peered to his left where Monica knelt, his bruised exterior provided little to no consolation for his sobbing daughter who began to cry more after seeing what they did to her father. Seeing this, Ivan quickly looks away to meet the sympathetic face of Caden Crestheart in the audience.
"Mr. Crestheart, that silver..." Roger pointed out, unable to finish his sentence with fear.
"Yes Roger, that is refined silver made by Liam himself. It's silver that can only hurt us when our lycanthropic cells known as 'Karavats' attempt to awaken. They're gonna brand them with the Rune of Silverbane, the only rune made by man, one that does not need to face moonlight to activate." Caden replied, his inert knowledge regarding what was happening provided some form of explanation for his frantic employee.
"What abou-" Melinda wanted to ask more but was stopped by her boss. "Wait!" He put his hand up, silencing Melinda. "It's about to begin..." Fear enveloped Caden, a jolt of fear bolted through his chest when he witnessed Liam dipping the tool in a vat of boiling, refined, silver and walking to Cecilia who was frozen in fear.
"This brand of a crescent moon shall forever remind you that you will only ever be a quarter of the lycan you could've been for this community! This shall be the punishment for your inadequate actions, Cecilia Petal!" He yelled as he plunged the bubbling silver on Cecilia's back. His rapid movement left nobody able to react and comprehend the event that was taking place, not even Cecilia.
"NO-AGHHH" Cecilia wailed and swore in agony, falling onto the wooden flooring of the stage: blisters quickly appeared on the surface of her skin which was now laced with the silver that fell on the cracks of her burning integument, forming a crescent moon that shone white.
"She-shilia!" Though Ivan's words were muffled and hardly coherent, the horror in his voice spoke volumes about the scarcity of the situation.
"Madam Cecilia!" howled Monica along with some of the lycans as they witnessed a model of hope getting shattered right in front of them, and they couldn't do anything to protest against it.
After enduring such tremendous torment, Cecilia's consciousness escaped her, a tear sliding slowly out of her shut eyes.
"You're next, Ivan Lockett. In protection of your missing wife, you decided to turn traitor against your kind. This is the long overdue consequence of your subsequent actions against lycanity!" Liam pulled the knelt man's disheveled hair and dragged his back down to the surface of the podium. His broken eyes met the new Sentinel's. Ivan's mouth jolted open but silence conquered it. He looked back to the day he spoke his vows. The day they spoke their vows. If only he had known that loving someone so much would hurt him as it did in the end, he would have chosen to never have loved again.
His gaze held still with Liam's as the burning silver marked his chest. The build-up of liquid behind his eyelids soon made it all a blur yet from the mist of sorrow, he saw those eyes. Those wretched, soulless, and cruel eyes dared to glare at him with such madness that he wondered if he had never looked at Monique Querella with such love and passion, maybe he wouldn't have to stare at the unsympathetic optics that were now taking the only life he ever knew.
Soon after, the cries stopped, leaving but an echo of the pain Ivan Lockett felt each second that blazing tool burnt his skin. The rune pulsed with a silver light, which eventually faded as the man lost touch with the physical realm-retreating to the darkness where only numbness is felt. Monica pleaded with her father to wake up as she saw his breathing begin to falter and slow. "Please wake up, Dad! Don't leave me too!" The child trembled–more so than she already was. Her head slumped down helplessly only to see the moonstone amulet her mother had left her, the only piece of her mother that was left at all after that fateful night. Time paused for Monica. She recalled memories of a time when their family was complete, when her mother was still around when her father still smiled, and when she rarely cried. Their life was simple, but every day was new. But after her mother left, it felt as though she repeated her mornings and cried to sleep every night. For the last two years, her name would be met with the same glances of disgust, whispers of revolt, and yells of hatred. Just like what she was seeing today. A crowd built of those very people stood and cheered to watch her get burned at the stake; howling with joy and laughter as they nailed her to the cross, applauding for her suffering.
"This is simply a precaution, we wouldn't want you to end up like your parents would we?" Liam whispered to Monica as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Monica shook intensely with fear, the room was closing in on her, and the beat of her heart ran rampant like a dissonant speaker.
"It will all be over soon." The new Sentinel softly said, kicking Monica on her fours and raising the scalding applicator behind her spine. Its boiling, liquid, silver dropped on the child's lower back.
"Gah!' Monica cried as she rolled around in pain towards the edge of the podium, hoping that it would relieve the burning sensation on her back but alas the suffrage persisted. "Mom!" She howled for the absent maternal figure, her voice quaking and cracking with the fragility of glass.
"Hngh!" She bit her lower lip until it bled while Liam branded her with the crescent rune. Along with the unfathomable burns on her back were the terrible thoughts of her future being tarnished by this mark of shame. She knew that the mistakes of her parents would be the defining factor in her character for everyone she would encounter. Like the last two lycans that were punished, Monica slowly embraced the approaching darkness with open arms, at least until ear-piercing screeches and battle roars brought her back to the present. She held her bleeding back which was now tainted with solidified silver and let out a low sob. Monica looked around the dim room with narrow eyes only to see that Cecilia was no longer beside her and her incapacitated father.
"Initiate a lockdown! The rebellion is here, do not let them escape alive!" Liam's orders of anger and authority could be heard beyond the darkened room which was now being stained with splatters of scarlet.
"Hngh!" The young girl struggled to stand or move at all for that matter. The central part of her back was completely dried with blood, silver, and dead skin. The Rune of Silverbane left her feeling the immense weight and pressure of the refined silver push her down. She sniffled and wiped the mucus escaping her red nose with her forearm. "Madam Cecilia...?" Monica called for the woman as she heard the familiar but strained voice shout. "Get off of me!"
The child tried to stand once more only to eventually return to laying on the ground from fatigue, this time with her chest facing the tiles instead of her back to avoid additional damage. She held her father's hand as she slowly closed her hazel yet bloodshot eyes, unable to resist the call of slumber.
"No! Agh! Let me go! Where are you taking me?!" Cecilia attempted to escape from the firm grasp of two masked men, each one taking her by the arm.
"We don't have time!" One stated with a panicked and sonorous voice as he dragged the helpless lycan and shut the chamber's heavy door behind them, introducing them to the night's cold breath and several members of The Rebellion waiting on the field of grass near the staircase.
"She's just a kid!" She cried out, turning her torso towards the rusted door.
"We know. Look, I wish we could've done more, I really do. But the reality is that this door won't hold and we need to get you out of here before they bust it open. We'll return for them when we can, but for now, we should worry about ourselves. For their sake and ours." The other looked at Cecilia with understanding eyes as he gently held her hand and guided her up the staircase. "Let's get you someplace safe where we can treat that burn."
For a moment, Cecilia hesitated, but after coming to the realization that it was too late to turn back now, she decided that it would be best to come back for the two she left behind. She dubiously took the man's hand and dragged her feet up the staircase where she would be greeted by the concerned looks and hospitality of the subversives.