“Charlotte!” Verna drops to her knees as she struggles to lift her daughter’s dead body up onto her thighs.
A final sigh releases from Charlotte’s body, the sound of a fledgling. Verna stares at her daughter, mouth agape and short of breath. She touches her still warm cheek and kisses her forehead for the last time. Charlotte’s blood-cloaked face unnerves Verna. Her eyes gaze up at the night sky, impossibly seeing its beauty. Verna must look away for she can’t burden the slight smile on her daughter’s lips—or dare understand its significance.
When Lilah wakes, she finds herself sprawled out on her bedroom floor, cold. Her neck is stiff, and when she pushes herself up, the glow of dawn illuminates her hands on the brown wooden floorboards. The fresh brand sticks to the floor, the oozing having cemented it down, and she must peel it carefully before she stands.
The pervasive quiet of Waterstone seems as deep as the ocean. Now is the time. She quickly dons a warm black sweater and pants and heads out of her room. Her stomach quivers. She closes her eyes and takes a soothing breath. The need to know pushes her forward. The waning moon’s silver light shines into the hall—untarnished and hopeful. Lilah takes it as a good sign. She slinks down the hall like Ms. Petrovna taught her, smiling at the thought of using this knowledge for such a task. Coming upon the library, she turns the ancient metal handle, and it opens with a soft creak.
Director Elmer loves his books. Knowledge—power—is held in these stacks of paper and ink. He boasts his collection of books is the greatest of all the academies, even the Lux. Lilah doesn’t doubt him. She has been in here many times before, but there are sections of the library that she has not explored and books that she has never seen.
The library spans three levels and smells of that deep musky scent of books sitting untouched for years. Closing the door behind her, she focuses all her anima into her eyes. When she opens them, her sight expands in the darkness. She glances out into the dark abyss where books cover the walls. A staircase goes down into the first level and another goes up to the third. Little cursive red letters paint the bookcases, naming the book sections. Her eyes look for one word. She slinks through the room, searching for what she hopes to find, but after carefully reading each section, she lands back at the door. A sense of panic rises in her gut, a lightness that makes her breath catch. Lilah turns back to the staircase and begins the descent into the dark, to the level forbidden to students. She takes each step as aptly as the first.
The second level drowns in darkness. Heaviness weighs the air. Lilah takes a breath and the air stales in her lungs. She throws her gaze against the walls. The first title she sees quickens her heart and a smile graces her lips. The Sisters’ War: A History. As light sprinkles down the staircase, Lilah hastily grabs the book from the few. Lilah opens the cover and starts flipping through the pages. She begins reading somewhere in the middle.
Little is known about the Burns family. Though they were at the center of society and politics, they were not a particularly public family. During those times, balls thrown by Consul Aulus Petilius Varius were frequent, but they were almost never among the attendants. Both Clara and Micah Burns served Consul Aulus for many years. They saw the shift from two consuls to one take place. Perhaps they were even the cause of it. We will never know. So much of those times gone, destroyed by the war.
Clara Burns was not only politically powerful, but was rumored to be equally formidable in regards to anima. This is hard to deny, considering what we know of her children. Clara was alleged to have the ability to control elements of the environment; however, even this is just a speculation. Before becoming a Burns, Clara’s surname was Hilt. The Hilt family line is a mystery, since the Hilt name seems to have sprung from the ground overnight. Nothing is known about her family line. Mysterious, too, how she came to be so close to Consul Aulus and accepted as one of his top advisors.
Micah Burns’s parents were Trista and Lyle Burns, his mother famous for her mind control abilities, which he inherited. Trista was an eminent instructor at Waterstone Academy. She was known for her iron will. Lyle was involved in policy making with Consul Aulus, explaining how he would have met the young Clara, matching her with his son. Neither Clara nor Micah had been betrothed at birth, which would have been expected because of their family’s status among the consul’s court, so their marriage caused a stir.
Only a year after their wedding day, Alessandra was seen in the courts of the consul. Two years later, Florence shocked the court. To have one child was a blessing, but to have two seemed unfair. That they both survived to adulthood was even more rare, since child deaths were high during those times. Both Lux and Nox women would give birth to stillborn children year after year. It was common for couples to have only a single child, so it was important for the children to be male to carry on the family’s name. Thus, the people of the court gossiped about the children as though they were a blessing and a curse; Clara never produced a proper heir. To add to what must have been insult, both Florence and Alessandra retained their mother’s name in marriage—though, of course, neither parent would be alive to see the disgrace. Tradition was that you could ‘set aside’ a wife who did not produce an heir, but Micah did no such thing.
Alessandra and Florence were born at the beginning of the growing division between the Lux and the Nox. Though animosity has been prevalent between the two sects since our beginning, it had begun to reach a new height. The unrest among the Nox grew from the corruption of the consulship, who, for reasons we can only speculate, began passing laws that discriminated against the Nox sect, which he belonged to. Alessandra Hilt used this in her favor, gaining popularity by advocating for the Nox. Perhaps the Hilt sisters’ upbringing made it easy for Alessandra to do what she did. Having grown up in the sprawling villas of the political world, they knew the inner workings as well as they knew their weapons. They were primed to take over their parents’ roles as advisors to Consul Aulus.
Let’s begin by examining the girls’ academy days. We know how the girls progressed by looking at reports from the academies they attended. By Alessandra’s sixteenth birthday, she was first in her class. She could transfigure beyond the simple appearance manipulations by mimicking their abilities. In addition, she had her father’s mind control. However, she became careless, and at times, she let her temper overrule her mind. Her power was crude. It had potential, but it needed more coaxing to be expressed properly. Alessandra was not known to have patience, even still, her abilities were uncanny and exact.
Florence at fourteen was slower to develop her skills, but once she did, she became much more powerful than Alessandra due to the control she was able to maintain over them. Florence was careful and concerned. She was quiet, but once she ascended, Florence was quick to master her new skills. Her innate abilities were manipulation of the mind and the weather. Teachers eventually saw how adept she was and pulled Florence aside from the lessons and allowed her to advance into Alessandra’s class. Florence was a natural.
As far as I can gather—being the impersonal historian—Alessandra liked that she and Florence made up this nearly impenetrable force. She liked that no one could oppose the two of them. They were a perfect team. They worked as one. In lessons, their powers complemented one another. Together, they were unstoppable.
In Alessandra’s last year of schooling at the acclaimed Waterstone Academy, everything changed. After Alessandra ascended into her full power, strange omens appeared. Terror began to rule. The final sign of the times to come was the death of student Maria Serrano. Her body was found in her room, blood dripping from her eyes and pooling on the floor. A friend had found her after no one could account for her being absent from class. Relations between Alessandra and Florence noticeably faltered after Ms. Serrano’s murder, observed instructors.
When the body was discovered, Consul Aulus was alerted, but strangely—some may argue, purposefully—the death was never solved. The advantage the historian has is the advantage of time. Consul Aulus, i
t was discovered, was trying to lure Alessandra into attacking across the sea in foreign lands. Had she discovered this fact? One will never know. The final chasm between the sister was when Alessandra performed a successful coup d’état with the consul’s head at the end of a pike, along with his wife and sons—one who had just come of age and another who was only a young child of four.
The catalyst for war arose after the death of the sisters’ parents, a double suicide. One might speculate that Alessandra’s disgraceful actions were simply too much for her parents to bear.
Lilah’s eyes can’t process the words on the page fast enough. Of course, she knows of the war and the Hilt sisters, but she had never learned the details of their stories. As she turns the page, she hears the clank of the heavy door, then footsteps on the floor above her. They take three steps and pause, presumably to make sure no one is inside, before turning back around and locking the door with a palpable clunk. She sighs; she’ll have to find another way out of the library.
Lilah curses herself and stands up, book in hand. She whisks up the stairs and her eyes immediately dart to the window. The window . . . She places two fingers on her forehead with the realization. She scoots to the wall and, in one smooth motion, climbs the bookcases, pulling herself up to the top. Flipping the lock on the windowpane, she looks down. It was a drop of some distance, but she leaves for the Ludi today and is determined not to be found locked in the library.
On this side of the academy, all the doors are locked and only grant access to the professors. Even with admittance, Lilah won’t be familiar with the layout of the corridors. Greater still, the risk of being caught by a teacher. She’ll have to run around to the door she uses to leave the main building for Warrior class. She inhales deeply, preparing herself for the drop. Then, she slips through the opening and hits the soft pads of grass. Standing, Lilah does a cursory check over her body. Nothing hurts, but she wonders if she’ll feel something once her adrenaline stops pulsing through her veins. She sprints to the back door, passing right through the mostly dead garden without a second glance.
“Where are you going and where did you come from?” a disgruntled voice calls out, freezing Lilah mid-step.
Sweat now beading on her forehead, she turns to see Marcus, who holds a book of his own, glaring at her. Lilah opens her mouth, a lie forming on her tongue, but then she thinks better of it. There is no good explanation anyway.
“Well?” Irritation settles on his knitted brows.
“I—um, well,” Lilah stammers. She bites her tongue and crunches the winter-frosted grass underfoot.
Marcus comes closer. Lilah can’t help but notice how the morning light complements his features. Now close, his shadow casts over Lilah. In the open space, he seems smaller. His eyes rake her body. Lilah’s legs are moist from running through the tall grass, and her shirt sticks slightly to her torso from sweat. He cocks his head as presumably his eyes come upon the book in her hands. His furrowed eyebrows soften, and then he shakes his head. “Go, before I change my mind.”
“Thank you, sir,” she says, her voice polite—strong in disbelief. She takes a cursory glance over him, thinking perhaps Marcus isn’t the man she thought him to be. She darts through the door and slips through the corridors to the spiral stairs, taking the steps two at a time. When she reaches the top, she strides down the hall to her bedroom to grab clean clothes to hide the book under the blankets of her bed. Then, she goes back out and walks to the bathroom, straight to the first shower. She undresses, swivels the water knob, and lets the steaming water cleanse her body and mind.
After her shower, Lilah rushes to her bed, sitting with the book in her hands. So, which one was in my dream? She slowly flips through the book pages when a portrait makes her slam a hand down on the page. The image of Florence Hilt stares at her. The caption reads, “Age: seventeen.” If she had taken less care to examine it, Lilah would swear the picture was of herself, the resemblance uncanny. With a closer look, she notices the chin and nose are slightly off from her own features.
Quickly scanning the pages of Florence’s biography, Lilah sighs with the lack of any mention of children resulting from Florence’s marriage to Jarred Roth at eighteen. Frustrated, Lilah flips through until she comes to a small paragraph about Alessandra’s life, pitiful in size when compared to her younger sister’s but indicative of the private life she led. At eighteen, she too was married, to a Mr. Rowley Eadwig. No portrait accompanied the biography nor did it mention any children. Then—
A light tapping on the door startles Lilah. Once she covers the book under a blanket, she goes to see who it is. “Director Elmer, what brings you here this morning?” Lilah checks herself, only opening the door to peek her head through.
“We leave in two hours to the Ludi grounds,” he says, his eyes suspicious.
“Yes, I’m ready to go, sir,” Lilah lies, hoping to get him to leave.
His bushy eyebrows rise, and his dark eyes bore into Lilah’s. “I have high hopes for you, Lilah. I think you will do well this year and bring honor back to Waterstone Academy.”
Lilah tenses but forces a smile. “Thank you, sir,” she says mechanically. Director Elmer stands at the threshold for several moments before curtly nodding and heading out of sight. Lilah sighs and shakes her head, but the feeling of unease stays with her.
The Ludi will take place in a city within Lux territory in a coliseum specifically built for this year’s competition. The Order put out a pamphlet announcing that the Ludi would take place there every year hereafter. The pamphlet also spoke of the benefits of having a single location and the economic spur the building project would produce, but Lilah skimmed those segments—the details bored her. No matter how they phrased it, she couldn’t see past the obvious prejudice, it went beyond a biased law the Nox could easily ignore. She thought it cruel, too, since now the cities, which rotated the duties of hosting every year, would be robbed of their only income. The Order’s behavior doesn’t surprise Lilah, she only wonders how long they think the Nox will indefinitely ignore the Order’s blatant crippling discrimination.
Nearly everyone from the academy will come, even if they will not compete. It is one place where the students get to see family and friends from other academies, relatively unsupervised. Lilah wonders where Alicia is and if she has already packed. Her mind then wanders to Verna, and she wonders if she will be able to make the trip. They hadn’t discussed the particulars the last time they spoke, nearly a year ago. Selfishly, even if it is expensive, Lilah wants Verna to be there.
She walks over to her dresser and begins to pile clothes on her bed. She packs her enchanted battle garments along with the leather gloves Verna had given her at their last meeting. Lilah also includes all the other necessary toiletries. Last, she mulls over whether or not to bring the book along, too, but decides against it. She doesn’t want to be asked why she was in possession of a book from the forbidden level of the library.
A turn of Lilah’s door handle alerts her just before Alicia bounces to Lilah’s bed, jumping on top of the three piles of clothes. “We’re leaving! I’m so excited to get out of this place for a little bit! Aren’t you?” Alicia looks to Lilah, a grin from ear to ear.
Lilah sits next to her friend, mulling over whether or not tell her about the dream and the possible discovery in the library. “Alicia, I need to talk to you.”
Alicia’s face drains of color. “What is it? You know, I had to hear it from Nu that you and Dagmar are planning on going to the ball together.”
Lilah blinks. That’s what he’s telling everyone? She crosses her arms. “Really?” Of course, why would she want to hear about my crazy theories? What was I thinking?
“Yeah. You said yes?” Alicia grins.
“No.” She stares at Alicia, waiting for her friend’s reprimand, but it never comes.
“Oh. I guess it would’ve been expecting too much otherwise. No one has asked me yet—not that I’d want to go with any of them.” She pouts, glar
ing at the ceiling with pursed lips. “Well, that is that.” She stands and looks at the clothes Lilah gathered on her bed. “These can’t be the only things you’re bringing?”
Lilah realizes she had been holding her breath and exhales as she watches Alicia fold her shirts and pants with a playful disappointment on her face. “Why?” Lilah sits on the other side of the bed.
“Because we’re going to the club I overheard Scarlet talking to Tara about. It sounds amazing!” Alicia pronounces the last word so that it sounds more like “ah-maze-ing.” She sifts through Lilah’s things and laughs, buckling over. “There’s nothing in here that even shows skin! Don’t you own anything sexy?”
Lilah laughs. “Sexy? Why would I need something like that?”
“Hello! Guys!” Alicia throws her arms in the air. “I want to go dancing!” She twirls.
Still laughing at Alicia’s antics, Lilah looks over her clothes. Dancing? She takes another look through her dresser and closet. “I don’t think I own anything ‘club’ worthy.”
Alicia shakes her head. “You’re lucky. I’ve got clothes you can borrow.” She walks to the threshold of the door. “See ya!”
Lilah looks to her friend, glowing in the light of the early morning like one of those celestial beings found in ancient art. “I’ll see you down there.” Alicia steps out, and the room turns quiet. Her mind wandering, Lilah shoves the last few items into the black traveling bag. She feels the string of trust between her and Alicia go taut and wonders if she should hold it closer to her heart or cut it.
Premonition Page 7
