The silence was unnerving. The cogs in her brain were still. Too still. She blinked a couple of times as if trying to revive her frosty brain.
"What?" She finally blurted. The king backed away, his hands circling to his back. The patter of his footsteps made shock waves of memories press upwards. Heaving, she pushed them back. The reactions on the faces of the council members were so different. An internal conflict swelled among them as Maya watched them without reason. She could only gape at them, the words were not registering. She would become an exile of this isle just because she wanted to participate in what everyone else who qualified was allowed to.
She balled her fists, the sudden movement sent a thread of pain through her knuckles. Of course she knew she wanted nothing to do with them after she'd left. She gazed at her hands. But still, she could feel the little girl in her crying, trying to put all the broken pieces back, trying to end a fire she had started. She felt her heart be coerced into this painful realization. She had known she'd continue to be hated. But this she watched her hands tremble. She felt the childish feelings of care of their opinion rise up. Of care to fix the mess she'd made. To remove the knife she'd bloodied and stretch out her hand in low apology. Her throat ached. Her mind felt numb.
She was nothing but an excuse for a person. She tried to hold the steel over the memories that pressed upwards. Their taunts and cackles filled her.
"You are dismissed." The king said, breaking away from conversation. Maya with her mind still set on subduing these thoughts, she walked out. A new world with these new understandings was laid before her. No, she pressed away the coldness wrapped around a memory. Not understandings but a secret and many unknown ones. She couldn't help but feel a sadness pull her. Suddenly, the dark feeling overwhelmed her. She wracked, twisting away from the leathery and grimy hands of the memory.
She felt her head buzz, she could feel the pains from her younger self. She fought it off, swimming against the pull. She broke free, gasping. Still it continued. She trudged away lifelessly, her feet led the way to the healers' hut. Everything passed by her in a blur as her mind struggled to regain her consciousness. The thin veil between her and the memories pulsed, shifting and mounting as the pressure pressed. A thought ran through her so suddenly that all reasoning was cut off.
What lies behind this veil of secrets?
She cuts herself off, her blood roaring. They would not care of anything she said. She had nothing more to do with them or their nasty secrets. Soon, the memories broke past the now dainty veil. Then, her mind was infiltrated by the familiar throbbing darkness.
***
"I fail to see the reasoning behind this decision of banishment." A man with straight black hair with bright blue-green eyes said with a frown as the two other youngsters around the table nodded. The king watched them with sad eyes. They were mere children when everything crashed and burned. It was eighteen years ago. They made sure to never reopen those dusty books, his eyes glistened slightly.
"Well, even though I would have agreed initially but maybe we are being a bit too cautious over this." Elder Dorothy began, her serious eyes looking around. Confused and understanding gazes met her." She may not be any of our good books but I feel like banishing her should be out of the question. She's almost eighteen and as it is nothing has ta-"
"What does she being almost eighteen have to do with this?" The bald young man asked exasperatedly. He pointed at each of them.
"You have all being talking like we're not even a part of this council. Is there anything else we are supposed to know? Because it looks like there is." The king propped his head with his hand. The smells of sweat now swiftly plunged into his nostrils. He shifted back, settling into the leathery seat. He took a look at Elinora, Tarrick's own daughter. She knew the aspects that this conversation would lead to. Her familiar blue eyes sparked with hints of sadness. His grief returned. He shifted towards the table and raised his hand.
"-there's nothing knowing-"
"-being a part of the council-"
All conversation soon ceased. He glanced at all the older council members. Thirteen out of the sixteen.
"There is something," he began. They'd made sure all records had been shut away. No single child, teenager or youth knew of such an event. They'd made sure every trace of whatever happened had been either burnt up or thrown away. But all the adults had learned this grievous mistake. The treasonous act of allowing an elementalist to be housed and lived among their people. He smiled sadly. After her coming, all doubts of the elementalist race being just a myth, he realized, was far from true and they'd still be searching. Anyone who housed any elementalist, would be executed along with the elementalist themselves. One of the fairest laws in the world. He blinked back the suffocating feelings of agony.
"Twenty seven," He began again and suddenly felt his throat ache for moisture. He denied it the water, allowing himself to bite the inside of his cheek. They just wanted to make sure these youngsters knew nothing of this event and so that nothing else would go wrong. He shook his head.
"We all decided to keep this all a secret. We didn't want any further complications to occur." He swallowed the lump in his throat. He felt his eyes burn once again. He blinked them away.
"Twenty seven years ago, we, no, my now late father made the biggest mistake of his life."
***
Two cloaked figures looked on from the balcony overseeing the whole buildings expanse. The smell of ashes mixed with saw dust and metal. The chatter was to a bare minimum. They worked tirelessly. The piles of weapons had grown substantially. Glinting under the overhead rays of the sun from the large window sitting above them. One of the cloaked figures leaned over the wooden railings. The floor was covered with saw dust and metal scraps fiddling away with each other. The air rung with slashing of metal and the grating of wood. Her nose took in the flaming work of the furnace, as persistence at the work.
Her eyes ventured to the side. A group of women and men, all skin and bones looked on as a taller and bulkier man decimated a dummy with his bare hands. They watched on, nodding, as he relayed the techniques to them. The spell of hard work washed over their group of misfits. Many other sets of people lay in sections carrying out different tasks. The girl in the lighter cloak watched her, her brown eyes taking in her features. She breathed in, her hands suddenly clammy. So much had changed over the past five years. And so many had believed.
"I know you want to say something." Her abrasive voice made her jump back. Her heart sped up, she moistened her lips. She felt her dread gnawing on her heart.
"Mallory," she began, a clear distinction from the other's loud and abrasive voice. The girl behind the name was so different from this replica. "I understand our cause is.. right but, do you- Are we really taking the right approach?" Mallory gave her a hard stare. The hood of her cloak was pulled back just so that she could see the coldness of her midnight blue eyes. She fought off the urge to run away, this was her best friend.
"I mean," she wrung her hands, wishing she had shut up. "If we do this, doesn't this make us as bad as them." Suddenly, she felt Mallory grab her face. The girl whimpered, chills running down her spine. The girls eyes began to water, the memories pulling her into the water. Her lips trembled, the flash of a darker and more muscular hand holding her. Her heart pulsed with fear. Mallory let go of her face and caught the girl before she fell. The girl gasped from the memory, her body violently reeling from the touch. She shook her head, persuading herself that Mallory would not allow that to happen. She leaned her trembling form against the railing. She fought away the big fat tears with all her might.
"How did you get that scar on your neck?" Her voice rung in the silence. The girl's throat bobbed. Her heart sped up once again. The memory came at her. Her used and battered sister lying in a heap of her own blood. Her knees quaked. The dampness of the dimly lit pantry. Her eyes burned. A man in nobles apparel just rising up from her sister's body. His hazel eyes gleaming with innocence that she had no reason to believe in. Her chest hollowed. Her running off to a corner, pushing anything she could find. Her throat clogged. She didn't allow herself to go too deep. She pushed them away, bending against them.
"No!" Mallory grabbed her gruffly, exactly the same spot he held. Her breathing increased. Her face was barely inches away. Her eyes were steadfast in her proposition, unyielding in her goal. Her trembling increased as she pushed.
"You must give in to the memory. Allow it to fill you, do not struggle against it." Unwillingly, she sunk back. Her small frame being pushed to the wall. Her chest constricted. Tears blurring her vision as he began to say something. She screamed before he grabbed her neck, his long nails biting so deep into her skin. Then he was gone. Through her terrible sight, she had found him lying on the floor, a bucket rolling on its edges. Mallory urgently tried to relieve her from her pain.
"No." She murmured, fighting away. The worst was yet to come.
"Give into it. Be immersed into the waters of memory. Do not fight it." Mallory pulling her down the pantry through her tears. She mustering the strength to push her away. Her blood roared. A stifling cry escaping her lips as she saw her sister. Blood surrounded her like a friend. Her dress ripped at so many places, the bruises and cuts too many to handle. She remembered, trying to save her, rescue her. Tears blurred her sight. Her vision swam in and out of focus. Trying to revive the girl from her horrendous state. Mallory pulling her away into another passage way as she kicked and screamed, then the guards running in, narrowly avoiding them by a hairs width.
Her tears finally came. Her chest tightened. They remained like that till she until her crying had come down to a whimper.
"If you remember the memory, if you remember how your father had locked you away, accusing you that you and your sister had gone behind his back to sleep around. if you remember how he had chosen to believe that the man had nothing to do with it, that you were just framing him." Mallory said, eyeing her.
"Remembering is your key to having a will to fall on. And in answer to your question, there are many people who are fed up with life here. Using your dignity as an excuse to hold back and prevent the others from trying is just as pathetic as they." The girl watched her from her hollow eyes. She swallowed.
"Everyone has to get their hands dirty," The girl flinched, the memories of blood on Mallory's hands. "They may do it through others or by themselves, either way, there is truly no innocent. To make a change, you must be willing to focus on your goal and not allow the skewed concept of morals stand between you and it." She looked away from the groups of people on the grand floor and turned to her. Her eyes had changed so much, it was once so lively despite hardships to help others all the time, now it was possessed and that scared her.
"Do you still question the integrity of our motives? If you do, you have no place here." The girl flinched again, her heart wringing painfully at the huge change in her best friend. Her life long sister. She watched her, despite her change she was there for her. That was all that mattered. She nodded slowly and Mallory made a grunt of approval.
"As planned, you are to fill in the slot they gave to peasants in the Chosen six of this isle. We have only two months and a few weeks left and there is no time to waste." She began to walk down the staircase at the end of the balcony. The girl watched her, frowning. Mallory stopped and without turning she said,
"Sitting there will spell only doom for you. Any slip up will cost you very gravely. So, it'd be best for you to cooperate." With that, she walked away.
I want to thank God for giving me the Grace to write this. The cloaked finally has name, Mallory. There are so many secrets in the air, I'm excited to uncover them too. Vote and comment if you like.