Chapter 1
(May 29th,1431)
Charlotte walks stoically into the darkness of Castle Rouen. With determination set in her eyes, she strides along the intricately laid stone flooring heading towards a room where the council meetings take place. After the intricately designed large, wooden double doors are pushed open in front of her so that she may enter, Charlotte peers around the grand room, a sense of foreboding settling in her soul as she looks at the Heads of Order with anxious concern.
There were twelve of them from the leader of the Vampires to the head of the Shifters; all gathered around a very thick, long table of wood and ornate gold design within the walls of the castle where the 3rd duke of York, Richard Plantagenet resided (the mediator between Tenebrae beings and human beings). The duke sat at the center of the table and after Charlotte claimed a seat, he drew the meeting to order.
“Isn’t there anything we can do to save her?” The words escape her lips betraying her stone-cold exterior before she can get her emotions under control. “Ember is the last of the phoenix line and not to mention my daughter.” Charlotte looks to the council with a pleading look in her eyes waiting for them to respond.
Akos Tama, the head of the Windborne Shifters gazes at her, his golden eyes shrouded in shadow due to the hood from his cloak which is draped over his head hiding his graying hairline, and he clenches his jaw in determination as he contemplates his words. The other members of the council look to him for an answer as well. “It is the only way to keep the humans from turning their focus back to the supernatural world and begin persecuting us once more. We give them the power to destroy the God-sent being Joan of Arc and we will no longer have to worry about our kind being hunted down and killed. The sacrifice of one to save many, Charlotte dear. It is for the greater good that this must be done.”
Charlie scoffs at them all and with a sneer in her voice asks, “and would you be so quick with your words if the situation were reversed, and it was one of your children?” She scans the room with her steel grey eyes, glaring at each and every being in the room. She lets her eyes linger on Akos Tama for a moment longer than the rest of the group and then she storms away from them but stops just before leaving the room, she turns back to them before saying, “I curse you all for the rest of your days! May each day you endure a lifetime of hell!” Spinning back to the exit, she walks out into the cool breeze of the night air before shifting into her owl and flying back to her small little cottage.
“Mama, you have returned. How was your meeting?” Ember looks at Charlie with a smile but lets it fall when she sees that Charlie isn’t smiling back at her. “Is everything okay? Why do you appear to be upset? What has happened mother?” Ember moves to stand closer to her mother, worry in her hooded golden eyes as she places a hand upon Charlie’s arm.
“Nothing has happened my dear child. That is the problem. I must hide you away. We shall leave in the dead of night from this retched place. How dare they say you should be sacrificed so that the rest of our kind may live. Curse them all!” Charlie screeches.
As she begins to pace the dirt floor of their small little cottage, an idea trickles into her mind; “Wren Einan has long been a friend to our family, maybe I can see if he and his wife will help us to hide you away.”
“But where will we go, mama?” Ember watches as her mother walks back and forth along the compacted dirt that is the floor of their home. “Why must we leave? I am the Phoenix. They cannot truly kill me. I will rise again as I have done many times prior, you need not worry so.”
Charlotte shakes her head no in despair. “Sweet love, I have seen your future. If we do not leave, this time should you die, you will not return to me.” Ember stares in shock at what her mother has just said. Charlotte must have misunderstood the vision she had seen for surely; a phoenix cannot perish completely... “There is no other option, we must flee from here. You gather what you can carry, I will return shortly from the Einans’.” Charlie wraps Ember in the folds of her arms squeezing her tight for just a moment and then disappears from their home leaving Ember frightened, shaking, staring into the evening sky as her mother disappears from sight.
**
An hour later has Ember, hands on her hips, gazing around the room, looking to make sure that her and her mother’s necessary items had all been gathered. Sitting upon a stool, she sat staring at the door urging it to open and show her mother’s warm and inviting smile standing in the moonlight. Skies above, where can she be? Thou would think her feet would be quicker. What can be thine delay? Ember lets out a sigh of relief as a moment later the door does indeed open. Her mother, however, is not the one standing within the threshold!
Standing so swiftly from her seat, she knocks the stool over from under her skirts and shrieks out, “NO!” On impulse she lets her phoenix take over and ignite in flames, shrouding her body in fire in hopes that the Heads of Order would not try and take hold of her.
To her surprise though, they charge her head on, no fear of her as they stretch their hands out to grasp her in their grips. “I will burn ye all to ash if ye dare touch me!” Ember shouts at the same time allowing her phoenix to throw flames higher around her as they inch closer to her.
Instead of backing away from her though, they grin menacingly towards her, and she stares in shock as they are able to place their hands upon her arms, clenching them tight within their hold and are unscathed by her fire.
“B-b-but how? How are ye able to touch me and not catch fire?” Ember stutters as she continues to gaze at them with their hands upon her body. They should have turned to ash almost immediately when they touched her.
Grabbing a hold of her long brown hair, Akos jerks her head back as he lets lose an evil laugh at seeing Ember’s shocked expression. “Witches my dear child. The most powerful has put a spell on these gloves so that we are able to capture you without being burned.” He chuckles again, an evilness emanating from him as he does so. Ember’s phoenix grows tired within their grasp, flickers and then disappears, falling into a deep sleep.
***
Sofia (Present day)
Darkness, I feel like I’m floating in a sea of it and barely keeping my head above the loneliness of despair with its waves crashing around me, trying to pull me under as I spin my body around looking to see where I am. Growing tired, I feel my body slowly starting to sink into the nothingness. I want to scream out in agony, yet I know if I do, I will surely drown so instead of screaming, I turn myself and begin to swim downward, directly into the abyss of nothingness. Seeing a bright light as I continue to swim down, I realize the white shining light is actually Phoenix! Her flame is calling to me, she reaches out to me as I stretch my hand out towards hers. Just as our fingertips brush against one another I am suddenly jerked away from her, yanked backwards by some invisible force.
Opening my mouth to shout no, I swallow the darkness. As it fills my lungs, I begin to choke and place my hands against my throat in an attempt to stop myself but to no avail. Sinking like a rock I raise a hand upward trying to grab anything to help stop myself from falling further into the darkness.
Gasping, I finally wake myself from that nightmare as I shout into the night, “ASH!” The scream ends in a whimper, a sob of despair falls from my lips, and I drift back into the emptiness, the darkness that is currently my state of mind.
