Mandate of Heaven

~Chapter 1~

Pain. Burning pain. Never stopping. Never lessening. Always pain. FIRE. Fire. Fire. Flames. Fingers of flames lapping at the stars. Screams. And still the pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain pain painpainpainPAIN.

The girl woke in a sweat. Every night, the same dream… she drew her wings around herself as if to keep out the echoes of pain that followed her into consciousness.

She had told the Elders of the Honorable Town of Kairos of the dream. They had given her potions, charms, herbs to place under her pillow. Nothing worked. The dream still came. She knew why. It was a prophecy. She had told them so, but they had not heeded her, fools that they were. She would tell them again today. Perhaps their minds would change this time. Of course, last time, they had had her forcefully removed, but… maybe if they believed her, the dream would go away.

The morning came. The girl had not slept after waking in the middle of the night. Sleep was her enemy. Sleep brought the dream.

She had combed her hair, mended some clothes, groomed her wings, and cleaned her room for the fifth time that month. She was the neatest novice at the Academy. Her teachers loved her because she studied so much. In truth, she just wanted to keep her mind off the dream.

She now drew on a loose robe and stepped outside. The morning dew was cold on her bare feet, for novices were not allowed sandals. The Academy and surrounding town were silent, and the quiet seemed to echo in the pre-dawn darkness. The sun would soon rise, but for now, even the birds slept.

The girl made her way to the sacred grove. The ancient oaks stood proud and tall, their leaves just starting to yellow in anticipation of the coming winter. This was where she always came when troubled. It called to her. The leaves always seemed to whisper soothing things in an ancient tongue when rustled by the wind. It was in this grove that the most sacred of ceremonies occurred.

This grove was the first place she could remember.

The girl wandered over to the tallest of the trees, the grandfather of all the oaks. Drawing her wings and robe close about herself, she leaned against the wise old tree, closing her eyes and opening herself to the sensations around her.

A slight breeze ruffled her hair. The leaves smelled so good. This place was always so calm, always seemed to radiate peace. The air was so fresh and clean… so calm…

PAIN.

The girl's eyes snapped open. She had fallen asleep. No place was safe from the dream. Wanting to stay there no longer, she stumbled towards the path.

---

The boy-almost a man, really-had not been able to sleep. His parents had been fighting all night. He didn't even know what they were talking about. Fire? Pain? A prophecy? All he knew was that he could stand the yells no longer. He needed peace and quiet. He needed the sacred grove.

He had taken the back path. It was almost forgotten, hidden among the dead leaves and winding between the trees. Few people visited the grove at all anymore, especially not by the less accessible trails. However, it was the quickest way there from his home. Besides, it was nice and quiet.

Just as he was about to step into the grove, he noticed that one of the shadows among the trees was no shadow at all-it was a girl with pitch-black wings. No, not quite black. They had the barest of blue tints. Her waist-length hair was the same color, and he guessed her eyes were, too, though he couldn't tell, for they were closed. Her lips were perfectly black. As he watched, a tiny breeze came by and played with her hair. He was spellbound. Not literally, of course. He would be able to counter a real spell.

She was so beautiful. Her nose was arrow-straight, her cheekbones high, and her eyebrows whimsical. Upon closer observation, though, he saw that she was not at the height of her beauty. There were dark shadows under her eyes that her long lashes fought to conceal and her robe hung loosely about her too-thin frame.

As he watched, her eyes flew open and the perfect calm that she had seemed to be experiencing was shattered. She stumbled towards him.

---

The girl's eyes refused to focus. All she could see was the fire of her dream.

She bumped into something and fell.

"Are you alright?" She looked up, and was shocked out of a sarcastic reply by the beauty of the man standing above her. He must have been at least six feet tall, and his brilliant green wings were proportionally enormous. His eyes and hair were equally green, as if they were emeralds turned to flesh and blood.

A large hand came into her field of vision.

"Need some help?" He smiled, flashing perfectly straight, white teeth. Tentatively, she took his hand and immediately found herself on her feet. Flustered that someone had seen her in such a state, she became very interested in brushing herself off. "So… what's your name?"

She bit her lip. The elders had always told her not to tell anyone her name without their permission, but he seemed like such a nice guy…

"Eni."

" 'Eni?' That's an unusual name…" He had heard of only one Eni, but surely this couldn't be her…

She raised an eyebrow at his silence. "You know, when someone gives you their name, it's something of a tradition to give them yours in return."

"Oh!" He laughed. "How thoughtless of me. You may call me Ketan."

Eni's eyes grew wide. Among the Angels, only the Highest were named after gods. "Sir! I'm so sorry!" She flung herself to the ground and stared at his feet in shame. "I did not know…! Please, sir, I meant no disrespect!"

Flustered, he stared at her bowed head. Where had her fiery spirit gone? "Hey now… you don't have to do that, really. To be honest, I prefer being treated like normal person."

She looked up in surprise, but then remembered herself and averted her eyes again. "Surely, sir, you jest."

"No, it's the truth. Please get up."

Slowly, she stood up. He certainly didn't act like any prince she had heard of. I thought they all liked to be treated like gods… with people averting their eyes and never saying anything without a "sir" thrown in.

He fidgeted uncomfortably, searching for something so say. "So… umm… what were you doing in the grove?"

"I was… trying to get away."

"Away? From what?"

"… Nothing."

"You must have been hiding from something. You can trust me. I won't tell anyone."

"I was hiding from… a dream." She closed her eyes in shame. He must think she was a fool, hiding from dreams and monsters in the dark like a small child.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of…" She opened her eyes again and searched his face for any signs of inward laughter. He seemed to be quite serious. "We all have nightmares every now and then."

She laughed quietly. A nightmare? Ha! A nightmare! She cackled. Wouldn't that be nice, if that were all it was? She couldn't stop laughing.

He eyed her warily. What's so funny? Why is she laughing?

Eni began to panic. She couldn't stop laughing. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She was about to pass out, and she knew it. But I can't pass out…! I can't sleep! I mustn't! I don't want to dream--

Ketan barely managed to catch her as she fell. He could only think of two things: the need to get her somewhere safe and that she was much too light.

---

Eni awoke to a very bright light. Light spell. She turned over and hid her face under the silk sheets. Silk? She sat up with a start, ignoring the painful glare of the light, and immediately regretting it.

Where are my clothes?! She pulled the covers up around herself and looked around wildly. There was no one in the room, thank the skies. There were some clothes laid out neatly on a chair in the corner. She carefully climbed out of the bed and pulled them on. They were not her own. No novice would be able to afford-much less be allowed to wear-clothes of this quality. They fit nicely, though, so she decided they would do well enough. There were even sandals under the chair, though she decided that she had better not put them on. The Overseers would jump for joy at any chance to punish a novice, and she didn't feel like cleaning the stables and scrubbing pots.

She pushed open the door to her room and crept out into the hall, her bare feet making no sound on the stone. What is this place? It's huge… She turned a corner and froze. There were voices coming from an open door that spilled a puddle of light into the dusky passage. Silently, she edged closer, trying to make out what they were saying.

"What should we do with her?" This voice was barely feminine and very scratchy.

"I say we should send her back to where she came from as soon as she wakes up," said a voice that sounded more like a growl than anything else.

"In this weather, Father? She won't be able to make it outside the gates, much less back to town!" Eni recognized this voice. But who was it…? That boy! The one from the grove! Ketan. It all came back to her. His emerald wings, his royal lineage, and how she had passed out. She blushed. He must have carried me here. I can't believe I fainted.

"The boy's right, Antez, we can't just send her out in this storm," said the female voice.

The male voice--not Ketan's--didn't say anything distinguishable for a while, though he seemed to grumble quite a bit. Finally, he spoke. "Fine. She can stay. But she's gone as soon as this storm lets up."

A large man, presumably the one who had been growling and grumbling so much, stormed out of the room. Eni quickly wrapped herself in her wings, a trick she had learned as a small child. It always worked to hide her in dark areas because her wings blended in with the shadows almost perfectly. After he had turned a corner, she resumed her normal posture and stepped into the doorway.

Inside, there were two people: a man and a woman. The man was Ketan. The woman was evidently the one with the scratchy voice. She had brown wings, brown hair, brown eyes, and brown lips. She was one of the most average-looking Angels Eni had ever seen. Her only distinguishing feature was her voice, and it wasn't exactly lovely. Ketan glanced up. That robe looks lovely on her. The deep blue must bring out the color in her wings. She was beautiful enough in the homespun stuff that she had on before, but she's positively gorgeous now. His eyes were glued. Finally, the woman caught on and looked up, too. Even she seemed to be surprised by the girl's looks.

Eni was used to it. She'd been stared at for years now.

"Well, girl. I see you're alright now."

"Yes. Thank you." She bowed her head in respect. She didn't know who this woman was, but she had found that it was always better to be respectful than to risk the Overseers scolding her. Silly, the Overseers aren't here.

"Introduce us, son." Son? The woman prodded Ketan.

"Mother, this is Eni, daughter of…" He trailed off and looked at Eni. Who are her parents?

"… orphan." Eni held his gaze. The woman's brows flew up. Orphans were so rare now a days.

"Right." He cleared his throat. "Eni, this is my mother, Maiyu."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Charmed." Maiyu did not strike Eni as a warm and caring mother. "Well. I must be off." With that, she headed out the door, leaving Eni and Ketan to deal with the uncomfortable silence that she left in her wake.

Eni, determined to break the quiet, started to conversation. "That's your mom?"

"Yeah."

"Is she always like that?"

Ketan laughed. "Unfortunately."

"How do you manage to deal with it? She doesn't seem very warm and loving."

"Well, I've had plenty of nannies, and if I ever got too restless, a playmate would be hired for me…"

"Nannies? Hired playmates? Thank the skies I'm a poor orphan!"

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Being an orphan. I mean… don't you miss having a family?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" Eni smiled.

"The first one."

"Alright, then. Well… being an orphan is kind of depressing sometimes. You miss out on the family stuff, like picnics, and being taught to fly by your mom… You know. Stuff like that." Ketan nodded. "And, seeing as no one has any idea who my parents were, even the stable-hands outrank me. For now, anyways."

"For now?"

"Yeah. I'm the top novice at the Academy, you know. Just you wait, I'll be an adept before you can say 'pickled mongoose,' and then I'll outrank all of those slobs."

"Pickled mongoose."

"Hey, no fair. It's a figure of speech."

He smiled. "Now for the second question."

"Do I miss having a family? That's an odd question. How would I miss them, if I can't even remember them?"

"That's a good point… So you have no idea who they were? None at all?"

"Nope. Not a clue. When I was a little kid, I used to pretend that I was from a long line of Highests…" She blushed. "But they were probably just average Angels…"

"Don't you have any memories of them?"

"My first memory is of the sacred grove. Empty."

"Do you have dreams of them?"

Eni's eyes grew distant. "I only have one dream."

"Oh? What's it of?"

She closed her eyes, seeing the dream. Feeling the dream. "Pain. And fire. And screams. Mostly pain."

Ketan frowned. This must be the dream she was hiding from. He gasped as a vision flashed.

"I'm tired of you talking about that gods-cursed girl and her gods-cursed dream! It's nothing more than a nightmare, Antez! A simple nightmare!"

"But she's been having it every night for the past three months!"

"Then the girl just has problems!"

"It's a prophecy! They've given her all the normal charms and potions; nothing works! Only a prophecy can resist all those things!"

"You're wrong, Antez. When I was a little girl, I dreamt that there was a demon in my closet. I had that dream almost every night--"

"For three months?"

"Don't you cut me off, you swine-headed buffoon!" The sound of a slap echoed. "Just because I dreamt that, it doesn't mean there really was a demon in my closet."

"… The girl is not that young. She's fifteen, Maiyu. She's not a baby. And she's not dreaming of demons. She's dreaming of pain, and fire, and death. That does not sound like the dream of a frightened child to me."

Ketan rubbed his head. What a time for my power to kick in…

"Ketan? Hey, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Your eyes went really blank and you fell out of your chair. What happened?"

"My power kicked in." Eni glanced at the color of his wings.

"Oh. Sight. I get it." He looked at hers.

"And you're… prophecy and death, with a little bit of water mixed in." Eni winced.

"Yeah… Most people aren't too fond of my power, I'm afraid. They don't want to know the future, and death scares them."

"Idiots." Eni smiled at him. At least he didn't boot me out his door because of my wings. That's better than a lot of Angels would have done…

"Yeah, well. Those idiots are a majority."

"Isn't death the strongest of the powers, though? So shouldn't they be trying their hardest not to give you reason to use it?"

"Well, technically, death is one of the two most powerful. Life is its equal and opposite. However, there have been no Life Angels in seven generations, so most people think it's extinct. Of course, they thought that Death Angels were extinct, too, but here I am. If you ask my theology professor, he'll probably tell you that it would gravely upset the balance of the Forces if the Life Angels were to disappear forever, and blah blah blah. Returning to your question… novices aren't allowed to use their powers on others without express permission from a professor."

"Oh. So what happens if you break that rule?"

"The Overseers will punish you."

"What kind of punishment?"

"Depends on what you did. They can assign detention, extra assignments, errands, demerits, whatever. Demerits are the ultimate threat, though, 'cause if you get enough of them, you get kicked out of the Academy."

"They can do that?" Ketan was shocked.

"Well duh! Haven't you ever visited the Academy or anything?" "Well… no."

"But… how did you learn to control your power?"

"Tutors."

Eni blinked. Tutors? "But… you didn't get group discussions and class trips and stuff."

"You take trips?"

"… You're really clueless."

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